It is expected that[22] all, who can
conveniently attend, should be present on this occasion.
[Footnote 22: There may be persons, who on account of immoral conduct
cannot attend.]
When they are collected at the meeting-house, which was said to have
been fixed upon in each division, a meeting for worship takes place. All
persons, both men and women, attend together. But when this meeting is
over, they separate into different apartments for the purposes of the
discipline; the men to transact by themselves the business of the men,
and of their own district, the women to transact that, which is more
limited, namely such as belongs to their own sex.
In the men's meeting, and it is the same in the women's, the names of
the deputies beforementioned, are first entered in a book, for, until
this act takes place, the meeting for discipline is not considered to be
constituted.
The minutes of the last monthly meeting are then generally read, by
which it is seen if any business of the society was left unfinished.
Should any thing occur of this sort, it becomes the [23]first object to
be considered and dispatched.
[Footnote 23: The London monthly meetings begin differently from those
in the country.]
The new business, in which the deputies were said to have been
previously instructed by the congregations which they represented comes
on.
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