The first fifty years of the Sunday school

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1 5V 5*
6337

80331

CAVEN LIBRARY

KNOX COLLEGE

TORONTO

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

OF THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL

BY

W. H. WATSON,

Ont of the Secretaries of the Sunday School Union.

CAVEN LIBRARY

KNOX COLLEGE

TORONTO

LONDON :
SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 56, OLD BAILEY.

80331

PRINTED BY JOHNSON AND GREEN, LORD STREET, SOUTHPORT.

P KEF ACE.

UPON the occasion of the Sunday School Union, in the
year 1853, celebrating the Jubilee of that Institution, its
history to that period was recorded in a volume prepared
by one of the Secretaries and published by the Committee,
entitled " THE HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION."

A desire had been expressed for a Second Edition of
that Work, and in preparing for a compliance with that
request the Author discovered that the papers read at
the Sunday School Convention of 1862 contained a
large amount of information relative to the progress of
the Sunday-school system which had not any connection
with the history of the Sunday School Union.

He was therefore led to consider whether a volume
devoted to the narrative of the origin and progress of the
Sunday-school system during the first fifty years of its
history, in which the proceedings of the Sunday School
Union should be recorded only so far as they materially
influenced that progress, might not be the most convenient

[Vt PREFACE.

mode of preserving the memory of the facts which, under
the guidance of Divine Providence, have resulted in the
establishment of so wide-spread and beneficial agency.

The present volume is the result of that consideration,
and is now submitted to the perusal especially of the
friends of the religious training of the young, with the
hope that it will excite gratitude to the Author of all
Good, who has so wonderfully guided and blessed the
thoughts and actions of His servants, and made them
so extensively useful.

Should this contribution to the history of Christian
efforts since Robert Raikes commenced the present
Sunday-school system meet with acceptance, it will
probably be followed by another volume, devoted more
especially to a fuller detail of the manner in which the
Sunday School Union has sought to extend and improve
that system.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Early efforts for the moral and religious training of the young . . i

CHAPTER II.

The intellectual, moral, and religious condition of England shortly

previous to the establishment of Sunday schools . . . . 8

CHAPTER III.
The establishment of Sunday schools by Mr. Robert Raikes . . 18

CHAPTER IV.

The formation of the Sunday School Society and establishment of

the Stockport School . . . . 28

CHAPTER V.

Joseph Lancaster — The British and Foreign School Society —
Dr. Bell — The National Society for Promoting the Education
of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church —
The Religious Tract Society . . . . . . . . . . 36

CHAPTER VI.

Rev. Rowland Hill — Opening of the first Sunday school in London —

Mr. Thomas Cranfield . . . . . . . . . . "43

yj TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

PAGE

Introduction of the Sunday school into Scotland — Opposition of the

civil and ecclesiastical authorities . . . . . . 52

CHAPTER VIII.

Introduction of the Sunday school into Wales — Consequent demand
for copies of the Scripture— Rev. Thos. Charles— Formation
of the British and Foreign Bible Society . . . . • • 59

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. W. B. Gurney — Formation of the Sunday School Union —

Mr. James Nisbet — Mr. Thomas Thompson 69

CHAPTER X.

The extension of the Sunday school to America . . , . . . 80

CHAPTER XI.

Introduction of the Sunday school into Ireland . . . . 85

CHAPTER XII.
First public meeting of the Sunday School Union . . • • 94

CHAPTER XIII.

Efforts for the promotion of general education . . , . . . 107

CHAPTER XIV.

Mr. Brougham's plan for the promotion of general education . . 118

CHAPTER XV.

Formation of the American Sunday School Union .. .. ..126

TABLE OF CONTENTS. y»

CHAPTER XVI.

PAGE

The establishment of Infant schools .. .. .. T^4

CHAPTER XVII.
Senior classes in Sunday schools .. .. ., I4*

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Jubilee of Sunday schools — Conclusion i c2

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS OF THE
SUNDAY SCHOOL

CHAPTER I.

Early efforts for the moral and religious training
of the young.

AMONG the various subjects which occupy the attention
of the reflecting mind, there is, perhaps, no one more
interesting than that which refers to the origin and
gradual progress of events in the natural, the political,
and tho moral world. We behold the mighty river
rolling its ample flood towards the ocean : in its course,
it beautifies and fertilizes the land through which it
passes : by its agency, that which would otherwise be
a barren desert is converted into a fruitful field and
furnishes food for millions botli of man and beast.
The traveller, anxious to examine the spring whence this
blessing proceeds, traces the stream upwards to its
source; and, after a long and painful journey, his
curiosity is gratified. He then perceives how apparently
insignificant in its early course is the stream, which,
widening as it proceeds, at length confers blessings so
varied and extensive.

Such also is the feeling with which we examine the
progress of a mighty empire, that overruns the whole
civilized world, and brings almost every known nation

2 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

into subjection to its authority. The historian traces
back the steps by which it advanced to its power:
he finds the limits within which that power operates,
gradually contracted, and the authority, much more
mildly exercised ; till, at length, he reaches the time
when a few hardy men, perhaps of doubtful character,
under an able chief, found themselves a home in a few
temporary dwellings, erected by them on that spot
which after a few centuries became the metropolis of
the world.

A curiosity of a similar kind is awakened with respect
to the master minds to whom we are indebted for so
much of our knowledge. While we admire the extent
of their acquirements, and the readiness with which their
mental treasures are brought out to enrich the world, we
are naturally desirous of ascertaining the process by
which these stores have been accumulated; and our
delight is great when we become acquainted with the first
feeble efforts of that intellect whose matured power holds
nations in voluntary subjection.

In looking around upon society, at the present period,
we can scarcely avoid being struck with the existence of
numerous institutions designed to promote the moral and
spiritual welfare of mankind. These institutions employ
an extensive agency — they raise considerable funds, and
exert a wide-spread influence. Their existence and
prosperity are not dependent on worldly power, but are
the result of voluntary Christian exertion, and they are
producing an amount of good which defies calculation.
Their origin, however, was obscure ; their progress has
been gradual ; and it affords a pleasing employment to

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ^

the mind which sympathizes with their objects, to trace
back their progress, and to contemplate the insignificant
commencement of these benevolent efforts.

Among such institutions there is no one which has a
greater claim to attentive regard, than the Sunday
school, designed to train up the rising generation in the
knowledge of God. The mode by which this object is
attained is very simple. Individuals influenced by love
to the Saviour, and concern for the welfare of the young,
gather them together on the Lord's day, to unite in
devotional exercises, to read the Word of God, to receive
explanations of that word, and to attend public worship.
It is impossible for anyone to doubt that such a discipline
must be highly beneficial to the youthful mind. The
Divine Word encourages us to believe that the Holy
Spirit will make it effectual to the spiritual and eternal
benefit of the soul ; and experience has borne testimony
to its blessed results. Two millions and a half of the
rising generation of our land are enjoying the benefits of
this system, under the care of more than three hundred
thousand gratuitous teachers ; while it is gradually
making its way into other countries, and extending its
influence throughout the earth.

