A simple body may disregard law with comparative impunity, but an
organic body that is complicated, complex in its nature, will find its
own security in adhering earnestly, strictly, and everlastingly, to the
law that that body passes for the government of its own conduct.

Let us see, now, with regard to this Restrictive Rule. As I have said,
it has been admitted all along that the action of the Annual Conferences
must be secured. Here comes in the decision of the General Conference of
1872. I do not need to recite it. But let us bear in mind two facts. One
is, that this General Conference is a legislative body, and that it
is also a judicial body. As a judicial body, it interprets law; as
a legislative body, it makes law. The General Conference of 1872
interpreted law, and the General Conference may reverse itself with
just as much propriety as a court can reverse itself. And if it be
the judgment of this General Conference that that interpretation was
incorrect, it is perfectly competent for this Conference to say so, and
have its action correspond with its own decision.

There is another point. The case that was before the General Conference
of 1876 was a specific case. It was the case of the relation that
local preachers sustain to the Church, a particular case. This is the
principle of all decisions in law, that when a particular case is
decided in general terms, the scope and comprehension of the decision
must be limited to the particular case itself. And if a court in its
decision embraces more than was involved in the particular case, it has
no force whatever. And as this was a particular case submitted to
the General Conference, and the decision was in general terms, it
comprehends simply the case that was before it, and cannot be advanced
to comprehend more. And the reason of this is very obvious; for if it