LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. A28624 "Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by G. LANE & P. P. SANDFORD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. WHEN a young Methodist preacher enters, in accordance with the direction of his church, upon the study of its Discipline, he is curious to know when and by whom that Discipline was framed. He learns, indeed, from the book itself, that the General Conference has "full powers to make rules and regulations," under certain "limitations and restrictions." But who imposed those "limitations and restrictions," and to what extent has the General Conference used its powers? There is internal evidence that the present Discipline was not all composed at one time. At what periods then were its several parts introduced, and what modifications have they undergone? These are points not only of curious inquiry, but essential often to right interpretation. But they are points on which students generally can obtain no satisfactory information. In our civil governments, the statutes are scattered through the several volumes of laws, which have been published from time to time, and therefore these are all preserved. But, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Discipline, as revised at each General Conference, being in itself complete, supplants all that had gone before it, and the previous editions are cast aside as of no further use. Thus it has continued, until now nearly sixty years have elapsed since the organization of the church, and the Discipline has undergone about twenty distinct revisions. Where then shall the student go to find these successive editions? If he resort to the |