THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 Ex Libris 
 
 SIR MICHAEL SADLER 
 
 ACQUIRED 1948 
 
 WITH THE HELP OF ALUMNI OF THE 
 SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
 
 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL.
 
 ONE of the suggestions resulting from the Centenary Celebration 
 of Sunday Schools in 1880, was the formation of an International 
 Normal Committee for the purpose of promoting and assisting 
 normal study among Sunday school teachers. It was felt that 
 there were thousands of teachers anxious to attain fitness for their 
 work, who had no opportunity of attending normal classes, but 
 who would be glad to be aided and directed in their study, if suit- 
 able handbooks were placed within their reach, and if a simple 
 scheme of examination, by correspondence or otherwise, were pre- 
 pared. With this view the accompanying handbook is issued. 
 The Committee, whose names are appended, was appointed by 
 virtue of powers granted by resolution of a public meeting, held in 
 the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, during the Centenary week. 
 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 The Hon. Vice-Chancellor BLAKE, Toronto, Canada. 
 
 Mr. BENJAMIN CLARKE, General Editor, Sunday School Union, 
 
 London. 
 
 Rev. A. E. DUNNING, D.D., of Boston, TJ.S.A. 
 Mr. W. H. GKOSER, B.Sc., Sunday School Union Committee, London. 
 Mr. FOUNTAIN J. HARTLEY, Hon. Secretary, Sunday School Union, 
 
 London. 
 
 Mr. M. C. HAZARD, Chicago, U.S.A. 
 Mr. B. F. JACOBS, Chicago, U.S.A. 
 Rev. C. H. KELLY, Secretary, Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School 
 
 Union, London. 
 
 Miss J. B. MERRILL, Normal College, New York. 
 Rev. E. W. RICE, General Editor, American Sunday School Union, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. ALFRED SINDALL, Sunday School Union Committee, London. 
 Rev. J. H. VINCENT, D.D., Sunday School Editor, of America, 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church.
 
 NORMAL STUDIES FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS. 
 
 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 VARIOUS WRITEES. 
 
 PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
 THE INTERNATIONAL NORMAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 
 66, OLD BAILEY, E.G.
 
 LIST OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 THE HISTOEY AND STATISTICS OF THE 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 BY FOUNTAIN J. HARTLEY. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 BY BENJAMIN CLARKE. 
 
 THE KELATION OF ADULTS TO THE SUNDAY 
 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 BY KEV. CHARLES H. KELLY. 
 
 ON THE CONSTITUTION, OEGANIZATION, AND 
 MANAGEMENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 BY BENJAMIN CLAIIKE. 
 
 ON THE MUTUAL DUTIES OF SCHOOL OFFICEES T 
 TEACHEES, AND SCHOLABS. 
 
 BY BENJAMIX CLARKE. 
 
 ON ASSOCIATED EFFOET : PEEPABATION, 
 TEAINING AND NOEMAL CLASSES, CON- 
 VENTIONS, ETC. 
 
 BY ALFRED SIN D ALL. 
 
 808490
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 THE HISTORY AND STATISTICS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Divine Provision for Religious 
 Instruction, page 9 ; Claims of the 
 Children, 11 ; Early Church His- 
 tory, 12 ; Catechumen Classes, 13 ; 
 The Duty of the Church, 15; 
 Catechetical Instruction, 16 ; 
 Pioneers of the Sunday School, 
 18; A Model Teacher, 21; The 
 Macclesfield Sunday School, 23; 
 Robert Raikes, 23 ; Robert Raikes 
 and his First Sunday School, 25; 
 The Coadjutors of Raikes, 27; 
 Spread of the Movement, 29; 
 Establishment of Sunday Schools 
 in London, 31 ; The Stockport 
 Sunday School, 33; The First 
 Sunday School Society, 33 ; 
 Voluntary Teachers, 36; Early 
 Patronage of the Sunday School, 
 
 37; The Bolton Sunday School, 
 39; Progress of Sunday Schools 
 in America, 40 ; Establishment of 
 the Sunday School Union, 41 ; The 
 Sunday School Jubilee, 45 ; Sun- 
 day School Buildings, 48 ; Ragged 
 Schools, 50 ; Scholars of Higher 
 Social Grade, 52 ; Sunday Schools 
 for all, 53 ; Infant Classes, 53 ; 
 Elder Scholars, 54; Libraries, 
 56; The School and the Church, 
 57 ; Lesson Systems, 59 ; Uniform 
 Lessons in England, 63 ; Uniform 
 Lessons in America, 65 ; The In- 
 ternational Lesson, 66 ; Results 
 of Sunday School Teaching, 69 ; 
 Scholars joining the Church, 71 ; 
 Sunday School Statistics, 73 ; 
 Future Development, 77. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 Religious Training, 80 ; Advan- 
 tages of Religious Training, 81 ; 
 Admixture of Classes, 83 ; Disci- 
 pline of the School, 85 ; Attraction 
 
 and Influence of the Sunday 
 School, 87 ; Influence of the 
 Teacher, 89.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE RELATION OF ADULTS TO THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 What are the Relations of Adult 
 Scholars to the Sunday School 
 which are desirable and possible ? 
 92 ; Some of the Difficulties in the 
 Way of the Retention of Adults in 
 the Sunday School, 95 ; Difficulty 
 of obtaining Teachers, 97 ; Re- 
 moval of Scholars, 99 ; Necessities 
 
 of Elder Scholars, 101 ; Recreations 
 and Amusements, 103; Homes for 
 Scholars, 105; The Modification 
 of the Sunday School System to 
 meet the Demands of Adult 
 Classes, 105; Appointment of 
 Teachers, 107. 
 
 ON THE CONSTITUTION, ORGANIZATION, AND MANAGEMENT 
 OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Constitution of the Sunday 
 School, 111 ; Claims of the Young, 
 113 ; Sunday School Organization, 
 114 ; Position of the Teacher, 115 ; 
 Arrangement of Classes, 117 ; 
 
 Office of the Superintendent, 119 ; 
 The Difference between Church 
 (or Congregational) and Mission 
 Schools, 120; The Pastoral Side 
 of the Teacher's Work, 123. 
 
 ON THE MUTUAL DUTIES OF SCHOOL OFFICERS, TEACHERS, 
 AND SCHOLARS. 
 
 Mutual Relationship, 127; The 
 .Superintendent Qualities, 129 ; 
 Love for the Young, 131 ; Firm- 
 ness, 133 ; Duties of the Superin- 
 tendent, 135 ; The Superintendent 
 and the Teacher, 137; Uniform 
 Lessons, 139 ; The Teachers' Meet- 
 
 ing, 141 ; Admission of Scholars, 
 143 ; The Superintendent during 
 the Week, 144; The Secretary, 
 145 ; Duties of Secretary, 147 ; 
 The Library, 148 ; Duties of 
 Scholars, 150. 
 
 ON ASSOCIATED EFFORT : PREPARATION, TRAINING, AND 
 NORMAL CLASSES, CONVENTIONS, ETC. 
 
 Benefits of Associated Effort, 
 153 ; Advantages of Co-operation, 
 155 ; Preparation Classes, 156 ; 
 The Training Class, 158; The 
 Normal or Introductory Class, 160; 
 
 Hints to Conductors of Normal 
 Classes, 162; Institutes, 164; Con- 
 ventions, etc., 164; Lectures to 
 Teachers, 166.
 
 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 THE HISTORY AND STATISTICS OF 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 DIVINE PROVISION FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 THE necessity and importance of the religious education 
 of the young have in all ages of the world been more or 
 less recognized by the people of God, and the obligation 
 of parental instruction is repeatedly enforced in the Scrip- 
 tures, both Old and New Testaments. 
 
 No records of the practice of the antediluvian patri- 
 archs are given to us in Holy Writ, though we cannot 
 suppose that such men as Enoch and Noah would neglect 
 the duty of teaching their children at home. 
 
 But in the case of Abraham we have the divine testi- 
 mony, " I know him, that he will command his children 
 and his household after him, and they shall keep the way 
 of the Lord" (Gen. xviii. 19). 
 
 With this testimony before us, we cannot doubt that 
 the pious patriarch was in the habit of gathering his 
 family around him, that he might instruct them in the 
 character and claims of his covenanted God ; and if, as is 
 generally believed, the sabbath was kept in these early
 
 10 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 times, that day would in all probability be especially con- 
 secrated to this good work ; and thus we may look upon 
 Abraham, the friend of God, as one of the earliest and 
 noblest of the race of Sunday school teachers. 
 
 Passing on to the Mosaic dispensation, we have the 
 distinct command addressed to the people of Israel, " These 
 words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine 
 heart : and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy 
 children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine 
 house . . ." (Deut. vi. 6, 7). In addition to this pro- 
 vision for home instruction, directions were given that the 
 children should appear with their parents in the assembly 
 of the congregation (Exod. xxxiv. 23 ; Deut. xxxi. 12) ; 
 and when Joshua read out to the people from Mount 
 Ebal the words of the law, with its blessings and cursings, 
 " the little ones " were there, as well as their parents, 
 and " the strangers that were conversant among them " 
 (Joshua viii. 35). 
 
 From these passages, as well as from some statements 
 in the Mishna and from Luke ii. 42, it has been inferred 
 that it was the custom for Jewish parents to associate their 
 children with them in the public worship of God from 
 about the age of twelve years. The " sons of the 
 prophets," to whom allusions are made in the books of 
 Samuel and Kings, were in all probability associations 
 of young men in schools or colleges for religious instruc- 
 tion and training. 
 
 Numerous passages occur throughout the Old Testament 
 tending to show the duty of God's people towards the 
 young. Hence David invites the children to come to him 
 that he might teach them the fear of the Lord (Ps. xxxiv. 
 11) ; Solomon gives the exhortation, " Train up a child 
 in the way he should go " (Prov. xxii. 6) ; and the prophet 
 Isaiah records the divine promise so full of encouragement 
 to parents and teachers " I will pour My spirit upon thy 
 seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring : and they shall
 
 . CLAIMS OF THE CHILDREN. 11 
 
 spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water- 
 courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's ; and another shall 
 call himself by the name of Jacob " (Isa. xliv. 3, 4). 
 
 Turning now to the New Testament, we learn what 
 immense importance is attached to the instruction and 
 nurture of the young. 
 
 Jesus, the Teacher sent from God, displayed His love 
 to the children, and gave them a share of His instructions, 
 while He encouraged the mothers who brought them to 
 receive His blessing, by His gracious reception and loving 
 words, " Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid 
 them not : for of such is the kingdom of God " (Luke xviii. 
 16). And before ascending to His heavenly Father, the 
 Good Shepherd manifested His tender concern for the young 
 and weak of His flock by the commission given to His erring 
 but repentant and pardoned disciple, " Feed My lambs." 
 
 Although this injunction was addressed in the first 
 instance to Peter alone, it was doubtless intended to be 
 binding on all the disciples, and we are warranted in 
 regarding the Saviour's words as teaching the lesson that 
 the Church has a .duty to discharge towards the young 
 distinct from and additional to the parental obligation 
 afterwards enforced by the Apostle Paul : " Bring them up 
 in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 
 During the apostolic age, the instruction of the young 
 appears to have been mainly confined to the parent and 
 the home, and although the apostles did not forget the 
 children either in their public ministrations or in their 
 epistles, nothing is recorded in the New Testament to show 
 that any organized effort was made by them towards the 
 carrying out of the commission they had received from 
 their Master, to feed His lambs. 
 
 Hence we cannot produce any scriptural warrant for 
 the institution of Sunday schools, except that which is 
 supplied by the spirit of our Lord's teaching and that of 
 His apostles ; but surely this is amply sufficient to justify
 
 12 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 the employment of any machinery adapted to promote the 
 instruction of the young in the principles of divine truth, 
 and their introduction to the Church of the Redeemer. 
 
 We know that Jesus Christ sent forth His disciples to 
 " teach all nations " and to " preach the gospel to every 
 creature," and there can be no doubt that the younger 
 as well as the older, the children of unbelievers as well as 
 of believers, were included in the commission, so that the 
 germ of the Sunday school was embedded in the original 
 design of the Saviour, as well as in the practice of His 
 apostles, who went forth and " ceased not to teach and to- 
 preach the Lord Jesus." 
 
 EAKLT CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 Ecclesiastical history, however, is not altogether silent 
 upon the subject, and, indeed, affords conclusive evidence 
 that the early disciples were not unmindful of the duties 
 involved in the commission of their Lord and Master. 
 
 Mosheim, the celebrated historian of the ancient Church, 
 testifies that "the Christians took all possible care to 
 accustom their children to the study of the Scriptures, and 
 to instruct them in the doctrines of their holy religion ; 
 and schools were everywhere erected for this purpose even 
 from the very commencement of the Christian Church. 
 We must not, however, confound the schools designed only 
 for children, with the gymnasia or academies of the ancient 
 Christians, erected in several large cities, in which persona 
 of riper years, and especially such as aspired to be public 
 teachers, were instructed in the different branches both of 
 human learning and of sacred erudition. We may un- 
 doubtedly attribute to the apostles themselves, and to the 
 injunctions given to their disciples, the excellent establish- 
 ments, in which the youth destined to the holy ministry 
 received an education suitable to the solemn office they 
 were to undertake. St. John erected a school of this kind
 
 CATECHUMEN CLASSES. 13 
 
 at Ephesus, and one of the same nature was founded by 
 Polycarp at Smyrna ; but these were not in greater repute 
 than that which was established at Alexandria, commonly 
 called the catechetical school, and generally supposed to 
 have been erected by St. Mark. The Alexandrian school 
 was renowned for a succession of learned doctors, as we 
 find by the accounts of Eusebius and St. Jerome ; for after 
 St. Mark, Pantasnus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and 
 many others, taught in it the doctrines of the gospel, and 
 rendered it a famous seminary for Christian philosophy and 
 religious knowledge. There were also at Rome, Antioch, 
 Caesarea, Edessa, and in several other cities, schools of 
 the same nature, though not all of equal reputation." ' 
 
 The catechumen classes, which rendered great service 
 during the second and third centuries of the Christian 
 era, though not precisely resembling either the schools 
 for children or the academies for more advanced scholars, 
 thus described by the historian, appear to have grown up 
 oat of those institutions ; and as these classes of cate- 
 chumens are regarded by some writers as the actual be- 
 ginning of the Sunday school system, it will be well to 
 inquire a little more closely into their constitution and 
 management, in order to discover whether they bore any 
 resemblance to the institution founded by Robert Raikes, 
 or to the modern Sunday school as it now exists in England 
 and America. 
 
 In the third volume of De Pressense's " Christian 
 Life and Practices of the Early Church," that eminent 
 writer refers at some length to the classes of catechumens, 
 and describes the object and methods pursued in these 
 ancient institutions. From this account it appears 
 
 I. That these classes were intended for the instruction 
 of candidates for Church fellowship, who received therein 
 a course of training lasting usually for three years, pre- 
 paratory to their baptism. This teaching was rendered 
 * Moshcim's " Ecclesiastical History," vol i. page 105.
 
 14 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 especially necessary by the fact that the proselytes came- 
 steeped in idolatrous practices from every quarter of the 
 pagan world, and often from the deep degradation of a 
 life of slavery. 
 
 The first year was devoted to laying firmly the basis 
 of all religious teaching by developing the idea of a true 
 God, who is at once the Ruler and the Father of all 
 beings. In its second division, the catechetical teaching 
 was directed to the doctrine of Christ, His eternal relation 
 to the Father as the only Son, and His redeeming work as 
 the Saviour. Lastly, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was 
 set forth. After three years of instruction, the catechumen 
 whose testimonials were good was made the subject of a 
 careful examination, which, if satisfactory, qualified him 
 for baptism. 
 
 II. The classes met for instruction on the sabbath day, 
 just previous to the hour of public worship. 
 
 III. The scholars were mostly, if not exclusively, 
 adults. In the church at Antioch, the prayer with which 
 they were dismissed before the celebration of the Eucharist 
 contained this petition, " May He bless their children, and 
 spare them to them." 
 
 IV. The teachers were not necessarily ecclesiastics, but 
 laymen might be called to fulfil this high trust, the ancient 
 Church attaching far more importance to intellectual com- 
 petency than to official dignity for such a work. 
 
 If this description of the catechumen classes be correct, 
 they had very little in common with the modern Sunday 
 school, which is carried on chiefly, though not exclusively, 
 for children, which takes them up at an earlier stage than 
 is involved in a candidature for Church fellowship, and 
 which retains them in many cases long after their union 
 with the Church has been consummated. 
 
 At the same time, as these classes certainly met on 
 Sunday, and as their object undoubtedly was religious 
 instruction, there is at least some ground for the opinion
 
 THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 15 
 
 expressed in The Churcli School by Dr. Vincent, of New 
 York : " The good philanthropists of the last century, 
 in digging that they might build a human fabric, laid bare 
 an ancient and divine foundation. Let us rear our super- 
 structure upon this rather than upon their narrow bases 
 and after their scantier' measurements." 
 
 But even if we had to come to the conclusion that the 
 institution founded by Raikes, and the modern Sunday 
 school of the Church, which has grown out of it, are to be 
 regarded as a mere revival of the ancient catechumen 
 classes, and that therefore Sunday schools are seventeen 
 or eighteen hundred years old instead of one hundred, 
 inasmuch as these classes had fallen into desuetude for 
 something like fifteen centuries, Robert Raikes would have 
 to be regarded as the refounder, instead of the founder, of 
 Sunday schools a position which would not materially 
 reduce his claims to the gratitude and reverence of the 
 wise and good. 
 
 Whatever view may be taken, however, of the question 
 under discussion, the example of the early Christians 
 throws considerable light on two points of great impor- 
 tance in the present day : First, that the Church has a 
 distinct and definite duty to discharge in the matter of 
 religious instruction, besides and beyond the public minis- 
 tr-ation of the gospel and the home teaching of the parent ; 
 and secondly, that inasmuch as such men as Clement and 
 Origen undertook the office and gloried in the name of 
 catechist, it is obviously the duty of the Christian Church 
 to dedicate the very highest talent which it possesses to 
 this important work. 
 
 The classes of catechumens ceased to exist after the 
 first three or four centuries of the Christian era, and little 
 further is known of the progress of religious instruction 
 until after the Reformation. 
 
 During the dark ages nothing was being done for the 
 promotion of Christian education, excepting by the univer-
 
 16 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 sities and the several cathedral and conventual schools, 
 and these institutions were pretty exclusively confined to 
 the upper classes of society. 
 
 CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION. 
 
 With the dawn of the Reformation more hopeful times 
 set in for the cause of religious instruction. 
 
 Luther found the people in a most fearful state of 
 ignorance. He opened day schools for the instruction of 
 children, and induced the evangelical clergymen to assemble 
 these day scholars in the churches on Sunday afternoon, 
 for catechetical instruction. 
 
 John Knox took a similar course in Scotland, and one 
 of the earliest indications of a reviving interest in the 
 cause of religious teaching in England was the duty im- 
 posed upon the clergy of catechizing their parishioners, 
 both old and young, in the churches upon the sabbath 
 day. But this was not very extensively observed, and 
 Archbishop Cranmer spoke, in the dedication of his 
 Catechism to King Edward VI., in the year 1548, of the 
 neglect into which this practice had fallen, notwithstand- 
 ing the royal injunction for its strict observance pro- 
 mulgated twelve years before. 
 
 A clause in the Constitution of 1571, issued in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, again enjoined that " On every 
 Sunday and holiday, at twelve o'clock, the clergy shall 
 repair to their churches, and there spend two hours at least 
 in reading and explaining the catechism ; they shall 
 instruct therein all their parishioners of every age and 
 condition ; and they shall take especial care that none be 
 permitted to receive the communion or to contract marriage 
 before they can well and sufficiently answer all the ques- 
 tions in the catechism." 
 
 This practice, however, seems to have been very 
 partially carried out, for about twenty years later Arch-
 
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 IL^A-, ^.fi^JJL* 
 
 CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION. 1? 
 
 <^ k'ty. A, A.'A_.<f.-^ 
 
 bishop Whitgift complained of the desuetude into which 
 it had fallen, though for more than a century conscientious 
 clergymen were found here and there diligently discharging 
 their duty in this particular. 
 
 These catechetical exercises undoubtedly did good 
 service so far as they went, but there was nothing about 
 them which could be identified with the institutions after- 
 wards established by Raikes and his coadjutors. 
 
 The same remark applies to the schools founded about 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, throughout his diocese, 
 by Cardinal Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, who is re- 
 garded by many as the actual originator of the Sunday 
 school system. But as these schools were mainly secular, 
 and entirely subject to the control of the priests, they had 
 even less in common with the modern Sunday school than 
 the catechumen classes of the second century. 
 
 Many of the Nonconforming divines, including Richard 
 Baxter and Joseph Alleine, were persistent in their adherence 
 to the practice of catechizing the young on the sabbath 
 day. 
 
 More than a century before the establishment of Sunday 
 schools at Gloucester, the Rev. Joseph Alleine, author of 
 the well-known book, " An Alarm to the Unconverted," 
 who was ejected from his living in 1662, and imprisoned 
 for preaching in 1663, resumed his useful labours imme- 
 diately after his liberation, and, in addition to his minis- 
 terial and literary engagements, found time on the Sabbath 
 day to instruct the children of Taunton in the truths of 
 God's Word. It does not appear that any of his people 
 were associated with him in this work, so that the gather- 
 ing was rather a minister's class than a Sunday school ; 
 but, at any rate, it showed his earnest desire to feed the 
 lambs, in obedience to his Master's command, and to provide 
 instruction for the ignorant as well as to sound an alarm 
 to the unconverted.
 
 18 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 PIONEERS OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Among the numerous pioneers in the good work we 
 find that Mrs. Catherine Boevey, of Flaxley Abbey, in the 
 county of Gloucester, who died in the year 1 726, nine years 
 before Robert Raikes was born, had one of the earliest and 
 most attractive Sunday schools on record. 
 
 That excellent lady was in the regular habit of giving 
 dinners to a few poor children on the Lord's day, and 
 afterwards hearing them repeat their catechism, and feed- 
 ing their souls with the bread of life. 
 
 There is no doubt that the food and clothing which she 
 so liberally supplied, secured the attendance of the limited 
 number she received, and in all probability the instruction 
 she gave was none the less effective because it was pre- 
 ceded by the supply of physical necessities. 
 
 Sunday schools of such a type could not, however, be 
 expected to prevail very extensively, though some approach 
 to this order of things is even now occasionally attempted ; 
 and in all cases teachers are likely to increase their power 
 for good by remembering that their scholars have bodies 
 as well as souls, and by manifesting an interest in their 
 temporal as well as in their spiritual wellbeing. 
 
 In America, too, some early efforts were made towards 
 the religious instruction of the young on the Lord's day. 
 
 Some of these movements very closely resembled the 
 ministers' classes conducted by Alleine and Baxter in 
 England, while the others, like most of the English efforts 
 prior to Raikes, were isolated ones, lasting, in most cases, 
 but for a short time. 
 
 In Plymouth, Massachusetts, the records of the Pil- 
 grim Church show that in 1680 the Church expressed its 
 wish by a vote, " That the deacons of the Church be 
 requested to assist the minister, the Rev. John Robinson, 
 in teaching the children during the intermission on the 
 Sabbath."
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL PIONEERS. 19 
 
 lu the same year the Rev. Morgan Jones is said to 
 have had a Sunday school in successful operation at New 
 Town, Queen's County. 
 
 In 1735, a church and Sunday school were established 
 at a place called Towamencin, in Montgomery County, 
 Pennsylvania, by a colony of immigrants from Silesia. 
 
 In 1737 the Rev. John Wesley, then engaged in 
 evangelistic labour in South America, instituted Sunday 
 afternoon classes at Savannah, which were continued by 
 his brother, the Rev. Charles Wesley, and by the Rev. 
 George Whitfield. 
 
 In 1740 the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, D.D., of Bethlehem, 
 Connecticut, established a Sunday school in that town, 
 which, with some modification, continued until Sunday 
 schools became general. 
 
 About the same time the Rev. Ludwig Hacker opened 
 a Sunday school in connection with the Seventh Day 
 Baptists, at Ephrata, in Pennsylvania, which was con- 
 tinued until 1777, when the building in which it was held 
 was taken for a hospital, after the battle of Brandywine. 
 
 Returning to England, we find that a Sunday school 
 was established at Catterick, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, 
 about the year 1763, by the vicar, the Rev. Theophilus 
 Lindsay, who afterwards became a Unitarian minister, and 
 preached for some years in Essex Street Chapel, London. 
 
 Miss Harrison, the daughter of a clergyman (who after- 
 wards became the wife of the Rev. Newcombe Cappe, of 
 York), being at the time a visitor at the house of Mr. 
 Lindsay, says, in her autobiography, " At two o'clock, before 
 the commencement of the afternoon service, he spent an 
 hour alternately in catechizing the children of the parish, 
 and in expounding the Bible to the boys of a large school, 
 numbering about two hundred." 
 
 This effort seems to have been something more than 
 the performance of the duty imposed upon the clergy of 
 catechizing their parishioners, because we are further in-
 
 20 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 formed that Mr. Lindsay was wont, after evening service, 
 to receive different classes of young men and women into 
 his study for the purpose of giving them further instruc- 
 tion, and that Mrs. Lindsay in like manner instructed two 
 classes of children, boys and girls alternately. 
 
 Miss Harrison herself went home to copy the good 
 example she had witnessed, and established a Sunday 
 school at Bedale in the same county, as will appear from 
 another extract from her autobiography : " I endeavoured 
 to imitate at Bedale the example which I had so much 
 admired at Catterick. I established a sort of Sunday 
 school there, collecting together a number of poor children, 
 whom I assisted in learning to read, giving them books, 
 teaching them Dr. Watts' shorter catechism, together with 
 his devotional hymns and divine songs, and endeavouring 
 to give such instructions as might enable them to read the 
 Holy Scriptures with more intelligence. I had no place in 
 which to receive them but the back kitchen, which being 
 small, we were exceedingly crowded, but the young ones 
 became attached to me, and liked to attend ; and, to prevent 
 confusion, I divided them into classes, which succeeded 
 each other, so that on the Sunday I was occupied by a 
 succession of children nearly the whole day, except during 
 the time I attended church. ... I could not prevail upon 
 any of the young people in the town, the daughters of 
 tradesmen and others, to contribute in any manner towards 
 my Sunday school. The experiment was quite new, and 
 far from being popular, as these institutions have since 
 happily become, first by the benevolent exertions of Mr. 
 Raikes, and afterwards by the countenance and support of 
 many worthy persons of all sects and parties throughout the 
 kingdom. The attempt was at that time considered as 
 enthusiastic and visionary. I was regarded as a well- 
 meaning young woman, but odd and singular, a fair mark 
 for the shafts of ridicule, and one whose society was rather 
 to be avoided than sought after and desired."
 
 A MODEL TEACHER. 21 
 
 No farther allusions are made in the autobiography to 
 this interesting movement, and it does not appear to have 
 been of very long continuance. 
 
 In 1769 one of the most satisfactory and suggestive of 
 these early specimens of Sunday school work was in- 
 augurated at High Wy combe by Miss Hannah Ball, a young 
 lady belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists, who, in a letter 
 to John Wesley, explained her plan as follows : " The 
 children meet twice a week, every Sunday and Monday- 
 They are a wild little company, but seem willing to be 
 instructed. I labour among them earnestly, desiring to 
 promote the interests of the Church of Christ." 
 
 Nor did she labour in vain, as the following extracts 
 from her diary will abundantly testify. Under the date 
 January 12, 1771, she says, " Some part of the Sabbath 
 day is devoted to instructing the children in the principles 
 of the Christian religion. It is exceedingly difficult to fix 
 a sense of the evil of sin or of the fear of God on the 
 minds of children, and turn them from darkness to light." 
 
 " February 8, 1776. Praying with some children, whom 
 I meet every Sabbath day to instruct in the principles of 
 Christianity." 
 
 On the first Sabbath in May, 1776, she writes : "In the 
 meeting of the children, one, about fourteen years of age, 
 said she had found the love of Jesus shed abroad in her 
 heart." 
 
 These extracts conclusively prove that Hannah Ball 
 was indeed a model teacher. She fully realized the nature 
 and difficulties of her work, and her entire dependence on 
 the influence of the Holy Spirit, and laboured hard in the 
 discharge of her duty, while she distinctly recognized the 
 fact that only the love of Jesus could draw out the affection 
 of youthful hearts. 
 
 It is refreshing and stimulating to find that the first 
 great object of Sunday school instruction bringing the 
 scholars to Jesus is not a modern discovery, but that
 
 22 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 more than a hundred years ago, an earnest teacher was 
 praying and looking for this glorious result, and found, to 
 the joy and rejoicing of her heart, as thousands of teachers 
 have found since her day, that " He that goeth forth and 
 weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again 
 with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 
 
 In 1770 Dr. Kennedy established a Sunday school at 
 County Down, in Ireland, the chief purpose of which was 
 to instruct the children in the practice of psalmody, but 
 after the efforts of Mr. Raikes had been made public, this 
 school was re-organized upon the same model. 
 
 In this same year (1770) the earliest Welsh school was 
 established at Crawlem, near Llandidloes, by one Jenkin 
 Morgan, a native of Cardiganshire, who, besides being a 
 preacher, was one of the school masters employed by 
 Madame Bevan in her circulating schools. 
 
 In 1775 James Hay, generally known as " Old Jemmy 
 o' the Hey," opened a Sunday school at Little Lever, near 
 Bolton, in Lancashire, in which he taught the boys and 
 girls of the neighbourhood to read. His school assembled 
 twice each Sunday in the cottage of a neighbour, and the 
 time of commencing was announced by the ringing, not 
 of a bell, but of an excellent substitute, an old brass pestle 
 and mortar ! After a while Mr. Adam Compton, a paper 
 manufacturer in the neighbourhood, began to supply 
 Jemmy with books, and subscriptions in money were given 
 him. ' He was thus enabled to form three branch establish- 
 ments, the teachers of which were paid one shilling each 
 per Sunday for their services. 
 
 In 1778, two years before Robert Raikes opened his 
 first Sunday school, the Rev. David Simpson, minister of 
 Christchurch, Macclesfield, commenced the work of in- 
 structing the young on the Lord's day. 
 
 Mr. Simpson was a truly godly man, contemporary and 
 joined in fraternal intercourse with Romaine, Berridge, 
 Hill, Venn, Fletcher, and Robinson, amongst whom there
 
 THE MACCLESFIELD SUNDAY SCHOOL. 23 
 
 was a recorded agreement " to remember each other in 
 their solemn preparation for each Lord's day, by retiring 
 from six to seven o'clock on Saturday evenings to implore 
 of the Lord for themselves and the people all spiritual 
 blessings." 
 
 Sir John Bickerton Williams, in his memoir of Mr. 
 Simpson, states that " he established a Sabbath charity 
 school long before the worthy Mr. Raikes, of Gloucester, 
 formed his plan." 
 
 The scholars were instructed on week-day evenings at 
 different schools in private houses, and on Sundays they 
 were taught, along with others who could not attend during 
 the week, to spell and read, and the whole of them were 
 regularly taken to church every Sabbath day. 
 
 The teachers were paid; and until 1786 the schools 
 were under tfte entire direction of Mr. Simpson, but in 
 that year an alteration took place by Mr. Simpson confiding 
 their management to a committee of gentlemen. The 
 number of scholars then under direction was 412, and the 
 annual expenses amounted to about 120. 
 
 In the same year, 1778, it is said that the Rev. Thomas 
 Stock, who was afterwards associated with Robert Raikes 
 in Gloucester, had a Sunday school in the parish of Ash- 
 bury, in Berkshire ; but little or nothing is known of this 
 effort, which was in all probability of the same nature as 
 the catechetical exercises previously mentioned. 
 
 About this time, also, Mr. King, of Dursley, established 
 a Sunday school, which, it is stated, failed for want of co- 
 operation, though Mr. King himself never lost faith in the 
 plan. 
 
 ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 We now come to the year 1780, when Robert Raikes 
 commenced that work in the city of Gloucester which was 
 destined to spread throughout the world, and the humble 
 beginnings of which shall be given in his own words.
 
 24 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 In a letter addressed to Colonel Townley, of Sheffield, 
 three years after the establishment of the Gloucester 
 schools, Robert Baikes gives the following account of the 
 circumstances which induced him to commence his good 
 work : 
 
 " Some business leading me one morning into the 
 suburbs of the city, where the lowest of the people (who 
 are principally employed in the pin manufactory) chiefly 
 reside, I was struck with concern at seeing a group of 
 children, wretchedly ragged, at play in the streets. I 
 asked an inhabitant whether these children belonged to 
 that part of the town, and lamented their misery and idle- 
 ness. ' Ah, sir,' said the woman, to whom I was speaking, 
 ' could you take a view of this part of the town on a 
 Sunday, you would be shocked indeed ; for then the street 
 is filled with multitudes of these wretches, who, released 
 that day from employment, spend their time in noise and 
 riot, playing' at " chuck," and cursing and swearing in a 
 manner so horrid as to convey to any serious mind an idea 
 of hell rather than any other place. We have a worthy 
 clergyman,' said she, ' curate of our parish, who has put 
 some of them to school ; but upon the Sabbath they are all 
 given up to follow their own inclinations without restraint, 
 as their parents, totally abandoned themselves, have no 
 idea of instilling into the minds of their children principles 
 to which they themselves are entire strangers.' 
 
 " This conversation suggested to me that it would be at 
 least a harmless attempt, if it were productive of no good, 
 should some little plan be formed to check the deplorable 
 profanation of the Sabbath. I then inquired of the woman 
 if there were any decent, well-disposed women in the neigh- 
 bourhood who kept schools for teaching to read. I pre- 
 sently was directed to four. To these I applied, and made 
 an agreement with them to receive as many children as I 
 should send upon the Sunday, whom they were to instruct 
 in reading and in the Church catechism. For this I
 
 ROBERT RAIKES AND HIS FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL. 25 
 
 engaged to pay them each a shilling for their day's em- 
 ployment. The women seemed pleased with the proposal. 
 I then waited on the clergyman before mentioned, and 
 imparted to him my plan. He was so much satisfied with 
 the idea that he engaged to lend his assistance by going 
 round to the schools on a Sunday afternoon to examine the 
 progress that was made, and to enforce order and decorum 
 among such a set of little heathens." 
 
 Walking with a friend some years afterwards, Mr. 
 Raikes said when they reached a certain place, " Pause 
 here ; " and so saying, he uncovered his brow, closed his 
 eyes, and stood for a moment in silent prayer. That silent 
 prayer ascended to the ear of the crucified Christ, and the 
 tears rolled down his cheeks as he said to his friend, "This 
 is the spot on which I stood when I saw the destitution of 
 the children, and the desecration of the sabbath by the 
 inhabitants of the town ; and I asked, ' Can nothing be 
 done ? ' and a voice answered, 'Try !' and I did try, and 
 see what God hath wrought." 
 
 According to Mr. Alfred Gregory, the biographer of 
 Raikes, the first of the Gloucester Sunday schools was 
 established in the month of July, 1780,* by Robert Raikes, 
 in association with the Rev. T. Stock, in a cottage which 
 is still standing in St. Catherine's Street, and which was 
 then occupied by Mr. King, whose wife became the first 
 teacher at a salary of one shilling or one shilling and six- 
 pence per week. 
 
 The late Mr. W. H. Watson, in his " First Fifty Years 
 of the Sunday School," mentions 1781 as the year of 
 institution, and the Sunday School Jubilee was accord- 
 ingly held in 1831 ; but in preparing for the centenary 
 gatherings, the committee of the Sunday School Union 
 came to the conclusion that Mr. Gregory's date was most 
 likely correct, and, therefore, arranged for the celebration 
 to take place in June and July, 1880. One of the grounds 
 
 * See Gregory's " Life of Robert Raikes," page 72.
 
 26 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 on which that conclusion was reached was the fact that 
 in the letter to Colonel Townley, already alluded to, and 
 dated November 25, 1783, Raikes stated, " It is now three 
 years since we began." 
 
 The second school was in all probability instituted by 
 Mr. Raikes alone in his own parish of St. Mary-de-Crypt, 
 at a house at the corner of* Grey Friars and Southgate 
 Street, and was taught by a Mrs. Sarah Critchley. 
 
 The third school is believed to have been founded by 
 the Rev. T. Stock, at 103, Northgate Street, in the parish 
 of St. John's, and several others soon sprang up in the 
 other parts of the city. 
 
 As to the question about which so much discussion has 
 taken place, namely, whether Mr. Raikes can properly be 
 designated the founder of Sunday schools (or their re- 
 founder, supposing them to be a revival of the catechumen 
 classes of the early centuries), whether the honour should 
 be divided with the Rev. Thomas Stock, or given to him 
 altogether, or whether both of these gentlemen should be 
 set aside in favour of one of the earlier pioneers to whom 
 reference has already been made, no better reply can be 
 given than that furnished by the words of the Rev. John 
 Burder, of Stroud, who said, " On the whole, I see no cause 
 for denying to Mr. Raikes the reputation of having been 
 the founder of Sunday schools ; at any rate, he bears to 
 that system a relation very similar to that which Dr. 
 Jenner bears to vaccination. Before Jenner's time, it was 
 known in some farmhouses that persons employed in milk- 
 ing cows did not take the small-pox when that grievous 
 malady prevailed around them ; but Jenner was the man 
 who not only gave publicity to the fact, but also ascer- 
 tained and made known to Britain and the world what 
 steps should be adopted in order to render vaccination a 
 defence against that plague." 
 
 No one could assert that the mind of Raikes was the 
 first to conceive the idea of instructing children on the
 
 THE COADJUTORS OF RAIKES. 27 
 
 sabbath day, after the numerous instances already given 
 in previous pages ; but all these were isolated cases, having 
 no connection, and, with one or two exceptions, no con- 
 tinuity. The claim of Raikes to be considered the founder 
 of Sunday schools (or, rather, the claim made on his behalf 
 by those who have raised a statue to his memory), rests 
 upon the fact that by his letters and the articles published 
 in the Gloucester Journal, of which he was editor, he gave 
 the widest publicity to the movement ; that he persevered 
 in his advocacy of the infant institution until Sunday 
 schools were established in every part of the land, and 
 extended so rapidly that in five or six years the number 
 of scholars amounted to about a quarter of a million. To 
 sum up in the words of Mr. Stock himself, " The progress of 
 this institution throughout the kingdom is justly attributed 
 to the constant representations which Mr. Raikes made in 
 his own paper of the benefits which he perceived would 
 probably arise from it." 
 
 EARLY COADJUTORS. 
 
 At the same time, it is quite certain that Mr. Raikes 
 found an able and interested coadjutor in Mr. Stock, who 
 by his hearty co-operation rendered immense service in the 
 establishment and supervision of the Sunday schools in 
 Gloucester. 
 
 Nor was the Rev. T. Stock the only clergyman who 
 rendered aid in the early stages of this work. 
 
 Mr. Raikes bears witness that " One or two clergy- 
 men gave their assistance by going round to the schools 
 on the Sunday afternoons, to hear the children their 
 catechism. This was of great consequence. Another 
 clergyman hears their catechism once a quarter publicly 
 in church, and rewards their good behaviour with some 
 little gratuity." 
 
 It would have been strange, too, if no member of the
 
 28 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 gentler sex had taken part in the early stages of this 
 movement ; and, fortunately for our theory, there was a 
 young lady named Sophia Cook, living at Gloucester, in 
 1780, with her uncle, Mr. Alderman Weaver, who took a 
 great interest in the work of Robert Raikes, and had 
 herself formed similar plans for the benefit of the children 
 employed in her uncle's pin manufactory. 
 
 This lady was afterwards married to the Rev. Samuel 
 Bradburn, an eminent Methodist minister ; and her daughter, 
 Amelia Cowell Bradburn, stated in a letter to the Evan- 
 gelical Magazine of 1833, that her mother went to church 
 with Mr. Raikes and his scholars on the very first Sunday 
 his school was opened. 
 
 Thus, at the very commencement of the Sunday school 
 enterprise, two important principles were illustrated, both 
 of which have had an immense influence in its development 
 and success. 
 
 The first of these principles is the union of the clerical 
 with the lay element in works of Christian usefulness. 
 Until the establishment of Sunday schools, there was but 
 little employment for lay agency ; and, indeed, one of the 
 greatest of the early obstacles to the progress of these 
 institutions in the kingdom, particularly in Scotland, was 
 the theory that the laity had nothing to do with teaching 
 religion an idea which still prevails in many parts of the 
 continent of Europe, and greatly hinders the spread of the 
 Sunday school cause. 
 
 Now, however, in our own country and in America, 
 the ministry and the laity are closely united in the conduct 
 of these institutions, and it is invariably found that the 
 more this harmonious activity is developed, the better it is 
 for the Sunday school. 
 
 The other principle illustrated in the list of Robert 
 Raikes' early coadjutors is the co-operation of the two 
 sexes in the work of religious instruction. 
 
 With the establishment of Sunday schools, a noble and
 
 SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 29 
 
 appropriate sphere was opened up for the exertion of 
 female influence, and right worthily has the sex availed 
 itself of the opportunity presented. 
 
 There is little doubt that, as a rule, ladies take more 
 kindly to the work of teaching than gentlemen do, and it 
 is at any rate indisputable that they deserve a very large 
 share of credit for bringing the Sunday school to its 
 present high position, nor is it easy to say whether they 
 or their scholars have received the greater benefit. 
 
 It was not long before the example of Baikes and his 
 coadjutors was followed in all parts of the country. 
 
 Before any notice was taken of the movement by the 
 public press, Sunday schools began to spring up, here 
 and there, by a sort of lateral extension, resulting from 
 the testimony of those who had seen their working in 
 Gloucester, or who had family connections with the in- 
 habitants of that city. 
 
 Very soon the seven or eight schools opened by Messrs. 
 Raikes and Stock were added to by one established at 
 Sheepscombe, a village near Gloucester, by Mr. Samuel 
 Webb, the first teacher of which was a good man named 
 John Twining, who lived to be nearly ninety years of age, 
 and for several years received an annuity of twenty 
 shillings from the Sunday School Union of Stroud. 
 
 Before the close of 1780, if the testimony of Mr. 
 J. B. North, a captain in the merchant service, is to be 
 relied on, a Sunday school existed in the town of Hertford, 
 and on the 1st of January, 1781, a Bible was presented to 
 young North, by Mr. Raikes himself, for regular attend- 
 ance and good behaviour. 
 
 Within the next year or two there is reason to believe 
 that other schools were established in the county of 
 Gloucestershire and elsewhere, but on the 3rd of November, 
 1783, an article appeared in the Gloucester Journal which 
 gave considerable impetus to the movement. 
 
 The article, which was copied into the London papers
 
 30 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 and disseminated all over the kingdom, and in which 
 Mr. Baikes, without mentioning his own name, gave an 
 account of the origin and influence of Sunday schools, was 
 followed up on the 25th of the same month by the letter 
 to Colonel Townley, previously referred to, which after- 
 wards appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine. These 
 articles, together with subsequent notices in Mr. Baikes' 
 paper, created a large amount of public interest, drew 
 forth numerous encomiums, and led to a wide and rapid 
 extension of the system in all parts of the land'. 
 
 A notable instance of the prompt and immediate 
 influence of the first newspaper article on the subject 
 occurred in the town of Oldham. 
 
 It is a well-attested fact that during the very month 
 in which the article appeared, a Sunday school was 
 commenced in the Oldham Grammar School by some 
 gentlemen who had been influenced thereby. 
 
 In this same year a Sunday school was established in 
 the parish of Bingley, in Yorkshire, which is rendered 
 memorable by the visit and comments of the Bev. John 
 Wesley, as recorded in his diary, under the date July 18, 
 1784: 
 
 " Before service I stepped into the Sunday school, 
 which contains 240 children, taught every Sunday by 
 several masters, and superintended by the curate. So 
 many children in one parish are restrained from open sin, 
 and taught a little good manners afc least, as well as to 
 read the Bible. 1 find these schools springing up wherever 
 I go. Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein than 
 men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools 
 may become nurseries for Christians ? " 
 
 The manner in which God has answered these ques- 
 tions, and the extent to which He has exceeded the most 
 sanguine anticipations of His servant, are truly marvellous, 
 and call for the exercise of abundant gratitude.
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN LONDON. 31 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN LONDON. 
 
 The year 1784 was a memorable one in the early history 
 of the Sunday-school enterprise. 
 
 Such was the impetus given to the movement by the 
 article in the Gloucester Journal, and the letter to Colonel 
 Townley, that before the end of that year Sunday schools 
 had been established in London, Leeds, Chester, Stockport, 
 Painswick, Stroud, Stonehouse, and many other places, the 
 schools at Leeds alone containing more than two thousand 
 scholars. 
 
 During this year it is believed the first Sunday school 
 established in London, which owed its origin to the well- 
 known Rev. Rowland Hill, was opened in Surrey Chapel, 
 where it continued to meet until the adjoining school- 
 house was built. 
 
 This school became the parent of a large number of 
 similar institutions in the immediate neighbourhood, which 
 ultimately developed into the " Southwark Sunday School 
 Society," and has conferred immense benefits on the popu- 
 lation in the south of London. 
 
 The second metropolitan Sunday school, and the first 
 in the county of Middlesex, was established at Hoxton, by 
 Mr. James Kemp, only one week after the commencement 
 of Surrey Chapel school. 
 
 Some facts connected with the opening of this school 
 deserve special notice. 
 
 James Kemp, who was a working shoemaker, had for 
 some years contemplated a similar work to that inaugurated 
 by Raikes, but was deterred from the undertaking because 
 he had some scruples as to the propriety of employing the 
 sabbath for the purposes of education, and some fears that 
 religious people would discourage such an effort. But when 
 he heard that Mr. Raikes, of Gloucester, had set up schools 
 to be held on Sunday, he resolved to try and follow his 
 example. As, however, the only information he had received
 
 32 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 was bnt vague and indefinite, he thought it advisable to 
 go to Gloucester, and see with his own eyes the progress 
 of the work. 
 
 The " fast coach," which then took two days to ac- 
 complish the distance of a hundred and ten miles, and the 
 same time for the return journey, involved too large an 
 expense for his scanty means, and he therefore resolved 
 to tramp the whole distance there and back. This he 
 accomplished, and, after a pleasant interview with Mr. 
 Raikes, and a sight of the good work he was doing, he 
 returned to town full of faith and hope, related all he had 
 seen to his pious wife, and immediately set to work to 
 carry out his plan. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon he himself canvassed for 
 scholars among the brickmakers and labourers of the 
 neighbourhood, while his wife cleared the front room, 
 which served him for a shop, and prepared it for the 
 required purpose. When Sunday morning came, a few 
 children made their appearance, and the school began. 
 
 The first scholars were very rough, but were treated 
 with patient kindness, and in a few weeks difficulties were 
 overcome and a school was organized, which he conducted 
 for twenty-eight years in his own dwelling, and which 
 exists, in a building erected to receive it, to the present 
 day. 
 
 This work, it should be remembered, was carried on, 
 not by paid teachers, as in the case of the schools estab- 
 lished by Robert Raikes and Rowland Hill, but by the 
 voluntary labour of a working man, who appropriated his 
 own house to the purpose, and defrayed the expenses of 
 the movement in its early stages, unaided and alone. 
 
 The year 1784 saw also the birth of the celebrated 
 Stockport school, which has long been known as the 
 largest Sunday school in the world. 
 
 The first rules of this institution, published November 
 11, 1784, provided that " the town should be divided into
 
 THE STOCKPORT SUNDAY SCHOOL. 33 
 
 six parts ; that there should be at least one school in each 
 part ; that two subscribers should visit each school, and 
 report to the committee ; that the scholars should attend 
 from nine to twelve in the forenoon, and from one to the 
 hour of worship in the afternoon, when their teachers 
 should conduct them to church or chapel, and then return 
 to school again until six o'clock the teachers to be paid 
 one shilling and sixpence per day ; and that the children 
 of Protestant Dissenters should, if possible, have masters 
 of their own persuasion, and choose their own mode of 
 catechizing." 
 
 The present building -was erected in 1805, at the cost 
 of 6000, and was designed to accommodate five thousand 
 scholars. 
 
 The school, which now contains three hundred teachers, 
 and three thousand six hundred scholars, belongs rather 
 to the town than to any particular church, and whatever 
 objections may at the present day be alleged against this 
 principle of management, there can be no doubt that 
 throughout the hundred years of its existence the Stock- 
 port school has rendered immense service to the cause of 
 general and religious education. 
 
 If the year 1784 was remarkable for the large number 
 of important Sunday schools established, and the impetus 
 given to the cause by the letters and newspaper articles of 
 Robert Baikes, the following year, besides witnessing many 
 additions to the number of these institutions, was particu- 
 larly notable in consequence of two circumstances to which 
 allusion will now be made. 
 
 THE FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY. 
 
 One of these events was the formation of " The Society 
 for the Support and Encouragement of Sunday Schools in. 
 the Different Counties of England." 
 
 This society, which for several years helped greatly in 
 
 C
 
 34 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 the promotion of the Sunday school movement, originated 
 in a correspondence which took place between William 
 Fox and Robert Raikes, and, after two or three pre- 
 liminary meetings, was formally established at the King's 
 Head tavern in Cateaton Street, London, on September 7, 
 1785. 
 
 Among the twenty-four gentlemen forming the first 
 committee we find the names of Thomas Boddington, 
 William Fox, Jonas Hanway, Samuel Hoare, Thomas 
 Raikes, a brother of the founder, and many others well 
 known for their devotion to the cause of religious 
 education. 
 
 This committee soon set to work, prepared a set of 
 rules, an address to the public, and two or three circulars 
 to ministers and others, giving advice and offering aid 
 towards the accomplishment of the end in view. They 
 also entered into correspondence with some of the 
 dignitaries of the Church, published their replies in com- 
 mendation of the movement, and inaugurated a fund for 
 giving substantial aid to those who undertook to establish 
 Sunday schools. 
 
 At this time it was computed that the number of 
 Sunday scholars in England and Wales amounted to at 
 least 250,000, and the vigorous efforts put forth by this 
 society speedily led to a considerable increase. 
 
 The first report of the committee, which was presented 
 at the quarterly meeting held January 11, 1786, stated 
 that "the subscriptions received amounted to 987; that 
 there had been already established five schools in the 
 vicinity of London ; and that, in reply to many applications 
 from various parts of the country, the committee had 
 signified their disposition to assist the establishment of 
 schools upon the principles laid down by the society." 
 
 One of these rules required the attendance of all the 
 scholars at some place of worship every Sunday, and for- 
 bade the teaching of writing on the sabbath. Another
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY. 35 
 
 regulation provided that, except in certain exceptional 
 cases, the boys and girls should be taught separately > 
 the boys by men, and the girls by women. 
 
 In October, 1786, it was reported that the committee 
 had requested the school managers to keep a register of 
 the names and attendances of the scholars, and transmit 
 the particulars to the committee once a quarter. This 
 was the first attempt to provide Sunday school statistics. 
 
 At the general meeting in July, 1787, it was resolved 
 unanimously " that in consideration of the zeal and merits 
 of Robert Raikes, Esq., who may be considered as the 
 original founder as well as a liberal promoter of Sunday 
 schools, he be admitted an honorary member of the 
 society." 
 
 This proves that seven years after the establishment of 
 Sunday schools, when all the details were fresh in the 
 memories of Sunday school workers, Raikes was regarded 
 as the indisputable founder of the system. 
 
 A large sum was expended by the committee in supply- 
 ing gratuitously Bibles, New Testaments, and spelling- 
 books for use in the schools. Up to the year 1812, the 
 Sunday School Society had distributed gratuitously 800 
 Bibles, 70,000 New Testaments, and 329,000 spelling-books. 
 But the principal item of expenditure was that devoted to 
 the payment of Is. or Is. 6d. per day to the teachers, and 
 which amounted in the year 1789 to more than 500, and 
 in the first twenty-four years of the society's existence, to 
 no less than 4,383. 
 
 From and after the year 1811 this expenditure ceased, 
 in consequence of the general adoption of the voluntary 
 principle a change which not only reduced the expense, 
 but improved the character of Sunday-school teaching, 
 and rendered possible the rapid progress it has since 
 made. 
 
 The society continued for many years to make numerous 
 and useful grants of Bibles and class books to needy
 
 36 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 schools, till in the year 1864, after a useful career of 
 seventy-nine years, its affairs were wound up, and its 
 balance transferred to the Sunday School Union. 
 
 VOLUNTARY TEACHERS. 
 
 The other noteworthy event of the year 1785 was the 
 formation of the Methodist Sunday school at Oldham, 
 which is said to have been the first in which the employ- 
 ment of unpaid teachers was adopted as a system. 
 
 This Sunday school was established in the month of 
 March in this year, at the Old Chapel, Bent Brow, under 
 the following circumstances : 
 
 One night, at a meeting of the class leaders, when the 
 business of the class was over, the subject of Sunday 
 schools was introduced, and formed the general topic of 
 conversation. Some of the class leaders were strongly 
 advocating their utility, and recommending them to the 
 serious consideration of the rest, when it was urged by one 
 of them " that, as they were in so low a condition in a 
 pecuniary point of view (being principally operatives), 
 they could not support paid teachers," This, which 
 appeared a great obstacle, drew forth from one of the 
 leaders the following plain and homely remark : " Lads, 
 I'll tell you what we must do we must each of us find 
 a teacher, we must all come and try what we can do, and, 
 if you'll do so, we can have a Sunday school ! " This 
 short but emphatic remark made an impression. It com- 
 mended itself to the approbation of all present ; the impedi- 
 ment seemed to vanish. All with one heart and one mind 
 enrolled themselves as Sunday school teachers, and on the 
 following Sunday one of these benevolent institutions was 
 formed, in which good work the class leaders were soon 
 joined and aided by other members of the society." 
 
 In the course of the same year it is reported, on the 
 authority of John Wesley, that the masters in the Methodist
 
 EARLY PATRONAGE OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 37 
 
 Sunday school at Bolton also gave their services 
 gratuitously. 
 
 It is a somewhat remarkable coincidence that the 
 society which for a long period aided so largely in pro- 
 viding funds for the payment of teachers, and the school 
 which set the example of dispensing with this payment by 
 the adoption of the voluntary principle, should both have 
 been founded in the same year. 
 
 In 1785 or 1786 the Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, 
 commenced his useful work of establishing Sunday schools 
 in Wales in connection with the day schools, known as 
 circulating schools (so called from the circumstance that 
 the schoolmaster, after conducting a school in one locality 
 for a few months, was removed to another district to under- 
 take a similar duty). Mainly through the efforts of Mr. 
 Charles, it was brought about that a Sunday school was 
 made an essential part of the scheme, and when the day 
 school came to an end, the Sunday school was continued, 
 and became a permanent institution. 
 
 EARLY PATRONS OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 It is not often that new undertakings, however valuable 
 and important they may be, obtain early in their history 
 the countenance and support of those whose positions 
 enable them to do good service to the cause ; and, generally 
 speaking, this is a good thing, as early patronage often 
 tends rather to injure than to help. 
 
 The Sunday school cause, however, succeeded almost at 
 its very beginning in winning golden opinions and practical 
 aid from people of influence, who rendered considerable 
 service in its rapid extension and development. 
 
 As early as July, 1785, at the meeting of the Sunday 
 School Society, it was reported that several members of 
 the committee, accompanied by the Bishop of Salisbury, had 
 been honoured with an interview with the Archbishop of
 
 38 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Canterbury, who said, " That he had had. several conversa- 
 tions with the bishops on the subject of Sunday schools, 
 and that at his next visitation he should strongly recom- 
 mend them in his charge to the clergy." It was also 
 reported " that the Bishop of Salisbury had already estab- 
 lished Sunday schools, both in his own diocese and on his 
 temporal estates." 
 
 Nor was this favourable opinion confined to the bishops 
 and clergy. An eminent member of the aristocracy, Lord 
 Ducie, observing a number of children in the aisles of his 
 parish church whose silence and good order were most 
 commendable, learned upon inquiry that the children 
 belonged to the Sunday school, and immediately resolved 
 to give the measure all possible encouragement a resolu- 
 tion to which he steadily adhered. 
 
 Lord Mahon, in his " History of England," quotes the 
 testimony of Adam Smith (author of " The Wealth of 
 Nations ") to their value, in these remarkable words : 
 "No plan has promised to effect a change of manners 
 with equal ease and simplicity, since the days of the 
 apostles." 
 
 John Howard, the eminent philanthropist, writes in 
 the third edition of his work on prisons, in reference to 
 Robert Raikes, " This gentleman is also the founder of a 
 benevolent and useful institution for the children of the poor 
 in the city of Gloucester, where he established several 
 little schools for their instruction on Sundays." 
 
 Two Christian ladies, of high literary attainment, also 
 rendered service to the cause, not only by writing and 
 speaking in its favour, but by giving practical effect to 
 their opinions. Mrs. Trimmer established a Sunday school 
 at New Brentford, in which, assisted by her family, she 
 instructed some hundreds of children. And Miss Hannah 
 More, who resided on the Mendip Hills, in Somersetshire, 
 commenced the good work in 1789, and in the course of 
 five years in this scattered district she and her sisters had
 
 THE BOLTON SUNDAY SCHOOL. 39 
 
 in regular attendance no less than two hundred children, 
 and as many adult scholars. 
 
 In the autograph collection of the late Sir Charles Reed, 
 there is a letter of Robert Raikes to the Rev. Mr. Bowen 
 Thickens, of Ross, Herefordshire, dated June 27, 1788, in 
 which he says, "At Windsor the ladies of fashion pass 
 their Sundays in teaching the poorest children. The 
 Queen sent for me the other day to give her Majesty an 
 account of the effect observable on the manners of the poor, 
 and her Majesty most graciously said that she envied 
 those who had the power of doing good by thus personally 
 promoting the welfare of society in giving instruction in 
 morals to the general mass of the people a pleasure from 
 which, by her situation, she was debarred." 
 
 From this time forward Queen Charlotte took a lively 
 interest in Sunday schools, and she often conferred with 
 Mrs. Trimmer, respecting the work she was doing at 
 Brentford, and the possibility of establishing similar insti- 
 tutions at Windsor. The king also himself visited Mrs. 
 Trimmer's schools, and won the hearts of the children by 
 his kind condescension. 
 
 But perhaps the most enthusiastic testimony in favour 
 of Sunday schools, and the most influential in promoting 
 their establishment, was that of John Wesley, at the time 
 of his visit to Bolton in 1788, which we quote at length 
 from the fourth volume of his diary. 
 
 " Saturday, April 19, 1788. We went on to Bolton, 
 where I preached in the evening in one of the most elegant 
 houses in the kingdom, and to one of the liveliest congre- 
 gations. And this I must avow, there is not such a set of 
 singers in any of the Methodist congregations in the three 
 kingdoms. There cannot be, for we have near a hundred 
 such trebles, boys and girls selected out of our Sunday 
 schools and accurately taught, as are not found together 
 in any chapel, cathedral, or music-room within the four 
 seas. Besides, the spirit with which they all sing, and the
 
 40 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 beauty of many of them, so suits the melody that I defy 
 any one to exceed it, except the singing of angels in our 
 Father's house. 
 
 " Sunday, 20th. At eight and one the house was 
 throughly filled. About three I met between nine and ten 
 hundred of the children belonging to our Sunday schools. 
 I never saw such a sight before. They were all exactly 
 clean, as well as plain in their apparel. All were serious 
 and well behaved. Many, both boys and girls, had as 
 beautiful faces as I believe England or Europe can afford. 
 When they all sang together, none of them out of tune, 
 the melody was beyond that of any theatre ; and, what is 
 best of all, many of them truly fear God, and some rejoice 
 in His salvation." 
 
 It is quite certain that these favourable testimonies to 
 the value and importance of Sunday-school teaching had 
 an immense influence in helping forward the new-born 
 extension, and preparing for it the almost universal 
 influence which it has since secured. 
 
 PROGRESS OP SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN AMERICA. 
 
 American Christians, soon after the conclusion of the 
 War of Independence, began to follow the example set 
 them in the old country, and though at first they pro- 
 gressed but slowly, they have gradually reached a position 
 equal, if not superior, to the highest development attained 
 by our English schools. 
 
 In 1786 Bishop Asbury, the patriarch of American 
 Methodism, established a Sunday school in Hanover 
 County, Virginia. 
 
 In 1787 George Daughaday, a Methodist preacher, was 
 drenched with water from a public cistern in Charleston, 
 South Carolina, for the crime of conducting a Sunday 
 school for African children. 
 
 In 1790 the Methodist Conference meeting at Charles-
 
 AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 41 
 
 ton resolved to establish Sunday schools both for the 
 blacks and the whites, and in December of this same year 
 the first Day School Society was established at Phila- 
 delphia, Bishop White of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 being appointed president, and its first school was opened 
 for the admission of children in March, 1791. 
 
 In. the same year the first Sunday school in Ohio was 
 formed by Mrs. Mary Lake, who, with her two sons, 
 gathered together the children in the Stockade Port known 
 as " Campus Martius," at ( Marietta, and taught the scholars 
 to repeat verses from the Bible, and answers from a 
 catechism. 
 
 During this year also (1791) the first Sunday school in 
 New York, which was chiefly devoted to purposes of 
 secular instruction, was established, and in 1793, Katy 
 Ferguson, a poor African woman, opened the second 
 Sunday school in this city, for the spiritual instruction of 
 the children of her own people. 
 
 In 1803 Mr. and Mrs. Bethune, who had spent part of 
 the two previous years in England, and had observed the 
 progress of Sunday schools there, opened a third Sunday 
 school in New York, in which they were assisted by their 
 pious mother, Mrs. Isabella Graham; and shortly after- 
 wards, two other schools were formed in other parts of the 
 city by the same persons. 
 
 In 1809 a Sunday school for religious instruction was 
 instituted at Pittsburg, which is said to have coincided in its 
 principal features with the Sunday schools of the present 
 day. 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 
 
 Recrossing the Atlantic, we find at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century that the Sunday-school cause was rapidly 
 extending throughout the United Kingdom, and that the 
 number of scholars under instruction could not then have
 
 42 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 been less than between three and four hundred thousand ; 
 but as to the details of their management, and the measure 
 of their efficiency, very little is known. 
 
 In a large number of schools, the system of voluntary 
 teachers had taken firm root, and had doubtless both 
 increased the number of the scholars and improved the 
 character of the teaching ; but many schools were still 
 staggering under the incubus of paid teachers and un- 
 practical committees, which tended to secularize their pro- 
 ceedings, and hindered greatly the development of the 
 Sunday school as a religious institution. 
 
 The paid teachers would be too apt to do just what was 
 needed to secure their salaries, and as little as possible 
 besides. 
 
 In a school which had been established at Walworth, 
 the teacher was paid at the rate of one penny per scholar, 
 with the proviso that, however many his school contained, 
 he should never receive more than half a crown. The 
 result was that he always managed to have just thirty 
 scholars, and no more. If the number went down to 
 twenty-eight or twenty-nine, one of the children was sent 
 out to get in another scholar or two, to make up enough to 
 secure his weekly two shillings and sixpence. 
 
 When this teacher was dismissed, and the school was 
 taken up by Joseph Fox, William Brodie Ghirney, and other 
 gratuitous teachers, the number soon increased to a hundred 
 and eighty. 
 
 Even the working of the Sunday School Society, by its 
 free grants of books and its money payments to teachers, 
 greatly as it had helped the institution in its early stages, 
 was in some danger of checking the springs of Christian 
 benevolence, personal effort, and church responsibility for 
 the instruction of the young. 
 
 While books could be had for the asking, and money was 
 provided to pay for teachers, churches would not be stimu- 
 lated, or volunteers be forthcoming to undertake the work.
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 43 
 
 Indeed, up to this time, with certain noble exceptions, 
 one school in a district was thought sufficient for several 
 congregations, or in some cases a girls' school would be 
 connected with one place of worship, and a boys' school 
 with another place in the neighbourhood, instead of each 
 congregation having a Sunday school of its own. In fact, 
 there was at this period a great necessity for some move- 
 ment which should stimulate the churches to adopt the 
 institution as their own special work, and which should at 
 the same time unite the newly constituted fellowship of 
 voluntary teachers in vigorous and combined efforts for the 
 extension and improvement of the Sunday-school system, 
 and the creation of a Sunday-school literature. 
 
 This great want of the times was supplied by the 
 establishment of the Sunday School Union, at a meeting 
 held in Surrey Chapel schoolroom, July 13, 1803, Mr. 
 William Marriott, superintendent of Friars Mount Sunday 
 School, Bethnal Green, being appointed treasurer, and Mr. 
 William Brodie Gurney, secretary. 
 
 A committee, elected to carry out the objects of the 
 society, proceeded to prepare and publish "A Plan for 
 the Establishment and Regulation of Sunday Schools ; " 
 "An Introduction to Reading,in two parts ; " "A Catechism 
 in verse, entitled, ' Milk for Babes ; ' " and " A Select List 
 of Scriptures for a Course of Reading in Sunday Schools." 
 
 This last-named publication was the actual commence- 
 ment of the uniform lesson system, which has gradually 
 extended until it has become all but universal, and has 
 culminated in " The International List of Scripture 
 Lessons." But the publication of Sunday-school books 
 and papers was at the beginning the smallest part of the 
 Union's operations. Its chief work was the extension of 
 Sunday schools through the agency of ministers and 
 churches, and the improvement of the voluntary teachers 
 engaged in the cause. 
 
 The reports read, and discussions carried on at the
 
 44 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 quarterly meetings, and the annual sermons preached to 
 the members of the Union, did a good work in exciting 
 attention, encouraging and instructing teachers, and led to 
 the establishment of many new schools, as well as to the 
 improvement of existing ones. 
 
 In the year 1812 the custom was introduced of inviting 
 the teachers and friends of Sunday schools to a public 
 breakfast, at which the annual report of the Union was 
 read, and speeches delivered by ministers of the different 
 denominations. 
 
 On the morning of May 13 in this year, the first of 
 these meetings was held in the New London Tavern, 
 Cheapside, and was addressed by the Revs. T. H. Home, 
 Legh Richmond, Thomas James, and Alexander Fletcher. 
 
 These meetings were continued for twenty years, being 
 held after the first three or four years in the City of 
 London Tavern, in Bishopsgate Street, and they certainly 
 exerted a powerful influence on the Sunday school cause 
 in the metropolis. The time for breakfast was six o'clock, 
 but the anxiety to be present rendered it necessary to 
 anticipate the hour, and sometimes so great a crowd had 
 assembled round the doors of the tavern that it became 
 necessary to throw them open, and before six o'clock the 
 breakfast was disposed of, and the audience ready for the 
 commencement of the meeting. 
 
 These gatherings, with the earnest speeches that were 
 delivered, followed up as they were with long-continued 
 and persevering efforts to promote the good cause by the 
 visitation of the schools, the establishment of libraries, the 
 formation of training-classes, and other practical measures, 
 slowly but surely availed to raise the position and increase 
 the usefulness of Sunday schools. 
 
 Indeed, whether we look at the practical measures 
 adopted, or the earnestness and intelligence of the men by 
 whom they were carried out, we find it impossible to 
 wonder at the success which has followed.
 
 THE JUBILEE OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 45 
 
 A secretariat which successively included such names 
 as William Brodie Gurney, William Freeman Lloyd, Henry 
 Althans, William Henry Watson, Peter Jackson, Robert 
 Latter, and William Groser, and a committee which 
 numbered in its ranks such men as William Gover, 
 R. N. Collins, John Stoneman, William. Morrish, and 
 Francis Cuthbertson, could not fail to leave its mark 
 on the generation which it served. 
 
 Time and space will not permit us to point out the 
 many ways in which the influence of the Union has been 
 successfully exerted on behalf of the Sunday-school cause 
 during the eighty years of its existence, and those who 
 wish to trace its history and work will do well to consult 
 the interesting volume compiled by the late senior secretary, 
 W. H. Watson. Meanwhile, its surest record is on high. 
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL JUBILEE. 
 
 The Sunday School Jubilee, which was celebrated in 
 September, 1831, originated in a letter addressed to Mr. 
 W. F. Lloyd by the poet, James Montgomery, dated 
 December 11, 1829, in which he says, " It has occurred to 
 me that a Sunday School Jubilee in the year 1831 (fifty 
 years from the origin) might be the means of extra- 
 ordinary and happy excitement to the public mind in 
 favour of these institutions, of which there was never 
 more need than at this time." 
 
 In February, 1831, a notice appeared in the Sunday 
 School Teachers 1 Magazine, bearing the honoured signature 
 of William H. Watson, communicating the plan recom- 
 mended by the committee of the Union for the celebration 
 of the Jubilee, as follows : 
 
 " That the Sunday School Jubilee should be held on 
 Wednesday, September 14, 1831, Mr. Raikes's birthday. 
 
 " That in the morning at seven a prayer-meeting of 
 Sunday-school teachers should take place, either a united
 
 46 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 one or in each individual school, as may be thought 
 advisable. 
 
 " That at eleven the children in the schools connected 
 with the Auxiliary and Country Unions be assembled for 
 public worship. 
 
 " That at six a public meeting be held at Exeter Hall, 
 for the teachers of London and its vicinity ; and that 
 public meetings be held at the same time in each of the 
 country unions. 
 
 " That a collection be made at the public meetings for 
 the benevolent fund of the Sunday School Union, for the 
 purpose of raising 10,000. 
 
 " That two resolutions be prepared to be submitted to 
 the public meetings. 
 
 " That Mr. Montgomery be requested to write two 
 hymns for teachers, and one for children, to be sung on 
 the above occasions." 
 
 These proposals were subjected to careful consideration, 
 but in the main were heartily and all but universally 
 adopted throughout the United Kingdom. 
 
 Mr. Montgomery responded to the request to write 
 the hymns ; and an additional hymn for scholars was written 
 by Mrs. Gilbert, better known by her maiden name of Ann 
 Taylor. 
 
 Two hymns, with a portrait of Robert Baikes, were 
 engraved on steel, and had a very large circulation. 
 Medals were also struck in commemoration of the occa- 
 sion, and Mrs. Copley prepared a sketch of the history of 
 Sunday schools, adapted to the perusal of children. 
 
 The profits arising from the sale of these publications 
 wholly defrayed the large expenses which the committee 
 incurred in the celebrations, leaving the whole of the 
 Jubilee offerings to be applied in aiding the erection of 
 schoolrooms throughout the country. 
 
 The 14th of September, 1831, was a day of holy excite- 
 ment and pleasure to many thousands of teachers and
 
 THE DAY OF JUBILEE. 47 
 
 scholars all over the country, and some now living look 
 back upon its proceedings with gratitude and joy. 
 
 Early morning prayer-meetings of teachers were held, 
 and crowded assemblies of scholars were gathered together 
 to listen to suitable addresses, and unite in singing their 
 Jubilee hymn 
 
 " Hosanna be the children's song 
 
 To Christ, the children's King; 
 This is the children's jubilee, 
 Let all the children sing." 
 
 Between four and five thousand scholars were assembled 
 in Exeter Hall, and were addressed by the Rev. Dr. 
 Morrison, from Jeremiah iii. 4. 
 
 In the evening the Jubilee meeting of Sunday school 
 teachers was held in the same building. Lord Henley 
 occupied the chair, and the meeting was addressed by 
 J. T. Briscoe, Esq., M.P., and the Revs. John Blackburn, 
 Dr. Cox, Dr. Morrison, and the Poet Montgomery. 
 
 A second meeting was held simultaneously in the Lower 
 Hall, and as these two meetings did not suffice to contain 
 the teachers and friends who had come together, a third 
 gathering took place at the Scotch Church in Crown Court, 
 Drury Lane. At these meetings, the Revs. S. Hillyard, 
 R. Vaughan, A. Tidman, T. Binney, Messrs. W. B. Gurney, 
 and Thomas Thompson, with others, took part in the 
 proceedings. 
 
 Similar gatherings were held in all the large towns 
 throughout the land ; and the anticipations of Mr. Mont- 
 gomery as to the results of the Sunday School Jubilee were 
 to a considerable extent realized. 
 
 Teachers were led to think more highly of their work, 
 while the Church was induced to form a more correct 
 estimate of the importance of these institutions. One of 
 the results of the movement was that the committee of 
 the Union, on whom had fallen so much of the labour
 
 48 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 of making the necessary arrangements, were themselves 
 stimulated to greater zeal and energy in the prosecution of 
 their work. 
 
 One of the earliest frnits of the Jubilee was the estab- 
 lishment, in 1833, of the library and reading-room, which 
 has ever since been carried on for the benefit of Sunday- 
 school teachers, and which has been the fruitful parent of 
 many similar schemes for their improvement. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
 
 Having thus briefly traced the progress of Sunday 
 schools during the early years of their existence and re- 
 counted the proceedings connected with the jubilee, it will 
 perhaps be better to complete this epitome of their history 
 topically rather than chronologically, and one of the first 
 points claiming attention relates to the buildings in which 
 they have been conducted. 
 
 While they were taught by paid teachers they were 
 usually held as a matter of convenience, in a room of the 
 teacher's own house, and the cottage in which it is believed 
 the first Sunday school was established by Raikes is still 
 standing in St. Catherine Street, Gloucester. 
 
 Sometimes it was possible to obtain the use of a public 
 building, as at Oldham, where the Grammar School was 
 secured for the purpose. In many cases the Sunday school 
 was held in the chapel. Surrey Chapel, for instance, 
 though quite new when the school was started, was so 
 used for twenty years. 
 
 In some places notably in Manchester such difficulty 
 was met with in obtaining suitable buildings that the 
 large rooms connected with public-houses were engaged 
 for the purpose of Sunday-school instruction. Sometimes 
 the vestry of the church or chapel, the study of the 
 minister, or the kitchen of the founder was the place of 
 meeting.
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 49 
 
 Gradually, as British schools and National schools came 
 into existence, these buildings were appropriated to Sunday 
 school purposes, and for many years either the day schools 
 or the chapels were almost the only places which could be 
 obtained for religious instruction on the Sabbath day. 
 
 One of the earliest buildings erected for the special 
 purpose of a Sunday school was built at Tadcaster in 
 1788, and is still standing. 
 
 Surrey Chapel Sunday School, Stockport Sunday 
 School, and several others, were erected at the commence- 
 ment of the nineteenth century, and as time rolled on the 
 Churches came to see the advantage and even necessity of 
 erecting buildings specially adapted to the requirements of 
 the Sunday school. 
 
 In London and in some parts of the country, more 
 particularly in the manufacturing districts, there are now 
 Sunday-school buildings to be found thoroughly suited for 
 their purpose, containing class-rooms for infant and senior 
 scholars, accommodation for the library and for the officers, 
 and all that is necessary for the pleasant and efficient 
 prosecution of the work of religious instruction. 
 
 England, however, is far behind America in this 
 important particular, large numbers of Sunday schools in 
 the United States being not only well adapted to their 
 purpose, but really elegant and attractive buildings, fre- 
 quently having carpeted floors, and sometimes being 
 ornamented with painted windows, flowing fountains, and 
 beautiful flowers. 
 
 It is not at all unusual for American Christians to 
 spend at least as much on the Sunday school as on the 
 church, and as a natural effect the Sunday school draws 
 into its ranks a much larger proportion of the upper classes 
 of society than our English schools. 
 
 Nor are the handsome buildings confined to the schools 
 of the church and congregation. In many cases the mission 
 schools are equally beautiful and costly, with the design of
 
 50 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 attracting the children of the poorer classes, and making 
 them feel that the Sunday school is a pleasant place in 
 which to spend a portion of the Sabbath day. 
 
 When the congregation of the Rev. Henry Ward 
 Beecher were about to erect their mission school at 
 Brooklyn, the pastor said, " Let us build at least as 
 beautiful and commodious a school for the children of the 
 poor as we have provided for our own children," and his 
 advice was literally followed. 
 
 While it may be impracticable even if desirable in 
 England to go so far in this direction, there is certainly 
 abundant room for improvement. Some of our Sunday 
 schoolrooms are thoroughly unworthy of the important 
 purpose they serve, and if ever the work of religious 
 instruction is to take the high place which it should 
 occupy amidst the institutions of the Church, better school 
 buildings, more comfortable and attractive, and with plenty 
 of class-rooms, must be liberally provided. 
 
 RAGGED SCHOOLS. 
 
 Another subject claiming attention relates to the class 
 of society from which our Sunday scholars are drawn. 
 There can be no doubt that the first scholars of Raikes 
 belonged to the very lowest grade, and most, if not all, of 
 the early schools were intended for the poorest and most 
 ignorant class of the community ; but gradually the children 
 of the middle classes found their way into the Sunday 
 school in constantly increasing numbers, until at last it 
 came to be an acknowledged fact that a large propor- 
 tion of those who most needed Christian instruction and 
 influence, especially among the crowded populations of 
 our large cities and towns, were left outside the institution 
 originally intended for their benefit. Hence arose the 
 necessity for the establishment of schools especially in- 
 tended for ragged and destitute children.
 
 BAGGED SCHOOLS. 51 
 
 Among the earliest of these schools, most of which 
 combined Sunday and week-day instruction, was the one 
 established in 1835 in Gray's Yard, London, which was 
 called a "Free School," and others were started shortly after 
 by Miss Howell, chiefly in Westminster, which were styled 
 " Schools for the Destitute." In 1844, when the Bagged 
 School Union was originated, it appeared that there were 
 twenty of these institutions in London, and the number 
 went on increasing so rapidly that in a few years there 
 was hardly a district in the metropolis or any large pro- 
 vincial town which did not possess its ragged school. 
 Many such schools were originated by persons in an obscure 
 position in life. The ragged schools at Portsmouth were 
 established by John Pounds, who is generally accepted as 
 the founder of ragged schools. He used to teach with 
 pieces of paper torn from the hoardings. A cobbler started 
 one of these schools in Kent Street, a tinker the one at 
 Hatcham, and a chimney-sweep the one at Windsor. 
 Many others were set on foot by the liberality of private 
 persons and through the exertions of the Bagged School 
 Union. 
 
 This excellent society, with its late philanthropic and 
 energetic president, Lord Shaftesbury, has contributed 
 largely not only to the extension, but to the financial 
 support of these useful institutions during the last forty 
 years. 
 
 The spread of day-school education and the operation 
 of the compulsory clauses of the Elementary Education 
 Act of 1870 are gradually superseding the week-day teach- 
 ing of the ragged school, though there is still abundant 
 opportunity for the conduct of evening classes for young 
 people whose educational advantages have been small or 
 altogether neglected. Whether the ragged school is 
 destined to become a permanent institution, or whether it 
 shall be ultimately absorbed in the ordinary Sunday school, 
 together with the manifold works of usefulness which
 
 52 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 have gathered around it, is impossible to foretell ; but 
 certainly at present its operations are indispensable and 
 richly deserving of liberal support. 
 
 SCHOLARS OF HIGHER SOCIAL GRADE. 
 
 But though the Sunday school has succeeded in drawing 
 within its influence the bulk of the children of the middle 
 classes, while the ragged schools and the branch or mission 
 schools established by many of our churches have brought 
 a considerable portion of the lowest classes under their 
 charge, a large number of the children of the highest 
 section of the middle class, and nearly all those belonging 
 to the upper ten thousand are altogether outside the range 
 of Sunday-school instruction, and, it is to be feared, not 
 well provided with the means of religious culture. 
 
 The establishment of drawing-room classes, such as that 
 conducted for several years by Dr. J. H. Gladstone, and the 
 good example set by some families who pride themselves 
 more on consistency than on high position, are doing 
 something to improve the condition of things ; but in this 
 respect we are still a long way behind the American 
 Sunday schools, which largely comprise the children of 
 the most wealthy and educated classes of society. 
 
 In The Sabbath School Index, Mr. R. G. Pardee, of 
 New York, refers to a lengthened interview which he had 
 with the late Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, upon this subject. 
 "Our conversation," he says, "turned upon that unfor- 
 tunate feature of the cause in England which virtually 
 excluded all the better-to-do children of that country. Dr. 
 Beecher's eye lit up at once, and with great animation, as 
 he said to me : ' It was the same here at first, and I do not 
 know but I had an important hand in producing the 
 change. I saw the tendency of things, and feared that our 
 Sunday schools would result in a failure if only the poor 
 children gained the beneBt of them in this land, and it
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOLS FOR ALL. 53 
 
 troubled me for some year or two. At last, I resolved 
 to overthrow that system, and went and called upon 
 
 Judge W , one of my most influential men, and 
 
 said, " Judge W , I want you to bring your children 
 
 to Sunday school next Sabbath." " Me ! " exclaimed 
 the judge in amazement. "Yes, you,"' calmly responded 
 Dr. Beecher. ' " I have made up my mind to take my 
 children, and I want you and a few others of the best 
 families to popularize the thing." A little explanation 
 
 secured the object. I then called upon Mrs. S , 
 
 the most aristocratic lady in the community, and said, 
 
 " Mrs. S , I want you to lead your two daughters 
 
 into our Sunday school next Sabbath ; " and,' said the 
 
 doctor, ' Mrs. S almost shouted in astonishment ; but 
 
 a more particular and careful explanation than sufficed 
 
 with Judge W succeeded here ; and then the family 
 
 of the first physician was in like manner secured, and we 
 all turned our labour and influence on the Sunday-school 
 movement, and it gave an unheard-of impetus to our 
 Sunday school, and by means of the press, and by letters 
 and personal conversation, the facts became known, and 
 met with almost universal approval and adoption in our 
 country, and the reform soon became complete.' " 
 
 Thus by means of their Church or Congregational 
 Schools, and their Branch or Mission Schools, all classes 
 of society in America are provided with the opportunities 
 of religious instruction ; and the sooner the English system, 
 approximates to the American in these particulars the better 
 it will be for our young people, and the higher will be the 
 position which the institution will attain. 
 
 INFANT CLASSES. 
 
 The subject of infant classes is the next point to which 
 attention is invited. 
 
 The establishment of infant schools in the year 1820
 
 54 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 speedily directed the attention of Sunday-school teachers 
 to the importance of effecting some improvement in the 
 conduct of that noisy but then necessary appendage, the 
 alphabet class ; and gradually the plan was adopted of 
 erecting a gallery, or series of raised seats, for the younger 
 children, and teaching them by means of large-type lesson- 
 papers and pictures instead of in the old-fashioned and 
 inefficient style. 
 
 The example of Mr. Morrish in teaching the infants of 
 Paddington Chapel Sunday School by means of a box of 
 letters, led to the preparation and sale of similar boxes by 
 the committee of the Sunday School Union in the year 
 1842, which were largely distributed through the country. 
 
 A further stimulus was given to this interesting depart- 
 ment of Sunday-school work, by the publication, in 1851, 
 of the late Sir Charles Reed's prize essay on infant classes, 
 and the continuous advocacy by himself and his coadjutors 
 of the Sunday School Union in support of the system. 
 
 These persistent efforts have led to the establishment 
 of the infant class as a permanent appendage to the 
 Sunday school, and large numbers of loving-hearted 
 teachers are now engaged, with the aid of the letter 
 box, the blackboard, and the numerous scripture prints 
 provided for their use, in making the infant class one 
 of the happiest and most useful classes throughout the 
 whole school. 
 
 ELDER SCHOLARS. 
 
 The progress made in the retention of the elder scholars 
 is another subject deserving attention. 
 
 The report of the American Sunday School Union for 
 1826 stated, that in a few of their schools Bible-classes had 
 been formed for young persons who had become too old 
 willingly to submit to the usual exercises, in which they 
 might yet receive the benefit and be subject to the restraints
 
 SENIOR CLASSES. 55 
 
 of religious instruction ; and in the Teacher's Magazine for 
 1827, a plan was suggested for the establishment of senior 
 and adult classes. 
 
 The attention thus drawn to the subject was further 
 stimulated by the Parliamentary returns published in 1835, 
 which made known the large variation in the percentage 
 of Sunday scholars to the population in different parts of 
 the country, and called attention to the fact that wherever 
 senior and adult classes were provided young people, 
 instead of leaving the school as they usually did at the age 
 of fourteen or fifteen, could be retained under the influence 
 of their teachers until a much later age. The committee 
 of the Sunday School Union, in their report for 1836, 
 earnestly appealed to their fellow -labourers and to Christian 
 ministers on behalf of their grown-up scholars, urging 
 their retention under the care of intelligent and affectionate 
 teachers in separate rooms, in which they could be treated 
 rather as friends than as scholars, and, " like the ancient 
 catechumens, trained up for membership in the Christian 
 church." 
 
 The persistency with" which the committee of the Union 
 followed up this appeal, aided by the publication of an 
 address by Mr. Watson on senior classes, and subsequently 
 of the prize essay on the same subject by Mr. J. A. Cooper, 
 of Birmingham, led to the rapid establishment of these 
 classes, especially in the manufacturing districts of England, 
 and called forth the enthusiastic approval of Mr. Horace 
 Mann, in his admirable report on the educational census 
 of 1851 : " The senior class is the grand desideratum to 
 the perfect working of the Sunday-school system, for 
 without some such means of continuous instruction, and 
 maintaining influence when the scholar enters the most 
 critical period of life, the chances are that what has been 
 already done will prove to have been done in vain." 
 
 At the present time about one-fifth of the scholars in 
 the Sunday schools connected with the Union are above
 
 56 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 fifteen years of age, though the proportion in London, 
 schools is much smaller than in many parts of the country. 
 
 The senior classes of America succeed in retaining a 
 still larger proportion of elder scholars, chiefly because the 
 two essential requisites are more liberally provided. They 
 have, on the one hand, more attractive class-rooms, and 
 plenty of them ; on the other hand, an ample supply of 
 intelligent and experienced teachers willing to undertake 
 this important work. 
 
 Similar advantages in England would speedily lead to 
 a large extension of this important department of Sunday- 
 school work, and a blessed increase in the spiritual results 
 of the Sunday-school enterprise. 
 
 LIBRARIES. 
 
 Another question intimately associated with Sunday- 
 school progress relates to that useful appendage to the 
 teacher's work the lending library. 
 
 One of the earliest facts known in connection with this 
 subject is contained in the following communication from 
 the Rev. H. C. Trumbull, the able editor of the American 
 Sunday School Times: "As early as 1792, the first day 
 school society of Philadelphia voted the sum of ten pounds 
 to be laid out in small moral books, to be lent to the 
 scholars, or given as premiums to the most deserving." 
 
 By slow degrees this example was followed both in 
 America and in this country ; but in 1833, according to the 
 Parliamentary returns, not more than one-eighth or one- 
 tenth of the Sunday schools in England and Wales had 
 lending libraries for the benefit of the scholars connected 
 with them. 
 
 When this fact was made known, the committee of the 
 Sunday School Union at once set to work to prepare a 
 catalogue of suitable books, and to offer them to the con- 
 ductors of Sunday schools at greatly reduced prices.
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 57 
 
 This useful work has been continued to the present 
 time. The catalogue, which in 1837 contained 353 volumes, 
 now contains 1500, and there are but very few Sunday 
 schools which do not possess a more or less extensive 
 library, by means of which the teachers are able both to 
 render their sabbath instructions more effective, and to 
 supplement those instructions by providing suitable week- 
 day reading for their scholars at home. 
 
 In the schools of America an equal, if not greater, 
 degree of attention is paid to this important subject, and 
 some of the libraries in connection with the larger schools 
 are very extensive and admirably conducted. 
 
 THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH. 
 
 The relation which the Sunday school has sustained to 
 the Christian church is another interesting point of 
 inquiry. 
 
 The original Gloucester schools, and most of their 
 immediate successors, like the ragged schools of the 
 present day, had no direct connection with any particular 
 church, but were under the control of individual Christians 
 or combinations of Christian people belonging to various 
 churches. 
 
 Very soon, however, the ministers and members of 
 particular churches began to establish schools of their 
 own, and gradually it came to pass that eveiy congregation 
 felt its responsibility to take a part in the religious educa- 
 tion of the young by adopting the Sunday school as one of 
 its own institutions. There can be no doubt that the more 
 closely the connection of the church with the school has 
 been kept up the greater has been the prosperity enjoyed. 
 The Sunday-school work is the work of the church, 
 and not simply the work of the band of teachers employed. 
 On the church rests the obligation to maintain the 
 school in efficiency by a liberal supply of well-qualified
 
 58 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 agency, suitable accommodation, and pecuniary aid ; and 
 to the church belongs the right of exercising such control 
 over its operations as may best secure its efficiency as a 
 church institution. 
 
 The details of management may safely be left for each 
 church or denomination to settle for itself, and, indeed, 
 considerable variation exists in this particular. 
 
 In some cases the officers and teachers, with the minister 
 and deacons or elders of the church, form a committee to 
 make rules and lay down plans for the conduct of the 
 school, and in other cases the church appoints a com- 
 mittee which includes the officers and some of the 
 teachers, to whom similar powers are given. 
 
 In some instances the teachers are elected at the 
 church meetings on the nomination of the superintendent 
 or minister, and the names of the school officers, after 
 their annual appointment by the teachers, are submitted 
 to the church for confirmation. When these plans are 
 adopted, and the superintendent or secretary is expected 
 periodically to report to the church meeting the condition 
 and needs of the school, the teachers are more likely to 
 feel the responsibility attaching to their position, the 
 officers to realize the oneness of the church and the school, 
 and the members of the church to evince their hearty co- 
 operation in the work which is being carried on for the 
 benefit of their own children and the young people of the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Whatever details of management may be adopted, and 
 however varied the methods of co-operation between the 
 church and the school, it is now all but universally 
 admitted that they are not to be regarded as separate and 
 distinct institutions, but as one and indivisible ; and that, 
 whatever may in the past have been permitted to interfere 
 with the spirit of harmony and peace, teachers and church 
 members should all be found working together in earnest 
 and loving co-operation for the salvation of the young.
 
 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 59 
 
 In America the close connection, or rather the essential 
 oneness, of the church and the Sunday school is perhaps 
 still more universally acknowledged and practically mani- 
 fested than in England. 
 
 The large extent to which the children of the church 
 in all grades of society are to be found in the school, the 
 liberal provision made for the comfort of teachers and 
 scholars, and the readiness with which the best talent 
 which the church contains is devoted to the work of 
 instruction, satisfactorily indicate the firm hold which the 
 school has taken on the affection of the church, and 
 sufficiently account for the high position which it has 
 attained and the glorious results which it has achieved. 
 
 LESSON SYSTEMS. 
 
 We shall now endeavour to point out the nature of 
 the instructions imparted to the scholars in our early 
 Sunday schools, and to trace the gradual development 
 of the uniform Scripture-lesson system, culminating in 
 the extensive adoption of the " International Scheme of 
 Lessons." 
 
 In the schools established by Robert Raikes, and 
 during the early years of the institution in this country, 
 it was chiefly confined, as already stated, to the lower 
 classes of the community, who were almost entirely un- 
 educated ; and little but the most elementary instruction 
 in the art of reading and the simplest explanation of the 
 Bible or the catechism was attempted. 
 
 The shilling -a- day teachers were not, indeed, capable of 
 much more than this, and even when the difficulty of 
 finding the means of paying these educational pioneers led 
 to the proposal, " Let us do it ourselves," the qualifications 
 brought to bear upon the work were not of a very high 
 order; so that, except in a few isolated instances, very 
 little of system and method appear to have found their
 
 60 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 way into the Sunday school during the first twenty or 
 thirty years of its existence. 
 
 The society founded by Mr. Fox, for the establishment 
 and support of Sunday schools, supplied Bibles and Testa- 
 ments for those who could read, and spelling-books in 
 large numbers for those who could not, but scarcely 
 anything was attempted in the preparation of books and 
 helps for teachers and scholars until the establishment of 
 the Sunday School Union in 1803. One of the earliest 
 publications of this society was " A select list of Scriptures, 
 designed as a guide to teachers for a course of reading in 
 the Sunday schools." This, however, was only used in a 
 small number of classes, and for many years such was 
 the low state of education, and so high was the price of 
 the Bible, that the principal publications circulated by the 
 Union consisted of spelling-books, catechisms, and large- 
 type lessons, printed on sheets and pasted on boards, for 
 collective teaching a considerable impetus having been 
 given to this system, as opposed to individual teaching, 
 by the discussion of the new modes of instruction intro- 
 duced into day schools by Mr. Joseph Lancaster. Reading 
 books (Part I. and II.), consisting entirely of extracts from 
 the sacred Scriptures, were published by the Union in 
 1818 and 1824, and these were for many years largely 
 used as substitutes for the Bible itself. 
 
 In 1829 a series of meetings inaugurated by the com* 
 mittee of the Union was held in the metropolis, at which 
 Mr. James Gall, of Edinburgh (who has recently died at 
 the venerable age of ninety-one), explained and illustrated 
 his system of teaching, commonly called the "lesson 
 system." This system, which is fully described in his 
 work entitled " The End and Essence of Sunday School 
 Teaching," required the use of a series of initiatory 
 catechisms, questions, and exercises by the scholars, and of 
 keys and helps by the teachers ; but its chief excellencies 
 consisted in the adoption of a graduated series of exercises,
 
 SYSTEMS OF LESSONS. 61 
 
 the thorough use of the interrogative method of teaching, 
 and the persistent enforcement of the practical lessons 
 which the biographies and narratives of the Bible in- 
 culcate. It does not appear that the books and appliances 
 of Mr. Gall ever came into general use in England, but it 
 is indisputable that a widespread influence for good was 
 exerted by his efforts, not only upon the teachers of 
 London, but through the medium of the agents and 
 publications of the Union upon the Sunday school cause 
 at large. 
 
 Among other results of the movement, the committee 
 of the Union were led to prepare and publish, upon a 
 system of progressive elementary instruction adapted to 
 Sunday schools, a series of three class-books, consisting of 
 Scripture facts and truths in common household language, 
 together with question-books for the use of teachers, which 
 for many years had a very extensive circulation, and did 
 good service to the Sunday-school cause, pending the 
 arrival of the era of cheap Bibles and uniform Scripture 
 lessons. 
 
 A reference must here be made to the admirable system 
 upon which the Rev. Daniel Gunn conducted his Sunday 
 school at Christchurch, in Hampshire, for many years. 
 Mr. Henry Althans, a former secretary of the Sunday 
 School Union, and one of the most earnest and efficient 
 workers in the east of London, was deputed by the com- 
 mittee to visit the Christchurch School, and report upon, 
 the plans adopted, which he did in July, 1830. From his 
 report it appears that Mr. Gunn was in the habit of pre- 
 paring every week a Bible lesson, which he explained and 
 illustrated to the teachers at the close of the afternoon 
 school so thoroughly as to enable them to teach it on the 
 following Sunday to their respective classes ; he himself 
 examining the children at the close of the lesson as to 
 the instruction which they had received. 
 
 This plan, which was regularly pursued from the year
 
 62 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 1816 until his death, rendered the Christchurch school 
 one of the most efficient and useful in the country, com- 
 bining some of the best features of the more advanced 
 Bible schools of the present day. 
 
 From a very early date, however, teachers of more than 
 average intelligence who were able to obtain Bibles for 
 the use of their scholars were in the habit of arranging, 
 with more or less completeness, courses of reading for 
 their classes, and in some cases these arrangements were 
 extended to other classes in the school ; but the earliest 
 list of lessons for a complete year which has been preserved 
 was compiled for the use of the Albion Street Methodist 
 School, Hull, and appears in the Sunday School Teachers' 
 Magazine for 1824. 
 
 The first attempt to supply regular lessons, with notes 
 for the use of teachers, was made in the same journal in 
 1830, commencing in January, and proceeding month by 
 month to the end of the year. These notes were very 
 brief, and were not continued in future years. 
 
 In many other schools, or groups of schools, individual 
 ministers or teachers exerted a powerful influence for good 
 in promoting uniform Scripture teaching throughout the 
 various classes. In a school with which the writer was 
 connected in 1835, a course of lessons was prepared by one 
 of the teachers, who also wrote out in a memorandum 
 book a series of hints and explanations to aid in the work 
 of teaching, and these notes were copied into other books 
 by some of the young people, so that each of the Scripture 
 class teachers was provided with a copy for use among his 
 own scholars, to the great advantage of all. 
 
 Previous to the year 1840, however, little had been 
 done to extend the uniform lesson beyond the Bible classes 
 of a single school except in the case of two or three asso- 
 ciations, such as the Silver Street Sunday School Society 
 and the Southwark Sunday School Society, each of which 
 had prepared series of lessons for their associated schools.
 
 UNIFORM LESSONS IN ENGLAND. 63 
 
 UNIFORM LESSONS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The first list of lessons published with a view to 
 general adoption was issued bj the Sunday School Union 
 for the year 1840, and the series has ever since been con- 
 tinued without intermission, meeting with increasing 
 acceptance year after year. In January, 1842, the Union 
 commenced the publication of the monthly " notes " on 
 the lessons for the use of teachers, which have also been 
 continued with an annually augmenting circulation to the 
 present time. 
 
 This sketch would not be complete without an allusion 
 to the late Rev. Robert Mimpriss, one of the earliest 
 pioneers in the work of uniform lessons, who, in or about 
 the year 1844, published his " System of Graduated Simul- 
 taneous Instruction " for Sunday schools, consisting of a 
 two years' course of lessons founded on a harmony of the 
 four Gospels. This was really the first attempt to engage 
 the whole school, including the junior classes, upon one 
 subject ; but it never came into general use, partly from its 
 great expense, and partly from the somewhat objectionable 
 abbreviations in the lower grade lessons, but chiefly from 
 its limited range and want of variety. 
 
 In order to complete the Union system, the committee 
 have published, from the year 1855 to the present time, a 
 quarterly " Scripture Lesson Book for Elementary Classes," 
 consisting of a few verses selected from the Bible lessons 
 of every Sunday, so that, as infant-class texts are regularly 
 selected and printed in large type for the use of the 
 primary classes, all the scholars can be occupied on the 
 same lesson, the hymns sung, the prayers offered, and 
 the closing address or examination can all be brought to 
 bear upon the lesson of the day, and the teachers' meeting 
 or preparation class rendered helpful to all in the schools 
 which adopt the system.
 
 64 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 This lesson scheme is carried out with more or less 
 completeness in a large number of the Sunday schools in 
 England, and is generally known as the Uniform Lesson 
 system of the Sunday School Union. Other societies and 
 denominational publishers quickly followed the example 
 of the Union by publishing lists of lessons and notes for 
 the use of Sunday schools ; but as none of them make pro- 
 vision for the junior scholars to be engaged upon the same 
 topic, while many of the scholars are too young or un- 
 educated to read the Bible, the uniformity only extends to 
 the Scripture classes. 
 
 In the Sunday schools of the United States " Question- 
 books " on the Gospels and other portions of Scripture 
 were almost universally in use until the year 1866, and, 
 generally speaking, the several classes in the same school 
 were engaged in the study of different parts of the Bible, 
 though as early as 1825 an attempt had been made by the 
 American Sunday School Union to bring about a better state 
 of things, by the publication of a selection of Scripture 
 lessons for Sunday schools, called the " Limited Lesson 
 Scheme," on cards, which was somewhat widely adopted. 
 The scheme was intended to consist of a five years' course, 
 and to include the principal facts and truths of the Bible. 
 A series of question-books was prepared by the Rev. 
 Albert Judson, and though the primary object of the 
 scheme was to restrict the unlimited memorizing of Scrip- 
 ture verses a practice which had grown into a positive 
 mania it undoubtedly contained most of the essential 
 elements of the present international system. 
 
 The weak feature of the scheme, according to English 
 notions, was the " Question-book," which certainly served 
 to indicate the direction of the teacher's studies, and the 
 subject on which he would need information, but did not 
 furnish those supplies of knowledge which he might lack 
 the means or the time to acquire. 
 
 For some reason this Limited Lesson scheme, though
 
 UNIFORM LESSONS IN AMERICA. 65 
 
 it was popular for a time, and did much to counteract the 
 evil just referred to, did not secure general and permanent 
 adoption, and the real beginning of uniform lessons in the 
 United States was the publication at Chicago, in 1865, of 
 the North Western Sunday School Teacher s Quarterly, and 
 in the following year of the monthly magazine, entitled 
 the Sunday School Teacher, both under the able editor- 
 ship of Dr. Vincent, who had then recently returned from 
 the first international Sunday-school convention held in 
 London. 
 
 In the journal for 1865 four alternative lesson schemes 
 were submitted, one of which was taken from the London 
 list of lessons, but neither questions nor notes was provided 
 for the use of teachers. In the magazine for 1866 a two 
 years' course of lessons on the life of Jesus was commenced, 
 with notes for teachers, similar to those published by the 
 London Sunday School Union. 
 
 The Rev. Simeon Gilbert, in his history of the lesson 
 system, published in 1879, referring to this course of 
 lessons, remarks, " this was the first series of analytical 
 lesson notes, and scholars' papers ever periodically issued 
 in the United States, if not in the world," and he could not 
 therefore have been aware that annual lists of lessons of 
 a similar kind, and monthly notes on the lessons for the 
 use of teachers, had been published regularly by the 
 London Sunday School Union for a quarter of a century 
 previously. 
 
 In the course of the year 1866, Dr. Vincent became the 
 secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School 
 Union, and removed to New York, though he continued to 
 prepare the lessons for the Sunday School Teacher through- 
 out the year. 
 
 Soon afterwards he commenced a fresh series of 
 lessons, called the " Berean Series," which, though designed 
 especially for his own denomination, speedily secured a 
 widespread popularity not confined to that body.
 
 66 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Chicago magazine became the National 
 Sunday School Teacher, and under the vigorous editorship 
 of Dr. Eggleston its lesson scheme obtained a very 
 extensive circulation, many other periodicals having 
 adopted the lessons, and giving their own expositions 
 thereon. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON. 
 
 Mr. B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago, one of the most earnest 
 Sunday-school superintendents and successful lesson-writers 
 in that city, as early as 1867, appears to have conceived 
 the idea of developing the Chicago lesson scheme into a 
 system of uniform lessons, not for a locality or a denomina- 
 tion merely, but for all the schools of America, and, to use 
 his own words, " not for the schools of this country only, 
 but, blessed be God, we hope, for the whole world." 
 
 Dr. Eggleston characterized this idea as " a dream of 
 his enthusiastic friend," but so earnestly did Mr. Jacobs 
 urge his plans at various Sunday-school conventions, and 
 especially at the National Convention, held at Newark, in 
 April, 1869, that he succeeded in inducing the superinten- 
 dents' section to report the formal and emphatic declara- 
 tion, " That a uniform lesson is essential to the highest 
 success of every school, and that it is practical and desirable 
 to unite all the schools of our whole country upon one and 
 the same series." 
 
 In the month of January, 1870, Dr. Vincent addressed 
 a letter to the committee of the Sunday School Union in 
 London, asking them to direct their attention to the 
 getting up of an International list of lessons, and the idea 
 was favourably entertained, and a resolution passed to 
 correspond with Dr. Vincent upon the subject. 
 
 The illness and death of the secretary of the publication 
 committee, however, which occurred shortly after the 
 passing of this resolution, interrupted the correspondence,
 
 INTERNATIONAL LESSONS. 67 
 
 and led to the exclusively American character of the move- 
 ment that followed. 
 
 Dr. Eggleston soon discovered and acknowledged in 
 the pages of the Teacher that Mr. Jacobs' dream was likely 
 to become a reality, but his idea of uniformity seemed to 
 consist in the general adoption of the Chicago series of 
 lessons, and he strongly opposed any arrangement which 
 should lead to the selection of a course of lessons by a 
 committee, or should in any way interfere with his own 
 system. 
 
 As, however, there were now several lesson schemes at 
 work, this determination would have prevented the realiza- 
 tion of the desired harmony, had not the feeling of the 
 country upon the subject been so strong as to override all 
 opposition, and at the Triennial Sunday School Conven- 
 tion, which assembled at Indianopolis in 1872, after a 
 lengthy and animated discussion, in which Dr. Vincent 
 and Mr. Jacobs took a prominent part, an almost unanimous 
 resolution was passed, appointing a committee to prepare a 
 seven years' course of lessons for the Sunday schools of 
 the United States and Canada. 
 
 The lessons prepared by that committee secured at the 
 very beginning of 1873 almost universal acceptance 
 throughout America, and the committee of the London 
 Sunday School Union, after a long conference with Dr. 
 Vincent, adopted the International series as their afternoon 
 lessons from the beginning of 1874, and have ever since 
 co-operated with the lesson committee in the United States 
 in their preparation and issue. 
 
 The most hearty good feeling exists between the two 
 committees, and the utmost readiness is manifested on both 
 sides to propose and adopt such suggestions for alteration 
 and improvement as may render the scheme of lessons 
 generally acceptable. 
 
 The Wesleyan Sunday School Union entered into the 
 co-partnership in 1880, and though the Church of England
 
 68 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Sunday School Institute at present abstains from doing 
 so, many Church, of England schools adopt the system, 
 and the great majority of our English Sunday-school 
 teachers are now engaged upon the same Bible lesson 
 as their brethren and sisters in the United States, in 
 the British colonies, and in many parts of the continent of 
 Europe. 
 
 The advantages arising from the adoption of uniform 
 lessons throughout the various classes of a Sunday school 
 have been so long and so widely acknowledged, as to 
 render argument unnecessary ; and additional advantages 
 certainly accrue from the almost universal acceptance of 
 one particular series. 
 
 Among these advantages may be mentioned the pleasure 
 derivable from a feeling of fellowship in Bible study, with 
 so many thousands of teachers and scholars in all parts of 
 the world ; the improvement in lesson helps arising from 
 the application of the many minds of note writers, and 
 Biblical scholars to the same subjects at the same period 
 of time ; the possibility of lessening the bitterness of 
 sectarian feeling by the discovery that something is to be 
 said on both sides of all disputed questions ; and, above 
 all, the probability amounting almost to a certainty, that 
 the universal attention given to one particular theme, will 
 ensure more thorough and regular preparation on the part 
 of the teachers. 
 
 These advantages are surely sufficient to outweigh any 
 superficial outcry against interference with individual 
 liberty, and to suggest the prayer, " God speed the Inter- 
 national Lessons." 
 
 KESULTS OF SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHING. 
 
 "We must now devote a few paragraphs to specify some 
 of the results which have accrued from the labours of 
 Sunday-school teachers.
 
 RESULTS OF SUNDAY SCHOOL . TEACHING. 69 
 
 1. For many years the Sunday school was the principal 
 instrument in the education of the children of the poor 
 in England, and, meanwhile, it prepared the way and 
 furnished the impetus which has gradually led to the 
 general provision of day school instruction. 
 
 The charity schools which existed in the days of Raikes, 
 provided for only a small portion of the children growing 
 up in ignorance, and could do little or nothing to meet the 
 wants of the populous towns and manufacturing districts. 
 
 The first school established by John Lancaster was 
 founded in 1798, eighteen years after the Gloucester move- 
 ment, and the Royal Lancasterian Society which after- 
 wards developed into the British School Society was 
 instituted in 1808 ; the National School Society being 
 founded in 1811. 
 
 As, however, the schools originated and assisted by 
 these societies only came gradually into existence, and up 
 to the year 1834 no assistance was rendered by Govern- 
 ment in the work of education, the provision made for 
 daily instruction during the first fifty years of the existence 
 of Sunday schools was lamentably insufficient, and it con- 
 sequently resulted that a large number of scholars in the 
 Sunday school were almost entirely indebted to that insti- 
 tution for all the education they ever received. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at 
 that considerable time and attention were given to instruc- 
 tion in the art of reading and writing ; nor can this be a 
 subject of regret, inasmuch as the key of knowledge was 
 thereby placed in the children's hands, while at the same 
 time the Bible truths which they learned to read and 
 write were often so effectually impressed on their under- 
 standing and memory as to accomplish the spiritual aim 
 which the teacher had in view. 
 
 Still, this secular teaching was felt to be a sort of 
 drudgery, and longing aspirations were indulged for the 
 time when the scholars would come to school able to read
 
 70 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 the Word of God with fluency, and leaving the whole time 
 at the disposal of the teacher for the work of religious 
 instruction. 
 
 Happily, these aspirations are now pretty generally 
 realized, and Sunday school teachers are free to devote 
 their energies to the more important branch of their work, 
 namely, the salvation of the children entrusted to their 
 care. 
 
 2. The Sunday school has prepared multitudes of young 
 people for attendance at public worship, greatly to their 
 ultimate advantage. 
 
 It has, indeed, been disputed whether this is the general 
 result, and some years ago a clergyman of the Established 
 Church wrote a pamphlet intended to prove the contrary ; 
 and from the figures furnished in the census of 1851, he 
 certainly succeeded in showing that in some towns, which 
 had the largest proportion of Sunday scholars, the per- 
 centage of attendants at public worship on the census 
 Sunday was less than in other towns which had a smaller 
 proportion of children in the Sunday school. 
 
 When, however, the figures came to be examined more 
 closely, it was found that, although in some cases there 
 was a groundwork of truth in the allegation, a wider 
 comparison brought out an opposite conclusion, and that, 
 taking the eight counties which had the largest proportion 
 and the eight counties which had the smallest proportion 
 of Sunday scholars to the population, the advantage was 
 decidedly on the side of the former. 
 
 At the same time, it must be freely admitted that large 
 numbers of Sunday scholars have failed to acquire the 
 habit of regular attendance at public worship, and, after 
 leaving the school, have nearly or altogether ceased to 
 attend the house of God. 
 
 Such, at least, was the case when the census of Public 
 Worship was taken in the year 1851. On that particular 
 Sunday less than three-fifths of the number who might
 
 SCHOLARS JOINING THE CHURCH. 71 
 
 have been expected to attend the house of God on some 
 part of the day were found to be present, though probably 
 two-thirds of the population had for a longer or shorter 
 period been Sunday scholars. 
 
 Whether any improvement has taken place in this 
 particular since 1851 is uncertain, but the fact is indis- 
 putable that a large proportion of the attendants at church 
 and chapel have been taught in the Sunday school, and 
 are thereby fitted to take a more intelligent part in divine 
 worship, and are more likely to profit by the ministry of 
 the Word. 
 
 The certainty, however, that so large a number of 
 those who were once under our care are not now to be 
 found in connection with the means of grace is deeply to 
 be regretted, and should stimulate teachers to use every 
 effort to train up their scholars in the habit of regular 
 attendance at the sanctuary, and to retain them in con- 
 nection with the school until they are brought into full 
 communion with the church of Christ. 
 
 3. Many thousands of Sunday scholars have been led, 
 through the instruction and influence of their teachers, 
 to give themselves to the Saviour and unite with the 
 church of Christ. 
 
 No regular statistics were collected by the Sunday 
 School Union on this point until 1864 ; but for many 
 years previous to that period ministers and church officers 
 had reported that the majority of those who became 
 church members had been scholars in the Sunday school, 
 and that large numbers of them had therein received their 
 first religious impressions. 
 
 During the twenty-two years from 1864 to 1885 the total 
 number of scholars returned as having joined the churches 
 from the Sunday schools connected with the Union, 
 amounted to more than a quarter of a million, the number 
 in the last-mentioned year having been 15,622. 
 
 The proportion of scholars who have thus decided for
 
 72 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Christ to the total number in the connected schools has 
 varied from year to year, the lowest year having been one 
 per cent., and the highest two per cent. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that these statistics 
 are complete. Some of the schools make no return at all 
 under this head, and many of the returns are known to be 
 inadequate. 
 
 It should be remembered, too, that the connection of 
 the scholars with the Sunday school is not for one year 
 only, but averages several years ; and also that many of the 
 old scholars join the church after leaving the Sunday school. 
 
 Still, when every allowance has been made, it must be 
 admitted that the proportion of Sunday scholars who 
 become church members is far below what could have 
 been expected if teachers were fully alive to their responsi- 
 bilities, and prayerfully earnest in their endeavours to 
 bring each and all of their scholars to Jesus as their 
 Saviour, and to the church as their refuge and their 
 home. In the United States the percentage of scholars 
 brought into Christian fellowship is somewhat larger than 
 in England, the returns made to the International Con- 
 vention in Toronto in 1880, deducting those states which 
 furnished no information under this head, being rather 
 more than two per cent. In some of the states the 
 proportion is much larger, and it is pretty certain that 
 fuller and more accurate statistics would indicate still 
 more gratifying results. 
 
 On both sides of the Atlantic, however, the results of 
 Sunday-school instruction in adding members to the 
 church of Christ are sufficient to call for gratitude in 
 relation to the past, and more earnest consecration in the 
 future. 
 
 4. The Sunday school has been most successful in pre- 
 paring a regular supply of Christian workers, both in its 
 own sphere and in every other department of Christian 
 labour.
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 73 
 
 A large proportion of the ministers and missionaries in 
 connection with all denominations of the Christian church 
 have received their first religious impressions, commenced 
 their Christian work, and exercised their early aspirations 
 for higher service in the Sunday school ; and so thoroughly 
 has the institution proved reproductive that nearly all the 
 teachers employed in the work of teaching have come up 
 from the ranks of the scholars. 
 
 The last statistical returns published by the Union 
 show that eighty-eight per cent, of the teachers in the 
 connected schools were formerly Sunday scholars. 
 
 Can any testimony to the beneficial results of the 
 institution be more valuable and conclusive than this ? In 
 their several classes the scholars have learned the value of 
 their own souls and the preciousness of the Saviour ; and 
 then, as opportunity has offered, they have come forward 
 to carry on the same work, enlist under the old banner, 
 and show their gratitude for the instruction they have 
 received by trying to influence for good the children of 
 another generation. 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 The only remaining topic which calls for consideration 
 relates to the gradual progress and the present magnitude 
 of the Sunday-school cause in our own country and 
 throughout the world. 
 
 On three several occasions parliamentary returns have 
 been presented, showing the number of Sunday scholars 
 in England and Wales, and the proportion which they 
 bore to the population, the last inquiry having been made 
 in connection with the census of 1851. 
 
 No authoritative statistics have been obtained since 
 that date, as, unfortunately, the Government has not re- 
 peated its inquiries into the state of education and publio 
 worship in connection with the last three census returns.
 
 74 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 An attempt was made in the centenary year, 1880, to 
 estimate the number of Sunday-school teachers and scholars 
 at home and abroad ; but, as neither the Church of Eng- 
 land nor the Congregationalists had up to that time 
 published any statistics of their Sunday schools, no 
 definite and reliable figures, nothing better indeed than a 
 mere estimate, could be presented. 
 
 It was, however, well known that the proportion of 
 scholars to the population had been gradually advancing, 
 particularly in London, where, in 1851, it was very much 
 lower than in other parts of the country ; and it was 
 therefore assumed that the proportion had increased from 
 13Jr to 15 per cent., and report was made accordingly. 
 
 Since then the Sunday School Institute has published 
 an estimate of the numbers in Church of England schools, 
 and, though the Congregationalists and some of the smaller 
 religious bodies have not yet done so, sufficient data is 
 now provided for the presentation of a fairly approximate 
 estimate of the number of teachers and scholars in the 
 Sunday schools of England and Wales, which proves 
 conclusively that the totals presented in 1880 were 
 considerably underrated, and that they contained in 1883 
 no less than 5,200,776 scholars, or more than double the 
 numbers in 1851. 
 
 The following table, quoted from " The Sunday School 
 Army," published in 1883, shows the gradual progress 
 which has been made in the efforts put forth to bring the 
 young people of our country under the influence of religious 
 instruction upon the Sabbath day : 
 
 
 
 
 Proportion of scholars 
 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 Scholars. 
 
 to the population. 
 
 1818 
 
 Unknown 
 
 477,225 
 
 4 - 09 per cent. 
 
 1833 
 
 M 
 
 1,548,890 
 
 10-78 
 
 1851 
 
 318,135 
 
 2,407,642 
 
 13-43 
 
 1883 
 
 593,427 
 
 5,200,776 
 
 20-00 
 
 It thus appears that the proportion of Sunday scholars 
 to the population has advanced 6| per cent, since the
 
 STATISTICS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 75 
 
 census of 1851 ; that while the population has increased 
 less than 50 per cent., the number of scholars in our 
 Sabbath schools has increased 120 per cent., and that now 
 one in every five of the inhabitants of England and Wales 
 is a Sunday scholar. 
 
 The progress of the system from the day when Robert 
 Raikes placed the first group of children nnder the care of 
 Mrs. King, in the small cottage in St. Catherine Street, 
 Gloucester, to the present time has been truly marvellous, 
 and calls forth the irresistible exclamation, " What hath 
 God wrought ! " 
 
 But it is not only in England and Wales that this 
 satisfactory progress has been made. Scotland, though 
 behind England, has advanced considerably during the 
 last thirty years ; and Ireland, taking into account the 
 largeness of its Catholic population, is doing a noble work, 
 as the figures show conclusively that the Protestants are 
 making large provision for their own young people, as 
 well as doing something towards the instruction of their 
 Catholic fellow-subjects. 
 
 In the United States, considering the rapid growth 
 and wide dispersion of the population, the progress of 
 Sunday schools has been truly marvellous, and is certainly 
 exerting a mighty influence for good upon that great 
 nation. The report presented by Mr. E. Payson Porter to 
 the International Sunday School Convention at Louisville 
 in 1884, shows a grand total for the United States of 
 more than a million of teachers, and seven and a half 
 millions of scholars. 
 
 In the Australian and American colonies the system 
 has taken a firm root ; and on the continent of Europe the 
 good work is making gradual but certain progress, and 
 may be confidently expected, in the course of time, to 
 elevate its teeming millions from the depths of super- 
 stition and scepticism into which they have fallen. 
 
 In the various heathen and Mohamedau countries to
 
 76 
 
 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 which the missionaries of England and America have gone 
 to plant the gospel banner, the children are not forgotten. 
 Sunday schools are established, and the time is coming 
 when a still larger and ever-increasing attention will be 
 given to these important auxiliaries in the mission field. 
 
 The following is a summary of the statistics which have 
 been compiled to show the present magnitude of the 
 Sunday-school enterprise : 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 England and Wales 
 Scotland ... ... ... 
 
 Teachers. 
 ... 593,436 
 53,113 
 
 Scholars. 
 
 5,200,776 
 561,262 
 
 Ireland ... ... ... 
 
 28,155 
 
 298,639 
 
 
 
 
 Total United Kingdom 
 Canada and Newfoundland 
 Australasia 
 
 ... 674,704 
 45,511 
 ... 47,765 
 
 6,060,677 
 387,966 
 442,104 
 
 Total Greater Britain 
 United States of America 
 European countries 
 
 ... 767,980 
 ... 1,043,718 
 53,054 
 
 6,890,747 
 7,668,833 
 773,100 
 
 In connection with the several 
 
 Missionary Societies 21,404 386,808 
 
 Grand total 1,886,156 15,719,488 
 
 FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the history and progress 
 of the Sunday-school enterprise, it will be sufficient to 
 point out, in conclusion, the grounds which exist for the 
 indulgence of a hopeful spirit as to its future development 
 and ever-increasing influence as a permanent institution of 
 the Christian church. 
 
 1. It has been conclusively shown that the Sunday 
 school is not a mere temporary makeshift to supply an 
 educational need, but an institution eminently calculated 
 to do the work of the church among the young people of
 
 FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. 77 
 
 her own fold, and those who would otherwise remain un- 
 instructed in the things of God. 
 
 Though it can never be a sufficient substitute for 
 parental instruction, and though nothing can absolve the 
 Christian parent from the responsibility of training his 
 own children, the Sunday-school teacher has rendered in 
 the past, and. will doubtless still more in the future render, 
 essential service in connection with the home and. the 
 pulpit in training up the rising generations to love and 
 serve the Lord. 
 
 2. The improvement which has taken place in recent 
 years as to the proper relation of the Sunday school to the 
 Christian church, encourages the hope that a more 
 thorough and hearty sympathy will result in a plentiful 
 supply of consecrated talent being furnished to carry on 
 the work of religious instruction with increasing efficiency. 
 
 3. The attention now being paid to the provision of 
 suitable buildings and more numerous and attractive class- 
 rooms is another hopeful sign, and gives reason to antici- 
 pate a large accession to that most important branch of 
 our operations, the senior class system. 
 
 4. The provision made for the improvement of teachers, 
 and the manifold helps provided for their benefit, together 
 with the stimulus furnished by the examinations of 
 teachers and scholars, lead to the confident expectation of 
 constantly increasing efficiency on the part of all who are 
 engaged in the work of religious instruction. 
 
 5. The gradual increase in the number of adult scholars 
 is another hopeful sign of the times. In Birmingham and 
 elsewhere the early sabbath morning schools for men 
 and women are largely attended and thoroughly well 
 conducted ; and in America many of the church members 
 of all ages, in imitation of the Welsh practice, take their 
 seats in the Sunday-school classes, and study together the 
 Word of God. 
 
 6. The growing popularity and success of the Sunday
 
 78 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 School Continental Mission inspires the hope that the estab- 
 lishment of Sunday schools on the continent of Europe, 
 for Biblical instruction on the Sabbath day, will gradually 
 disperse the superstition and overturn the infidelity which 
 so largely prevail, and train up a race of Sabbath-keepers 
 and Bible students which shall usher in a brighter and 
 more blessed time for France, Germany, and the other 
 nations of the European continent. 
 
 Finally, the high character and efficiency which the 
 Sunday school system has attained in the United States 
 of America, and the hearty co-operation which prevails 
 between the Christian workers in the two hemispheres in 
 relation to uniform lessons, simultaneous united prayer, 
 and international normal study, encourage the hope and 
 confident expectation of continued progress and ever- 
 increasing efficiency, until " the earth shall be filled with 
 the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters 
 cover the sea." 
 
 FOUNTAIN J. HARTLEY.
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SUNDAY 
 SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 THE Sunday school has outlived the day when it needed 
 any apologists for its existence. It has proved its right 
 to exist, nay, the necessity for its continuance, by a whole 
 army of witnesses in its favour. Foremost among these, 
 in every age, have been ministers of the gospel, who, by 
 the recollections of their own training in the schools, and 
 by their experience as teachers, have borne willing testi- 
 mony to the worth of the institution ; and who afterwards 
 have acknowledged the value of this agency of the Church 
 to her development and growth. Christian parents 
 have expressed their indebtedness to the school for the 
 religious instruction their children have there received, 
 and for the interest and sympathy of which they have been 
 the subjects. Then parents, who have been indifferent 
 to their own religious culture and have not been keenly 
 alive to that of their children, have nevertheless recog- 
 nized in some measure their obligation to the school, for 
 the kindly interest taken in those dear to them. Very 
 often officers and teachers have received encouraging 
 proofs of such gratitude, as parents have realized that the 
 character and conduct of those who were not always 
 angels in the household have greatly improved under the 
 training received at school ; and often where it has found
 
 80 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 no opportunity of expression this sense of obligation has 
 existed, and has shown itself indirectly by the punctual 
 and regular attendance of their children, and frequently 
 by the sacrifices made to send them to school clean and 
 appropriately clad. We have known men of immoral 
 lives and with views antagonist to religion most careful 
 that their children should attend Sunday school. 
 
 With so much testimony of various kinds in favour of 
 the school it may seem late in the day to urge its advan- 
 tages ; but their entire bearing may, nevertheless, be 
 inadequately realized, and the full purpose and scope of 
 the school may, even now, be not fully understood. 
 
 Indeed, it is remarkable that the development of the 
 Sunday- school idea has not kept pace with the progress of 
 the institution among one class of the community ; and 
 there will be found among Christians of to-day, and even 
 among those whose sympathies are with the school, if 
 their energies are not employed there, a very narrow and 
 contracted view of its scope and purposed 
 
 It will be best to briefly state the advantages of the 
 Sunday-school system, and then to inquire what classes, 
 if any, it would be well to exclude therefrom. 
 
 Briefly stated, the aim of the Sunday school is the con- 
 version of the young, and the development of Christian 
 character ; or, in other words, religious training by means of 
 Biblical instruction. 
 
 RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 
 
 The advantage of training children in the truths of 
 Christianity has never been seriously questioned by any 
 class. Those who themselves have experienced the saving 
 power of religion, of course are anxious that children 
 should be brought under its influence ; and even those 
 who are hostile to Christianity are ready to acknowledge 
 the value of religious training for the young. A friend of
 
 ADVANTAGE OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 81 
 
 an avowed sceptic, one of the leading agnostics of his day 
 consulted him as to the bringing up of his children. The 
 father had lost faith in the old religion in which he had 
 himself been trained, and he was anxious for the guidance 
 of this new light. " Oh," said the friend consulted, " by 
 all means teach them the religion of the Bible : it is the 
 finest training possible for the young : by-and-by, when 
 they grow up, they will see that it won't do for their 
 enlightened reason and judgment, and they will be sure 
 to throw it off ; but meanwhile, as a discipline for their 
 younger years, it will be of great service." 
 
 We accept part of the testimony of so unbiased a 
 witness : and whilst the Sunday school recognizes, even 
 more fully, the advantage of early Christian training, it 
 endeavours to influence the heart and life, that the truths 
 taught when young may guide the after life. 
 
 Elsewhere in this book it will be shown that the Sunday 
 school is not designed for any one class alone ; but here it 
 may be stated that the religious training it affords must 
 be good for all classes. The children of godless parents 
 must, without the influence of the school, grow up with- 
 out being properly instructed in the truths of God's Word ; 
 for it is generally conceded that the reading of the Bible 
 in the day school, without note or comment, except such 
 moral teaching as may be imparted, cannot be said to be 
 religious training in any adequate sense. It is every- 
 where confessed, with sorrow, that the great bulk of the 
 working classes are not found in churches or chapels on 
 Sunday ; and we may be sure that, for the most part, their 
 children receive little or no religious instruction at home. 
 But their parents are willing, and even glad to send them 
 to the Sunday school, where they are taught to become 
 better sons and daughters, as well as their duty to God. 
 
 Then parents who are Christians are not slow to per- 
 ceive the advantages which the Sunday school confers ; 
 and, however much time they devote to the religious 
 
 F
 
 82 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 instruction of their children, they are glad that their 
 efforts should be supplemented by the Sunday school. As 
 a rule, they have themselves passed, through the school, and 
 they retain clear impressions of its pleasantness and use- 
 fulness. 
 
 Perhaps the chief advantage which the Sunday school 
 offers is the BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION which it affords, and 
 which no other agency can so well supply. It takes 
 children at their earliest years, when their minds are 
 most impressionable and their faculties are awakening. 
 It sows the seed of religious truth, by means of Bible 
 narratives and simple lessons derived from God's Word ; 
 and gradually, with advancing years, the children are 
 taught, with more or less system, the greater part of the 
 books of the Bible. With more or less system, it is said, 
 for no one can pretend but that there is great room for 
 improvement both in the method and quality of teaching 
 prevalent in too many schools. This is not the place to 
 urge a uniform system of lessons, nor to enforce the 
 necessity of more thorough preparation on the part of 
 teachers ; but be the deficiencies as great as they may be 
 there is no agency supplies as much Biblical instruction 
 as is given even in an indifferent and imperfect Sunday 
 school, 
 
 It may be advanced, however, that at no time was there 
 so much intelligent and well-directed Bible teaching as 
 there is to-day, and a marked improvement may still be 
 observed. 
 
 Whatever Biblical instruction children may receive, 
 either at home or at the day school, it is advanced and 
 carried on by the Sunday school : if they have been 
 religiously brought up, teachers find them their most apt 
 and interested scholars ; if not, teachers must realize how 
 much devolves on them, so that the most may be made 
 of the time during which they have these neglected ones 
 under instruction.
 
 ADMIXTURE OF CLASSES. 83 
 
 The ADMIXTURE OF CLASSES found in the school has a 
 beneficial effect. It has a tendency to mitigate, if not 
 remove, much of the evils which result from the caste- 
 feeling which fosters in the young, and, alas, too, in adults, 
 so much silly pride. At one time, when the Sunday 
 school was regarded as a place only for the children of 
 needy or irreligious parents, there was a very strong dread 
 of the contamination which would be sure to come from 
 such places. But now as Sunday schools are conducted 
 the admixture of classes has a beneficial effect. Some few 
 parents hold a contrary opinion ; they dread the associa- 
 tion of their children with those of the poorer classes : 
 sometimes on sanitary, sometimes on moral grounds, and 
 here and again on the score of cleanliness. But for the 
 most part such anticipated objections are imaginary ; cases 
 of sickness contracted in the school are of rare occurrence. 
 The association of the scholars is of too short duration, 
 and is under supervision the whole time, so that moral 
 contagion need not be feared. Friendships are not formed 
 among scholars of distinct social grade ; and as for objec- 
 tions on the score of cleanliness, it will be rare to find in a 
 well-conducted school any evidence of the striking need of 
 soap and water. The school has a wholesome effect all 
 round ; it restrains disorder, suppresses vice, and promotes 
 tidiness and cleanliness. The whole tone of the school is 
 an elevating one ; and all classes share in the leavening 
 process. The mixture of classes to the extent in which it 
 exists in the school has many advantages. It promotes 
 kindly feeling between class and class ; the children of the 
 well-to-do learn to sympathize with those whose parents 
 have such a struggle for existence ; they hear of sickness, 
 privation, and poverty, patiently borne; they come to 
 know sometimes that want of clothes keeps some of their 
 class-mates from school, and many a first outgoing of the 
 heart towards human woe has been prompted in the class. 
 Then the courteous and kindly behaviour of those who
 
 84 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 have been reared in comfort, towards their poorer class- 
 mates, has a very humanizing and elevating influence. 
 These latter get to see that wealth and the comforts of life 
 need not harden the heart against the poor; and more 
 favoured ones learn to respect and to regard those whom 
 inferior clothes and a lowlier station do not prevent from 
 showing urbanity and kindness. In view of the, we fear, 
 ever- widening gulf which is separating capital from labour, 
 and class from class, there is nothing so likely to soften 
 asperities, and promote a kindly regard between those 
 whom the circumstances of life have set so far apart, 
 as the association and humanizing influence of the earlier 
 mingling together in the same class in the Sunday 
 school. 
 
 In every age since Sunday schools were established the 
 importance of a knowledge of the Word of God among the 
 young has been recognized; but surely it was never so 
 important as to-day, when the inspiration of the Bible is 
 impugned, its Divine origin questioned, its value as a 
 guide for human life denied, and its revelation of another 
 world after death ridiculed. Whatever value works of 
 evidences of Christianity may have for polemical purposes, 
 and without discouraging their study by young people, it 
 will hardly be denied that the Bible is its own evidence, 
 and that the greatest protection which the young can have 
 against scepticism and unbelief in whatever guise, is a 
 thorough acquaintance with the Bible, and an earnest 
 and persistent inculcation of the principles which it 
 teaches. 
 
 It must be a considerable advantage for ministers that 
 they can feel that a ground-work of religious instruction 
 is laid in the minds of the young ; for although many 
 alas that there should be so many ! are lost between the 
 school and the Church, there are still a large number who 
 pass into the Church and become its most intelligent 
 and useful members. It must be an immense gain to the
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE SCHOOL. 85 
 
 Church that those who are to become its prominent 
 members and office-bearers have passed through some 
 years of religious training in the school. 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE SCHOOL. 
 
 Nor is this all : they have not only been religiously 
 trained, but in the school; and the term implies regu- 
 lation, discipline, and obedience, however imperfectly 
 these are enforced in some schools. We know all that 
 can be urged against laxity and indifference ; we are 
 painfully aware of the contrast which some schools afford 
 to well-regulated day schools; we are quite familiar 
 with the type of teacher who is irregular and un- 
 methodical, and whose class is ill managed : but, in 
 spite of all shortcomings and defects, the importance 
 of the good qualities mentioned is generally recognized in 
 many, and in a largely increasing number of schools they 
 are observed. We are not now considering the value of 
 these to the school, but to the scholars : to the former 
 they are all important, and to the latter, also, they are 
 of great advantage. They are valuable especially to that 
 large class coming from homes that are not well regulated 
 and conducted ; where the father goes to work before the 
 children are up, and comes home after they have gone to 
 bed ; where often the mother, too, is away during the day, 
 supplementing the scanty income of the household. Thus 
 left, is it a wonder that the children are untutored and 
 undisciplined ? and should it be a matter of surprise that 
 they should often prove rude, disrespectful, and un- 
 manageable under the restraint of the Sunday school and 
 in the hands of teachers, whom they so seldom see, and 
 who may be excused if they do not employ the wisest 
 methods in dealing with such unpromising material ? But 
 even on such, patience and love manifest at length even 
 to hearts so irresponsive to the appeal of affection, not to
 
 86 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 say tact and judicious dealing, have their influence ; and 
 when such is the case, nothing short of a reformation of 
 conduct, at all events, is the result. Most schools bear- 
 such trophies on their records. 
 
 But in classes higher in the social scale, and subject 
 to wiser influences at home and at school, there is an 
 impatience of control, an assertion of independence, and, 
 it must be owned, a growing irreverence and disrespect 
 for age and authority that are pregnant for evil unless 
 checked. To such the discipline and restraint of the 
 Sunday school are likely to be useful. Punctuality, 
 obedience, conformity to school regulation, the manifest 
 care and regard of the teacher for the class irrespective of 
 social position, are all salutary and valuable. And here, 
 too, the admixture of classes is useful : whilst the less 
 favoured are often checked and helped by the more 
 courteous and respectful behaviour of those above them, 
 the scholars from whom more is expected from the 
 advantages of their training are sometimes restrained, and 
 made ashamed, if the comparison has to be forced home 
 by the teacher, by the better conduct of those below them 
 in social position. 
 