But if we trace back this noble stream to its source,
we shall find that it afforded but little prospect of
attaining its present magnitude. The origin of Sunday
schools presents an illustration of the fact, which has
been often noticed, that the supposed inventions of
later days, arc but the development of ideas enter
tained in ages long since past, but which have either
not been all at carried out into actual practice, ox1

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

have failed at that period to exert any permanent

and wide-spread influence. The originator of Sunday

schools appears to have been St. Charles Borromco,

Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, and nephew of Pope

Pius IV. He died in the year 1584, at the early age of

forty-six, of a violent fever caught in the neighbouring

mountains. The Rev. J. C. Eustace, in his "Classical

Tour Through Italy," 7th edition, vol. 1, pp. 144—146,

says of him, " It was his destiny to render to his people

those great and splendid services which excite public

applause and gratitude, and to perform at the same

time those humbler duties which, though perhaps more

meritorious, are more obscure, and sometimes produce

more obloquy than acknowledgment. Thus, he founded

schools, colleges, and hospitals, built parochial churches,

most affectionately attended his flock during a destructive

pestilence, erected a lazaretto, and served the forsaken

victims with his own hands. These are duties uncom

mon, magnificent, and heroic, and are followed by fame

and glory. But to reform a clergy and people depraved

and almost barbarized by .ages of war, invasion, internal

dissension, and by their concomitant evils, famine, pesti

lence, and general misery: to extend his influence to

every part of an immense diocese, including some of the

wildest regions of the Alps, to visit every village in

person, and to inspect and correct every disorder, are

offices of little pomp, and of great difficulty. Yet, this

laborious part of his pastoral charge lie went through

with the courage and the perseverance of an apostle,

and so great was his success, that the diocese of Milan,

(the most extensive perhaps in Italy, as it contains at

01 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

least 850 parishes,) became a model of decency, order,
and regularity, and in this respect has excited the
admiration of every impartial observer. The good
effects of the zeal of St. Charles extended far beyond
the limits of his diocese, and most of his regulations
for the reformation of his clergy, such as the establish
ment of seminaries, yearly retreats, &c., were adopted
by the Gallican church, and extended over France and
Germany. Many of his excellent institutions still
remain, and amongst others, that of Sunday schools ;
and it is both novel and affecting to behold on that day
(Sunday) the vast area of the cathedral filled with
children, forming two grand divisions of boys and girls,
ranged opposite each other, and then again subdivided
into classes according to their age and capacities, drawn
up between the pillars, while two or more instructors
attend each class, and direct their questions and explana
tions to every little individual without distinction. A
clergyman attends each class, accompanied by one or
more laymen for the boys, and for the girls by as many
matrons. The lay persons are said to be oftentimes of
the first distinction. Tables are placed in different
recesses for writing. This admirable practice, so bene
ficial and so edifying, is not confined to the cathedral, or
even to Milan. The pious Archbishop extended it to
every part of his immense diocese, and it is observed in
all the parochial churches of the Milanese, and of the
neighbouring dioceses, of such at least as are suffragans
of Milan."

A more recent traveller (Rev. J. Stoughton, " Scenes
in Many Lands, with their Associations,") says, that he?

(3 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

was very anxious to ascertain whether the same practices
still prevailed. " They do ; and not only did we see
the classes assembled in the churches, but in one or two
cases there were school-rooms with forms placed, and
the children gathering so completely a V Anglais, that a
Christian friend and Sabbath school teacher who accom
panied me, observed, he could fancy himself at home,
about to enter on his accustomed toils."

These schools are held from two to four o'clock in the
afternoon, and are closed by the pastor with a catechetical
discourse. The books used contain an explanation of
the creed, the commandments, the Lord's prayer, and the
sacraments, and have sometimes annexed an account of
the festivals, fasts, and public ceremonies. Had these
institutions extended beyond Milan and its neighbour
hood into other countries, Borromeo might have been
justly considered the founder of the Sunday school
system. This was not the case. His example was not
followed beyond the immediate circle in which it had
arisen ; and the Sunday afternoon catechetical exercises
in the Romish or in the Protestant church cannot be at all
identified with the modern Sunday school. There may
have been individuals occasionally gathering together
young persons for religious instruction on the Lord's
day. This was done by the Rev. Jos. Alleine, author of
the "Alarm to the Unconverted," in 1688; by Theo-
philus Lindsey, of Catterick, in 1763 ; by Miss Harrison,
at Bedale, in 1765 ; and by Miss Ball, at High Wycombe,
in 1769 ; and probably by many others whose names
have not been recorded.^ But all these were isolated

* Union Magazine, 1856, p, 140.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 7

efforts ; the influence of which ceased with the removal
of the parties originating them. About the year 1780,
the idea of thus benefiting the rising generation appears
to have occurred to individuals residing in different
localities. The Rev. David Simpson, M.A., minister of
Christ Church, Macclesfield, opened a school there in
1778. It seems to have been principally designed for
instruction on the week-day evenings, but on Sunday
those scholars who could not conveniently attend the
week-day evening schools, were, together with those
scholars who did, taught to spell and read, and the whole
of them were regularly taken to church every Sabbath
day. The teachers employed were paid teachers, and
this system of management continued until 1786, when
Mr. Simpson gave up the schools into the hands of
the committee for the Sunday schools. In 1796 paid
teachers were entirely discontinued, and a new system
of conducting the school commenced under Mr. Simp
son's sanction and auspices.*

But it would be incorrect to assign the origination
of the present Sunday school system to any of these
praiseworthy efforts. Had not Divine Providence raised
up some other instrumentality, the work would not have
been done. They, however, prove in what direction the
minds of Christian men were turning, and they prepared
the way for the apparently accidental occurrence which
was to commence the systematic and general instruction
of the young on the Lord's day.

* Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1842, p. 114.

THE FIRST HFTY YEARS

CHAPTER II.

The intellectual, moral, and religious condition of England
shortly previous to the establishment of Sunday schools.

BEFORE, however, proceeding to detail the circumstances
connected with the introduction of the Sunday school
system into England, it may be desirable to take a
retrospective view of the intellectual, moral, and religious
condition of England shortly previous to the establish
ment of Sunday schools. A great change will be found
to have taken place, a change which will be universally
admitted to be for the better, and the subsequent narra
tive will show that the change must be in a great degree
attributed to the establishment and progress of that
Sunday school system, the origination of which we
cannot but attribute to that good man, Robert Raikes.

