This business may be of various sorts. One part of it uniformly
relates to the poor. The wants of these are provided for, and the
education of their children taken care of, at this meeting.
Presentations of marriages are received, and births, marriages, and
funerals are registered. If disorderly members, after long and repeated
admonitions, should have given no hopes of amendment, their case is
first publicly cognizable in this court. Committees are appointed to
visit, advise, and try to reclaim them. Persons, reclaimed by these
visitations, are restored to membership, after having been well reported
of by the parties deputed to visit them. The fitness of persons,
applying for membership, from other societies, is examined here. Answers
also are prepared to the [24]queries at the proper time. Instructions
also are given, if necessary, to particular meetings, suited to the
exigencies of their cases; and certificates are granted to members on
various occasions.
[Footnote 24: These queries will be explained in the next chapter.]
In transacting this, and other business of the society, all members
present we allowed to speak. The poorest man in the meeting-house,
though he may be receiving charitable contributions at the time, is
entitled to deliver his sentiments upon any point.
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