§ 1. To establish a system of pastoral oversight that shall effectively reach every member of the Church.

§ 2. To establish and keep up a meeting for social and religious worship, for instruction, encouragement, and admonition, that shall be a profitable means of grace to our people.

§ 3. To aid, when desired, in carrying out the Financial Plan of the Church. 299.

¶ 59, § 1. The primary object of distributing the members of the Church into Classes is to secure the subpastoral oversight made necessary by our itinerant economy.

§ 2. Let the Classes, wherever practicable, be composed of not more than twenty persons, and let the Leader report at each Quarterly Conference the condition of his Class as follows:

1. Number of Members in the Class.

2. Number of Probationers.

3. Average attendance.

4. Number habitually absent.

5. Number of Class Meetings held.

6. Number who contribute to the support of the Church.

7. Number of visits made.

8. Number of heads of families in the Class, and how many of them observe family worship.

9. Number of Church papers taken by Class members.

10. Miscellaneous matters.

§ 3. Let each Leader be careful to inquire how every member of his Class prospers; not only how

each person outwardly observes the Rules, but also how he grows in the knowledge and love of God.

§ 4. Let the Leaders converse with their Pastors frequently and freely.

¶ 60. In order to render Class Meetings interesting and profitable, let the Pastor remove improper Leaders and see that all the Leaders are of sound judgment and truly devoted to God.

¶ 61. In the arrangement of Class Meetings two or more Classes may meet together and be conducted according to such plan as shall be agreed upon by the Leaders in concurrence with the Pastor.

¶ 62. Let care be observed that Class Meetings do not fall into formality through the use of a uniform method. Let speaking be voluntary or the exercises conversational, the Leader taking such measures as may best assist in making the services fresh, spiritual and of permanent religious profit.

¶ 63. Let the Leaders be directed to such a course of reading and study as shall best qualify them for their work. Especially let such books be recommended as will tend to increase their knowledge of the Scriptures and make them familiar with those passages best adapted to Christian education. Whenever practicable let the Pastors examine the Leaders in the studies recommended. Appendix, ¶ 70.

CHAPTER II

SPECIAL ADVICES

I. Slavery

¶ 64. We declare that we are as much as ever convinced of the great evil of Slavery. We believe that the buying, selling or holding of human beings, to be used as chattels, is contrary to the laws of God and nature, and inconsistent with the Golden Rule, and with that Rule in our Discipline which requires all who desire to continue among us to "do no harm," and to "avoid evil of every kind." We therefore affectionately admonish all our Ministers and people to keep themselves pure from this great evil, and to seek its extirpation by all lawful and Christian means.

II. Dress

¶ 65. Let all our people be exhorted to conform to the spirit of the apostolic precept, not to adorn themselves "with gold, or pearls, or costly array" (1 Tim. 2. 9).

III. Marriage

¶ 66, § 1. We do not prohibit our people from marrying persons who are not of our Church, provided such persons have the form, and are seeking the power of godliness; but we are determined to

discourage their marrying persons who do not come up to this description. Many of our members have married unawakened persons. This has produced bad effects; they have been either hindered for life, or have turned back to perdition.

§ 2. To discourage such marriages, 1. Let every Minister publicly enforce the Apostle's caution, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6. 14). 2. Let all be exhorted to take no step in so weighty a matter without advising with the more serious of their brethren.

§ 3. In general a woman ought not to marry without the consent of her parents. Yet there may be exceptions. For if, 1. A woman believes it to be her duty to marry; if, 2. Her parents absolutely refuse to let her marry any Christian; then she may, nay, ought to marry without their consent. Yet even then a Methodist Minister ought not to be married to her.

IV. Divorce

67. No divorce, except for adultery, shall be regarded by the Church as lawful; and no Minister shall solemnize marriage in any case where there is a divorced wife or husband living; but this rule shall not be applied to the innocent party to a divorce for the cause of adultery, nor to divorced parties seeking to be reunited in marriage.

V. Amusements

68. Improper amusements and excessive indulgence in innocent amusements are serious barriers to the beginning of the religious life and fruitful

causes of spiritual decline. Some amusements in common use are also positively demoralizing and furnish the first easy steps to the total loss of character. We therefore look with deep concern on the great increase of amusements and on the general prevalence of harmful amusements, and lift up a solemn note of warning and entreaty particularly against theater-going, dancing, and such games of chance as are frequently associated with gambling; all of which have been found to be antagonistic to vital piety, promotive of worldliness, and especially pernicious to youth. We affectionately admonish all our people to make their amusements the subject of careful thought and frequent prayer, to study the subject of amusements in the light of their tendencies, and to be scrupulously careful in this matter to set no injurious example. We adjure them to remember that the question for a Christian must often be, not whether a certain course of action is positively immoral, but whether it will dull the spiritual life and be an unwise example. We enjoin on all our Bishops, District Superintendents and Pastors to call attention to this subject with solemn urgency in our Annual and Quarterly Conferences and in all our pulpits; and on our Editors, Sunday school Officers, Epworth League Officers and Class Leaders, to aid in abating the evils we deplore. We deem it our bounden duty to summon the whole Church to apply a thoughtful and instructed conscience to the choice of amusements, and not to leave them to accident, or taste, or passion; and we affectionately advise and beseech every member of the Church absolutely to avoid "the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus."