ACT OF INCORPORATION.

AN ACT to consolidate the several acts relating to the MISSIONARY SOCIETY of the METHODIST EPISCOAL CHURCH into one act, and to amend the same. Passed April 11, 1859.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

§ 1. The act entitled "An act to incorporate the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church," passed April ninth, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, and the several acts amendatory thereof, and relating to the said society, are respectively hereby amended and consolidated into one act; and the several provisions thereof as thus amended and consolidated, are comprised in the following sections.

§ 2. All persons associated or who may become associated together in the society above named, are constituted a body corporate, by the name and style of "The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church," and are hereby declared to have been such body corporate since the passage of said act of April ninth, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine; and such corporation are and shall be capable of purchasing, holding, and conveying such real estate as the purposes of the said corporation shall require; but the annual income of the real estate held by them at any one time, within the state of New York, shall not exceed the sum of thirty thousand dollars.

§3. The objects of the said corporation are charitable and religious; designed to diffuse more generally the blessings of education and Christianity, and to promote and support missionary schools and Christian missions throughout the United States and the continent of America, and also in foreign countries.

§ 4. The management and disposition of the affairs and property of the said corporation shall be vested in a Board of Man

agers, to be annually elected at a meeting of the society to be called for that purpose, and held in the city of New York, at such time and on such notice as the Board of Managers, for the time being, shall previously prescribe. Such board shall consist of not less than thirty-two lay members, belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of so many clerical members, not exceeding that number, as shall be determined upon at such annual meeting, and each of whom shall be a minister in good regular standing in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Such Board of Managers may fill any vacancy happening therein, until the term shall commence of the Managers elected at such annual meeting; shall have power to direct by what officer the conveyance of real estate by said corporation shall be executed; and shall have such other power as may be necessary for the management and disposition of the affairs and property of the said corporation.

§ 5. Thirteen members of the said Board of Managers, at any meeting thereof, shall be sufficient number for the transaction of business; and at any meeting of the society twenty-five members shall be a sufficient quorum. The managers elected at each annual meeting of the society shall be the managers of such corporation for one year from the first day of January following, and until others, elected in their places, shall be competent to assume their duties.

§ 6. The said corporation shall be capable of taking, receiving, or holding any real estate, by virtue of any devise contained in any last will and testament of any person whomsoever; subject, however, to the limitation expressed in the second section of this act, as to the aggregate amount of such real estate; and the said corporation shall be also competent to act as a trustee in respect to any devise or bequest pertaining to the objects of said corporation; and devises and bequests of real or personal property may be made directly to said corporation, or in trust, for any of the purposes comprehended in the general objects of said society; and such trusts may continue for such time as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes for which they may be created.

§ 7. The said corporation shall also possess the general powers specified in and by the third title of the third article of chapter eighteen of the first part of the Revised Statutes of the State of New York.

§ 8. The legislature may at any time alter or repeal this act. § 9. This act shall take effect immediately.

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church,

AS REVISED BY THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1856.

ARTICLE I.

THIS association, denominated "THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH," is established for the express purpose of enabling the several annual conferences more effectually to extend their missionary labors throughout the United States and elsewhere; and also to assist in the support and promotion of missionary schools and missions in our own and in foreign countries.

ARTICLE II.

The payment of twenty dollars at one time shall constitute a member for life. Any person paying one hundred and fifty dollars at one time into the treasury shall be an honorary manager for life; and the contribution of five hundred dollars shall constitute the donor an honorary patron for life: both of whom shall be entitled to a seat and the right of speaking, but not of voting, in the Board of Managers.

ARTICLE III.

The management and disposition of the affairs and property of this Society shall be vested in a Board of Managers, consisting of thirty-two laymen, all being members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and so many clerical members, not exceeding that number, as shall be determined at each annual meeting called for that purpose, each of whom shall be a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and all of whom, both the lay and clerical members, shall be elected at the said annual meeting.

ARTICLE IV.

The Corresponding Secretary shall be appointed by the General Conference. He shall reside in New-York, and con

duct the correspondence of the Society, under the direction of the Board. He shall be subject to the direction and control of the Board of Managers, by whom his salary is to be fixed and paid. He shall be exclusively employed in conducting the correspondence of the Society, and, under the direction of the Board, in promoting its general interests, by traveling or otherwise. Should his office become vacant by death, resignation, or otherwise, the Board shall have power to provide for the duties of the office until the bishops, or a majority of them, shall fill the vacancy.

ARTICLE V.

The Board shall have authority to appoint all the officers required by the charter, and to make by-laws for regulating its own proceedings; to appropriate money to defray incidental expenses; to provide for the support of superannuated missionaries, widows and orphans of missionaries, who may not be provided for by their annual conferences respectively-it being understood that they shall not receive more than is allowed by the Discipline to other superannuated ministers, their widows and orphans; and to print books for the benefit of Indian and Foreign Missions, and missions in which a foreign language is used; fill vacancies that may occur in their own body during the year; and shall present a statement of its transactions and funds to the Society at its annual meeting, and also shall lay before the General Conference a report of its transactions for the four preceding years, and the state of its funds.

ARTICLE VI.

The annual meeting, for the election of officers and managers, shall be held on the third Monday in November, in the city of New-York, and the term of the service of the officers and managers so elected shall commence January first following.

ARTICLE VII.

At all meetings of the Society, and of the Board, the President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President first on the list then present, and in the absence of all the Vice-Presidents, a member appointed by the meeting for that purpose, shall preside.

ARTICLE VIII.

Twenty-five members at each meeting of the Society, and thirteen at each meeting of the Board of Managers, shall be a quorum.

ARTICLE IX.

The minutes of each meeting shall be signed by the chairman of the meeting at which the minutes are read and approved.

ARTICLE X.

It is recommended, that within the bounds of each annual conference there be established a Conference Missionary Society, auxiliary to this institution, under such regulations as the conferences shall respectively prescribe.

ARTICLE XI.

Any auxiliary society or donor may designate the mission or missions, under the care of this Society, to which they desire any part or the whole of its funds to be appropriated; which special designation shall be publicly acknowledged by the Board. But in the event that more funds are raised for any particular mission than are necessary for its support, the surplus shall be at the disposal of the Society for its general

purposes.

ARTICLE XII.

The annual conferences shall be divided into as many mission districts as there are effective superintendents, and there shall be a committee, consisting of one from each mission district, to be appointed by the bishops, and to be called the General Missionary Committee. It shall be the duty of this committee to meet annually in the city of New-York, between the 1st and 15th of November, as shall be determined by the Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, to act jointly with the Board of Managers, the Corresponding Secretary, and the Treasurer, in fixing the amount which may be drawn for during the ensuing year, and the division of said amount between foreign and domestic missions. Said committee shall, with the concurrence of the Board of Managers, and with the concurrence of at least two of the bishops, determine what fields shall be occupied or continued as foreign missions, and the number of persons to be employed on said missions, and shall, in conjunction with the Board, estimate the sums necessary for the support of each mission, subject to the approval of two or more of the bishops. Said committee, with the concurrence of the Board and bishops as aforesaid, shall determine the amount for which each bishop may draw for the domestic missions of those conferences over which he shall preside, and he shall not draw on the Treasurer for more than said amount.

Provided nevertheless, that in the intervals between the meetings of the General Missionary Committee, the Board of Managers, with the concurrence of the bishop who has charge