 There is little danger of the discipline of the school 
 becoming too severe the danger is rather in the other 
 direction, but scholars who are at all capable of reflection 
 must see that the comfort and happiness of the scholar, 
 no less than the progress of the school, depend upon the 
 maintenance of order. If that be easily secured, and 
 prompt obedience obtained, the tone of the school should 
 be one of a joyous freedom rather than of strict discipline. 
 The Sunday school would do well to copy much from the 
 day school, but there will be always a difference in the 
 moral atmosphere and feeling pervading the two institu- 
 tions ; and this, indeed, is one secret of the success of the 
 former. 
 
 It is a source of continual wonder how it is that, with
 
 ATTRACTION AND INFLUENCE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 87 
 
 so little to attract materially as regards the building, 
 fitting, and accommodation of many Sunday schools, and 
 without powers of compulsion or bribes and rewards, so 
 many scholars present themselves so regularly. The fact 
 that more scholars are found voluntarily assembled in the 
 Sunday schools of the metropolis on the Lord's Day than are 
 gathered into the day schools during the week, with all the 
 powers of compulsory attendance, is the best argument that 
 could be adduced in favour of the Sunday school as a means 
 of teaching and instructing the young. They like the 
 association with those of their own age ; they are attracted 
 by the teaching from the good old Book, even when im- 
 perfectly conveyed ; and there is a wondrous power exer- 
 cised in the constant sympathy, care, and love of the 
 teachers, even over the hearts and minds of those who are 
 unconscious and unappreciative of them. 
 
 The power and advantage of the Sunday school lie 
 mainly in these two forces the Word of God, and the 
 moral influence of the teacher exerted for the scholars' 
 welfare. The Bible commends itself, even to those whose 
 hearts have not yet been reached by its saving truths ; and 
 the love of the teacher is understood, if not rightly appre- 
 ciated, by all but the most careless and hardened scholars. 
 These are the two factors so potent over scholars who 
 have advanced beyond the age of children, and who are 
 found in such large numbers in some parts of the country, 
 and we believe in increasing numbers in schools generally. 
 This is not the place to discuss how best to retain senior 
 scholars, but it is the place to emphasize the fact that the 
 Sunday school is fitted to instruct those of any age who 
 feel that there is still much to learn of Divine truth ; and 
 whenever these two influences are in operation the in- 
 telligent teaching of God's Word, and the sympathetic 
 love and regard of the teacher these young men and 
 women will be retained, getting blessings for themselves, 
 and becoming a source of gracious influence on the school.
 
 88 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Of course there must be a wise adaptation of means and 
 methods. The sympathetic love and regard of which we 
 have spoken will evince something more than a vague 
 yearning for the salvation of the class : there will be an 
 increasing desire to consult the tastes and wishes of the 
 scholars themselves ; and in proportion as such are found 
 in operation will it become evident that there is no institu- 
 tion nor means so well calculated to carry on religious 
 instruction among young men and women, and even 
 among those who have advanced into fall manhood and 
 womanhood, as the Sunday school wisely administered. 
 
 Again, the Sunday school is its own witness. We are 
 often discouraged that so many young people slip away 
 from the school just at an age when its influence is likely 
 to be most useful ; but, on the other hand, what cause 
 there is for encouragement and gratitude that every 
 Sunday so many young men and women, and those also 
 of more mature years, resist the allurements of ease and 
 pleasure and are found in their classes at the Sunday 
 school, where outwardly there may be so little to attract. 
 The Sunday-school system is well adapted to meet the 
 needs of elder scholars : it is the fault of the church, or 
 of the school, or probably of both, when scholars leave 
 before they are out of their teens. If the church en- 
 courages, in any way, the idea that the school is only for 
 training the young, or, what is much the same in effect, 
 takes no pains to supply adequate accommodation and pro- 
 vision for those who have passed beyond the age of child- 
 hood, the scholars will slip away just at the time when 
 they most need earnest spiritual teaching, and when their 
 presence is not only desirable for their own sakes, but also 
 for the sake of the school. 
 
 The MAIN PRINCIPLE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL that of 
 the personal dealing of the teacher with the scholar, as 
 distinct and separate from the treatment of them as a 
 whole is as applicable and as necessary for those of
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE TEACHER. 89 
 
 maturer as of younger years. There is an individuality of 
 treatment in dealing with a class that there cannot be 
 with a congregation, however well known its members 
 may be to the minister. The teacher knows his scholars 
 by name, and by circumstance ; he is acquainted with their 
 surroundings, at home and at business ; he knows the kind 
 of moral atmosphere they breathe ; he often is, as far as 
 possible, their friend and adviser ; and at all events he is 
 able to make his teaching personal and pertinent. He 
 deals not in generalities ; his teaching is not over their 
 heads, nor as of a bow drawn at a venture : as a rule 
 his class is composed of one sex, and its members, in 
 sympathy, experience of life's temptations, if not in social 
 position, have much in common ; his teaching need not, 
 therefore, consist of vague generalities, but may be 
 personal and direct. Then, besides the session of the 
 school, the teacher will have other opportunities of 
 influencing his class : he is, in a sense, their pastor and 
 their friend, out of school ; and by conversation, visitation, 
 correspondence, and in a variety of ways, he may do much 
 to supplement the Sunday teaching. Ministers have 
 lamented, over and over again, that their ministrations are 
 so vague and indefinite : they go on preaching year after 
 year, and perhaps never come into contact with souls they 
 may have influenced ; and they long for the direct dealing 
 and for the individual intercourse which a teacher has 
 with his class. This indeed, is one of the great advantages 
 of the Sunday school, and one which it is to be hoped 
 nothing will ever supersede. 
 
 Then, on the part of the class, there is a feeling of 
 individual interest and possession, and oftentimes of 
 prestige and pride, which keeps its members together, 
 preserves the discipline and even dignity of the class, and 
 tends to unite the members in associated effort, of a 
 missionary or philanthropic character. 
 
 The Sunday school fosters such feelings in a way
 
 90 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 nothing else can do. The members of senior classes, of 
 either sex, are often knit together by ties of common 
 interest, friendship, and affection which have not only 
 been of inestimable advantage to the members themselves, 
 but have proved of immense value to the church and com- 
 munity with which they have been connected. 
 
 The main idea of the Sunday school that of gather- 
 ing scholars in classes round a teacher whose aim, 
 prompted by love for Christ, is to make them acquainted 
 with His saving love, to train them for His service, to 
 develop in them a Christian character is so unique that 
 nothing can supply its place, and is so grand that, to its 
 more complete realization the Christian church, and all 
 who stand related to the school, may well do all within 
 their power. 
 
 BENJAMIN CLARKE.
 
 THE RELATION OF ADULTS TO THE 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 THE relation of Adults to the Sunday school is a subject 
 which deserves the attention of other Christian workers 
 besides those engaged in the schools. 
 
 So long as scholars can be retained in the school, the 
 Church has a hold upon them more or less strong ; and 
 they themselves are pledged to some attachment to God's 
 people. But the probability is great that their con- 
 tinuance in the school will result or has resulted in actual 
 Church membership, and in personal dedication to the 
 Lord. 
 
 It cannot, however, be doubted that the subject is one 
 of especial and peculiar interest and importance to those 
 whose time and labours are devoted to Sunday school 
 work. To them it is a joy to see the fruit and foliage 
 that follow after long and toilsome work in preparation 
 of soil and seed-sowing ; to them it is a vast reward to 
 see men and women in school and sanctuary for whom 
 they prayed and thought, and whom they taught years 
 before ; and, on the other hand, it is a grief to them to 
 know that many who gave promise of better things in 
 childhood have either wickedly departed from God, or are 
 careless and indifferent about the claims of true religion. 
 
 In dealing with the subject of " the Relations of Adults
 
 92 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 to the Sunday school " we propose to limit our observa- 
 tions chiefly to those who are to be classified as scholars or 
 counted as subordinate officers. 
 
 There are many other adults connected with the schools 
 whose relations to the institution are very close, very 
 interesting, and most important, but they do not demand 
 our attention at present ; of such are superintendents, 
 secretaries, librarians, and the noble army of teachers. 
 Their attachment is sure. 
 
 In some places, notably in Wales, there is no great 
 difficulty with reference to the retention of elder scholars. 
 There are many schools in England in which there are 
 very vigorous classes of adults. But it is unhappily the 
 sad fortune of an immense number of schools to lose a 
 great proportion of their scholars when they reach their 
 teens. This is to be deplored. It disappoints and dis- 
 courages teachers. It shows in many instances a bad 
 state of feeling and heart of the young people. It 
 destroys the hope and expectation of the Church. It 
 sends out into the world a large host of partially taught 
 persons who are hard to be dealt with, religiously, in 
 after days ; and as conversion to God is more probable 
 and more valuable in the days of youth than later in life, 
 it makes thoughtful Christians mourn over the fact that a 
 great opportunity has been missed, and causes them to 
 fear that on the tumultuous waves of life many will make 
 shipwreck of all that is good. 
 
 It may be asked 
 
 I. WHAT ARE THE RELATIONS OF ADULT SCHOLARS TO THE 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL WHICH ARE DESIRABLE AND POSSIBLE ? 
 
 (a.) There is continued relation continued connection. 
 In many cases through several years of childhood attend- 
 ance at the school has been one of the joys of life ; there 
 have been punctuality, attention, diligence, good conduct,
 
 RELATIONS OF ADULT SCHOLARS. 93 
 
 and the fairest promise of future excellence ; when after 
 a time regularity ceased, attachment to the class was 
 weakened, and soon attendance altogether was dropped. 
 Doubtless in myriads of instances kindly feelings towards 
 the teachers and the place survived, and loving memories 
 were cherished, but there was no continued relationship. 
 The result was disastrous to the scholars, and painfully 
 disappointing to the teachers. 
 
 Happily the reverse is frequently the case. The school, 
 the teachers, the officers, the companions, the habit of 
 attendance have such a hold of the |youth that they resist 
 all temptations to leave. Sometimes the custom has been 
 so long lasting that two or three generations of the family 
 are scholars in the same school. 
 
 There is great advantage in such a continued relation 
 of adult scholars in a school ; it creates a most healthful 
 public feeling ; it secures a strong constituency of elder 
 scholars, who prevent growing lads and girls from sup- 
 posing that it is childish to go to school ; it furnishes 
 a contingent from which to recruit teachers ; it trains 
 intelligent Bible-studying members of Christian congrega- 
 tions ; it gives a tone to the school ; it helps to conserve 
 the results of the toil of previous years ; and it gives good 
 cause to hope that the highest and eternal blessing of the 
 scholars will be secured. 
 
 (6.) But other adults will become connected with 
 schools which retain their elder scholars. 
 
 Some will join who never joined before. From one 
 cause or another they will attend Bible-classes where 
 others of their own age are to be found. 
 
 Then young men and women, former scholars in distant 
 schools, who have become residents in the place, will be 
 glad to continue the connection with a Sunday school, and 
 so the adult class will be a refuge and a home to them. 
 
 So important is the work among adults in Sunday 
 schools that it should have earnest and direct attention
 
 94 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 from pastors, superintendents, and teachers. It demands 
 the best talent and peculiar talent. The wisest, most 
 intelligent, and saintliest of Christ's servants in the Church 
 might feel themselves called to highest honour and most 
 splendid achievements if put to teach and guide our adult 
 scholars. There is no nobler work under the sun than 
 that of purifying and elevating human lives ; and there 
 are few finer opportunities of doing this than are possessed 
 by earnest teachers in our adult classes men and women 
 who have light and life in their own hearts, and who with 
 love, wisdom, and generosity give light and life to the 
 minds and hearts of this interesting and most important 
 class of our Sunday schools. The result of such work 
 will flow longer than oceans, and shine brighter than the 
 stars. 
 
 We must not overlook the important fact that of late 
 years a great work has been done in many places by adult 
 classes, especially at Birmingham. These are not all held 
 in Sunday-school buildings. They are worked by various 
 sections of the Church, and have been particularly useful 
 as worked by the Society of Friends. They have won 
 many to Christ. They have encouraged Bible-reading. 
 They have promoted temperance. They have taught 
 thrift. They have become places for the formation of 
 friendships. They have strengthened the Church in its 
 memberships. They have opened new fields for Christian 
 labour. They have proved that tens of thousands of 
 working men and women are well-disposed to the proper 
 observance of Sunday, and of the Christian religion ; and 
 that if God's servants are willing to give time and talent 
 to this department of toil, crowds of their neighbours will 
 be responsive to their call of invitation. 
 
 All this should encourage us to seek to increase the 
 number of such classes, and to work them very vigorously 
 with devoted piety, and great prudence.
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 95 
 
 II. SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE 
 RETENTION OF ADULTS IN THE SCHOOL. 
 
 (a.) In many Sunday schools there is no direct provision 
 made for the elder scholars or other adults. In all there 
 should be an Adult Class. In schools in which up to now 
 there has not been any, one should be formed at once. 
 The nucleus might be secured by getting a few adults, 
 servants, and other members of congregations in the first 
 instance to join, and then gradually drafting elder scholars 
 from the school into it. This can be done in cases where 
 the formation of large adult classes apart from the school 
 is impossible, and also in some cases in which it is found 
 desirable to have them both in and out of school buildings. 
 
 Numbers of big boys and grown girls leave our schools, 
 month after month, simply because they will not remain 
 with younger children. They consider themselves too 
 old, too tall, too near maturity to be ranked, as before, 
 among the scholars. It is most desirable to set this 
 difficulty aside by creating a public opinion in favour of 
 remaining in connection with the school ; but this can 
 only be done by making it the fashion to attend adult 
 classes. No doubt it is not the best reason that youths 
 should remain because others attend, but almost any 
 cause that retains them is desirable, for if they stay from 
 the lower motive of companionship or custom, they may 
 secure the highest and best of all blessings. When 
 Orpheus played and charmed the beasts by his music, 
 many beasts went from many motives. They went not 
 because they had refined taste and appreciated music, but 
 for various reasons. The wolf went to look for a lamb ; the 
 fox went to observe ; the ass went for company ; but they 
 all went and they were all charmed. The same thing is 
 true both in congregations and Sunday schools. Many go, 
 not from the highest motives in the first instance, but 
 it is well they go at all. They come under the influence
 
 96 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 of Divine truth, and very many are charmed and eternally 
 saved. 
 
 (6.) Perhaps the greatest difficulty in the case arises 
 from the want of suitable teachers. 
 
 This difficulty presses even in cities and large schools, 
 how much more, then, in villages and small schools. It is 
 more than one sided. Sometimes elder scholars could be 
 kept if their own teacher could move up in the school 
 with them ; but as they outgrow his class they do not 
 choose to go into that of another. Sometimes, however, 
 they chafe under their old teacher, who has not the tact 
 to deal with them as they grow older. They resent the 
 treatment that deals with them as if they were babies. 
 They discover that when they go to draw the water of 
 instruction the well is dry. 
 
 Then another side of this difficulty is seen in the fact 
 that too often there is no efficient teacher ready to receive 
 outside adults who wish to join, or elder scholars who 
 need to be retained. And yet there are hundreds and 
 thousands of intelligent, warm-hearted, but unemployed 
 Christians in the Church who would be admirably fitted 
 for this work, if they were called to it, and if they would 
 be properly responsive to the call. It is much to be 
 regretted that there is so great a waste of intellect that 
 lies torpid in the vast multitude of Christian worshippers, 
 when there are so many opportunities for holy toil. On the 
 other hand, how sad it is that the very industry of intel- 
 lect is so often busily exerted in labours that will be 
 profitless, even by God-fearing persons. The ministers 
 and officers of the Church, both in the Sunday school and 
 beyond, should recognize it as Church duty, definitely, 
 wisely, and as part of Church work, to provide teachers 
 for the adult classes in our schools. 
 
 (c.) The jealousy of position must not be permitted to 
 injure the work. Other teachers must be willing to 
 allow favourite scholars to move up; nay, should encourage
 
 DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING TEACHERS. 97 
 
 them to do so. Other teachers, also, must be willing to 
 welcome an outsider, if need be, when such an one, 
 specially adapted to the work, comes in. 
 
 In many of the greater schools the difficulty of obtaining 
 teachers for these classes will be minimized. It is part 
 of the work of an efficient Sunday school to train its own 
 officers ; and where ad alt classes are thoroughly organized 
 as part of the institution, teachers will often be in prepa- 
 ration for them. Such prove to be the best. There is, in 
 South America, a grass which has this peculiarity, that 
 the young plant grows up sheltered in the sheath of the 
 old one. The old blade withers, the new one is ready to 
 take its place. It is always well to have it so with good 
 systems ; it is especially well to have it so in our schools. 
 
 Probably if the difficulty as to the teacher of adult 
 classes is overcome, the highest mountain has been scaled. 
 The right person will attract, hold, and influence. The 
 value of the result can scarcely be overestimated. Human 
 life will attest it. The majority of those retained in early 
 manhood will be retained for all their earthly pilgrimage, 
 and for citizenship in the true Eternal City. They will 
 feed the lamp of their hope in these classes, and there find 
 it shielded from the fierce blasts of scepticism ; from the 
 teachings a holy radiance will be reflected over the whole 
 road of their life's journey; and when they pass on from 
 their sunset on earth to their dawn in eternity, they will 
 have to rejoice greatly that they continued from childhood 
 to age, from cradle to grave, scholars to learn, servants to 
 serve, youths and adults to teach and to be taught. 
 
 (cZ.) The tastes of youths are often a difficulty in the 
 way of their retention. 
 
 When youths stand on the threshold of manhood, 
 unless they have been converted to God, their future is 
 generally doubtful and uncertain. Temptation will bring 
 music to their ears ; the foe within will rebel against 
 purity ; the foes outside will beset their paths daily ; 
 
 G
 
 98 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 there is no hope that any of them will escape Satanic 
 attack. For, alas ! it matters not how many are the numbers 
 of our youths emerging into manhood and mature life, 
 there are hosts enough of the Evil One to possess them 
 all ; the wolf is never troubled by the large number of 
 sheep, and the devil is never troubled by the size of 
 swelling crowds. At Gadara there were two thousand 
 swine, but there was " a devil for every pig, and a pig 
 for every devil ; " and the parable of the miracle is justi- 
 fied still, for all around so far has Satan found a devil for 
 every sinner ; and, alas ! there have been and are millions 
 of millions of human hearts which are homes for devils, 
 hearts that should be temples of the Holy Ghost. It is 
 therefore most desirable that wise and godly teachers 
 should study the temperament and tendencies, and con- 
 sider the surroundings of every scholar. Their human 
 nature must be recognized : their higher intellectual diffi- 
 culties, and their lower appetites must be reckoned with. 
 The natural and acquired tastes of youth may be subdued 
 to service, but their tendency is to assume mastership. 
 They are sometimes powerful auxiliaries to the Christian 
 teacher, but very frequently they become the chief diffi- 
 culty when we try to retain young people in the schools 
 and churches. A great work has been accomplished if we 
 teach our scholars to make their judgment prevail over 
 their will ; and if we can train them to permit their better 
 instincts and their conscience to hold the reins and control 
 the tendencies to irregular courses and waywardness of 
 life. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, wisdom 
 in the selection of companions and amusements, and the 
 proper regulation of tastes are qualities of immense value 
 to youths ; but as they are not universally possessed, we 
 must act accordingly, and as far as possible overcome the 
 difficulty by wise treatment, judicious counsel, and by 
 bringing as many varied influences to bear upon the 
 individual lives of our scholars as we possibly can. If we
 
 REMOVAL OF SCHOLARS. 99 
 
 succeed it will mean more than the retention of elder 
 scholars in the schools, like ships in port. It will save the 
 good ship "Man" from wreck, and avert that worst of all 
 tragedies, the tragedy of a wasted life. 
 
 (e.) The change of residence of scholars is a great 
 difficulty, so far as the retention of many are concerned. 
 
 Myriads cease attendance at Sunday schools for no 
 other reason than that they leave the neighbourhood. 
 Uncounted hosts of youths from villages flock to the cities. 
 This is not peculiar to England. It is common at least 
 to the old world. Paris is France. Rome is Italy. 
 London with Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool 
 are almost England. The great towns have mighty 
 influence, are powerful magnets ; they are dictators to 
 the villages and lesser towns ; they are huge reservoirs 
 into which flow the active, the intellectual streams of the 
 nation. It has become the saying that " all our best and 
 pushing young men go to the towns." This is not an 
 unmixed good. It often involves mischief. It does not 
 nearly always result in prosperity. But there is the fact. 
 It cannot be denied. It need not be denounced. The 
 tendency will increase rather than lessen. As surely as 
 a devotee of Mahomet works his way when he can to 
 Mecca, so surely will country lads and lasses go to towns. 
 When they go they must necessarily be lost to their own 
 old schools. But why should they necessarily be lost 
 to schools, to the Church, to Christ ? Just at the point 
 of leakage we want care and watchfulness. We need 
 three things in our Sunday-school system ; viz. 1. A 
 regular arrangement for the official transfer of all scholars 
 leaving a school because of removal of residence ; this 
 could readily be made. The notes of removal should be 
 threefold : (a.) one given to the scholar to present on 
 arrival at a school in the town to which he goes ; (6.) one 
 sent by post to the superintendent of some school in such 
 town ; (c.) a counterfoil retained in the removal book.
 
 ICO THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 2. We need further a regularly working band of persons, 
 in large towns especially, whose Christian business it 
 should be to look after all transferred scholars ; and to 
 seek out others who have come up from other places who 
 were never formally transferred. 3. We need also to 
 cultivate the habit of correspondence between former 
 scholars and their old schools. 
 
 It is very probable that if an earnest systematic 
 attempt was made, in the great centres of population, 
 merely to recover old Sunday-school scholars who have 
 lapsed in the first instance simply through removal to 
 new localities, it would prove to be one of the most 
 successful missions of modern times. Then existing 
 adult classes would be strengthened, and their number 
 multiplied. 
 
 But what is true respecting villagers going to towns 
 is also true with reference to Englishmen and emigration. 
 Australia, America, India are every year drawing away 
 large contingents from our schools, and emigration, sea- 
 faring life, the army, and other causes continually 
 aggravate the difficulty of retaining elder scholars. Still, 
 let us not forget all are not lost. Untabulated numbers 
 join the Churches ; the ranks of teachers are strengthened ; 
 and often when the casual observer might suppose that 
 only ungodliness prevailed, the Lord can say of the place, 
 as He did of Corinth, " I have much people in this city ; " 
 and the reason is, there are so many old scholars there. 
 
 III. THE PECULIAR NECESSITIES OF ADULTS IN THE 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 We have already mentioned some of these a suitable 
 and separate room for class purposes, and a teacher or 
 leader adapted to the particular work : these are absolutely 
 necessary in order to secure the retention of elder scholars 
 and the success of the class.
 
 NECESSITIES OF ELDER SCHOLARS. 101 
 
 It is of prime importance to keep the desired end dis- 
 tinctly in view, and never to forget the chief "necessity" 
 of each life. The aim is not to secure mere physical 
 bodily presence in the school. It would be easy to devise 
 means that would succeed in simply filling a building, 
 and yet fail to do Sunday-school or Christian work. The 
 spiritual improvement, the actual conversion of each 
 person, has to be aimed at. Every scholar for Christ and 
 Christ for every scholar is a necessity. Without the life 
 of God in the soul our young people are without all that 
 makes existence desirable. It should therefore be the 
 constant and direct aim of all adult-class teachers to bring 
 their charge to personal faith in the living Lord, and to 
 a personal loving and avowed membership in His Church. 
 
 But there are other necessities consequent on this life. 
 The child of God will need care, culture, companionship, 
 spiritual food, mental instruction, and much help for the 
 development of the new and higher life. These will 
 demand from his guides thought, study, ability to teach, 
 friendliness of disposition, practical wisdom, and an ear- 
 nest spiritual life. 
 
 In considering the necessities of elder scholars we must 
 never forget that all their days are not Sundays, nor is 
 every place school or church. They have to live in a 
 work-a-day world a very matter-of-fact life. Often their 
 home surroundings are unfavourable to either mental 
 culture or spiritual life. They sit at hearths where, 
 despite kinship and blood relationships, they are strangers ; 
 they have little sympathy and evoke little in the house- 
 hold circle ; they need even human friends who will be in 
 true friendship more than their brothers are to them. 
 Cases of this sort are not rare. They should be provided 
 for. The school should be more than a Sunday school. 
 It should arrange for week-nights as well as Sundays. 
 It should be a hai-bour of refuge. It should furnish a 
 safe resort. It should begirt youths around by good
 
 102 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 influences. It should comfort them by friends. It should 
 spread pure literature, books and papers, before their 
 eyes ; and enlist sweet singers and skilful players to 
 discourse music for the ear and heart. It should, when 
 practicable, have a school or church parlour, pleasant, 
 pretty, attractive, into which the solitary of families, the 
 isolated, the companionless, the two and threes, the lads 
 and girls from distant homes could go and find welcome 
 and safe enjoyment. It would be a good use of space and 
 a profitable expenditure of money in many a town if such 
 a room was attached to God's house or the schools. 
 
 Doubtless the highest aim and design of Sunday schools 
 must always be kept distinctly in view, but it must never 
 be forgotten that our elder scholars, and those who soon 
 will be such, are not angels but human beings ; that they 
 have the ardour, the enthusiasm, the impulsiveness of 
 youth ; that they have often even much that is like 
 superfluous steam to the engine. They crave for action ; 
 they desire diversion ; they want amusement : not indis- 
 posed to be grave at times, at times too they are gay in 
 heart. Are these characteristics to be ignored ? are they 
 to be denounced ? May they not be met ? may they not 
 be utilized ? The miller hails with joy the rush and roar 
 of the torrents from the hills by them he can work his 
 mills. Why should not the Church welcome all the 
 characteristics of almost universal youth ? They will 
 help to work a hundred activities. But until utilized, 
 what then ? Is the school to cater for the pleasures, 
 recreations, and amusements of its adult scholars ? How 
 far may it go ? What is its duty ? The man who can 
 settle the question of amusements for the Christian Church, 
 wisely, satisfactorily, and sufficiently, will confer one of the 
 greatest blessings on the world, and deserve to have a 
 monument of gold, and a grave when he dies in that old 
 Abbey where for a thousand years a sanctuary of God has 
 stood, and where that king that has not died yet through
 
 RECREATION AND AMUSEMENTS. 103 
 
 all the ages, whose name is Death, has laid low many 
 monarchs and more crownless kings. Still, we must try 
 to do something towards dealing with the difficulty. 
 Certainly we must not leave Satan nor his children to 
 provide the recreations. We must not ignore the craving. 
 If we do, we may live to rue it. Innocent amusements 
 may be provided both in summer and winter. Teachers 
 should give themselves to the duty of retaining their 
 scholars by every proper inducement. The undertaking 
 will develop talent as well as please others. There are 
 intelligent and educated persons, for example, who will 
 never preach sermons, perhaps never teach in Sunday 
 schools, who could explain a picture or deliver a capital 
 lecture ; there are numbers of good musicians who would 
 feel that in singing or playing for one night a week for 
 the definite purpose of elevating or gratifying the tastes 
 of their neighbours, or for keeping youths attached to the 
 school and away from bad company, they were doing a 
 good work, who shrink from so-called Church work. Why 
 should not their services be utilized ? There are, indeed, 
 many who in various ways would help in this branch of 
 good work, if inventive Christian organizers would only 
 lay down the lines, and give them invitations. 
 
 There is little reason to doubt that a large proportion of 
 our elder scholars would never seek their recreation else- 
 where if they could stay in the schools on week-nights ; and 
 the probability is that others would be attracted to the 
 place if some arrangements were made for their entertain- 
 ment. They go to theatres, music-halls, public-houses, 
 and other disreputable places often because they know of 
 no better in which they can spend their evenings and 
 " enjoy themselves." Show them better and they will go. 
 Some years ago a ship lay in the London Docks horribly 
 cursed by rats. Their number, their odour, their destruc- 
 tiveness was intolerable. One day a West Indiaman, richly 
 freighted with luscious fruit, came alongside. A strong
 
 104 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 rope was thrown from her to the other ship. In the night 
 the mate of the rat-stricken ship awoke the captain. The 
 rope seemed to be alive. To their joy they saw the rats 
 were migrating. They left their old quarters because they 
 scented better. In the morning not a rat was left behind. 
 How it fared with the stranger ship need not be told. But 
 men and youths are like the rats. Bring near to them 
 that which is pleasant, attractive, better, and you will 
 secure them. The rich fruit we can provide will retain 
 our own, and will win outsiders. And all the subsidiary 
 work of this kind will lead to that which is higher. It 
 will teach us, that the religion of our Saviour, that makes 
 us glad at heart and willing to seek the happiness of 
 others, is not a spiritual straight-jacket, but gives all 
 needful freedom of mind, and heart, and life ; making 
 the life that now is joyous, and assuring us of that which 
 is to come. 
 
 There is a large class of adults, elder scholars, in the 
 great cities whose case deserves further attention. It 
 would be interesting to know the number of youths and 
 maidens who year after year come to towns from village 
 homes, and to the large cities those immense sponges 
 absoi'bing the population from smaller towns. Many of 
 them connect themselves at once with schools and churches; 
 but many of them are lost from the first. This often arises 
 from the fact that when lodgings were sought for them a 
 wrong selection was made. It is surely not Utopian to 
 suggest that, in the great centres of commerce at least, it 
 would be an unspeakable blessing if thoroughly good 
 Hostels were opened, in which the sons and daughters of 
 Christian people and elder scholars from our schools could 
 live. These Hostels to be not merely hotels for private 
 enterprise, but conducted for the sake of Christ and His 
 Church on religious common-sense principles. They would 
 be houses of Christian people ; places of refuge for un- 
 experienced youth ; in them parents could confidently
 
 HOMES FOR SCHOLARS. 105 
 
 place their children ; and so far as human precaution could 
 secure safety they would be safe. The various denomin- 
 ations of Christians might do well to consider the feasibility 
 of such a proposal. It would help to meet a necessity. 
 It would help to retain numbers of our youths. 
 
 But there are other adults in our schools who have their 
 peculiar necessities. Some are sheltered in the houses of 
 excellent parents ; others who, although scholars, are 
 neither children at home nor youths, but who have reached 
 mature life. It is impossible to treat the subject ex- 
 haustively so far as all these are concerned, but it may 
 be said that the officers of every school in which such are 
 found should consider their cases very carefully, and by all 
 proper means seek to promote their good and cultivate 
 their affection for the school. In military affairs directions 
 may be extensively given for warfare and tactics, and then 
 it is said something, perhaps much, " must be left to the 
 natural intelligence of the soldier." Precisely ; and 
 always assuming that the said soldier has " natural 
 intelligence," it is a wise thing to leave " something " to it. 
 So here. 
 
 IV. THE MODIFICATION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL SYSTEM 
 
 TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF ADULT CLASSES. 
 
 Notably in many places there needs to be a considerable 
 modification in structural arrangements. Old buildings 
 require to be adapted. Rooms separate from the bulk of 
 the school are absolutely essential. In the erection of new 
 buildings for school purposes architects should receive 
 directions with their first instructions to arrange for ample 
 separate class-teaching in various rooms. No plans should 
 be accepted simply because they are pretty pictures. 
 Close attention should be given to the proposals respecting 
 the rooms for adults, care should be taken as to size, 
 light, ventilation, temperature, modes of ingress and egress,
 
 106 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 access to the rooms being, if practicable, both from the 
 main, hall of the school and from the outside or passages, 
 so that members can enter or leave without necessarily 
 passing through the general schoolroom. The plan of 
 radiating rooms is an admirable one. By it the advan- 
 tages just mentioned are secured, with the great additional 
 one that by simply opening a door the members of the class 
 form part of the congregation of the school without moving 
 from their own class-room. Minor details are also im- 
 portant, such as the shape of seats, furnishing of the room 
 with taste, decoration of the walls, and supply of books. 
 In some places it is doubtless impossible to secure all for 
 which we plead ; but in many of these it is quite possible 
 to make such modifications of existing arrangements as 
 would result in great improvement. The plea that things 
 have done very well as they are is not decisive. " Acorns 
 were good until bread was made." 
 
 There are schools in which it is scarcely practicable to 
 get separate rooms for adult classes. In many such cases 
 it would be well for those classes to be met in other places, 
 or private houses ; and in fine weather in the country, in 
 open air, in field or garden, or park, or on the hill-side. 
 
 Sometimes considerable modification will need to be 
 made in the Sunday-school system of work if these classes 
 are to succeed. It is desirable that their connection with 
 the school should have recognition in one or more of the 
 public exercises ; in the opening or closing devotions, 
 or in both ; occasionally in attendance at the address ; 
 always at the anniversary : but the rules and requirements 
 applicable to the general school cannot be made to apply all 
 round to adult classes. There must be judicious manage- 
 ment. Men and women who are as old as the officers and 
 older than some of the teachers, will not be treated as if 
 they were boys and girls ; and grown youths will resent 
 being dealt with as if they were babies. Mischief has not 
 infrequently been done by school officers, other than
 
 APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS. 107 
 
 adult-class teachers, showing too much of the wand of 
 office ; forgetting that the attendance and submission of 
 adults is purely voluntary, and that the old Scotch proverb 
 is very applicable to them : " Friends are like fiddle-strings, 
 they mauna be screwed owre tight." 
 
 It may also be needful to modify arrangements as to the 
 appointment or promotion of teachers. 
 