The history of England, for some years prior to that
event, presents a very painful picture as it respects the
intellectual cultivation of the people. The two uni
versities of Oxford and Cambridge were then the places
where those who were to bo the governors and in
structors of the people completed their education; and
it will be readily perceived that the discipline exercised
there would influence all their previous studies. "But,"
says Dr. Swift, " I have heard more than one or two
persons of high rank declare they could learn nothing

Oir THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

more at Oxford and Cambridge than to drink ale and
smoke tobacco ; -wherein I firmly believe them, and
could have added some hundred examples from my own
observations in one of these universities"— meaning that
of Oxford. Gibbon, the historian, who was a member
of Magdalen College there, says he was never once
summoned to attend even the ceremony of a lecture, and
in the course of one winter might make, unreproved, in
the midst of term, a tour to Bath, a visit into Bucking
hamshire, and a few excursions to London. Dr. Johnson
gives the following account of his outset at Pembroke
College : — " The first day after I came, I waited on my
tutor, Mr. Jordan, and then stayed away four. On the
sixth, Mr. Jordan asked me why I had not attended ; I
answered I had been sliding in Christ Church meadow."
This apology appears to have been given without the
least compunction, and received without the least reproof.
While such laxity existed in the oversight of the students,
it became a matter of necessity that the examination for
degrees should be correspondingly easy, and such was
the case. Lord Eldon gives the following account of
his examination in 1770: — "An examination for a
degree at Oxford was, in my time, a farce. I was
examined in Hebrew and in history. * What is the
Hebrew for the place of a skull?' I replied, 'Golgotha.'
' Who founded University College ?' I stated (though,
by the way, the point is sometimes doubted) that King
Alfred founded it. 'Very well, sir/ said the examiner,
you are competent for your degree'* In 1780, Dr.
Yicesimus Knox says, " The greatest dunce usually gets
his TESTIMONIUM signed with as much ease and credit as

^Q THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

the finest genius. . . . The statutes require that he
should translate familiar English phrases into Latin, and
now is the time when the masters show their wit and
jocularity. I have known the questions on this occasion
to consist of an inquiry into the pedigree of a race
horse." It could not be expected that the examination
would be very strict, as the examiners were chosen by
the candidate himself from among his friends, and he was
expected to provide a dinner for them after the examina
tion was over. Lord Chesterfield, in his Essays, speak
ing in the character of a country gentleman, satirically
observes, 'f When I took away my son from school, I
resolved to send him directly abroad, having been at
Oxford myself."

These facts \vill give some idea of the training to
which the upper classes of society were subjected, and
will show how little, intellectually, could be expected
from it. With respect to the middle and lower classes
of society, the educational institutions founded in prior
ages had become the subject of great abuse, and had
been, in a great degree, diverted from the objects for
which they were designed, while the parochial charity
schools afforded but a modicum of instruction to a very
small portion of the population.

It will not be thought surprising that the moral
condition of the people was not more satisfactory than
their intellectual. It would, perhaps, be unfair to rely
on the pictorial representations of Hogarth, or on the
fictitious narratives of Smollett and Fielding, because
it may be apprehended that their desire to produce effect
may have led them into exaggeration, if not into

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ]_]_

caricature. Still, the probability is that those works would
not have attained their celebrity had they not given some
thing like a fair representation of the existing manners
of the people. Had their pictures of the grossness and
vice which characterized the period now under review,
been destitute of truth, surely the. feelings of the nation
would have revolted against such exhibitions, the only
justification for which was to be found in their general
truthfulness. But without depending too much on this
evidence, there are, in addition, facts on record which
show most conclusively that ignorance and vice were
closely associated. To refer again to Oxford. Lord
Eldon stated that he had seen there a Doctor of Divinity
so far the worse for a convivial entertainment that he
was unable to walk home without leaning for support with
his hand upon the walls, but having, by some accident,
staggered to the Rotunda of the Radcliffe Library,
which was not then protected by a railing, he continued
to go round and round, wondering at the unwonted
length of the street, but still revolving and supposing he
went straight, until some friend — perhaps the future
chancellor himself— relieved him from his embarrassment
and set him on his way. Even where there might be no
such excess as this, the best company of the day would
devote a long time to the circulation of the bottle. With
such examples before them, it is not surprising that
drunkenness should be found to prevail amongst the
lower classes. In the year 1736, there were in London
207 inns, 447 taverns, 551 coffee-houses, 5975 alehouses,
and 8659 brandy-shops, raaking a total of 15,839. The
population at that time was about 630,000. In a century

12 TIIE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

afterwards, 1835, the population Lad advanced to
1,776,500, but the number of houses where intoxicating
liquors wcro sold had greatly diminished — not then
exceeding 5000 ; so that, in proportion to the population,
there were at the former period nine times as many such
places open as at the latter.

Another feature of the period of English history
shortly previous to the establishment of Sunday schools,
was the prevalence of gaming. It was discountenanced
by both the second and third Georges, but flourished
notwithstanding. There is one case recorded of a lady
who lost 3,000 guineas at one sitting, at loo. Among
the men, Brookes' Club and White's are mentioned as
more especially the seats of high play. Mr. Wilberforce
coming up to London, as a young man of fortune,
says : — " The very first time I went to Boodle's, I wen
twenty-five guineas of the Duke of Norfolk." Many in
that age were the ancestral forests felled and the goodly
lands disposed of to gratify this passion. The discovery
of a new game in the last years of the American war tended
greatly to diffuse the spirit of gaming from the higher to
the lower classes. This was the E. 0. table, which was
thought to be beyond the reach of law, because not dis
tinctly specified in any statute. In 1782, a bill was brought
in, providing severe penalties against this or any other
new game of chance. The bill passed the Commons, but
the session closed before it had got through the House of
Lords. In the debates upon this subject, Mr. Byng, the
member for Middlesex, stated that in two parishes only
of Westminster there were 29G E. 0. tables. Another
member stated that E, O. tables might be found at almost

OF THE SUNDAY. SCHOOL, }£

every country town. Servants and apprentices, it seems,
were drawn in to take part in these games, cards of
direction to them being often thrown down the areas of
the houses, and the comers in were allowed to play on
Sundays as freely as on other days. Sheridan, who,
from his own private life, could not be expected to view
the new bill with any great favour, said against it with
some truth, that " it wrould be in vain to prohibit E. O.
tables while a more pernicious mode of gaming was
countenanced by law — he meant the gaming in the
lottery." Private lotteries were, indeed, prohibited, but
State lotteries had long been ranked amongst the ordinary
sources of revenue. This " lottery madness," as it has
been truly termed, was, it seems, indulged in by night
as well as by day. A traveller to London in 1775
observes, that he could not help looking with displeasure
at the number of paper lanthorns that dangled before the
doors of lottery offices, considering them as so many
false lights hung out to draw fools to their destruction.
If we inquire further into the moral habits of that age,
the result will be such as might be expected from the
prevalence of such ill practices as drinking and gaming.
We may guess the customary nature of the talk and
songs after dinner when we find that in great houses the
chaplain was expected to retire with the ladies. But in
many cases we find this want of moral refinement extended
even to the latter. Sir Walter Scott records that his
grand-aunt applied to him in his young years to obtain for
her perusal the novels of Mrs, Afra Behn, some of the
most licentious in the language. Scott, though not without
some qualms, complied with the request. The volumes

14 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

were, however, speedily returned. "Take back your
bonny Mrs. Behn," said Mrs. Keith, " and if you will
follow my advice, put her in the fire." " But is it not a
strange thing," she added, "that I, a woman of eighty,
sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to look through a book
which, sixty years ago, I have heard read aloud for the
amusement of large circles of the best company in
London?"

