ON CHURCH POLITY: Comprehending an Outline OF THE CONTROVERSY ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT, AND A VINDICATION OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM OF THE METHODIST BY REV. ABEL STEVENS, A. M. New-York: PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT, FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. JOSEPH LONGKING PRINTER. 1848. THE NEW YORK 418831 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS 1901 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. DURING the late secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the northern states, the writer of the ensuing pages was compelled, by his official position, to defend our church government against the misrepresentations of the seceders. He issued two "Tracts for the Times," which received the approval of the Journals, and some of the higher authorities of the church. He also delivered public lectures in several places on the subject. These labors led to the request, from various quarters, accompanied by resolutions from quarterly conferences, that the substance of the tracts and lectures should be formed into a convenient volume for circulation among our people. The practical working of our system, though singularly useful, frequently interferes with local feelings, and is occasionally opposed by individual societies, especially when the annual appointments may not be satisfactory to them. Much of this dissatisfaction would be prevented by a better understanding of the system; but we have no popular work expounding it, none of any kind indeed, not out of print, that treats DUP.EXCH. 27 MAR. 1901 DREW THEOL. SEM, |