Articles or to modify their meaning, and it likewise follows that the General Conference could not, though letting the Articles of Religion stand as they were in 1808, create, or cause, or permit, to be drawn up, any other set of Articles of Religion, or any contrary standard. In short, the General Conference, of itself, cannot make or change the standard doctrines of the Church, and it cannot permit, authorize, or accept, any such action by others.

This restriction in the Constitution not only protected the Articles of Religion by putting them beyond the power even of the General Conference, but placed, or recognized, these Articles as in the Constitution itself, and as part of the organic law of the Church.

It showed also, beyond all question, that the Articles of Religion formed a standard, or one of the standards, of doctrine in the Methodist Episcopal Church, so that, without doubt, these Articles of Religion were not only doctrinal expressions, but were doctrinal standards of an obligatory nature, and standards of religious teaching with which all other doctrinal writings or utterances of individuals or others within the Church were to be compared and tested, as weights and measures were to stand the test of comparison with the standard weights and measures of the civil government, and all that could not stand the test of harmony or conformity with the standards were to be disapproved and rejected.

In this particular examination we have considered only the first part of the First Restrictive Rule, namely, the portion that prohibits the General Conference from making any change whatsoever in the Articles of Religion, but the First Restrictive Rule contains more than that.

The entire restriction reads as follows: "The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, nor change our Articles of Religion, nor establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine.” 1

So now we should analyze and study the entire restriction, and especially the second part against establishing "any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine," but, before proceeding further, it should be noted that the Constitution of the Church declares that the Church had doctrines and "standards of doctrine," and that they were "established," and then "existing," and, whatever they were then, they are to-day.

The careful student will perceive, as indicated, that there are two parts in the first restrictive rule, for, on the matter of doctrines, the first restrictive rule limits the General Conference in at least two ways, or, in other words, puts on that body two limitations instead of a single one.

First, as to the Articles, the General Conference is absolutely restricted. The General Conference cannot make any change whatsoever in the Articles of Religion.

The second part is to the effect that the General Conference shall not make, or set up, any new standards contrary to the then existing standards of doctrine, which, plainly, would at least prohibit any formulation contrary to the Articles of Religion, and raised the question as to whether there are other standards in addition to the Articles. The exact language of the

1 "Discipline," 1916, 46, I, Art. X, ? I, p. 44.

second part is: "nor establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine.""

This double restriction, therefore, means, first, that the General Conference cannot, in any way, modify the Articles of Religion.

It means, second, that the General Conference cannot leave the Articles of Religion untouched, or pass them by, and then go on and formulate, or establish, or authorize to be formulated, or established, or permit to be formulated or established, "any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to " the Articles of Religion.

Third, it means that the General Conference cannot leave the Articles of Religion intact, and then pass on and "establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to"" the standards of doctrine" "existing" in the Church in 1808, when the written Constitution of the Church was adopted. Or, repeating that section of the restriction: "The General Conference shall not" "establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine." Because the General Conference leaves the Articles of Religion unchanged does not authorize it to make these other new standards.

The word "present"-"present" standards-plainly means at the time the Constitution was adopted, namely, at the time of the session of the general General Conference in 1808.

The phrase," Present existing and established standards," means standards that had been duly established by legal and constitutional enactment, or in some other

1Const. Art. X, ? I. "Discipline," 1916, ¶ 46, 2 I, p. 44.

equivalent way, if there was any such other way, and which were existing at that time, or, in other words, if they once had been constitutionally established, had not been abrogated, but existed legally, and were legally in force in that "present," namely, when the Constitution was adopted in 1808, that is to say, the doctrines that were then recognized.

That is what "present existing and established standards of doctrine" meant when the restriction was placed in the Constitution of 1808, and the exact language continues to the present time.

So it may be said that the restriction covers, first, the established standards of doctrine in 1808; and, secondly, "existing and established standards of doctrine" which have been constructed and adopted constitutionally, in harmony with the Constitution of the Church and the Articles of Religion, and the then present existing and established standards of doctrine" of 1808, and which have been constitutionally constructed since that time, and which now thus legally exist, if there be any such of this latter class. But no constitutional changes have been made in the doctrinal standards since 1808.

The changing of the Articles of Religion and the then "existing and established standards of doctrine " was put beyond the power of the delegated General Conference, showing that the Church had doctrinal standards, that they were to be respected by the Church, and so were safeguarded by constitutional restrictions, and to-day the same standards exist and the same Constitution continues to protect the same standards of doctrine.

XVIII

EXISTING AND ESTABLISHED STANDARDS

A

S has been seen, the first constitutional limitation on the delegated General Conference was a positive command against any interference by the said General Conference with the Articles of Religion.

The Articles belonged to the whole Church, and this agency called the General Conference, created, empowered, and limited by the Sovereign power of the Church, was to be without power in and of itself to change the Church's Articles of Religion.

The General Conference might, and ought, to protect the Articles of Religion, for that was its manifest duty, but to "revoke, alter, or change" the Articles, or any one of them, in any particular, or to any extent, was absolutely beyond the power of this delegated Conference, a body which had no power except as it was distinctly empowered by an authority greater than itself. In this matter, it was not empowered, but the power was specifically withheld.

The Church was not to take its Articles of Religion, or other doctrinal standards from the delegated General Conference, but the General Conference was to take them from the Church. In other words the delegated General Conference itself was not to be the doctrine-making body of the Church.

The Church had made the Articles of Religion when the old kind of General Conference which possessed