In those days, also, the high roads leading into London
were infested by robbers on horseback, who bore the
name of highwaymen. Private carriages and public
conveyances were alike the objects of attack. TluiSj in
1775, Mr. Nuthall, the solicitor and friend of Lord
Chatham, returning from Bath in his carriage with his
wife and child, was stopped and fired at near Hounslow,
and died of the fright. In the same year, the guard of
the Norwich stage was killed in Epping Forest, after he
had himself shot dead three highwaymen out of seven
that had assailed him. Nor were such examples few and
far between ; they might, from the records of that time,
be numbered by the score, although, in most cases, the
loss was rather of property than of life. Horace Walpole,
writing from Strawberry Hill, complains that, having
lived there in quiet for thirty years, he cannot now stir
a mile from his own house after sunset without one or
two servants armed with blunderbusses. But what is
most important to us, as illustrating the general state of
morals, is the astonishing fact that some of the best
writers of the last century treat these acts of outrage as
subjects of jest and almost of praise. It was the tone in
certain circles to depict the highwaymen as daring and

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 15

generous spirits., who " took to the road," as it was termed,
under the pressure of some momentary difficulties — the
gentlefolk, as it were, of the profession, and far above
the common run of thieves.

But it may be asked, Were there not some controlling

religious influences at work to counteract these results of
t~>

ignorance and immorality ? Doubtless there were, but
to a lamentably small extent. John Newton, who
laboured at St. Mary Woolnoth's, Lombard Street,
declared that when he came to that church, he was nearly,
if not quite, the only clergyman in the City of London
who preached the gospel. This may have been like the
despairing language of Elijah, "I only am left alone;"
and yet it could not have been used if the religious
character of the clergy had not fallen very low. There
is other evidence to this lamentable fact. Dr. Thomas
Newton, Bishop of Bristol, thus complains of the neglect
of duty on the part of the cathedral clergy: — "Never
was Church more shamefully neglected. The Bishop
has several times been there for months together without
seeing the face of dean or prebendary, or anything better
than a minor canon." And as, in some cases, there were
undisguised neglects of duty, so in others we may trace
its jocular evasion. On one of the prebendaries of
Rochester Cathedral dining with Bishop Pearce, the
Bishop asked him," "Pray, Dr. S., what is your time of
residence at Rochester ?" " My lord," said he, " I reside
there the better part of the year." But the doctor's
meaning, and also the real fact was, that he resided at
Rochester only during the week of the audit. Among
the laity, as might have been expected, a corresponding

IQ THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

neglect of church ordinances was too often found.
Bishop Newton cites it as a most signal and unusual
instance of religious duty, that Mr. George Grenville
"regularly attended the service of the church every
Sunday morning, even while he was in the highest
offices." Not only was Sunday the common day for
cabinet councils and cabinet dinners, but the very hours
of its morning service were frequently appointed for
political interviews and conferences. Nor was the state
of religion more satisfactory amongst those who did not
conform to the Established Church. The successors of
the Puritans had sadly fallen away from the fervour and
soundness of the religious principle of their ancestors, and
from many of their pulpits the doctrines of Socinianism
were preached, while the minutes of the Methodist
Conference, in May, 1765, contain the following entry : —
" Do not our people in general talk too much and read
too little ? They do."

The preceding illustrations of life and manners in
the age immediately preceding the introduction of the
Sunday school system, are chiefly gathered from the
concluding chapter of Lord Mahon's " History of Eng
land, from 1713 to 1783." His lordship had previously
given a narrative of those fearful events which may not
unfairly be attributed to the debased intellectual, moral,
and religious condition of the nation when, in June, 1780,
under the pretence of a regard to the Protestant religion,
numerous Roman Catholic chapels, the residence of
Sir George Saville, in Leicester Square, of Lord Mans
field, in Bloomsbury Square, and the gaol of Newgate,
which had cost £140,000, were gutted and destroyed.

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.- ]_7

For two whole days London was in possession of a mob,
and thirty-six fires could be seen blazing in various
parts of it. Lord Mahon states that "throughout
England the education of the labouring classes was most
grievously neglected, the supineness of the clergy of that
age being manifest on this point as on every other." He
also quotes the testimony of Hannah More, who declares
that " on first going to the village of Cheddar, near the
cathedral city of Wells, we found more than 200 people
in the parish, almost all very poor, no gentry, a dozen
wealthy farmers, hard, brutal, and ignorant. . . .
We saw but one Bible in all the parish, and that was
used to prop a flower-pot !"

1 he preceding review will excite thankfulness that the
nation now presents so different a prospect to the observant
eye, whether regarded intellectually, morally, or re
ligiously. The question is, to what must the change be
attributed? On this subject the judgment of Lord
Mahon is very distinct, and we believe we cannot do
better than give the words of this enlightened and
impartial witness.

"Among the principal means which, under Providence,
tended to a better spirit in the coming age, may be
ranked the system of Sunday schools:" and he quotes
the testimony of Adam Smith 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." It cannot, therefore, be
without interest to inquire by whom this beneficial
system was introduced, and in what way its influence

has extended.

c

THE FIRST FIFTY YEA.K3

CHAPTER III.

The establishment of Sunday Schools ly
Mr. Robert Raikes.

IN the year 1781, an individual, of no great note in
society, went one morning to Lire a gardener in the
suburbs of the city in which he dwelt, where the lowest
of the people, who were principally employed in the pin
manufactory, chiefly resided. The man whom he went
to hire was from home ; and while waiting for his return,
he was greatly disturbed by a troop of wretched, noisy
boys, who interrupted him, as he conversed with the
man's wife on the business he came about. He inquired
whether these children belonged to that part of the town,
and lamented their misery and idleness. "Ah! sir,"
said the woman, (( could you take a view of this part of
the town on Sunday, you would be shocked indeed ; for
then the street is filled with multitudes of these wretches,
who, released on 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." This conversation suggested to Robert Raikes,
of Gloucester — for he was the individual — the idea of
attempting to stop this profanation of the Lord's day :
the word "try" was so powerfully impressed on his

01? THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. j[C)

mind as to decide him at once to action; and many
years afterwards he remarked to Joseph Lancaster, " I
can never pass by the spot where the word f try' came
so powerfully into my mind, without lifting up my hands
and heart to heaven in gratitude to God for having put
such a thought into my head."

The particular mode adopted by Mr. Raikes to
accomplish his object was as follows. Having found
four persons who had been accustomed to instruct
children in reading, he engaged to pay them one shilling
each, for receiving and instructing such children as he
should send to them every Sunday. The children were
to come soon after ten in the morning, and stay till
twelve ; they were then to go home and return at one ;
and, after reading a lesson, were to be conducted to
church. After church, they were to be employed in
repeating the catechism till half-past five, and then to be
dismissed, with an injunction to go home quietly, and by
no means to make a noise in the street.

