CHAPTER XIX.

OF MODERATORS.

I. It is equally necessary in the judicatories of the Church, as in other assemblies, that there should le a moderator or president; that the business may be conducted with order and despatch.

II. The moderator is to be considered as possessing, by delegation from the whole body, all authority necessary for the preservation of order; for convening and adjourning the judicatory; and directing its operations according to the rules of the church. He is to propose to the judicatory every subject of deliberation that comes before them. He may propose what appears to him the most regular and speedy way of bringing any business to issue. He shall prevent the members from interrupting each other; and require them, in speaking, always to addres the chair. He shall prevent a speaker from deviating from the subject; and from using personal reflections. He shall silence those who refuse to obey order. He shall prevent members who attempt to leave the judica tory without leave obtained from him. He shall, at a proper season, when the deliberations are ended, put the question and call the votes. If the judicatory be equally divided, he shall possess the casting vote. If he be not willing to decide, he shall put the question a second time; and if the judicatory be again equally divided, and he decline to give his vote, the question shall be lost. In all questions he shall give a concise and clear state of the object of the vote; and the vote being taken, shall then declare how the question is decided. And he shall likewise be empowered, on any extraordinary emergency, to convene the judicatory, by his circular letter, before the ordinary time of meeting. He shall also serve until his successor be inducted into office, and may perform such administrative duties as may be assigned to him by the judicatory.

III. The moderator of the presbytery shall be chosen from year to year, or at every meeting of the presbytery as the presbytery may think best. The moderator of the synod, and of the General Assembly, shall be chosen at each meeting of those judicatories: and the moderator, or, in case of his absence, another member appointed for the purpose, shall open the next meeting with a sermon, and shall hold the chair till a new moderator be chosen. In case the moderator of any judicatory, above the Church Session, shall be a ruling elder, he may open the next meeting with an address; but any acts, appropriate only to an ordained minister of the Gospel, shall be performed by a minister appointed by such ruling elder.

CHAPTER XX.

OF CLERKS.

EVERY judicatory shall choose a clerk, to record their transactions, whose continuance shall be during pleasure. It shall be the duty of the clerk, besides recording the transactions, to preserve the records carefully; and tc grant extracts from them, whenever properly required: and such extracts, under the hand of the clerk, shall be considered as authentic vouchers of the fact which they declare, in any ecclesiastical judicatory, and to every part of the Church.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF VACANT CONGREGATIONS ASSEMBLING FOR PUBLIC

WORSHIP.

I. CONSIDERING the great importance of weekly assembling the people, for the public worship of God, in order

thereby to improve their knowledge; to confirm their habits of worship, and their desire of the public ordinances; to augment their reverence for the most high God; and to promote the charitable affections which unite men most firmly in society: it is recommended, that every vacant congregation meet together, on the Lord's Day, at one or more places, for the purpose of prayer, singing praises, and reading the Holy Scriptures, together with the works of such approved divines, as the presbytery within whose bounds they are may recommend, and they may be able to procure; and that the elders or deacons be the persons who shall preside, and select the portions of Scripture, and of the other books to be read; and to see that the whole be conducted in a becoming and orlerly manner.

II. Every presbytery shall arrange for the supply of the vacant pulpits within its bounds either by direct action at a meeting or through a committee. The session of a vacant church may receive leave to supply the pulpit for a period to be fixed by presbytery, subject to the limitation contained in the fourth section of this chapter.

III. Ministers, licentiates, and local evangelists connected with the presbyteries of this Church, shall be the only persons to be employed as regular supplies in vacant churches. It shall be the duty of ministers not engaged in regular church work to render service in vacant congregations within the bounds of their respective presbyteries, unless excused by act of presbytery. Ministers of other denominations in correspondence with this General Assembly may be employed as occasional supplies.

IV. When the pulpit of any congregation has been vacant for a longer period than twelve months, the appointment of ministers for the pulpit shall be made by the presbytery, and shall continue to be so made until a pastor has been elected by the congregation and duly installed by the presbytery.

CHAPTER XXII.

OF COMMISSIONERS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

I. THE Commissioners to the General Assembly shall always be appointed by the presbytery from which they come, at its last stated meeting, immediately preceding the meeting of the General Assembly; provided, that there be a sufficient interval between that time and the meeting of the Assembly, for their commissioners to attend to their duty in due season; otherwise, the presbytery may make the appointment at any stated meeting, not more than seven months preceding the meeting of the Assembly. And as much as possible to prevent all failure in the representation of the presbyteries, arising from unforeseen accidents to those first appointed, it may be expedient for each presbytery, in the room of each commissioner, to appoint also an alternate commissioner tc Supply his place, in case of necessary absence.

II. Each commissioner, before his name shall be enrolled as a member of the Assembly, shall produce from his presbytery, a commission under the hand of the mod erator and clerk, in the following, or like form-viz.

Lor

as the case

"bishop of the congregation of

"ruling elder in the congregation of

'may be;"] (to which the presbytery may, if they think proper, make a substitution in the following form)" or in

gation of

"gation of

(or

bishop of the congreruling elder in the congre

as the case may be:] to be a commissioner, on behalf of this presbytery, to the next General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United "States of America, to meet at

on the

or wherever, and whenever

"the said Assembly may happen to sit; to consult, vote. "and determine, on all things that may come before that

36

"body, according to the principles and constitution of this Church, and the Word of God. And of his dili“gence herein, he is to render an account at his return. Signed by order of the Presbytery,

Moderator,

Clerk."

And the presbytery shall make record of the appoint

ment.

III. In order, as far as possible, to procure a respectable and full delegation to all our judicatories, it is proper that the expenses of ministers and elders in their attendance on these judicatories, be defrayed by the bodies which they respectively represent.

CHAPTER XXIII.

OF THE ORGANIZATIONS OF THE CHURCH: THEIR RIGHTS AND DUTIES.

I. The members of a particular church or particula churches may associate together, and may associate with. themselves other regular members of the congregation or congregations, under regular forms of association, for the conduct of a special work for missionary or other benevolent purposes, or for the purpose of instruction in religion and development in Christian nurture.

II. Where special organizations of the character above indicated exist in a particular church, they shall be under the immediate direction, control, and oversight of the session of said church; where they cover the territory included within a presbytery or synod, they shall be responsible to the judicatory having jurisdiction; and where they cover territory greater than a synod, they shall be responsible to the General Assembly.

III. The names or titles of special organizations may be chosen by themselves, and the organizations shall have power to adopt each its own constitution and to elect its