Page:The church manual (Church of the Brethren 1916).djvu/29

28 the ministry. You have also no authority to preside in the council-meetings of the church in which official members of the church are to be dealt with. You have no authority to go into the acknowledged territory of any organized church to make appointments for preaching, unless called by the elder or council of said church. It is an assumption of authority for an ordained elder to do so. But let it be understood that while the church now invests you with these rights and privileges, she still holds you to the apostolic injunction: "Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder; yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5: 5), and will hold you amenable to her councils; and if you manifest an arbitrary self-will and domineering spirit, the same authority which now gives you these privileges will, if need requires it, suspend you, and take from you all the authority she now gives you.

Election and Installation. — According to the faith and usages of the church of the Brethren, its ministers are chosen from its membership at such times as individual churches determine that such help or ministers are needed. This is determined by taking the voice of the membership of the church when