Such was the humble commencement of the Sunday
school system. The contrast between the school just
described, and a well-conducted school of the present
day, is so great, that the resemblance can scarcely be
perceived. We look in vain for the infant class,
designed to convey even to babes the elements of
religious knowledge: we fear there could not be any
systematic instruction in the Scriptures imparted to the
children more advanced in age; much less should we
expect to find, in these early efforts, any provision for
the instruction of youths growing up into manhood.
The pious and enlightened superintendent and secretary,

C2

2Q THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

with their devoted band of voluntary and gratuitous
teachers, were also wanting ; nor would the most diligent
inquiry have discovered a lending library attached to
any of these schools, for the use of the scholars during
the week.

Still the effect produced by these efforts was consider
able. Mr. Raikes states, in a letter to Colonel Townley,
a gentleman in Lancashire, who had made inquiries
relative to these new institutions — "It is now three
years since we began; and I wish you were here, to
make inquiry into the effect. A woman who lives in a
lane where I had fixed a school, told me, some time ago,
that the place was quite a heaven upon Sundays, com
pared to what it used to be. The numbers who have
learned to read, and say their catechism, are so great
that I am astonished at it. Upon the Sunday afternoon
the mistresses take their scholars to church, — a place
into which neither they nor their ancestors ever entered
with a view to the glory of God. But what is more
extraordinary, within this month these little ragamuffins
have in great numbers taken it into their heads to
frequent the early morning prayers which are held
every morning at the cathedral, at seven o'clock. I
believe there were near fifty this morning. They
assemble at the house of one of the mistresses, and walk
before her to church, two and two, in as much order as
a company of soldiers."

Two years had scarcely elapsed, when Robert Raikes
invited some friends to breakfast ; the window of the
room where they were seated opening into a small
garden, and there were beheld, sitting on seats, one row

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 21

above another, the children of the first Sunday school,
neatly dressed. They were purposely exhibited to the
breakfast party, to interest them in the design, but so
little were the momentous consequences then appreciated,
that a Quaker lady rebuked Mr. Raikes in these words,
(i Friend Raikes, when thou doest charitably, thy right
hand should not know what thy left hand doeth." The
fair Quaker might have forgotten that there is another
text, which says, " Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father, which is in heaven.". *

For three years the Sunday schools gradually ex
tended in Mr. Raikes' neighbourhood, to which they
were then confined, and several clergymen contributed
to the success of the scheme by their personal attentions.

The position of Mr. Raikes, as proprietor and printer
of the " Gloucester Journal," enabled him to make
public this new scheme of benevolence; and a notice
inserted in that paper, on Nov. 3, 1783, having been
copied into the London papers, attention was soon drawn
to the subject. The application we have referred to
from Colonel Townley was one of the results ; and, at
his request, the letter of Mr, Raikes in answer, from
which we have made an extract, was inserted in the
"Gentleman's Magazine" for 1784. Thus the idea of
Sunday schools was widely diffused, and several were
opened in various parts of the kingdom.

In a letter, addressed by Mr. Raikes to Mrs, Harris,
of Chelsea, under date November 5, 1787, he gives the
following particulars as to the manner in which the

* Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1841. p. 2'.'.

22 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

schools established by him were conducted : — " I en
deavour to assemble the children as early as is consistent
with their perfect cleanliness — our indispensable rule :
the hour prescribed in our rules is eight o'clock, but it
is usually half-after eight before our flock is collected.
Twenty is the number allotted to each teacher, the sexes
kept separate. The twenty are divided into four classes ;
the children who show any superiority in attainments,
are placed as leaders of the several classes, and are
employed in teaching the others their letters, or in hear
ing them read in a low whisper, which may be done
without interrupting the master or mistress in their
business, and will keep the attention of the children
engaged, that they do not play or make a noise. Their
attending the service of the church once a-day has to
me seemed sufficient, for their time may be spent more
profitably perhaps in receiving instruction, than in being
present at a long discourse, which their minds are not
yet able to comprehend : but people may think differently
on this point. * * * The stipend to the teachers
here is a shilling each Sunday, but we find them firing,
and bestow gratuities as rewards of diligence, which may
make it worth sixpence more. * * * It had some
times been a difficult task to keep the children in proper
order, when they were all assembled at church, but I
now sit very near them myself, which has had the effect
of preserving the most perfect decorum. After the
sermon in the morning they return home to dinner, and
meet at the schools at half-after one, and arc dismissed
at five, with strict injunctions to observe a quiet be
haviour, free from all noise and clamour. Before the

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 23

business is begun in the morning, they all kneel down
while a prayer is read, and the same before dismission
in the evening. To those children who distinguish
themselves as examples of diligence, quietness in be
haviour, observance of order, kindness to their com
panions, &c., &c.} I give some little token of my regard,
as a pair of shoes if they aro. barefooted, and some who
are very bare of apparel, I clothe. This I have been
enabled to do in many instances, through the liberal
support given me by my brothers in the city. By these
means I have acquired considerable ascendancy over the
minds of the children. Besides, I frequently go round
to their habitations, to inquire into their behaviour at
home, and into the conduct of the parents, to whom I
give some little hints now and then, as well as to the
children. * * * It is that part of our Saviour's
character which I am imitating, ' He went about doing
good.' No one can form an idea what benefits he is
capable of rendering to the community, by the con
descension of visiting the dwellings of the poor. You
may remember the place without the South-gate, called
Littleworth ; it used to be the St. Giles' of Gloucester.
By going amongst those people I have totally changed
their manners. They avow, at this time, that the place
is quite a heaven to what it used to be. Some of the
vilest of the boys are now so exemplary in behaviour,
that I have taken one into my own service." *

A question has been raised, as to whether the idea,
from which such great results have followed, originated
with Mr. Raikes, or was suggested to him by the Rev.

* Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1831. pp. G17— C20.

-aA THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

Mr. Stock, curate of St. John's, Gloucester. In a letter,
dated February 2, 1788, Mr. Stock makes the following
statement : — " Mr. Raikes meeting me one day by
accident at my own door, and, in the course of conversa
tion, lamenting the deplorable state of the lower classes
of mankind, took particular notice of the situation of
the poorer children. I had made, I replied, the same
observation, and told him, if he would accompany me
into my own parish, we would make some attempt to
remedy the evil. We immediately proceeded to the
business, and procuring the names of about ninety
children, placed them under the care of four persons, for
a stated number of hours on the Sunday. As minister
of the parish, I took upon me the principal superin
tendence of the schools, and one-third of the expense."
Mr. Stock adds, " The progress of this institution through
the kingdom, is justly to be attributed to the constant
representations which Mr. Raikes made in his own
paper (the Gloucester Journal), of the benefits which he
perceived would probably arise from it." * This state
ment is not inconsistent with that which has been already
given ; it by no means follows, that the idea had not
already occurred to Mr. Raikes, previously to this inter
view with Mr. Stock. There can, indeed, be no doubt
that such was the case, so distinctly did Mr. Raikes
repeatedly refer to the circumstance. The Rev. Dr.
Kennedy, of New York, in addressing the State Con
vention of Sabbath school teachers, held at Newhaven,
Connecticut, in June, 1858, said, "Many years ago, in
one of the older cities of England, two men might have

