Church and congregation, wherever practicable, for the purpose of imploring the divine blessing on missions; for the diffusion of missionary intelligence; and to afford an opportunity for voluntary offerings to the missionary cause.

7. It shall be the duty of the preacher in charge, aided by the Committee on Missions, to appoint missionary collectors, and furnish them with suitable books and instructions, that they may call on each member of the society, or Church and congregation, and on other persons, at their discretion, for his or her annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly contributions for the support of missions. Said collectors shall make monthly returns (unless otherwise instructed by the committee) to the preacher in charge, or to the Missionary Treasurer of the Church, if there be such treasurer appointed by the Committee on Missions. Such returns shall be fairly entered in a book, which the committee shall provide, together with collections and contributions received from other sources. Such entries shall set forth the name of each collector, the real or assumed names of the contributors to each collector, with the amount contributed by each.

8. Each preacher in charge shall report at Conference, to the Executive Committee, or Board of Managers of the Conference Missionary Society, a plain transcript of the record of the returns provided for in section seven, comprehending the name of each

collector in his charge, and the name, real or assumed, of each contributor to each collector of fifty cents or upwards during the year; and the aggregate sum of all contributions under fifty cents each, that they may be by said Executive Committee, or Board of Managers, properly arranged by districts, and by charges, for publication in the Annual Report of the Conference Missionary Society; together with the contributions and collections received from other sources, unless the Conference shall by vote declare such transcript returns, and such publication, not to be advisable.

9. It shall be the duty of the preacher in charge, with the aid of the Committee on Missions, to present once in the year, to the Societies, or the Churches and congregations, the cause of missions, and to ask public collections and contributions for the support of the same. The manner of asking and taking such collections and contributions shall be at the discretion of the pastor and the Committee on Missions, with this injunction, that the pastor shall preach, or cause to be preached on the occasion, one or more sermons; and with the recommendation that one whole Sabbath day be given to the cause, on this annual presentation of missions, in our principal Churches and congregations.

10. It is earnestly recommended that each Sunday school in our Churches and congregations be organized into a Missionary Society, under such rules and regulations as

the pastor, the superintendent, and teachers may prescribe.

11. Each Annual Conference shall designate the month or months in which the public collections and contributions for missions shall be taken within its bounds.

12. The President of the Conference, at each session, shall appoint one of its members, with an alternate, to preach a missionary sermon during its next succeeding session, at such time and place as the officers of the Conference Missionary Society shall designate, and said officers shall cause timely notice of such sermon to be published abroad.

13. It will be, expected in the examination in the Annual Conference, reference will be had to the faithful performance of the duty of preachers on this subject in the passage of character.

14. Each Presiding Elder is charged with seeing that the foregoing provisions, so far as applicable to his district, are faithfully executed within his district.

15. The Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church shall be a member of such Annual Conference as he may, with the approbation of the Bishops, select.

16. Any Annual Conference may, at its option, by a vote of two-thirds of its members, assume the responsibility of supporting such missions, already established within its own limits, as have hitherto been reported under the head of "Missions in the Destitute Por

tions of the Regular Work;" and for this purpose it shall be at liberty to organize a Conference Domestic Society, with branches; provided such organization shall not interfere with the collections for the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as required by the Discipline. Provided, also, that in case more funds shall be raised for such missions than are needed, the surplus shall be paid over to the Treasurer of the Parent Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at New-York, to be appropriated to such mission or missions, under the care of the Society, as may be designated by said Conference.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE CHARTERED FUND.

Quest. 1. WHAT further provision shall be made for the distressed travelling preachers, for the families of travelling preachers, and for the superannuated and worn-out preachers, and the widows and orphans of preachers?

Answ. There shall be a Chartered Fund, to be supported by the voluntary contributions of our friends: the principal stock of which shall be funded under the direction of trustees, chosen by the General Conference, and the interest applied under the direction of the General Conference, according to the following regulations, namely:

1. The Elders, and those who have the

oversight of circuits, shall be collectors and receivers of subscriptions, &c., for this fund.

2. The money shall, if possible, be conveyed by bills of exchange, or otherwise, through the means of the post, to the general Book Agents, who shall pay it to the trustees of the fund: otherwise, it shall be brought to the ensuing Annual Conference.

3. The interest shall be divided into thirty-eight parts, and each of the Annual Conferences shall have authority to draw one thirty-eighth part out of the fund; and if in one or more Conferences a part less than one thirty-eighth be drawn out of the fund in any given year, then in such case or cases, the other Annual Conferences, held in the same year, shall have authority, if they judge it necessary, to draw out of the fund such surplus of the interest which has not been applied by the former Conferences; and the Bishops shall bring the necessary information of the state of the interest of the fund, respecting the year in question, from Conference to Conference.

4. All drafts on the Chartered Fund shall be made on the President of the said fund, by order of the Annual Conference, signed by the President, and countersigned by the Secretary of the said Conference.

5. The money subscribed for the Chartered Fund may be lodged, on proper securities, in the States respectively in which it has been subscribed, under the direction of deputies living in such States respectively; provided, such securities and such deputies