 Occasionally, where no adult class has met, and where 
 a person well qualified to teach has been at hand, another 
 who cannot attract or retain elder scholars, but who 
 happens to be the teacher of the senior class, has objected 
 against the formation of an adult class, and against the 
 appointment of a teacher who would come into the 
 school and take scholars older than his. Such an objec- 
 tion should not be tolerated for an hour. The dog should 
 be turned out of the manger who cannot eat the hay him- 
 self, yet barks so loudly as to keep away the nobler 
 animal that can. Such an objection declares his unfitness 
 for Sunday-school work. He has not even learned the 
 lessons taught in John the Baptist's school, much less is 
 he fit to teach those of the greater Master. It is a very 
 dreadful responsibility for any man to take, when, because 
 of his idea of his own personal dignity and importance, 
 he prevents a great work of God from being done. He 
 should either yield at once or retire. His place could be 
 filled ; but if souls be lost through his obstinacy the loss 
 is irretrievable and eternal. The question should not be 
 left for him to settle. The interests of the school and of 
 souls should not be allowed to suffer. He holds his place 
 as a teacher not for rank, but for service. If he is a 
 hindrance, and will not improve, he should either be 
 urged to cultivate the grace and act of resignation, or be 
 removed. 
 
 So far, therefore, as the appointment of teachers to 
 their classes goes by seniority in promotion a very objec- 
 tionable plan it will be needful to modify the arrange-
 
 108 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 merit when teachers are required for classes of adults. 
 The work is so important, so exacting, so delicate, that 
 the fittest person available should at almost any cost be 
 detailed to it. Its success or failure depends largely on 
 the personal characteristics and aptitude of the teacher. 
 
 Each such teacher should be very loyal to the school, 
 and bend his efforts to make the class groove in as far 
 as possible with the general arrangements of the school. 
 He should be very careful not to form an imperium in 
 imperio. He must act as one of a body of officers, not 
 as commanding in chief. He must remember his obliga- 
 tions to the church of which the school is part, and which 
 gives him his standing-place. If the arrangements of the 
 school are modified so as to make his work more easy 
 and successful, he, on the other part, should strive to 
 make his class a source of strength and a model for the 
 whole school. 
 
 The system of every school should be as thorough as 
 possible, but it should be elastic. In the government of 
 a family, a clan, a kingdom, or empire, there is always a 
 distinction made between infants, children, and adults. 
 It must be so, too, in Sunday schools. In some instances 
 considerable modification will have to be made in the 
 system of working if adult classes are to succeed ; but 
 the cost will not be too great, the effort will not be 
 unblessed if the lambs and sheep of the Good Shepherd's 
 flock can be kept in the fold, and preserved from the 
 exposure and danger of the bleak mountains and sterile 
 wilderness. 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY.
 
 ON THE CONSTITUTION, 
 
 ORGANIZATION, AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 ONE of the most hopeful evidences of the development and 
 extension of the Sunday school is found in the growth of 
 the Sunday-school idea. 
 
 The Sunday school is not so much an institution, which 
 has come down to us confined within stereotyped and 
 formal limits, as it is an idea, which lias been entertained 
 by Christian men and women from generation to generation, 
 with ever broadening expansion, and with ever widening 
 development. 
 
 Such a subject as heads this chapter needs to be treated 
 every few years ; for what was written twenty years ago, 
 however ably and fully, would need expanding to ade- 
 quately express the Sunday-school idea of to-day. 
 
 And this it is that constitutes its power, and gives 
 indication of its ever developing influence. There are 
 ministers, and even Sunday-school teachers, who look on 
 the school as a useful institution that has been handed 
 down to us, the product of a less enlightened age than 
 ours, but yet possessing some advantages even for ourselves. 
 These have no true apprehension of the Sunday-school idea. 
 
 If we regard any institution as merely meeting the
 
 110 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 needs of an earlier generation, unnecessary and out of 
 date in this, though possessing some useful features, for 
 which it may be a little longer tolerated, we are not likely 
 to labour for its adaptation to present needs, nor for its 
 fuller expansion. But, on the contrary, we believe that 
 though the Sunday school was the product of a darker age, 
 when the religious education of the young, outside the 
 family, was really neglected, it is still a necessity in this, 
 when the desirability of training children of all classes in 
 the ways of righteousness is, at least, allowed by the 
 nation, by the church, and by parents. 
 
 There is a no less development of the Sunday-school 
 idea than there is an improvement iu the religious con- 
 dition of society ; and so it has come to pass that the 
 Sunday school of to-day, instead of being an effete or worn- 
 out institution, that, useful once, needs no longer a con- 
 tinuance, has really a higher mission, and is a more vital 
 force than ever. 
 
 The constitution, then, of the Sunday school is a different 
 thing from what it once was, and it is because this is not 
 adequately recognized that the Sunday school has not yet 
 obtained its proper position, nor put forth its full power. 
 If we do not realize the growing powers and capabilities 
 of the child, we are not doing what we may to develop 
 his nature ; and thus we not only do him an injustice, but 
 we do not ourselves recognize his capabilities, nor make 
 use of his energies. 
 
 Just so has it been with the Sunday school. So long 
 as it has been considered merely as a field for the employ- 
 ment of Christian activities that might do harm if not 
 directed into at least a harmless channel, or a place where 
 the neglected duties of godless parents might be to some 
 extent discharged, it has not been rightly estimated, and, 
 of course, has not been adequately developed. 
 
 There are, however, two most hopeful signs in our day 
 concerning the Sunday school : the first is the growing
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Ill 
 
 realization of the idea that the Sunday school is a vital 
 part of church life and work ; and the second is the ever 
 widening fostering care which the Sunday school does 
 exert over all who come within its influence. 
 
 But the first of these signs now demands attention, and 
 helps us to define more clearly the first division of the 
 subject at the head of this chapter. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 In the animal world it is, alas ! true that creatures whose 
 constitutions are well known are not always properly 
 treated ; but it is very certain that no animal can have 
 justice done to it whose nature is misunderstood. And 
 with the Sunday school, though it is not from ignorance 
 of its constitution that all the want of recognition and real- 
 ization of its importance arises, it is evident that unless ita 
 nature be recognized it is not likely to find scope for its 
 fullest expansion. 
 
 The Sunday school, then, is a vital part of the Church ; 
 or, as some prefer to designate it, it is the Church in its 
 ministry to the young. Negatively, it is not an institution 
 separate from the Church, though officered and carried on 
 by members of the Church ; it is not a home-missionary 
 operation, which may or may not exist, as there may be a 
 desire, or otherwise, to engage in such a service. The 
 Sunday school is the Church in her relation to the young, 
 as much as the services of the sanctuary or the week- 
 evening services are the Church in its ministries to adults. 
 It has not always been so deemed ; it is not now always 
 so administered : but these conditions no more invalidate 
 the true constitution of the Sunday school, than the fact 
 that many men lead active lives and do useful work in 
 open violation of the constitution of their physical nature. 
 
 The formation of the Sunday school may be an initial 
 act, or an after-effort of the Church. Sometimes, in villages
 
 112 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 and country districts, the formation of the Sunday school 
 has been the nucleus from which a church has afterwards 
 arisen. In the outlying regions of America, particularly 
 in the far west, there are to-day thousands of churches 
 which have grown from the seed planted in the Sunday 
 school. But, generally, the church is first formed, and 
 then the school. The church should first determine that 
 a school must be formed, and then should select one of her 
 members, who is deemed most suited, as superintendent. 
 The pastor should be recognized, as a matter of course, 
 president. He need not be elected ; he is, by virtue of his 
 office, head, at least, of all the spiritual institutions of the 
 church. 
 
 A great deal, indeed, most of the real management of 
 the school, will be delegated to the superintendent ; but 
 the latter will feel that his power is a delegated one. It is 
 as much the duty of the pastor to look after the young, 
 as the adults ; indeed, if it were a matter of opposing 
 claims that could be met in no other way, it would be his 
 first duty to provide for the young. If it were not possible 
 to obtain the services of a most suitable superintendent, 
 it would be the pastor's first duty to provide for the 
 instruction of the young. 
 
 Suppose a case and it is well within the bounds of 
 possibility : suppose that a pastor called to the pastorate 
 of a small church should be unable to lay his hands on 
 any man or woman whom he might deem suited for the 
 office of superintendent, what should he do ? Go on with 
 his ministry to the adults, and leave the children uncared 
 for? Clearly not. He should either form a school and 
 train some of his adult hearers as teachers, leaving the 
 others to come and receive what instruction they might be 
 able ; or he should so conduct the services in the sanctuary 
 as that, at least, the morning of the Sabbath should be 
 given up to the young, though not, of course, to the 
 exclusion of his grown-up people. The reasonableness of
 
 CLAIMS OF THE YOUNG. 113 
 
 this is apparent. The young are in the most impression- 
 able and most hopeful period of their lives ; they are most 
 easily led for good or for evil ; and, therefore, to neglect 
 them is to leave them to influences which are sure to 
 corrupt and destroy. 
 
 Adult church members who grudge the children their 
 portion in the quarterly sermon to them, or who resent the 
 five or ten minutes devoted to them in the morning service, 
 do not realize that the pastor's duty is to the young ; nor 
 do they fully realize how much they owe to the Sunday 
 school, which, by its special care of the young, releases the 
 pastor so much for ministrations to his adult flock. 
 
 It will be well that the deacons, elders, or church officers, 
 by whatever name called, should be not only officially but 
 vitally interested in the Sunday school. The interference, 
 or even presence of such officers is sometimes resented ; 
 but this is only in a vicious condition of things, where the 
 school has become almost a separate institution from the 
 church, self-contained, independent, foolishly allowed to 
 become so by indifference and want of interest on the 
 part of the church, until it has got to feel that as it has 
 derived little from the church, it is not disposed to admit 
 authority and control. 
 
 The presence of these officers, and, of course, the pastor, 
 should be welcomed at all meetings of teachers, or the 
 more public meetings of the school ; though, unless they are 
 themselves teachers, they will not, perhaps, often avail 
 themselves of the opportunity at least, at the Teachers' 
 meetings. 
 
 The happiest conditions are found when, as it often 
 happens, the pastor is in active sympathy and co-operation 
 the head of the school, and when the church officers are 
 themselves teachers or school officers.
 
 314 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 If a Sunday school be rightly constituted its organiza- 
 tion is a simple one. This does not imply that organization 
 is of little moment, or that it is of necessity an easy 
 matter. Let the one leading, constitutional idea of a 
 Sunday school be that it is a vital part of the church, 
 and it will be embodied in every step of its organization. 
 If the superintendent holds his power from, the church, 
 he will feel that he is responsible to it for the conduct 
 and management of the school. When appointed by the 
 teachers, he should have his appointment confirmed by 
 the church. He may report to the church his appoint- 
 ment of teachers ; or he may bring before her the selec- 
 tion he has made with a view of their being formally set 
 apart to their office by the church. The former plan will 
 generally be found the more practicable and desirable ; 
 but in any case it will be well for the church to have 
 an opportunity of recognizing those who have been called 
 to undertake the instruction of her young, and to com- 
 mend them by some simple service in prayer to the Holy 
 Spirit, without whose grace and enlightenment they can 
 but labour in vain. Such a recognition of the teacher's 
 work and office by the church cannot but add to the sense 
 of the importance of the position on the teacher's part, 
 whilst it assures him of the church's interest and support. 
 
 Even in cases where the superintendent is selected and 
 appointed by the church, the appointment is often con- 
 firmed by the teachers who act under him. And as many 
 of the teachers are usually members of the church, they 
 have an opportunity before the appointment of considering 
 his fitness for the post. In most cases, however, the 
 superintendent is elected by the teachers, usually with 
 the advice or concurrence of the pastor ; and in such cases, 
 the appointment being from year to year, the teachers
 
 POSITION OF THE TEACHER. 115 
 
 have it in their power to indicate their approval, or other- 
 wise, of the superintendent. He, then, is not only the 
 officer of the church, but he is also the officer of the school, 
 whom they have elected ; and by their co-operation alone 
 can he hope to direct the school successfully. They are 
 bound, therefore, by every consideration, to uphold his 
 authority, carry out his directions, and do all in their 
 power to promote the efficiency and the welfare of the 
 school. 
 
 Thus solemnly recognized, the teacher should feel that 
 it is no light duty he has taken upon himself, no mere 
 impulse to be doing something that he has yielded to. 
 He should see in the scholars entrusted to him no mere 
 gathering of children, whose attendance is quite as volun- 
 tary as his own ; but he should realize that he is an 
 ambassador for Christ, a servant of the church, an under- 
 shepherd to these lambs, bound to them by the tenderest 
 bands, and related to the school by the most solemn 
 responsibilities. 
 
 His services are unpaid, and his attendance is voluntary; 
 but so far from the freedom of his service being any plea 
 for laxity of duty or irregularity of attendance, on a 
 rightly constituted mind it will have the very opposite 
 effect. 
 
 His obligations are purely moral, and cannot be enforced 
 by any legal considerations ; therefore are they to be the 
 more conscientiously discharged. 
 
 He has entered into no legal contract by becoming a 
 teacher, and no consequences materially detrimental can 
 follow any neglect of duty; but he has none the less 
 entered into very serious engagements, and has taken 
 upon himself very solemn obligations. To the church 
 he has become responsible for the care of the young com- 
 mitted to him. They are the children of the church, for 
 whom she is responsible ; they are the lambs of the flock, 
 over whom the pastor has been set; and in committing
 
 116 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 them to the teacher's care they do not get rid of their 
 responsibility ; they do but take the teacher into a co-part- 
 nery of concern and privilege. The teacher owes it, then, 
 to the church and to the pastor that he prove faithful 
 to his charge. 
 
 With the school he has entered into serious engagements, 
 and to the superintendent he is under solemn obligations 
 The superintendent has appointed him to the class, and 
 he has the power of removing him ; but short of that he 
 has very little direct control other than a moral one. 
 He cannot enforce punctual and regular attendance ; he 
 cannot insure that the teacher's lesson be well prepared ; 
 he cannot be satisfied that the teacher is qualifying him- 
 self, by the right use of his leisure and by the wise 
 employment of means within his reach, for the efficient 
 discharge of his duties. He cannot even enforce obedi- 
 ence to the recognized rules of the school, for unless rules 
 are made and passed by the approval of the teachers they 
 will be as a dead letter. 
 
 Nevertheless, or may it not be said because of all this, 
 it is the duty of the teacher to yield loyal and hearty 
 obedience to the superintendent's rule. 
 
 Most schools have a code of rules, written or unwritten, 
 which are seldom irksome or unreasonable. If, however, 
 any of them seem so or become impracticable, the remedy 
 is at hand : the teachers have it in their power to propose 
 amendments or alterations, for they cannot complain of 
 want of freedom of action. 
 
 Then, too, the teachers stand in a moral relationship to 
 their scholars. There is a moral contract, which is none the 
 less binding because one of the parties thereto may not 
 fully realize his sense of duty : the scholar undertakes by 
 his attendance to behave properly, reverently, and to submit 
 to all the school regulations ; the teacher undertakes to 
 be regular in attendance, prepared with his lesson, and 
 willing to do all he can to train his scholars in religious
 
 ARRANGEMENT OF CLASSES. 117 
 
 knowledge ; he also undertakes to do his utmost to 
 conduct his class so that habits of orderly and reverent 
 attention, of self-denial and kindness, of interest in others, 
 of respect for the Sabbath, of filial obedience, and other 
 virtues may be engendered. It need hardly be stated 
 that for all these he must set an example in his own 
 conduct. 
 
 It must, alas ! be confessed that organization is one 
 of the weak points of Sunday-school management. It is 
 one that has received less attention than most others. 
 The superintendent, often a man of admirable qualities in 
 one or more directions, is sometimes wholly wanting in 
 this. He has, say, little or no acquaintance with day- 
 school methods, and, even if he have, he may not possess 
 the necessary qualities for commanding order and dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 This is not the place to contrast or compare the day 
 school with the Sunday school ; but it may be frankly 
 conceded that it is not desirable to have so rigid a rule 
 and so mechanical a regime as obtains in the day school. 
 Still, whilst pleading for a more social relationship between 
 the teachers and their scholars, and whilst desiring for 
 the teachers greater freedom of action and individuality 
 of method, there must be a respect for order, an obedience 
 to authority, and a compliance with the regulations of 
 the school. These last, as they apply to the whole school, 
 should be promptly enforced by all the teachers ; for the 
 discipline of each class the individual teacher is primarily 
 responsible. 
 
 One of the most difficult duties of the superintendent 
 is the arrangement of classes. First, as regards teachers : 
 He takes office, say, in a school fairly well supplied with 
 teachers as to numbers, but, whatever their capacity, he 
 has to make the best of them. He is called on to use the 
 material to hand and to continue its use as he finds it. 
 If he be a man of tact and judgment he may sooii be
 
 118 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 convinced that the school would be better organized if 
 there were a rearrangement of the classes, if there were 
 a pretty general shuffling of the cards. To a large extent 
 square pegs may be in round holes ; but he is not able 
 to make any sweeping alterations. The school has grown 
 up like a house that has been added to piecemeal ; a floor 
 raised here, a room thrown out there, a tenement reared 
 at the back. 
 
 A vacancy occurs in a class, say a large class of small 
 boys, who have been well kept in order by the retiring 
 teacher. The only one obtainable to supply his place 
 has little or no experience in teaching, and none at all 
 of small boys, and has as much sympathy with them. 
 The superintendent would like to break up the class and 
 divide it, but the boys plead to be kept together ; he would 
 like to make two or three changes in other classes, so as 
 to get the best teacher for this one, but the teachers 
 urge attachment to their scholars ; and so the superinten- 
 dent makes, against his judgment, an unwise appointment 
 to the vacant class. 
 
 The superintendent rests under a disability unknown 
 to the day-school head-master, who can rearrange his 
 classes and place his teachers as may seem most desirable. 
 
 Then as to the placing of the scholars when new ones 
 present themselves ; the superintendent may ascertain 
 from them the standard in which they are if they attend 
 elementary day schools, or something of their educational 
 proficiency if they are otherwise circumstanced ; and he 
 may be able to classify them with scholars of somewhat 
 similar attainments. But the educational test is not 
 always a reliable one. The backward big boy or girl must 
 not be classed with those of equal attainment, or they 
 will be discouraged and offended by being put into a 
 class with those much junior to themselves. 
 
 But not only on entering will difficulties arise as to 
 scholars. From time to time a wise superintendent with
 
 OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT. 119 
 
 his eyes open will observe that certain teachers have no 
 hold on some of their scholars. The scholars themselves, 
 if appealed to, would desire to remain where they are ; the 
 lax discipline of the class suits them, and if they are not 
 learning much, they have some regard for their teacher, 
 who is mild and pleasant. Then close companions and 
 bosom friends, who seem to come to school for any other 
 object than the right one, need sometimes to be separated, 
 and others, who have survived their schoolfellows of their 
 own age and standing, require to be moved into other 
 classes. 
 
 There is the danger, of course, of disturbing desirable 
 relationships existing between teachers and scholars, 
 which, no wise superintendent will wish to interfere with. 
 And, generally, it will be well to take the teacher into 
 confidence and consult him as to the removal of any 
 scholars ; but from the fear of doing harm, or, perhaps, 
 oftener still from a dislike to make any change, and for 
 a desire to keep things pleasant, it is certain that the 
 organization of many Sunday schools is sadly at fault. 
 
 Too often must it be confessed that organization is not 
 the superintendent's strong point, and the school suffers 
 in consequence. The remedy in such cases is not to get 
 rid of the superintendent until less drastic measures 
 have been tried ; but for the teachers either privately or 
 at the Teachers' Meeting to talk over the organization of 
 the school. As a rule the condition of the school is not 
 discussed; each teacher considers his class as his own 
 freehold, and unless the disorder or want of discipline 
 be so glaring as to interfere greatly with personal com- 
 fort, there is but little disposition to try and effect any 
 reformation. 
 
 From a long experience of Teachers' Meetings and also 
 of united assemblies for conference or discussion, we feel 
 that the office and duties of the superintendent have been 
 too much neglected. The duties and shortcomings of
 
 120 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 teachers are often presented, and pastor and church officers 
 are by no means neglected ; bnt superintendents have been 
 too generally ignored. And this is the more remarkable, 
 seeing how much depends on this officer ; how large is 
 his authority ; how wide his control ; how greatly the 
 success or otherwise of the school depends upon him. 
 Standing as he does in a dual relationship to the Church 
 and to the teachers, it is above all things important that 
 right estimates be formed of his office and functions. 
 These may be best considered in the chapter that relates 
 to the Mutual Services of School Officers, and Teachers, 
 and Scholars. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHURCH (OR CONGREGATIONAL) 
 AND MISSION SCHOOLS. 
 
 In theory they are the same ; in all essential points of 
 arrangement they are identical. The main difference is 
 in the class of scholars who attend. Usually it will be 
 found that the church school is the more highly favoured 
 in every way ; in school and class-room accommodation, 
 in school material, in supply of teachers, in income. 
 It usually has been longer established than the mission 
 school, and has become one of the recognized institutions 
 of the church ; its scholars, or some of them, are drawn 
 from the families of the congregation ; their parents are 
 either connected with the school by office, or are else 
 naturally interested in it. Its welfare and condition are 
 often brought under notice of the church by the pastor, 
 and of the members by the scholars themselves. Any 
 want is, therefore, likely to be made known and supplied ; 
 any appeal for extension or for more appliances, any 
 suggestion for treats or entertainments, any plea for 
 fresh agencies likely to improve the school, and needing 
 increased expenses for adoption, falls on sympathetic ears, 
 and is readily listened to. Every scholar from the homes
 
 THE MISSION SCHOOL. 121 
 
 of chnrch members becomes, at times, a champion of, 
 a pleader for, a living testimony to the value of the Sunday 
 school. 
 
 But with the mission school it is different. We are 
 speaking now, of course, of churches which have mission 
 stations with schools attached. To begin with, they are 
 often situated far away from the neighbourhood of the 
 church, and distant from the homes of its members. This 
 prevents some from becoming teachers who otherwise 
 might, and it also prevents the frequent visits of friends 
 whose interest and help it would be very desirable to 
 secure. It is as true in this relationship as in others 
 " out of sight, out of mind." 
 
 The mission school not able to secure sufficient teachers 
 from the parent church has to get them from any source 
 open to it ; and hence it often happens that the staff is 
 largely made up of those who are not members, who have 
 no particular interest in the church, and who are unable, 
 therefore, to enlist the sympathies of their more im- 
 mediate friends. Many of the best workers of mission 
 schools are drawn from the neighbourhood of the mission ; 
 sometimes they are among its converts, and have risen 
 from the ranks of the school ; but in all these cases they 
 are usually able to render but little pecuniary assistance, 
 and often they are so occupied in daily toil as not to 
 be able to give much time to the mission during the week. 
 Nevertheless, it will sometimes be found that from these 
 who have so little leisure are drawn the best workers 
 which the mission has. 
 
 Where the parent church takes a pride in her mission 
 station, bears it continually on her heart, and. responds 
 freely to her demands, it will be found that the connection 
 between the church and the mission is a doubly blessed 
 one. The best of the workers of the church are often found 
 in the ranks of the mission school ; the needs of the school 
 and of the neighbourhood are continually remembered,
 
 122 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 and the school never appeals in vain for help. There are 
 some churches whose mission schools have been their joy 
 and pride. There has never been a lack of teachers, or 
 material, and the churches have ever been ready to meet 
 all their needs. The pastors have had a deep and living 
 sympathy with the missions ; and the connection between 
 the parent churches and their offspring has proved a 
 source of joy and blessing to both. 
 
 The reason of this is not far to seek, and arises from 
 the nature of the work itself. 
 
 The church school by this is meant the school more 
 immediately connected with the church and ministering 
 in the main to the children of her congregation demands 
 fewer agencies than the mission school. Besides the class 
 teaching on Sunday, the occasional visitation of scholars, 
 the Band of Hope, the Missionary Association, there is 
 not much in the way of organization necessary for the 
 church school. Not that the importance of these should 
 be disparaged, and still less that the preparation of the 
 lessons should be considered a thing of little moment and 
 demanding but little time and thought. Still, after all 
 the necessities of the church school make much less 
 demand on the time and attention of the teachers during 
 the week than those of the mission school. The scholars 
 of the latter, drawn from a lower stratum of society, 
 demand greater help and encouragement. The conditions 
 of their home life are so much against them ; the circum- 
 stances of their whole surroundings call for so much more 
 sympathy and help. Nursed in poverty, brought up in 
 all the sordidness of straitened homes, too often without 
 any Christian training, robbed at an early age of their boy- 
 hood and girlhood, and compelled by the indigence and 
 exigencies of the family to become bread winners as soon 
 as they can pass their standard, these scholars need far 
 more than the Sunday teaching at the hands of their 
 teachers. Penny Banks and Sick Societies to encourage
 
 THE PASTORAL SIDE OF THE TEACHER'S WORK. 123 
 
 thrift ; literature for their leisure hours ; Bands of Hope 
 to promote temperance, and by this and other ways to 
 provide pleasant and useful evenings, thus giving them a 
 taste for innocent entertainment, and keeping them from 
 that which is demoralising; Christian Bands to foster the 
 religious life ; Flower Shows and Industrial Exhibitions to 
 afford employment for, and add interest to their home 
 life, all these and other agencies make demands on the 
 officers and teachers which will tax all their time and 
 develop all their energies. But in proportion as these 
 demands are responded to will the interest and sympathies 
 of the workers be evoked. 
 
 Then the temporal needs of the scholars will demand 
 attention : absence from school from want of clothing, some- 
 times from want of food, weakness and illness from the same 
 cause, will include other duties on the teacher's part than 
 the preparation and the giving of the Sunday lesson. 
 The pastoral side of the teacher's work will need to be 
 developed, and this will involve a visitation of the homes 
 of the scholars. These will reveal conditions of things 
 which will appeal to the tenderest and deepest sympathies 
 of the teacher's heart, and lead to a desire to do some- 
 thing to ameliorate the sad condition of the lives of the 
 scholars and their parents. Here will come in other 
 ministrations than those of teaching, and there will be 
 need of material help, which the teacher, as a rule, will be 
 unable, unaided, to supply. The assistance of personal 
 friends, and above all, of the church, will be sought, so 
 that the more pressing wants may be relieved. 
 
 This ministry will strengthen the band, uniting teachers 
 and scholars, and will enlist the sympathy and gratitude 
 of the parents on behalf of the teachers. 
 
 By-and-by there will grow up such an interest in the 
 families thus visited and relieved, that a desire to do more 
 for the adult members will be cultivated, and efforts on their 
 behalf, for their religious and material improvement, will
 
 124 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 be set on foot ; until from the Sunday school will arise a 
 network of beneficent agencies which shall embrace all 
 the interests of both scholars and parents, religious, 
 domestic, and social. 
 
 All that affects the scholars through the week, their 
 home life and influences, their daily employment, their 
 reading and amusements, comes within the purview of the 
 Sunday school ; and the fact that teachers are beginning 
 to realize that all that affects their scholars comes within 
 the range of their sympathetic interest, proves on how 
 broad and wide a basis the Sunday school rests, and how 
 readily it adapts itself, and how easily it may be developed 
 so as to include all the demands which each succeeding age 
 may make upon it. 
 
 BENJAMIN CLARKE.
 
 ON THE MUTUAL DUTIES OF 
 
 SCHOOL OFFICERS, TEACHERS, AND 
 
 SCHOLARS. 
 
 THE smooth and successful working of every institution 
 depends on the right discharge of the relative duties 
 assigned to those who are called upon to develop it. 
 And more especially does this hold true where the duties 
 are self-imposed and voluntarily performed. 
 
 It certainly has militated against the success of the 
 Sunday school that its officers and teachers have not always 
 recognized this : too many have taken up their duties 
 without realizing their responsibilities, and have laid them 
 down when they have been found to involve difficulty or 
 inconvenience. It is a sad confession to make, but it is 
 nevertheless true, that many have made the voluntary 
 nature of Sunday school duties a reason why they should 
 be discharged perfunctorily, or left undischarged when 
 convenience or disinclination dictated. 
 
 It need not be urged that such an estimate is dishonour- 
 ing to the work itself and to those who form it : and until 
 those who engage in Sunday-school teaching are inspired 
 with a right estimate of its importance, it is to be feared 
 that it will be too often lightly undertaken. The clear 
 understanding of the constitution of the Sunday school, 
 which has been considered, will do much to put it on a
 
 126 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 proper basis. When the school is deemed a part of the work 
 of the church ; when the church realizes its relation to it 
 and is jealous of its welfare and management, the duties of 
 those who are called to labour in it will be deemed more 
 responsible and important, and will not be so carelessly 
 performed. 
 
 But those who are most interested in the school need 
 not wait until this time arrives : they need not make the 
 failure of the church to regard the school in its right 
 light a reason or pretext why they should not do their 
 utmost ; rather may it be that a faithful performance of 
 duty will hasten on the time when the school and church 
 shall stand to one another in their proper relationship. 
 And the fact that the work of the school is honorary and 
 -voluntary should be a reason why it should command the 
 most devoted energies and the most loyal service of all 
 who take part in it. 
 
 As has been intimated, teaching has been too often 
 taken up from inferior or inadequate motives. Some have 
 found their way into the school merely to oblige a friend 
 who was hard pressed for help, and have continued it from 
 the same feeling ; others, because their friends were in the 
 school, and they had no other way, that offered greater 
 attractions, of spending the hours of the Sabbath ; others, 
 because their minister told them they ought to be render- 
 ing some personal service to Christ, and they felt so too : 
 duty drove them to the school and kept them there, but 
 they expected to find no joy in the work, and, so far, they 
 have not been disappointed : the scholars have not drawn 
 out their affection for them, and habitual attendance has 
 not made teaching easy or pleasant. But they were at 
 the post of duty, and that satisfied conscience ; and if 
 weariness of the work, want of interest in it, or unusual 
 discouragement and difficulty met them, it was part of the 
 cross to be taken up ; and crosses were never easy to bear. 
 Now, all these workers had some right feeling which led
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP. 
 
 127 
 
 them to the school, but they were not impelled by an all- 
 animating spirit of devotion to the work, without which 
 the highest joy in it and the greatest blessing from it are 
 impossible. We must feel that it is Christ's work, that the 
 souls of the scholars are His, that He calls us to be the 
 instruments in His hands of their salvation, and that 
 the Sunday school presents the easiest, 'the readiest, and 
 the fittest sphere where this saving work can be under- 
 taken. 
 
 On the human side the call may not be impressive or 
 important : there may be no authoritative voice of pastor 
 or church heard ; there may be only, as it were, a casual 
 invitation of a friend, the appeal of the superintendent, as 
 a last resort, for help, the wish to oblige some one whose 
 class would be for a time vacant ; but, when once in the 
 school, and its aim and purpose come to be realized, it will 
 be thankfully acknowledged that behind the human cause, 
 however slight, that led to the school, there has been the 
 Divine voice calling to this service for Him. 
 
 The consecration of ourselves to this work will lead us 
 to see that it has relationships to others as well as to 
 Christ. It is His service on which we enter, but there 
 are other workers, and all form part of the same whole. 
 We need Divine direction, not only for our own guidance 
 and enlightenment, but also to enable us to perform our 
 duties in relation to others. 
 
 The school is not a place where every servant of Christ 
 may enter and serve Him according to his own inclination, 
 irrespective of others. Teachers sometimes act as if this 
 were the case, and, hence, difficulties arise. Sometimes 
 teachers look upon their classes almost as if they were 
 their fee-simple. Have they not been assigned to them ? 
 Have they not been told they are responsible for them ? 
 Have they not been urged to adopt as their motto, " My 
 class for Jesus " ? 
 
 It is well that this sense of personal responsibility and
 
 128 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 of individual interest should be encouraged ; it is well that 
 the teacher's main anxieties and efforts should be spent on 
 his own class : but he has other duties to discharge ; he is 
 not to be isolated from the rest of the school. Together 
 with devotion to his class there must be loyalty to the 
 school. The class is his in the sense that he is primarily 
 responsible for its conduct and management ; the class is 
 not his in the sense that he can conduct it as he likes, 
 without reference to others. Hereafter the management 
 of senior classes will be specially referred to ; but, speak- 
 ing of classes assembled in the schoolroom, it will be 
 evident that they must be carried on according to the 
 general arrangements of the school. 
 
 A teacher, when appointed to a class or when joining 
 a school with the desire of being so appointed, should feel 
 that he has connected himself with an association of men 
 and women who have united for certain well-defined ends, 
 and who have decided on certain lines of conduct in their 
 individual and collective capacity. Individually, each 
 teacher is concerned for his class; collectively, all are 
 anxious for the well-being of the school. A teacher's first 
 care will be to conform to the general rules of the school, 
 which he will seek to carry out faithfully and loyally. He 
 will see that this is not only essential to the well-being of 
 the school, but also to the successful conduct of his own 
 class. He cannot expect obedience and respect from his 
 scholars if he be wanting in these to the school ; he cannot 
 hope to exercise authority or to impress his wishes on the 
 scholars if he be regardless of the wishes of his colleagues, 
 expressed by rules or, at all events, by regulation and by 
 custom. Before, therefore, he becomes personally inter- 
 ested in his scholars, he will feel that his first duty is 
 towards the school of which he has become part. At the 
 outset the latter may be easily discharged by the observ- 
 ance of the customs of the school, by regular and punctual 
 attendance, by conforming to the wishes of his officers ;
 
 QUALITIES OF THE SUPERINTENDENT. 129 
 
 but behind this there will be a spirit of loyalty which will 
 find, in time, many ways of expressing itself. 
 
 It must be fully understood by all who take part in 
 Sunday-school work, that they are not only responsible for 
 their particular class or office, but that they sustain a 
 relationship to the school : in other words, that their duties 
 are not only individual, but mutual. 
 