* Fenny Cyclopedia, vol. 21, p. 37.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 25

been seen walking together, the one older than the other,
and leaning on the arm of his younger friend. When
they reached a certain place, the elder of the two said
6 Pause here ; ' and so saying, he uncovered his brow,
closed his eyes, and stood for a moment in silent prayer.
That place was the site of the first Sabbath school, and
the elder man was Robert Raikes, its founder. He
paused on the spot, and 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, f Can nothing be done ? ' and a
voice answered 'Try' — and I did try — and see what
God hath wrought ! " *

Many interesting anecdotes are related of the success
Mr. Raikes met with in his exertions on behalf of the
young. One sulky, stubborn girl, who had resisted both
reproofs and correction, and who refused to ask forgive
ness of her mother, was melted, by his saying to her,
" Well, if you have no regard for yourself, I have much
for you; you will be ruined and lost if you do not
become a good girl ; and if you will not humble your
self, I must humble myself, and make a beginning for
you." He, with much solemnity, entreated the mother
to forgive her. This overcame the girl's pride, she
burst into tears, and on her knees, begged forgiveness,
and never gave any trouble afterwards. Mr. Church, a
considerable manufacturer of flax and hemp, was asked
by Mr. Raikes, if he perceived any difference in the

* Report of the doings of the Second State Convention, p. 103.

THE FIEST FIFTY YEARS

poor children he employed? "Sir," said he, "the
change could not have been more extraordinary, in my
opinion, had they been transformed from the shape of
wolves and tigers to that of men. In temper, disposi
tion, and manners, they could hardly be said to differ
from the brute creation, but since the establishment of
Sunday schools, they have seemed anxious to show that
they are not the ignorant, illiterate creatures they were
before. They are anxious to gain the favour and good
opinion of those who kindly instruct and admonish them.
They are also become more tractable and obedient, and
less quarrelsome and revengeful." The good effects of
the care bestowed on the scholars were also seen in their
families. One boy, the son of a journeyman currier of
dissipated habits, after being some time in the school,
told Mr. Raikes that his father was wonderfully changed,
and had left off going to the alehouse on a Sunday.
Soon afterwards Raikes met the father in the street, and
expressed the pleasure he felt in hearing of the change
in his conduct. " Sir," said he, " I may thank you for
it." " Nay," said Raikes, " that is impossible ; I do not
recollect that I ever spoke to you before." "No, sir,"
he replied, " but the good instruction you give my boy,
he brings home to me, and it is that, sir, which has
induced me to reform my life." Many years afterwards,
as Raikes, on a week-day, was entering the door of the
cathedral, he overtook a soldier, and accosting him, said
it gave him great pleasure to see that he was going to a
place of worship. "Ah ! " said he, " I may thank you
for that." "Me!" said Raikes, "why, I don't know
that I ever saw you before." " Sir," replied the soldier,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 27

kf when I was a little boy I was indebted to you for my
first instruction in duty. I used to meet you at the
morning service in this cathedral, and was one of your
Sunday scholars. My father, when he left this city,
took me into Berkshire, and put me apprentice to a
shoemaker. I used often to think of you. At length I
went to London, and was there drawn to serve as a
militia-man in the Westminster Militia. I came to
Gloucester last night with a deserter, and took the
opportunity of coming this morning to visit the old spot,
and in hopes of once more seeing you." *

In the autograph collection of Mr. Charles Reed,
F.S.A., there is a letter of Robert Raikes to the Rev.
Mr. Bowen Thickens, Ross, Herefordshire, dated June
27th, 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 and morals to the general mass of
the people; a pleasure from which, by her situation,
she was debarred."

* The Sunday School Jubilee, 1831 , p. 17.

28 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER IV.

The formation of the Sunday School Society and
establishment of the Stockport School.

In the year 1785, William Fox, Esq., a deacon of the
Baptist Church, in Prescott Street, London, formerly a
merchant in that city, and afterwards of Lechlade, in
Gloucestershire, feeling deeply interested in the general
education of the poor, and believing that this new system
afforded the means of promoting that ohject, entered
into correspondence with Mr. Raikes on the subject.
He had long felt compassion for the indigent and ignorant
poor, and had opened a school at his own expense in the
village of Clapton, near Bourton-on-the- Water. He
found it impossible to extend the advantages of daily
instruction to a circle sufficiently extended to satisfy his
desires, yet feared it would be almost as impossible to
teach children to read by their attendance at schools
only one day in seven. To his great delight he found
himself mistaken in this particular, and to him was
assigned the honour and the happiness of devising a
scheme that greatly facilitated the wide diffusion of
instruction on the simple and efficient plan of Sunday
school teaching. In Raikes' reply to his first letter, he
observed, that ho too at first expected but little from the
attendance of the children on Sundays only, but that it

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 29

had been highly important by exciting in them and their
parents a desire to gain further instruction, and that
many were found giving the teachers a penny a week to
allow the children to read to them on a week-day in the
intervals of labour. At this time also Mr. Raikes com
municated to Mr. Fox the following interesting fact.
"An attempt had been made to establish Sunday schools
in the Forest of Dean among the children of the colliers,
a most savage race. A person from Mitchel Dean called
upon Raikes to report the progress of the undertaking,
and observed, ' We have many children who three
months ago knew not a letter from a cart wheel who can
now repeat hymns in a manner that would astonish you.'
Some were so much delighted with Dr. Watts's little
hymns that they could repeat the whole work. Several
could read in the Testament, and some repeated whole
chapters. The effect on their manners was equally
pleasing. At the public examination one of the con
ductors of the school pointed to a very ill-looking lad,
about 13, and said, c that boy was the most profligate lad
in this neighbourhood. He was the leader of every kind
of mischief and wickedness. He never opened his lips
without a profane or indecent expression : and now he is
become orderly and good-natured, and in his conversa
tion has quite left off profaneness.' All the children
conducted themselves in an orderly manner, and several
of them, amongst whom was the boy just mentioned,
joined in singing a hymn, to the great delight of their
benefactors. These children had no other opportunities
than what they derived from their Sabbath instruction." *

*The Sunday School Jubilee, 1831— pp. 17, 18.

30 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

On the 7th September, 1785, Mr. Fox succeeded in
forming the " Society for the Establishment and Support
of Sunday Schools throughout the Kingdom of Great
Britain." Mr. Jonas Hanway, Mr. Henry Thornton,
and Mr. Samuel Hoare, who became treasurer, co
operated in the formation of this new institution ; and it
immediately received considerable encouragement and
support. In the first report of the committee, in January,
1786, they stated that they had established five schools
in the neighbourhood of London, and had received
subscriptions to the amount of £987 Os. 6d. At the
meeting at which this report was presented, letters
approving the object of the Society were read from the
Bishops of Salisbury and LlandafT. The Bishop of
Chester (Dr. Porteus) also recommended the formation
of Sunday schools in his extensive diocese. The poet
Cowper, in a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated
September 24th, 1784, and the Rev. J. Wesley, in a
letter to the Rev. Richard Rodda, Chester, dated June
17th, 1785, also stated their conviction of the benefits to
be expected from these schools.

The great impediment to the prosperity of these new
institutions was the expense of hiring teachers. It
appears that, from 1786 to 1800, the Sunday School
Society alone paid upwards of £4,000 for this purpose.
At Stockport, in 1784, the teachers were paid Is. 6d.
every Sunday for their services; but by degrees gra
tuitous teachers arose; so that, in 1794, out of nearly
thirty, six only were hired: the rest voluntarily put
themselves under the direction of the visitors. The
beneficial effects were soon apparent; and from that

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 31

time the number of scholars and teachers, and the
amount of subscriptions, regularly increased. In a few
years hired teachers were wholly relinquished in the
Stockport school.

Gradually the system of hiring gave way almost
universally to the employment of gratuitous teachers;
by which means a great obstacle to the extension of
the system was removed. To remunerate the present
number of teachers, at the rate paid to those in the
Stockport school, of Is. 6d. each Sunday, would amount,
if the number of teachers be estimated at 300,000, to
nearly £1,200,000 per annum. The idea of conducting
these institutions by unpaid teachers is said to have
originated in a meeting of zealous Wesley an office
bearers, one of whom, when the others were lamenting
that they had no funds for hiring teachers, said, " Let's
do it ourselves." *

The Stockport school, to which reference has thus
been made, deserves a more extended notice. It was
formed in 1784 on a broad and liberal basis, and was
conducted by a committee under the patronage of the
clergy, and the ministers of different congregations.
The rules published November llth, 1784, declared that
(( the town should be divided into 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

» Report on Census, 18-31, Education, p. 78.

32 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

school again until gix 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
catechising."

For a few years this plan succeeded, and much good
was done ; but by degrees the attention of some of the
visitors relaxed, and many of the teachers appeared
rather to continue their services for the purpose of
securing the trifling emolument to which they were
thereby entitled than from zeal to promote the object of
the institution. In one of the schools thus established
some of the teachers offered their services gratis, and
gradually the admission of gratuitous teachers became a
fundamental principle. The flourishing state of this
school beyond the rest rendered a greater supply of
books requisite, added to which an increase of rent, with
other expenses, occasioned a demand beyond its propor
tion of the public subscription. These circumstances led
to the formation of this school into a separate institution
independent of the rest, agreeing with them in the
general object, — the mode of instruction, the books in
use, and the subjects admitted. In the year 1794, a
separate committee published a report, entitling the
institution, by way of distinction, The Methodists' Sunday
School; most of its promoters and active supporters
being of that denomination. That report stated the
number of scholars to be 695. Year by year witnessed
large additions of scholars and teachers; and on June
15th, 1805, the foundation stone of The Stockport
Sunday School was laid. The building cost nearly

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gg

£6,000 in its erection, and was designed to accommodate
5,000 scholars, being 132 feet in length, and 57 feet in
width. The ground floor and first story are each
divided into 12 rooms; the second story is fitted up for
assembling the whole of the children for public worship,
or on other occasions ; having two tiers of windows, and
a gallery on each side extending about half the length
of the building. In order to aid both the hearing and
sight in this long room, the floor rises in an inclined
plane about half way. There is also an orchestra with an
organ behind the pulpit.* The report for 1859 states the
number of scholars belonging to this, the largest Sunday
school in the world, to be 3,781, and teachers, 435.

Mr. Raikes was permitted by Divine Providence to
witness the extension of the benefits of Sunday school
instruction to an extent far beyond anything he could
have contemplated, his life having been preserved until
April 5th, 1811, when he died in his native city of
Gloucester, without any previous indisposition, and in
his seventy-sixth year. He was buried in the church
of St. Mary de Crypt, where the following tablet is
erected to his memory :

SACRED TO THE MEMORY
OF

ROBERT RAIKES, ESQ.,

LATE OP THIS CITY,
FOUNDER OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS,

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
APRIL 5TH, 1811, AGED SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS.

" When the car heard him, then it blessed him, find when the eye ?aw him it gave
witness to him. Because he delivered the poor that cried, and the fathei-less, and
him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came
upon him, and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." — Job xxix, 11, 12, 13.

* Sunday Sohool Repository, 1831— pp. 75, 84, 147— 1-50.

D

FIRST FIFTY YEARS

Although so large a measure of success had attended
the efforts made to extend the benefits of Sunday-school
instruction throughout the country, it is remarkable that
before Mr. Raikes went to his rest, the schools established
in the city of Gloucester became entirely extinct. But
it so happened, in the providence of God, about the
year 1810, that six young men, impressed with the
necessity and value of such institutions, banded them
selves together, and resolved, in the strength of the
Almighty, that they would revive the good work there.
They applied to their minister for leave to do so. " No,"
he said, " the children will make too much noise." They
then applied to the trustees of the chapel. " No," they
said, " the children will soil the place, so that we cannot
let you have it." They applied to the members of the
church to rally round them. "No," they said, "you
will find no children, no teachers, and no money to pay
expenses." But these six young men, intent upon their
work, were not to be thus discouraged. Accordingly
they met around a post, at the corner of a lane, within
twenty yards of the spot where Hooper was martyred,
and there, taking each other by the hand, they solemnly
resolved that, come what would, Sunday schools should
be re-established in the city of Gloucester. Accordingly
they entered into a subscription amongst themselves, and
although all the money they could raise was fifteen
shillings, with that they set to work, and formed the first
school, with unpaid teachers, in that locality. Five of
these young men have long since gone to their reward,
the sixth still survives in the person of the Rev. John
Adey, pastor of the Congregational Church, Bexley

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 35

Heath, Kent, That illustrious lady, the late Countess
of Huntingdon, appreciated the value of these institu
tions, for, by her will, and prior to the re-establishment
of Sunday schools in Gloucester, she provided that the
premises adjoining the chapel there, should be devoted
to the purposes of a Sunday school, if ever the zeal and
love of the members of the church meeting in that
chapel should lead to its formation.

D2

3(3 THE FTRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER V.

Joseph Lancaster — The British and Foreign School
Society — Dr. Bell — The National Society for Pro
moting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of
the Established Church — The Religious Tract Society.

THE narrative contained in the preceding chapter would
be imperfect if reference were not made to the interest
excited on the subject of education generally, as a result
of Mr. Raikes' efforts. The principal agencies for the
education of the poorer classes at that period were what
are called Charity schools, in which elementary instruc
tion was given to a few children, who were clothed
uniformly. These institutions did but little for the masses
of the people, and could exert but very little influence.
Popular education may be said to be almost entirely the
creation of the present century. The records and the
recollections which describe society so recently as fifty
years ago, bear testimony to a state of ignorance and im
morality so dense and general that if any member of the
present generation could be suddenly transported to that
earlier period, he would probably be scarcely able, not
withstanding many abiding landmarks, to believe himself
in England, and would certainly regard the change
which half a century has witnessed in the manners
of the people as but little short of the miraculous.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Comparison is scarcely possible between the groups of
gambling, swearing children — no unfavourable example
of young England then — whom Raikes of Gloucester, in
1781, with difficulty collected in the first Sunday school,
and any single class of the 2,400,000 scholars who now
gather with alacrity and even with affection round their
318,000 teachers.