 In the light of this general relationship to the school, 
 let us inquire what are the duties of those who are 
 engaged in it. 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 It has been said that "the Superintendent is the school;" 
 a statement that does not, of course, mean that he alone 
 is necessary, but that so important and so influential is 
 the post, that the Superintendent can make the school 
 almost what he likes. But, even in this limited sense, the 
 statement must be received with some qualification, for, 
 without detracting one whit from the importance of the 
 position, it must be evident, from the mere title of this 
 paper, which treats of mutual duties, that the Super- 
 intendent largely depends on his fellow-workers for aid 
 and co-operation. Nevertheless, the office of Superintendent 
 is so responsible and so powerful for good or evil, that it 
 may be said that the school is what he makes it. 
 
 Let us, then, inquire what are the QUALITIES and the 
 DUTIES which should pertain to the office. 
 
 QUALITIES. Of course, in all that is here written, 
 personal holiness and consecration are implied. It is an 
 axiom in any work for God that the first essential is 
 that the worker be a reconciled son and servant, and that 
 love to God be the impulse prompting him to service. 
 In a manual which is meant to be practical, and which, 
 therefore, should be terse and pointed, much must be 
 taken for granted. The work is intended for those who 
 
 I
 
 130 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 are already engaged in the Sunday school, or who intend 
 to be, and assumes, therefore, that the essential conditions 
 of service are understood, and that those who enter upon 
 it are conscious that they can do nothing in their own 
 strength. Our sufficiency is of Christ ; this must lie at 
 the root of anything we attempt for Him ; and when in 
 these chapters duties are indicated and methods enforced, 
 it is understood that all our work must be " begun, con- 
 tinued, and ended in " Him, and that His all-animating 
 Spirit must not only have called us to this service, but 
 must sustain us and quicken us therein. 
 
 But while this has been taken for granted, it may be 
 well to remind ourselves of the Almighty Power which 
 is pledged for our help, and on which we cannot too 
 strongly rely, as we consider what are the duties prrtain- 
 ing to the various positions in the Sunday school. With- 
 out such a sense of reliance on God's Spirit, one might 
 well hesitate to enter upon a work that demands so much, 
 or might sink in despair, as its importance and responsi- 
 bilities became realized. 
 
 Especially is this true as one contemplates the QUALITIES 
 which should characterize the Superintendent. 
 
 I. He should love the young : if he be a father his 
 parental instincts should enlarge his heart towards 
 children generally. But it does not follow that a father 
 will feel a natural interest in other people's children ; we 
 know it is sometimes the reverse : nor is it absolutely 
 essential that the Superintendent should himself be a 
 father. There are instances of successful Superintendents, 
 who have no children of their own. But, whether a parent 
 or not, the Superintendent must be a child- loving man. 
 He must love them for Christ's sake, who died for them, 
 and who has left such express directions that His lambs 
 should be cared for : and he must love them for their own 
 sakes ; as seeing in them that which is worth living for, 
 and, if necessary, dying for. Like Michael Angelo, who
 
 LOVE FOR THE YOUNG. 131 
 
 saw the angel in the stone, he must see the angel in the 
 child. When the sculptor saw that, he worked as one 
 under a spell : when the Superintendent realizes what the 
 child may be, what he was destined by God to be, what 
 he may be permitted by God to help him to be, his work 
 becomes divine. Such a conception fires his soul, takes 
 possession of him. N"o wonder that he becomes enthusiastic. 
 Enthusiasm makes him bold in project, carries him through 
 difficulties, enables him to bear disappointment; and it also 
 communicates itself to others teachers and scholars. 
 
 Then this love for the young begets sympathy; and 
 sympathy is the passport into the child-kingdom. To be 
 admitted there is to obtain a key to the heart of children, 
 which makes it easy to establish near and close relation- 
 ships. Children, like dogs, have an instinct which draws 
 them towards those who love them. 
 
 This love for children, more than aught else, keeps a 
 man fresh and young ; not, of course, in the silly fashion 
 of aping juvenility in manner or dress, but in preserving 
 very vividly a recollection of his own boyhood, in guiding 
 him instinctively as to what is likely to be acceptable 
 to the young, and in giving him the power of putting 
 himself in the place of the scholars. 
 
 It also helps to make him bright and cheerful, two 
 essential qualities for all who are called on to take charge, 
 in any way, of young people. It is confessed that a 
 doleful Christian is an anomaly, that for one whose heart 
 is filled with the love of God to be habitually dull is a 
 contradiction ; but how much more so when he has to 
 commend religion to the young, and lead them to believe 
 that "wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness." 
 
 II. A Superintendent, then, above all others, must be a 
 man of sanguine temperament and of bright and cheerful 
 manner. His presence should bring sunshine ; his smile 
 should make hearts glad. It need hardly be urged that 
 this is quite distinct from levity or waut of dignity, and
 
 132 THE MODERN SUNDAY 'SCHOOL. 
 
 that it is quite compatible with firmness and discipline. 
 A man of suck a disposition will not only diffuse bright- 
 ness, but he will be open to any genial influences that 
 surround him ; and nothing so cheers one as close contact 
 with the young. The law of nature holds true every- 
 where : as a man sows, so will he reap ; love begets love, 
 and is itself increased ; gladness sown in smiles will 
 result in a harvest of joy, and no soil is so fruitful as 
 the hearts of the young. A bright, hopeful disposition 
 finds its most congenial atmosphere in intercourse with 
 children. As Wordsworth says 
 
 " A child, more than all earthly gifts to man, 
 Brings hope with it, and forward lookiug thoughts." 
 
 Childhood is naturally hopeful, and to gain ascendency 
 arid influence over it, one must be in sympathy with it ; 
 and to be in sympathy with it, one must be hopeful. 
 
 Such qualities as have been indicated help a Superin- 
 tendent to understand childhood, boyhood, and girlhood ; 
 and without an acquaintance with them it is hopeless 
 to expect to govern them. These qualities do not 
 necessarily furnish the required knowledge, but they 
 predispose a man to acquire it, and by making the work 
 pleasant, they make it easy. It is essential, then, that 
 a Superintendent should understand his scholars; and 
 this he cannot do without recognizing its necessity and 
 making some effort to acquire knowledge so important. 
 It will not do for him to say, " Of course, I have been 
 a boy myself, and I know, therefore, what boys are." 
 Boys are not all made alike ; children are not cast in 
 one mould, nor supplied as per sample : their ways are 
 manifold ; their dispositions various ; their tastes multi- 
 form. A Superintendent must study the material he has 
 to direct, not individually, in every scholar, but generally, 
 the broad characteristics of boys and of girls at various 
 ages ; and when occasion requires, as in dealing with
 
 FIRMNESS. 133 
 
 troublesome or refractory ones, he should seek to under- 
 stand their natures and dispositions. 
 
 III. Another essential quality is firmness : the Super- 
 intendent is a ruler; he is invested with authority; his 
 word is law, which both teachers and scholars should 
 implicitly obey. The former may try and uphold the 
 authority of a superintendent wanting in firmness, but 
 it is a difficult duty for them ; still more so is it to get 
 the scholars to respect his authority. Firmness con- 
 duces to order and discipline ; and is necessary in the 
 Sunday school as in the day school. Firmness manifests 
 itself in exacting perfect obedience, and being satisfied 
 with nothing less ; it is compatible with gentleness and 
 quietness of manner ; and, of course, with amiability. 
 It is not necessary to lose one's temper, to raise one's 
 voice to an undue pitch, to make signals for silence in 
 a violent manner : " in quietness and confidence " may 
 be strength. Something more, however, is needed to 
 temper firmness, and that is wisdom and discretion, or, in 
 a word, tact. Without this, firmness may degenerate into 
 obstinacy or tyranny. Wisdom and discretion are sup- 
 plied by study and experience ; tact suggests how to 
 apply them. Tact implies fertility of resource, quickness 
 of apprehension, ready insight into character, and decision 
 of conduct. Tact is as necessary in dealing with teachers, 
 and oftentimes with parents, as with scholars. A tyran- 
 nical monarch or a self-willed autocrat may rule without 
 tact ; but not so a Superintendent, whose teachers render 
 their services voluntarily, and whose scholars' attendance 
 is not compulsorily enforced. In a word, tact supplies 
 that executive ability without which there can be no wise 
 government. 
 
 IV. But, besides being a ruler, the Superintendent is a 
 teacher; and for this other qualities are required. First 
 of all, he should be a student, and, most of all, a Bible 
 student. The Sunday school is a place for Bible study,
 
 134 THK MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 and it is required of one who is at the head that he 
 should be an earnest and diligent seeker after Divine 
 truth. This is necessary for his own spiritual growth, as 
 well as to enable him to be the teacher of others. He is 
 the leader of the teachers as well as of the scholars; and 
 it is required of a leader that he lead. Those over whom 
 he is set are continually growing ; growing mentally, as 
 well as physically, growing in opportunities for good or 
 evil, growing in responsibilities ; they should also be 
 growing in all that pertains to a well-developed character. 
 The Superintendent must not be stationary ; for his own 
 comfort and joy in the work he must ever be learning 
 more and more of that truth for the study of which the 
 school has been formed and he has been placed over if. 
 In proportion as he reverently studies God's Word will 
 its importance and value be revealed to him ; he will feel 
 more deeply how well-adapted is the Sunday school to 
 make it known, and how responsible is the post to which 
 he has been called. In the pages of God's Word he will 
 find light to guide him, comfort to cheer him, wisdom to 
 direct him, and grace to help him to discharge the im- 
 portant and difficult duties which he has undertaken. 
 Feeding on " the sincere milk of the word," he will grow 
 thereby. 
 
 Then, as the necessities of his own soul are met by dili- 
 gent study, he will feel that the souls of others need to grow 
 too, and that, as he is their leader, he must help to lead 
 them in the way of truth. In proportion as he gives out 
 to others will he feel that his own soul and mind must be 
 continually replenished. He will thus become the centre 
 of life to the school, and teachers and scholars brought 
 into contact with one whose knowledge of Divine truth 
 is ever widening, will come to feel how much there is to 
 learn from God's Word. He will be " like unto a man 
 that is an householder, which bringeth foi'th out of his 
 ti'easure things new and old" (Matt. xiii. 52).
 
 DUTIES OF THE SUPERINTENDENT. 135 
 
 Feeling his duty as a leader, the Superintendent will be 
 anxious to acquaint himself with any new methods of work 
 that present themselves ; he will study the writings of 
 those who make Sunday school topics the subject of their 
 works ; he will avail himself of all help within his reach 
 to inform his mind and to perfect his arrangements. 
 
 His mind will be ever open to receive information or 
 suggestions ; he will be apt to learn and ready in applying 
 for the benefit of the school that which he does learn. 
 This readiness to acquire, will make him fertile in re- 
 source and wise in adaptation. In a word, he will form 
 a very high standard of what the school deserves and 
 what his post demands ; and he will be ever striving to 
 realize his ideal. 
 
 Having enumerated some of the qualities which a 
 Superintendent should possess, let us now consider the 
 DUTIES he should discharge. 
 
 As his connection with the church has been pointed 
 out, he will ever remember his duty towards it. He will 
 feel that he stands to the school as an under-shepherd, 
 who has to supply the place of the pastor or shepherd, in 
 nourishing and training up the young for Christ and for 
 His church. He will desire, therefore, that the scholar^ 
 should pass from the school into the church, and to this 
 end he will not only himself labour and pray, but he will 
 constantly, before the teachers arid, occasionally, to the 
 scholars, keep this end in view. Circumstances may, per- 
 haps, now and then warrant another arrangement, but as 
 a rule the Superintendent should be a member of the 
 church with which the school is connected. It is de- 
 sirable that he should be a deacon, or elder of the 
 church, so that the pastor and officers may be kept fully 
 informed of the progress of the school. At all events, the 
 Superintendent should be thoroughly loyal to the church, 
 and should be able, when occasion requires, conscientiously 
 to enforce the particular doctrines held by the church he
 
 136 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 represents. There is little danger to be apprehended from 
 making the schools arenas of sectarian teaching ; there is 
 some fear lest scholars and this applies more particularly 
 to the elder ones should grow up without understanding 
 what are the distinctive religious views entertained by 
 their minister and parents, and why they hold those 
 views. 
 
 The Superintendent who is thus called to do the work 
 of the church in the school will have a right to look to 
 the church for the best teachers it can supply. On him 
 will rest the responsibility of accepting or not accepting 
 the services of any who offer themselves as teachers. Un- 
 fortunately, the area of selection is generally so limited 
 that he is glad to avail himself of all those who desire to 
 become teachers. Too often he has considerable difficulty 
 in obtaining as many as he requires; and he has to look 
 about and invite persons to become teachers. Where there 
 are many to select from he will choose those whom he 
 may deem the best fitted ; but more often he will have to 
 be content with being satisfied that those willing to be- 
 come teachers are disciples of Christ, and impelled to the 
 work by a desire to serve Him. He will have to take 
 on trast their intellectual or educational fitness, although 
 he will not be indifferent to it, nor content that no effort 
 should be made to increase it. 
 
 The Superintendent will assign teachers to the classes 
 for which he supposes them most fitted ; he will be guided 
 by their ability, rather than by their social position ; he 
 may, however, consult their preferences or take into 
 account their former experience, if any. If the new 
 teachers are unknown to the Superintendent, he will be 
 glad to meet their views, if there be a choice of classes. 
 When appointed, the Superintendent will specially observe 
 for the first few Sundays how the new teachers seem to 
 get on with their classes ; he will note whether the order 
 in the class be good and the attention sustained, or whether
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE TEACHER. 137 
 
 the discipline be lax ; he will observe whether the lesson 
 be finished before the session closes, and whether that 
 last resort of an incompetent teacher, the story-book, 
 be introduced. He will not fail kindly to point out, in 
 private, what he may consider defects, offering, at the 
 same time, suggestions for their remedy ; and he will not 
 hesitate to prohibit absolutely, as a forbidden thing, the 
 superseding of the Bible by any other book. Of course, 
 the rale would not apply to the reading of an extract to 
 illustrate the lesson. 
 
 The Superintendent will often have to deal with un- 
 promising material teachers of few educational ad- 
 vantages and of limited leisure ; and, both for their sake 
 and his own, he will be anxious to encourage them to avail 
 themselves of any assistance within their reach. Where 
 practicable, he will advocate their joining some Normal 
 Class, which, alas ! is only to be found as yet in the 
 metropolis and some of the larger towns. 
 
 Preparation Classes are more easily formed ; but these, 
 again, are comparatively scarce, and the great majority of 
 teachers will have only their unaided study to prepare 
 them for their classes. 
 
 There is, however, a recently formed agency that may 
 help teachers, and that is the Normal Students' Association, 
 which has been established to train teachers by the means 
 of prescribed text-books, and written examinations thereon.* 
 
 The formation of Teachers' Libraries is greatly to be 
 desired. Not to speak of Teachers' Own Libraries, which 
 will be referred to hereafter, it is desirable that there 
 should be a library for teachers in connection with every 
 school. It may not always be convenient to have a class- 
 room available for study and for consulting works of 
 reference, but it is a simple matter to get together some 
 books which may be circulated among the teachers. They 
 
 * Particulars of this scheme may be had by addressing the 
 Secretary, Normal Students' Association, 56, Old Bailey.
 
 138 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 may themselves contribute to this, and other works can 
 be added from time to time. It will be the pleasure and 
 the duty of the Superintendent to foster and encourage 
 such an effort. Superintendents, as a rule, do too little to 
 assist their teachers during the week to prepare for their 
 Sabbath duties ; but here is a way in which practical help 
 can be easily rendered. The number of books will be few 
 at first, but as the advantages which they offer become 
 appreciated, there will arise a desire to extend them. 
 Whether there be Teachers' Libraries or not, preparation, 
 for the most part, will be made at home ; and the teacher 
 should possess for himself such helps as may be useful ; and, 
 fortunately, materials for assistance are at hand. THE 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION provides a variety of matter designed 
 to help teachers,* and the Superintendent will, from time 
 to time, bring such under their notice. Where Preparation 
 Classes can be established, of course there must be uniform 
 lessons ; but, in any case, it will be well for the Superin- 
 tendent to encourage the teaching of the same lessons 
 throughout the school. If a very strong antagonistic 
 feeling existed in the minds of any teachers, there would 
 be some difficulty in carrying this out ; and it must be 
 conceded that circumstances may sometimes arise which 
 may render it desirable for the senior classes to pursue 
 some special studies of God's Word. As a rule, however, 
 teachers will be ready to fall in with the plan of the school, 
 which should be a uniform series of lessons throughout. 
 There are many advantages in such a course : as has been 
 indicated, it is a necessary condition to the establishment 
 of a Preparation Class ; it gives a harmony and a con- 
 sistency to the engagements of the school ; the hymns 
 and prayers can be in keeping ; and the closing exercise 
 of the school can relate to the subject of the teaching, and 
 thus help to drive home the lessons taught in the class. 
 The arguments for a uniform lesson throughout the school 
 
 * For list of such material, see Appendix.
 
 UNIFORM LESSONS. 139 
 
 do not apply with so much force to the Infant Class, for 
 various reasons ; one of the principal being that the class 
 does not usually assemble in the main schoolroom and, 
 therefore, does not join in the closing service. Whoever 
 may conduct this exercise, the Superintendent should, as 
 a rule, require that it should have some relation to the 
 lesson of the afternoon. Here, again, there may arise 
 occasions when a departure is desirable : no rules should 
 be so inflexible as never to admit of being relaxed ; but 
 it must be evident that the address or review will be more 
 likely to be useful if it aim at impressing what has already 
 been taught, rather than at introducing some entirely new 
 subject. The value of such a closing exercise will be in 
 proportion as all the classes have been engaged on the 
 same lesson. A uniform series is an incentive to the 
 teachers' preparation : a system, or rather, want of system, 
 that allows every teacher to select his own lessons, offers 
 temptations to desultory and unprepared teaching. 
 
 Sometimes schools that are exceptionally favoured by 
 having a good Preparation Class, or a minister who will 
 draw out a series of lessons, and go through them with 
 his teachers, may use their own course ; but it will be 
 generally more advantageous to adopt those prepared by 
 the Sunday School Union ; if for no other reason than 
 that lesson help is furnished in a variety of forms by 
 competent writers. It must be manifest that no in- 
 dividually selected course could be accompanied by so 
 much help, so conveniently and so cheaply obtainable ; 
 and if some teachers have all the needed commentaries 
 and works of reference for a thorough preparation, the 
 great majority of teachers are not thus provided. 
 
 But whether it be possible to hold a weekly Preparation 
 or Training Class, or whether any of the teachers are able 
 to attend a Normal Class, or not, the Superintendent will 
 see to it that a Teachers' Meeting be held monthly for the 
 conduct of all business relating to the school. In many
 
 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 schools the meeting is held but quarterly ; but this is too 
 seldom. If it be said that this is sufficiently often to 
 transact all the business, it may be answered, that probably 
 a meeting once in six months would suffice to get through 
 all that might be brought before it ; but a good deal that 
 might happen in the intervals it would be well to bring 
 before the teachers. The school is not, like a day school, 
 to be managed by a master or mistress, or an outside 
 committee : the Superintendent is not an autocrat whose 
 will is law, and who has no need to consult others. Very 
 often he has had less experience in many directions than 
 some of his teachers, who are unwilling to give up their 
 classes to assume a more general, though a less personal 
 and direct, control. He may have had considerable ex- 
 perience in teaching, or he may not; at all events, he 
 cannot know the temper and the needs of individual 
 classes so well as the teachers ; and if he be wise, for his 
 own sake, he will be anxious to meet his teachers as often 
 as possible. There will be teachers to propose and receive, 
 the working of the school to review, new plans and 
 agencies to discuss, meetings to be arranged, and a great 
 many more matters that will present themselves to officers 
 and teachers who are deeply interested in their school 
 and anxious to make it as perfect as possible. Of course, 
 the school may be carried on in a machine-like manner, 
 and with all the precision and order of a machine ; but 
 that will not be to develop heartiness and enthusiasm in 
 the teachers, nor loving attachment in the scholars. The 
 success of a school, to a large extent, depends on its 
 moral and spiritual tone, and this can only be promoted 
 by constant and friendly contact and association. 
 
 The Sunday school will always labour under many 
 disadvantages as compared with the day school, but in 
 the love that pervades it there may be a moral force 
 which the latter can never know ; and it is this subtle, 
 far-reaching power, felt alike by teachers and scholars,
 
 THE TEACHERS' MEETING. 141 
 
 that the Superintendent will be most anxious to deepen. 
 There is no surer way to generate, keep alive, and diffuse 
 this power, than frequent meetings of the teachers and 
 officers. 
 
 The Monthly Meeting should be on a fixed date, so that 
 the evening may be always kept clear. There will be no 
 lack of matters to discuss and talk over ; indeed, the very 
 meeting will supply topics of interesting conversation : 
 and it may be said that the more frequently such meetings 
 are held, the more interesting and profitable will they 
 become. Teachers will get to know one another, and in 
 large cities and towns, opportunities for social intercourse 
 are all too few. Such meetings evoke the sympathies as 
 well as elicit the ideas of the teacher, and do much to 
 promote good feeling no less than to call forth suggestions 
 and plans which may prove most valuable in the conduct 
 of the school. 
 
 Where possible, the Superintendent will endeavour to 
 secure the presence of the minister, who, if he be wise, 
 will gladly avail himself of such opportunities of meeting 
 and co-operating with the teachers, and of becoming 
 acquainted with the working of the school. 
 
 Most well-regulated schools have a code of rules : there 
 are some where usage, well-defined and observed, takes 
 the place of written rules, but generally there are printed 
 regulations which guide the management of the school. 
 Where these exist it is incumbent on the Superintendent 
 that he should inform the teachers of them as they join 
 the school ; and he, of all others, will be careful to observe 
 them. He will not ignore a rule because he disapproves 
 of it; he will take the earliest opportunity of getting it 
 altered or abrogated. 
 
 The Superintendent will impress on the scholars, on 
 entrance, and continuously afterwards, that these are rules 
 to be obeyed ; that order and discipline are necessary for 
 the well-being of the school, and that they must be observed.
 
 142 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 He will not needlessly multiply orders, but he will insist 
 on those that are given being obeyed. If he notice any 
 disobedience or disorder he will quietly draw the teacher's 
 attention thereto : if he be at the desk and unable to go 
 direct to the class, he will not hesitate to mention it or the 
 scholar by name publicly. Serious infractions of rules, 
 insolent or defiant treatment of teachers, are best dealt 
 with after school when the unruly scholar's companions 
 are dismissed : it is more difficult to get a refractory one 
 to own his fault in presence of the class. 
 
 But the public enforcement of discipline will be a 
 matter of rare occurrence, and when it is necessary the 
 Superintendent will take care to make it understood that 
 it is for the well-being of the school, as well as of the 
 individual, that rules should be obeyed. He will con- 
 stantly show that the aim and object of the officers and 
 teachers, are to make the school the pleasantest place 
 possible, where love rules, and where the happiness of all 
 is desired. It will rest largely with the Superintendent to 
 impress this feeling, and to make it realized. 
 
 He will be one of the first at school, to welcome the 
 scholars and teachers with a cheery word or pleasant 
 smile ; he will occasionally notice some scholar arriving 
 without his Bible and hymn-book, and if the home be not 
 far distant he maybe sent for them. He will have selected 
 hymns bearing on the lessons, but he will, perhaps, be 
 glad of one of the teachers to open the school. As soon 
 as possible, he will arrange for classes without teachers, 
 and will get the school settled down to the teaching, which 
 he will be careful to interrupt as little as possible. The 
 librarian need not disturb the teachers if the books be 
 placed at the end of the form for him to collect. The 
 Superintendent will quietly check any class where disorder 
 or noise may manifest itself : and sometimes, if the voices 
 generally be too loud, or more than one is heard in 
 several of the classes, it may be well for him to sound the
 
 ADMISSION OF SCHOLARS. 143 
 
 bell, and bring the teaching to a momentaiy suspension, 
 after which the school will resume more quietly. 
 
 The arrangements for the closing exercise will be in 
 the hands of the Superintendent, who will either conduct 
 it himself, or obtain the help of some of the teachers in 
 rotation. It will be well, as often as possible, that the 
 exercise should partake of the nature of a review of the 
 afternoon's lesson ; but, in any case, it should be generally 
 understood that the lesson or some salient feature of it 
 should form the subject of the closing exercise. Occasions 
 will arise when it will be desirable to secure the services 
 of some stranger, who may prefer to be left unfettered in 
 his choice of subject. 
 
 The Superintendent will deem it important to secure 
 reverent attention during the devotional exercises ; and 
 at the close of the school will insist on a quiet and orderly 
 dismissal. 
 
 New scholars will be admitted after the opening of the 
 school. The secretary may ascertain if they have attended 
 any school in the neighbourhood previously ; if so, they 
 should be supplied with a form, or they should be told to 
 ask their parents to attend, or to signify their desire for 
 their children's entrance. When the names of the new 
 scholars are entered, the Superintendent will assign them 
 to classes. Some Superintendents give new scholars a 
 paper with the school regulations for their own and their 
 parents' guidance. It is too often the case that parents 
 are left to suppose that they have no duties towards the 
 school, whereas, they should understand that they incur 
 certain responsibilities towards their children and the 
 school. It is a wise rule in many schools, that every 
 scholar must be supplied with a Bible and hymn-book 
 of his own, and where such obtains the parents should be 
 informed, when their children enter. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOLARS. The Superintendent will 
 from time to time consult his teachers as to the progress
 
 144 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 of new scholars, or as to those whose conduct may not be 
 satisfactory. Sometimes it may be deemed desirable for 
 the Superintendent to speak to a scholar privately, or even 
 to remove him to another class, after consultation with 
 the teacher. The classification and removal of scholars are 
 often difficult matters, and require much tact and judgment. 
 As a rule, it is unwise to disturb the relation between 
 teachers and scholars, especially when there seem to be a 
 strong personal attachment and a good influence at work ; 
 but sometimes scholars would be benefited by removal to 
 another class. It will be well that the senior classes on 
 each side of the school should be looked to as desirable 
 goals to be reached : it serves to retain scholars when the 
 senior classes have this prestige ; but in the lower classes 
 it will be unwise to establish any priority of position, the 
 classes being designated after the names of their teachers, 
 and not numerically. Towards the end of the year the 
 Superintendent will consult with his teachers as to the 
 removal of scholars who, it may be deemed, would be 
 benefited by a change ; and any changes that are necessary 
 may be made at the New Year. Of course, if circum- 
 stances seem to warrant him, removals may be made at 
 any period of the year ; but anything like a general or 
 systematic moving up is to be strongly deprecated. It is 
 desirable that the Superintendent should know all his 
 scholars, at least by name. 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT DURING THE WEEK. There remains 
 but to notice the duties of the Superintendent during the 
 week. These will vary with local surroundings. In 
 London it will not always be possible for him to visit all 
 sick scholars, though he will make an effort to see those 
 who may be seriously ill. Some Superintendents make a 
 point of visiting all absentee scholars, and doubtless such 
 a habit gives them an immense advantage : it brings them 
 into contact with the parents, and enables them the 
 better to secure their co-operation ; and the knowledge of
 
 WKEK-EVEXIXG ENGAGEMENTS. 145 
 
 the scholars' homes which visitation affords, tends largely 
 to increase the influence of their Superintendent over them. 
 The Superintendent will do all he can to bridge over the 
 week, from Sunday to Sunday, by gathering the scholars 
 in various ways. Where possible, he will either promote 
 or encourage a Band of Hope, a Christian Band, a Youths* 
 Institute, or Young Men's Association, and a similar asso- 
 ciation for young women, or any such agencies for the 
 mental or spiritual welfare of the scholars. He may not 
 personally conduct any or all of these, but it will be well 
 for his influence, and well for the scholars that he should 
 be identified with all such efforts. It is not desirable that 
 such organizations should be separate from the school ; 
 they should be closely connected with it. Superintendents 
 of mission schools will also interest themselves in any 
 philanthropic or religious agencies for adults Bible 
 Classes, Penny Banks, Sick Clubs, or any means that may 
 be devised to assist and to elevate. 
 
 THE SECEETAET. 
 
 The office of Secretary is too often underrated, whereas 
 the position is one of the utmost importance. If the 
 superintendent be very efficient and vigorous, he will need 
 a good Secretary to second and support him ; and if the 
 superintendent be not all that could be wished, there will 
 be the need of a first-rate Secretary to supply, in some 
 measure, his deficiencies. 
 
 The Secretary should enter on his duties inspired with 
 a sense of the utmost importance of his office : he will 
 feel that there is scope for all the wisdom, zeal, energy, 
 and tact that he can command. He will consider himself 
 the superintendent's first lieutenant or right hand, to 
 carry out all his instructions, to further all his plans, to 
 support him in every possible way ; and, in addition, he 
 will carry out the duties pertaining especially to his office.
 
 146 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 He will keep the school registers, marking the attendance 
 of teachers, taking the number of teachers and scholars 
 present at each session, entering quarterly or half yearly 
 the names and addresses in the teachers' registers, which 
 he will carefully keep, and issue and collect every Sunday, 
 unless any of the teachers prefer being the custodians 
 themselves. He will keep in the school journal a record 
 of each Sunday's work, marking anything of special im- 
 portance. He will collect, either weekly or quarterly, as 
 may be the rule of the school, money contributed for 
 missionary or other objects. He will keep a supply of 
 Bibles and hymn-books, issuing them as they may be 
 required. He will see to it that there is a proper supply 
 of all school material. 
 
 During the week, it will be well if he can take some 
 part in the management of any agencies that may be set 
 on foot ; for his acquaintance with the teachers and 
 scholars, as well as his official experience, will be very 
 useful in any other position which he may fill. 
 
 In Preparation or Teachers' Meetings he will have an 
 agenda of business ready to be brought forward ; and he 
 will be prepared to furnish all necessary information 
 relating to the business transacted at the last meeting, 
 or to be entered upon at this. At every meeting he will 
 take the minutes, and this duty, by making him familiar 
 Avith past business, will constitute him an authority on all 
 matters of custom and procedure. 
 
 In arrangements for any meetings he will take a pro- 
 minent share : see that the speakers or those appointed to 
 take part are advised of their duties ; be present early to 
 see that the necessary arrangements are made for speakers 
 and reporters, if any are expected, as well as for the 
 assembly. Generally, too, the correspondence of the school 
 will devolve upon the Secretary ; and much depends upon 
 the promptitude of this part of his duties. As a rule, 
 speakers can be best secured by being invited at as distant
 
 DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY. 147 
 
 a date as possible from the time of the meeting ; and it 
 is safest to remind them of their engagement as the day 
 draws near, and to give them plain directions for reaching 
 the place of meeting. 
 
 One matter connected with speakers at Sunday-school 
 meetings may be here stated, for it is one that gets often 
 overlooked, -and that is, the payment of their expenses. 
 The fact that nothing is charged for services should make 
 this matter all the more necessary and obvions ; but, alas ! 
 it is not so, and often is it that speakers are put to ex- 
 pense, more or less considerable, which no one thinks of 
 offering to repay. It should be the Secretary's place to 
 think of this and see that it is attended to. This want of 
 thought and attention is observed not only at Sunday- 
 school meetings ; but friends connected with religious 
 work should, above others, seek to do all that courtesy 
 and justice demand. 
 
 In this, as in many other matters, the Secretary will 
 see to the carrying out of little details which often fail 
 of being accomplished, because they may fall within the 
 range of no one's duty. The Secretary will not only 
 charge himself with his own well-defined work, but he will 
 give a general survey, that nothing may be omitted to be 
 done for want of assignment to any specific person. 
 
 He will, or should be, a man full of suggestions, quick 
 to take the initiative, careful of details, and of ready adapta- 
 tion. In organizing or carrying on new movements, much 
 will depend on him : he will find out what others are doing, 
 and learn their methods ; he will interest teachers and 
 others whose help may be needed. In the development of 
 week-day engagements the Secretary will be a prime 
 factor ; and as these are becoming more and more part of 
 Sunday-school machinery and agency, a good Secretary is 
 more than ever of first importance. Mixing freely with 
 the teachers and other elder scholars he will gauge their 
 capacities and be ready to suggest to the superintendent
 
 148 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 suitable persons for any new movements or agencies. It 
 need not be nrged that it is "wise for the sake of these 
 efforts, as well as for the benefit of the school generally 
 not to speak of the advantage to themselves that 
 promising young men and women should be enlisted in 
 some work so as to get well into harness. The Sunday 
 school too often loses its most hopeful scholars, because, 
 as they grow up there is presented no sphere for their 
 services ; and they drift away to places where their 
 energies and powers are turned to account. 
 
 THE LIBRARIAN. 
 
 The office of Librarian is becoming an increasingly 
 important one, because the question of literature for the 
 scholars is more and more a subject that must be 
 considered. This is not the place to discuss what is the 
 object and what should be the scope of the Sunday-school 
 library. It may be enough to urge that with the increas- 
 ing activity of the press and the enterprise of publishers, 
 with so many cheap issues of sound as well as of un- 
 desirable works, the Sunday school should surely not be 
 impassive and listless. The Sunday school should not be 
 careless and indifferent as to what its scholars read. Ifc 
 should not be inactive when all round there are so many 
 agencies for disseminating literature. If this be so, the 
 Librarian is an important officer ; he should have a good 
 knowledge of books, and he should be deeply impressed 
 with the necessity of rightly directing the reading of 
 young people. The custody and distribution of books is a 
 simple matter and one on which we do not here propose 
 to treat compared with a love of books, and an enthusi- 
 astic desire to promote their circulation among the young. 
 The Librarian will make himself acquainted with the ages- 
 and educational standpoint of the various classes, so as 
 to be able to recommend suitable books, or supply them/
 
 THE LIBRARY. 14U 
 
 "unasked when the scholars have not made a wise 
 selection. He will put himself in communication with 
 the teachers, and supply them with the names and 
 numbers of suitable books for them to put upon their 
 scholars' cards. A library often misses half its useful- 
 ness, because the scholars do not present a well-filled card 
 of suitable books selected : the consequence is, that the 
 Librarian, in the hurry of his duties, is apt to select the 
 most unsuitable books for the scholars. It has often 
 happened that elder scholars, receiving a succession of 
 inappi-opriate and unsuitable books, have given up the use 
 of the library altogether. It must be remembered that 
 the cheap issues of standard and other works, the floods 
 of periodical literature that pour forth month by month, 
 and the establishment of libraries at Board schools render 
 it more than ever important that this branch of Sunday- 
 school work should be efficiently administered. An ear- 
 nest and zealous Librarian will report from time to time 
 to the Teachers' Meeting the condition of the library, and 
 will urge his plea persistently for new books, when he 
 may deem a replenishing absolutely necessary. And if 
 the school funds be not adequate, an appeal should be 
 made by the school to the church, whose members should 
 be all interested, as they are certainly responsible for the 
 condition of the school, when its requirements and its 
 claims have been clearly urged. 
 
 Yet, how seldom is it that the church takes any interest 
 in the library ; that its members ever make any contribu- 
 "tions to its shelves. One almost despairs of the Sunday- 
 school library ever assuming its proper position and 
 exerting its due influence, because churches take no 
 interest in it, and its replenishing is left so entirely to the 
 teachers, whose means are seldom equal to the demand, 
 and to the school funds, which are not always in a 
 flourishing condition. 
 
 A well-stocked library and an energetic, intelligent
 
 150 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 Librarian might do a great work in forming the taste of 
 the scholars for wholesome, useful reading, and in con- 
 tributing to the profitable and pleasant employment of 
 their leisure hours. 
 
 There is no need why the Librarian should be drawn 
 from the ranks of the teachers : on the contrary, this is an 
 office that the church might well be called upon to fill ; 
 for there are many men, or even women, who may not 
 deem themselves called upon to teach, who may yet serve 
 the school very efficiently in this direction. The owner of 
 a well-appointed library, or even one possessed of but a 
 moderate number of good books, and valuing them aright, 
 would not be content so long as the school library was so 
 ill supplied. Finding that it consisted for the most part 
 of small story-books, selected, mainly, because they were 
 cheap, so that the pittance to be expended in the purchase 
 of new books might secure as many as possible, he would 
 endeavour to provide for the intelligent youths and 
 maidens growing up, who need more solid reading than 
 religious tales, however well intended, and for the young 
 men and women, w r ho should be made to feel that the 
 Sunday school aims to help them on their intellectual, as 
 well as on their moral, side. 
 
 So far it has been the endeavour to indicate the purpose 
 of the several offices pertaining to the Sunday school, and 
 to define generally the duties relating thereto. It is not 
 enough that any one officer or teacher should know the 
 duties of his own position : he must clearly understand 
 his relation to others, and fully realize that all are 
 inseparably united for one common purpose. 
 
 DUTIES OP SCHOLARS. 
 
 So far the mutual duties of officers and teachers have 
 been dealt with. Are there no duties pertaining to the
 
 DUTIES OF SCHOLARS. 151 
 
 scholars ? Among the younger scholars it will be enough 
 that teachers impress them with a sense of their interest 
 in them, and get them to understand the real object and 
 purpose of the Sunday school, and the motive and aim 
 of the teachers in attending. This is by no means an 
 easy matter : many of the younger children fancy officers 
 and teachers must have some self-interested motive in 
 coming, that they are in some way remunerated for their 
 attendance, and that they, the scholars, are under no 
 particular obligation to behave well, still less to be 
 grateful. It will be well at an early stage to disabuse 
 their minds of such notions, and to make them understand 
 the true reason for the establishment of the school, and 
 the motive that impels the officers and teachers to attend. 
 This should have some influence in securing the respect 
 and obedience of the scholars, in assuring them that the 
 rules of the school are dictated in love, and that order and 
 discipline should not be deemed irksome, but as necessary 
 to the pleasant and efficient working of the school. They 
 should be made to feel that the aim of the officers and 
 teachers is to make the school a bright, pleasant, cheerful 
 place, where the Best of Books is to be studied on the Best 
 of Days, and where the love of a merciful and tender 
 Father and Saviour is to be made known. Even young 
 scholars may be made to feel, if properly appealed to, that 
 they have much to do in making the school all that it is 
 intended to be, and that by their cheerful obedience and 
 their ready compliance with the wishes of those set over 
 them they may do much to make all around them happy. 
 
 If scholars are to feel they have their part to do in the 
 successful working of the school, and there are mutual 
 duties as between teachers and scholars, care must be 
 taken to make the school as homelike as possible, that the 
 regulations are designed for the happiness of all, and that 
 the rule of the school is administered in a kind, gentle, 
 loving spirit.
 
 152 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 When scholars get older they may be made to feel that 
 much more is expected of them ; that their presence is 
 helpful, and their absence quite a loss to the class ; that 
 they are concerned in maintaining the prestige and 
 interest of the school ; that the younger ones Avill look up 
 to them, and that their loyalty to the school will have 
 much to do in forming a public opinion that the Sunday 
 school is not a place merely for children to be sent to, but 
 a desirable place for young men and women to attend, of 
 their own accord. When senior scholars learn that they 
 are thus valued, they will be anxious to prove themselves 
 worthy of this confidence and trust ; they will be pleased 
 to show more actively their desire to be useful. Once 
 make them feel that the success of the class, the welfare 
 of the school, is in any way dependent on them, and they 
 will wish to co-operate as far as possible. They will be 
 glad to take some share in the conduct of the class, to 
 take up some duty of visitation, or charge of funds, or 
 some service in the week : and in proportion as the 
 teacher is able to show the scholars how much devolves on 
 them will they be anxious to prove their sense of the trust 
 imposed on them. Then, from time to time, they will be 
 appealed to for service beyond the class, for occasional or 
 stated teaching, for help in the library, for co-operation 
 in week-evening engagements. If they have rightly 
 imbibed the spirit of the Sunday school, they will be 
 impelled by the motive that underlies the apostolic 
 precept, " Freely ye have received, freely give." 
 
 When officers, teachers, and scholars shall fully recognize 
 the duties that belong to others as well as 'to themselves, 
 and shall learn to feel how much depends on their hearty 
 co-operation, then indeed will the Sunday school be shown 
 working as a harmonious and symmetrical whole, and 
 will be likely to accomplish, under the happiest conditions, 
 the gi-eat and blessed work it has in view. 
 
 BENJAMIN CLARKE.
 
 ON ASSOCIATED EFFOBT; 
 
 PREPARATION, TRAINING, AND NORMAL 
 
 CLASSES ; CONVENTIONS, ETC, 
 
 BENEFITS OF ASSOCIATED EFFORT. 
 
 WHILE it is our strong desire in the present manuals to 
 urge the need of personal and individual study, and, 
 indeed, its sufficiency for all the absolute necessities of 
 the teacher, we cannot under-value the effect of co-opera- 
 tion both in study and work. 
 
 " Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the counte- 
 nance of his friend." It is in his home study that the 
 teacher becomes full of information ; in his private prayer 
 that he becomes strong for holy labour ; in his own 
 observation of himself and his surroundings that he more 
 completely understands his material, his instruments, and 
 his work : but there may yet be lacking a breadth of view, 
 a readiness of grasp, which contact and converse with 
 others will alone give. 
 
 The benefits. of associated work are so obvious that it 
 would be waste of time to enlarge upon them : it is 
 sufficient to hint at a few. Mentally, those who not only 
 strive after a common object, but prepare for and consult 
 over their work together, are aided and quickened im- 
 mensely. The different opinions and varying tastes, the 
 greater brilliancy of some and solidity of others, result in
 
 154 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 a more rapid and at the same time moi*e complete attain- 
 ment of one object of the teacher, viz. his own intellectual 
 preparation and equipment. 
 
 The 'moral benefits are still more important. The teacher,, 
 if a true learner, can never be solitary, for he has his own 
 Teacher at his right hand ; but yet he needs the stimulus 
 of human fellowship, and will find continual encourage- 
 ment in the conscious sympathy of others. Meeting 
 together for prayer, study, and conference, Christian 
 workers will find their difficulties lessened, their experience 
 enlarged, their mistakes rectified : they will avoid mono- 
 tony, and will learn very often to make light of what by 
 themselves they have felt to be disheartening discourage- 
 ments. 
 
 The teacher receives help from mutual effort. In the pre- 
 paration of his lesson for the coming Sunday, in resolving 
 the difficulties which he encounters in his work, in dis- 
 covering the principles which, rightly known and used, 
 will make that work easy and pleasant, nothing is like the 
 sympathetic counsel of his fellows. Help is in this way 
 both received and given. 
 
 He gains stimulus and encouragement. The solitary 
 worker is often subject to discouragements which dis- 
 appear when he faces them in company with others. To 
 use the soldier's phrase, he " keeps touch " with his fellows, 
 and is thus helped to press on steadily and boldly. The 
 successes of others will encourage us, and fill us with a 
 noble emulation, while we in our turn will be able to 
 stimulate our friends to effort. 
 
 TJie lest Tcind of economy is effected in co-operation.. 
 Sunday-school teachers will often avoid much painful 
 labour and save valuable time by combination. We 
 are benefited by the experience and knowledge of others, 
 and in our turn impart to them of our fulness, when we 
 meet together for counsel and study. In the preparation 
 of a lesson, for instance, where each teacher comes pre-
 
 ADVANTAGES OF CO-OPERATION. 155 
 
 pared with information he has gathered, much toil and 
 delay will be spared to all. This is a very important 
 consideration for busy people who have but small leisure 
 for study. 
 
 New and improved methods of teaching and organization 
 are 'most readily disseminated by mutual conference. Where 
 schools and teachers are isolated, either through lack of 
 opportunity for, or neglect of, counsel with others, there 
 will always be a danger of moving in a groove, and 
 using inferior or obsolete methods, unsuited to the 
 necessities of the time, even if no risk is run of mistaking 
 our true object, and lowering our ideal. But when 
 teachers meet together to consider their work in any of 
 its aspects, they cannot fail to promote its efficiency, on 
 the one side by the relation of successes, on the other by 
 the confession of failures. 
 
 The younger teachers will gain special benefit from the 
 counsel and experience of their seniors. Experience is the 
 best guide ; but we may not only learn from our own, but 
 almost as effectually from that of others. In no way does 
 this experience of our friends help us so much as when, 
 communicated by their living voice. And since it must 
 be remembered that education as a science is yet in its 
 infancy, we have the more reason for conferring together, 
 comparing our observations, and arranging our conclu- 
 sions ; that not only may we be helped and encouraged, 
 but that we may contribute somewhat to render the 
 religious education of the young as complete and effective 
 as it ought to be. 
 
 Within the short limits assigned to this paper, it will 
 not be possible to deal exhaustively with its subject, by 
 laying down complete rules for the conduct of meet- 
 ings of Sunday-school teachers. It will be sufficient for 
 our purpose to indicate some of the methods by which 
 teachers have sought usefully and profitably to combine 
 for mutual study, training, and encouragement.
 
 lo THE 1IODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 PREPARATION CLASSES. 
 
 This term has usually been applied to regularly held 
 meetings of teachers for the study of the lesson or lessons 
 of the following Sunday. It will be plain that this purpose 
 can be attained by the common effort of any number, 
 small or large ; and that in all probability, a small meeting 
 of teachers, well known to each other, will be more 
 successful in the effective preparation of the lesson than 
 if a large number, less intimate, were assembled; since 
 the interchange of thought and experience will be freer. 
 It is for this reason we urge that every school should 
 have its own Preparation Class ; and that the younger 
 and less experienced teachers especially should be en- 
 couraged to attend its meetings. In America such classes, 
 under the title of Teachers' Meetings, are far more common 
 than in England. Indeed, in some schools, the attendance 
 of teachers is made imperative. 
 
 Such a class as this needs but little organization, and, 
 if heartily and intelligently conducted, will soon justify 
 its existence. 
 
 The conductor of the class should possess or acquire 
 certain qualifications. It is expected of him that he shall 
 prepare the lesson, not for the teachers, but with them ; 
 thus, while he has so far studied the subject beforehand 
 as to have it clearly outlined in his own mind, he must 
 permit and encourage the minds of his fellow-students to 
 see the lesson from their own points of view. He must 
 rather seek to make each member of the class contribute 
 to the common stock of knowledge. The growing interest 
 which the ministers of our Churches manifest in the 
 progress and efficiency of their Sunday schools, points 
 to the conclusion that their office gives them the claim 
 to this duty of helping their teachers in their work ; a 
 duty which their own sacred occupation especially fits 
 them to accomplish. Where press of other engagements
 
 PREPARATION CLASSES. 157 
 
 prevents the minister from occupying the position of 
 president, the superintendent of the school, or one of the 
 more experienced teachers should be appointed. But an 
 essential for the success of the Preparation Class will be 
 the appointment of a leader who is himself a true teacher, 
 earnest in the work, sympathetic with others, and regular 
 and punctual in his own attendance. 
 
 The place of meeting is a matter of no slight moment. 
 Many classes, begun with enthusiasm, have dwindled 
 away and come to an end, because of a room too large 
 to be cheerful or comfortable, or from causes w r hich could 
 easily, with a little forethought, have been avoided or 
 remedied. Where the class is small the meeting may be 
 held more pleasantly in the house of the leader or one of 
 the members ; but it is of the utmost importance that it 
 should be held regularly, if possible always in one place ; 
 that the room should be in readiness punctually a little 
 before the time of beginning, and that those who are 
 responsible for the conduct of the meeting should be in 
 their places early. 
 
 The time of 'meeting must depend upon the convenience 
 of the teachers themselves ; but punctuality both in com- 
 mencing and closing (the latter especially often a neglected 
 virtue) should be strictly observed. As a general rule 
 the session should be short, not more than an hour and 
 a quarter, or a half, to avoid trenching upon the 
 scanty leisure of the busier teachers and the home duties 
 of all. 
 
 The method of conducting the class exercise will be to- 
 some extent shaped by local circumstances. The opening 
 and closing devotions should have a distinct relation to 
 the object of the meeting and the subject of the lesson 
 under inquiry, for it should always be remembered that 
 the teacher's duty is to learn the truth for himself before 
 he can rightly communicate it to others. As to the mode 
 of studying the lesson, it is only needful for us now to
 
 158 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 refer to the counsels given in another manual of this 
 series.* The leader of the class will do well to recollect 
 that among other objects two are paramount, viz. to 
 promote the acquisition of full information on the lesson, 
 and to lead his students to a habit of clear and definite 
 teaching in their classes. The first is best attained by 
 causing each member of the class to contribute his share 
 to the study of the evening ; and the second by taking care 
 that the salient truths of the Scripture lesson are clearly 
 present before the minds of all present ; if possible in the 
 form of an outline sketch of the lesson itself. 
 
 The books for use in the class exercise will not be 
 numerous. Every teacher present should have his own 
 Bible with marginal references and maps; but the help 
 of commentaries and such works of reference should be 
 sought beforehand, and certain of the class should be 
 responsible for so doing : this will increase the intei'est of 
 the meeting and save valuable time. But it would be 
 well to have a larger map in sight of all for use when 
 desired, and a good concordance at the right hand of the 
 conductor of the class or one of the members. Paper and 
 pencils will also be found useful, since every member 
 should be encouraged to take notes. It is much to be 
 desired that all our Sunday schools should be provided 
 with a thoroughly good library for the special benefit of 
 the teachers, and the Preparation Class would be greatly 
 helped in its work by the judicious use of the books 
 contained therein.t 
 
 THE TKAIXIXG CLASS 
 
 Has a wider scope and more inclusive aim than the 
 Preparation Class. Its programme will contain not only 
 the study and construction of lessons, but model lessons 
 
 * " The Young Teacher," ch. v. t Ibid., ch. viii.
 
 THE TRAINING CLASS. Io9 
 
 delivered to classes of scholars of various ages, as well as 
 practice lessons by the younger teachers, such teaching 
 to be followed by the criticism of the members present. 
 There will be occasional lectures by competent persons 
 on the various details of the teacher's office and work, 
 upon Eastern geography, manners and customs illus- 
 trative of the Holy Scriptures, as well as upon many 
 other kindred topics of practical use. The meetings will 
 tifford opportunity for the discussion of new ideas and 
 fresh methods, and for the ventilation of controverted 
 subjects. 
 
 Such a class as this is already carried on with much 
 profit to its m'embers in many different localities ; and it 
 would be much to the benefit of Sunday-school work if 
 the plan were adopted in every centre. But it must be 
 pointed out, that to give full interest and pleasure to the 
 meetings they must be attended by a larger number of 
 teachers than are necessary for the Preparation Class. 
 Hence it is the fit work of a combination of schools such 
 tis form a Local Sunday School Union. Theplace of meeting 
 should be central, convenient in size, well lighted and 
 comfortable, especially in the winter, when the best attend- 
 ances are to be looked for. 
 
 The arrangements should be under the charge of two 
 or three of the committee of the Union, who should be 
 responsible for the issue of programmes and notices, 
 the records of the class meetings, and the management 
 generally. The conduct of the meetings themselves 
 should be in the hands of one person president, chair- 
 man, or by whatever name ho may be called, himself a 
 competent and sympathetic Sunday-school teacher; but 
 as much variety as possible should be sought in the list 
 of those friends who supply the material of each evening's 
 study. In such variety, and in enlisting the personal 
 co-operation of as many of the class members as possible, 
 be found two great elements of success.
 
 160 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 It will generally be advisable to issue programmes for 
 short periods, not more than three months in duration ; 
 and in many localities to allow the summer months to 
 pass without any meetings. This will tend to give greater 
 vigour and freshness to the class when in session. 
 
 The following may be taken as a specimen outline of 
 a quarter's work. The lessons in each case should be 
 those of the succeeding Sunday: 
 
 I. Preview of the quarter's lessons. 
 
 II. Infant class lesson (practice). 
 
 III. Preparation of the lesson. 
 
 IV. Senior class lesson (practice). 
 
 V. Lecture How to secure attention. 
 
 VI. Three outline lessons infant, junior and senior (written by 
 members of the class). 
 
 VII. Junior class lesson (practice). 
 
 VIII. Lecture How to collect and use illustrations. 
 
 IX. Preparation of the lesson. 
 
 X. Infant class lesson (practice). 
 
 XI. Lecture Geography of Bible lands. 
 
 XII. Conversation meeting. Class discipline and order. 
 
 XIII. A review of the quarter's lessons. 
 
 THE NORMAL OR INTRODUCTORY CLASS 
 
 Has for its object the preparation of those who purpose 
 to undertake the work of Sunday-school teaching, as well 
 as the help of such as are actually engaged in that work. 
 As its first name implies, it has to do chiefly with the 
 principles and theory of Teaching as a Science. It will 
 readily be admitted that our Sunday-school instruction 
 would be far more efficient, mentally, morally, and spiritu- 
 ally, if our teachers themselves had at the outset qualified 
 themselves by a short course of training such as is implied 
 in these words. 
 
 The following is the syllabus of the course of study 
 which for some years past has (with slight variations)
 
 THE NORMAL CLASS. 161 
 
 been pursued by the class held at the Lecture Hall of the 
 Sunday School Union, London : 
 
 I. Introductory. The Sunday School Teacher's Work and Qualifi- 
 cations. Encouragements. Some Hints on Self-Training. 
 
 II., III. The Mental Nature and Powers of Children. How they 
 are exercised in the acquisition of truth. Their Treatment and 
 Development. 
 
 IV. Ideas and Words ; or the means of presenting Truth clearly 
 and forcibly. 
 
 V. Attention, its Nature and Use. How to rouse and sustain it. 
 
 VI. Memory ; or the Retention of Knowledge why indispensable. 
 How to promote its exercise. 
 
 VII. Judgment and Keason. Their use to the Teacher in applying 
 truth. 
 
 VIII., IX. Methods of Teaching : Pictorial, Illustrative, Question- 
 
 ing, etc. 
 
 X. Some Hints on the Use of the Blackboard- 
 XL, XII. Construction of Lessons : Practical Rules and Examples 
 
 Narrative, Figurative, and Doctrinal. 
 XIII., XIV. The Moral Powers. Their Nature and Development. 
 
 How the Teacher can use them. 
 
 XV. Moral Training. The Bible as the Book of the Sunday 
 School Teacher. 
 
 XVI. General Rules for the Teacher. Order and discipline in the 
 class. The Teacher's relative and official duties. Review. 
 
 The manual used has been the" Introductory Class Text 
 Book," by the late Mr. B. P. Pask ; and each evening's 
 study has been preceded by half an hour's exercise on the 
 International Lesson of the following Sunday, the leader 
 of the class, as far as possible, illustrating therefrom the 
 chief principles to be taken up in the evening's work. 
 The actual course of study, however, as well as the 
 choice of text books, must be left to the judgment of the 
 conductor of each class, as both must depend very much 
 upon local circumstances ; and it will probably be found 
 advisable to make the programme more popular and less 
 technical, by adding to it some subjects of a plainly 
 practical character, such as 
 
 L
 
 162 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 I. The Bible, its evidences. 
 
 II. The Bible, its interpretation. 
 
 III., IV. The Bible, its structure, development, and history. 
 V., VI. Geography of Bible lands. 
 VII. Bible manners and customs. 
 
 It will be seen that the effective conduct of such a 
 class demands great devotion on the part of the leader, 
 even though he may enlist the aid of other friends to 
 deal with the subjects of study. It should be his aim to 
 prevent monotony and consequent weariness; to secure 
 punctual and regular attendance, and to encourage the 
 full interest and co-operation of all the members. The 
 larger the attendance, the better will be the moral effect 
 of such a class as this : hence it will always be most 
 successfully carried out by the common effort of the 
 schools ; in other words, by the Union of the district, which 
 should secure the active sympathy of the ministers of 
 the Churches and officers of the schools in so useful an 
 enterprise. 
 
 The following " hints " by Mr, W. II. Gruscr will bo 
 found helpful : 
 
 HINTS TO CONDUCTORS OF NORMAL CLASSES. 
 
 1. When time and place have been agreed upon for meetings of the 
 Normal Class, sec that all members are notified accordingly, that 
 the room is opened, warmed, and lighted, and that seats, tables, 
 blackboard, blank paper, pencils, etc., are all provided. This will 
 be to each member of the class a guarantee of your enterprise, 
 and an inspiration to them to enter enthusiastically upon the new 
 movement. 
 
 2. At the appointed hour of meeting begin. Never mind who 
 may be absent or how few present. A punctual leader will soon 
 train a whole class to punctuality. 
 
 3. First of all sing part of a hymn, and offer a brief prayer. Two 
 or three verses of Scripture may also be read. The entire opening 
 devotional exercises should not occupy more than five minutes. 
 
 4. After this exercise, let the roll of members be called (unless, 
 as is preferable where the class is large, the attendance should have
 
 HINTS TO CONDUCTOBS OF NORMAL CLASSES. 163 
 
 been marked at entry), and a brief recapitulation of the instructions 
 of the previous meeting be given. 
 
 5. Put into a condensed form, for copying by every member of 
 the class, an outline of the lesson or conversation of each meeting. 
 Free use should be made of the blackboard for this purpose. 
 
 6. Do not be disheartened by occasional failures to keep up tho 
 enthusiasm of a meeting. It is not enthusiasm you are seeking, but 
 knowledge, and ability to make a wise use of knowledge. 
 
 7. Never allow controversy. A question box has been found very 
 nseful as well as interesting. Some members who are unwilling to 
 ask questions orally, may have their difficulties solved with small 
 expenditure of time. 
 
 8. Close the class at the hour announced. Don't drag on until 
 everybody is exhausted by fatigue. One hour and a quarter will 
 usually be found long enough for a Normal Class Lesson. 
 
 9. The following Hints on the use of the Handbook, are the fruits 
 of pifirtical experience in Normal Class work : 
 
 (a.) At the first Meeting of each course, let the whole plan 
 of study be briefly outlined, and the more prominent points 
 clearly set forth, by the Conductor. 
 
 (6.) The pupils should be required to master the portion 
 for each exercise, so as to be able to give the leading ideas, in 
 answer to questions, though the exact words of the Text Book 
 be not repeated. 
 
 (c.) On no account should the Text Book be brought into 
 the class, either by Conductor or pupil. 
 
 (d.) Each pupil should be provided with a Bible for reference 
 and illustrations ; also a Note Book, or pencil. Taking noteg 
 should be largely encouraged. 
 
 (p.) Let there be regular and repeated reviews, as the study 
 proceeds, and let the pupils be urged to produce written 
 summaries of each study, with original illustrations and appli- 
 cations of the rules and principles considered. The more the 
 pupils do. the more they will profit. 
 
 It must be remembered that any teacher who has 
 conscientiously pursued a course of study such as is 
 indicated above, will have done much to qualify himself 
 for the after- work of actual teaching. Having acquired 
 a fair knowledge of principles and rules, the practice of 
 teaching will be found very much more easy and pleasant.
 
 164 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 INSTITUTES. 
 
 In America the " Sunday School Institute " a combi- 
 nation of the Training Class and the Normal Class has 
 been exceedingly popular and useful. 
 
 Conducted usually by one or two of the most efficient 
 Sunday school leaders, and lasting for a limited period 
 say one or two weeks they often attract a considerable 
 number of teachers from the schools around, and render 
 efficient practical service to the cause of religions education, 
 
 CONVENTIONS, ETC. 
 
 Under this head may be included the more public 
 gatherings of teachers for mutual counsel and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 The individual schools have their annual meetings, at 
 which some of the addresses usually refer especially to 
 the teacher's work and duties ; this is yet more the case 
 with the annual meetings of our local Sunday School 
 Unions. In addition, many of these hold periodical 
 conferences, at which practical Sunday school topics are 
 discussed. It is easy to see how very powerful an influence 
 such meetings may have, if properly managed, upon not 
 only the teachers who actually attend them, but indirectly 
 upon all with whom they are associated. If the topics 
 discussed are of real value and interest, not only the words 
 of the chief speakers, but the debates or discussions Avhich 
 follow, should correct errors, widen the judgment, and 
 awake the enthusiasm of all who are present ; and their 
 individual work should, in consequence, be better done. 
 
 The Autumnal Conventions which have occasionally 
 been held in England, lasting over two or three days, and 
 the large County or District Conferences, usually held on 
 Good Friday or Easter Monday in popular centres, have 
 done good service in concentrating 1 attention on Sunday
 
 CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES. 165 
 
 school work and promoting its efficiency ; but in America 
 the SUNDAY SCHOOL CONVENTION has been welded into a 
 system which has rendered it an immense power for good. 
 
 Besides the International Convention, which is held 
 triennially in one of the large cities, and is always crowded 
 with delegates from the United States and Canada, man 3- 
 of the States have their own Annual Conventions, con- 
 tinuing several days, and largely attended by ministers 
 and teachers ; and some of the States are so thoroughly 
 organized that each county in the States has its own 
 Convention on a smaller scale, so that questions of import- 
 ance and opportunities of improvement are brought within 
 the reach of all, and the Sunday school system it exalted to 
 its proper position in the sight both of the church and the 
 world. 
 
 The School Anniversary Meeting affords one of the rare 
 opportunities for the teachers to approach the parents of 
 their scholars, and to interest them in their common 
 object, the welfare of their children. Too frequently, 
 however, these meetings fail in their object by the length, 
 vagueness, and general character of the addresses which 
 are given ; a fault often chargeable upon those who are 
 responsible for the arrangements. As a rule the meeting 
 should be short, the addresses brief, fesv, and on definite 
 subjects, selected and announced previously. 
 
 The Annual Meetings of Sunday School Unions have 
 also suffered from similar defects, and like remedies ai'e to 
 bo advocated. A judicious interpolation of well-performed 
 music, and the announcement beforehand of the subjects 
 to be treated in the addresses, will be found of no small 
 benefit. 
 
 Conferences of Teachers usually succeed better in the 
 provinces than in London, owing to various causes ; but 
 those who attend them almost invariably find great help 
 from the discussion of such subjects as are dealt with. 
 Some of the most successful are held under the auspices of
 
 166 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 local Unions, in different portions of their districts, and 
 perhaps the most attractive and useful are those where a 
 model lesson is given to a class by an experienced ami 
 skilful teacher. 
 
 Conventions are a larger development of the same idea. 
 These may be, and are, held annually, by groups or asso- 
 ciations of Sunday School Unions, and are attended by 
 delegates appointed by all the schools in affiliation. They 
 are productive of much enthusiasm and good feeling ; 
 and, if the delegates (as they should do) take back with 
 them a full report, and some part of the spirit of the 
 meetings, they cannot fail to be of lasting influence for 
 good. 
 
 Lectures to Teachers. It may further be suggested that 
 local Unions can organize short courses of lectures to 
 teachers upon subjects of practical utility, such as the 
 Study of the Bible, Geography, Natural History, and 
 National Customs illustrative of Scripture, or the Principles 
 of the Teacher's Work. A programme is appended of a 
 coui'se based on the last named : 
 
 1. The true aim of the Sunday School Teacher. Importance of 
 Self -Training as a means to full efficiency. Necessity of an acquaint- 
 ance with (a) the Truth to be taught ; (fc) the Mental and Moral 
 Natures of the Scholars ; (a) the Methods of Instruction and Train- 
 ing. Application of these principles to the Preparation, Construction, 
 and Teaching of a Scripture Lesson (examples from the International 
 Lesson of next Sunday) . 
 
 2. Brief sketch of the Mental and Moral Nature. The more 
 important faculties; how exercised in the acquisition, retention, and 
 use of knowledge. A few Rules for the Teacher. Different Stages 
 of Intellectual and Moral Growth, and the principles of their success- 
 ful treatment. 
 
 3. The Bible, the Sunday School Text Book ; its special fitness as 
 an instrument of religious education. Its use in the different 
 divisions of the Sunday school. Different kinds of Scripture lessons; 
 Narrative, Figurative, and Doctrinal. Scripture difficulties. The 
 Teacher's Books and Plan of Study. 
 
 4. Discipline and Order. The Teacher's personal and official
 
 LKCTURES TO TEACHERS. 167 
 
 relationships : (a) to his Scholars! ; (6) to his Fellow-Teachers arid 
 the Church. Economy of time anil power in the School organization 
 and work. Difficulties and Discouragements, how to surmount them. 
 
 It will be needful for lecturers and leaders of classes 
 always to bear in mind the necessity not only of thorough- 
 ness, but of simplicity. Further, they should aim at 
 making the work as practical as possible. Wherever 
 theory can be illustrated by practice, it will be found that 
 the bcueflt to the students is incalculably greater. 
 
 ALFRED SINDALL. 
 
 I'KI.N TED BV WILLIAM CLUWKS AND bO.NS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BtCCLE; .
 
 NORMAL STUDIES FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS, 
 
 PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
 COMMITTEE FOR NORMAL STUDY. 
 
 A PRIMER OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE. 
 BY B. A. EEDFOED, M.A., LL.B., 
 
 Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at New College, London. 
 
 Price Is. paper ; cloth boards, Is. Gd, 
 
 " Professor Rcdford's universally recognized qualifications for undertaking the prepara- 
 tion of such a work as this are a sufficient guarantee that it will be well done. The book 
 is one of an admirable series of ' Normal Studies for Sunday School Teachers." A teacher 
 will be well furnished who masters this lucid argument as to the true claims of 
 Christianity." Literary World. 
 
 THE BIBLE : the Sunday School Text-Book. 
 BY EEV. A. HOLBORN, M.A. 
 
 Price Is. Gd. paper ; cloth boards, 2s. 
 
 " Another volume of the series noticed above, dealing specially with the authenticity 
 and genuineness of the sacred writings, giving an account of the formation of the canon 
 and the characteristics of the several books, and then supplying wise counsel to ""the 
 teacher in regard to the methods of study he should adopt to fit himself for his work. A 
 most useful compendium." Literary World. 
 
 THE YOUNG TEACHER : an Elementary Handbook of 
 
 Sunday School Instruction. 
 
 BY WILLIAM H. GEOSEE, B.Sc. (Loud.). 
 
 Price Is. 6d. paper ; cloth boards, 2s. 
 
 " The author has here provided a most invaluable book for a superintendent to place 
 in the hands of young teachers." The Press. 
 
 " This little book should be every teacher's vade mecum. The careful study of it would 
 work a beneficent revolution in many a Sunday School." Literary World. 
 
 FROM CHRIST TO CONST ANTINE. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 BY WALTER F. ADENEY, M.A. 
 
 Price Is. Gd. paper ; cloth boards, 2. 
 
 "Is an admirable condensation of the history of 'the external course of (Jliristiaiiit v 
 during the first three centuries.' Many Sunday School Teachers cannot be expected to 
 have access to the larger works which set forth that history in all amplitude of detail; it 
 is crowded with facts of which they might make very effective use in their work." 
 tiaplist Magazine. ^^^ 
 
 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 BY VARIOUS WRITERS. 
 Price Is. Gd. paper ; cloth boards, 2*. 
 
 BIBLE STUDIES: for Normal Students and Sunday 
 
 School Teachers. 
 
 BY ELY. A. E. DUNNING, D.D., of Boston, U.S.A. 
 Price Is. paper ; cloth boards, Is. Gd. 
 
 London : SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 56, Old Bailey, E.G.
 
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