The Popular Day School epoch dates from 1796, when
the youthful Quaker, Joseph Lancaster, began in his
father's home in Southwark to instruct the children of
the poor. Enthusiastic in his calling, and benevolent to
rashness in his disposition, he assumed towards his
scholars more the character of guardian than of master ;
easily remitting to the poorer children even the scanty
pittance charged, and often furnishing with food the
most distressed. No wonder that his scholars multiplied
with great rapidity: they numbered 90 ere he was
eighteen years old, and afterwards came pouring in upon
him "like flocks of sheep," till in 1798 they reached as
many as 1,000. In his perplexity how to provide
sufficient teachers, he, according to his friends, invented,
or, according to his enemies, derived from Dr. Bell, the
plan of teaching younger children by the elder. This,
the monitorial plan, attracted much attention; its sim
plicity and economy procured for it extensive favour.
Lancaster absorbed in the idea of educating all the
youth of Britain on this system, lectured through the
land with great success — obtained the patronage of
royalty — established schools — and raised considerable
funds. But he was not the man to guide the move
ment he had originated ; ardent, visionary, destitute of

33 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

worldly prudence, the very qualities which made him so
successful as a teacher, and a missionary in the cause of
education, rendered him incapable as an administrator.
His affairs became embarrassed ; he himself was tossed
about through varied troubles, passing from a prison to
prosperity, and then again reduced to bankruptcy, until,
in 1818, he departed for America, where, after twenty
years of suffering, brightened by some intervals of
prosperity, but none of prudence, his life was terminated
in 1838, by an accident in the streets of New York.
Ten years before he quitted England, the development
of his system was committed into abler hands, the
prominent result of which proceeding was the foundation,
in 1 808, of es The Lancasterian Institution, for promoting
the education of the children of the Poor," but which, a
few years afterwards, received its present designation of
"THE BEITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY."

In 1792, six years before the monitors of Lancaster
began their labours, the experiment of juvenile instructors
was successfully commenced in India, where Dr. Bell,
then superintendent of the Military Orphan School,
Madras, unable to induce the usher there to teach the
younger children to write the alphabet in sand, was led
to supersede him by a boy of eight years old, whose
services proved so efficient, that the doctor generalizing
from this instance, and considering the plan to be of
almost universal application, ardently developed his idea ;
and on his return to England in 1796, urged warmly the
adoption of his system as the most effectual means of
rapidly extending popular instruction. Andrew Bell
was the very opposite of Joseph Lancaster, in all, except

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 39

a common enthusiasm for instruction on tlie " mutual "
or "monitorial" system. A Scotchman (the son of a
barber at St. Andrews,) his career was just as much
distinguished by invariable prudence, as was Lancaster's
by constant though benevolent improvidence. On leav
ing college in 1774, at the age of twenty-one, Bell went
to America, and spent his next five years as a tutor in
Virginia, whence, in 1781, he returned to England,
having suffered shipwreck on his passage. He now took
orders in the English church, and became the minister
of the Episcopal chapel at Leith. Applying for a
Doctor's degree in Divinity, he received instead, from
the University of St. Andrews, one in Medicine. In
1787 he sailed for India, where he was appointed chap
lain to five or six regiments. On the foundation of the
Military Orphan Asylum, he became its honorary super
intendent, and it was in this capacity that he made his
experiment in Sl mutual instruction." The result of this
experiment he published after his return to England and
made strenuous efforts to procure the general adoption
of his scheme. In 1801 he became rector of Swanage,
Dorsetshire ; in 1808 the master of Sherbourne Hospital ;
in 1818 a prebendary of Hereford Cathedral; and sub
sequently, one of Westminster. He died in 1832,
bequeathing his large fortune of £120,000 principally to
the Educational Institutions of his native country. It
is, however, in connexion with the NATIONAL SOCIETY
that Dr. Bell is chiefly known. The Lancasterian
schools have always been established on an unsectarian
basis, no peculiar religious tenets being inculcated ; the
Bible, "without note or comment," being the only

40 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

religious school book. Early in the history of these
schools this plan appeared to many churchmen unsatis
factory, the distinctive doctrines of the Church of
England being thus unrepresented ; and a scheme was
formed to organize, according to the new method, exclu
sively Church schools. This led to the establishment
in 1811 of the NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE
EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN THE PRINCIPLES OF THE
ESTABLISHED CHURCH.*

The extension of education amongst the people thus
commenced by the establishment of Sunday schools, and
aided by the efforts of Lancaster and Bell, led in the
providence of God to the formation of one of those
catholic and useful institutions which arose about the
commencement of the present century, and have proved
so great a blessing. The institution thus referred to
was THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, which, from a
humble commencement, has attained a position of com
manding influence. In one of its early addresses it is
stated, that " thousands who would have remained grossly
illiterate, having through the medium of Sunday schools,
been enabled to read, it is an object of growing import
ance widely to diffuse such publications as are calculated
to make that ability an unquestionable privilege/' f In
a subsequent publication, the Committee stated, that " it
became necessary to provide for the exercise of that
growing ability which children were rapidly acquiring,
to lead their minds to subjects calculated to please and

* These sketches of Lancaster and Bell are taken from Mr. Horace Mann's very
interesting and instructive report on the Census of 1851 ; Education, pp. 15-17.

t Evangelical Magazine, July, 1799, p. 307.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 41

to purify them, and thus endeavour to convert provi
dential advantages into spiritual blessings." * The Rev.
George Burder, then minister of a congregation at
Coventry, was the individual upon whom God bestowed
the honour of suggesting the formation of this Society.
As we have already seen with the commencement of the
Sunday-school system, so in the present instance, the
publication of tracts of a moral or religious character
was not a new idea, but no systematic effort had been
made for a continued publication or extended distribution
until the formation of this institution, which has now for
so many years been such an eminent blessing not only to
this country but to the world, having gone on from year
to year enlarging its efforts, and increasing its usefulness.
It was at Surrey Chapel, on the 8th May, 1799, before
the preaching of a sermon for the London Missionary
Society, by the Rev. J. Finlay, of Paisley, that Mr.
Burder mentioned the subject to the Rev. Rowland Hill,
the minister of the chapel, who warmly approved the
design. The attendance of ministers in the adjoining
school room, was requested after the service. It was
then agreed to meet the following morning, at seven
o'clock, at St. Paul's Coffee House, St. Paul's Church
yard. About forty persons there breakfasted together ;
among whom were the late Thomas Wilson, Esq., of
Highbury, who presided ; the Rev. Joseph Hughes, of
Battersea, who offered the first prayer to God for his
blessing on the deliberations of the meeting, and the
Rev. Rowland Hill. The Society was then established,
and a Committee appointed to consider the rules that

* Origin and Progress of the Society, 1803, p. G,

42 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

would be necessary for its regulation. On the next
morning an adjourned meeting was held at the same
time and place, at which Mr. Hill presided; when the
proposed rules were brought up and adopted, and a
Committee and Officers appointed for the first year;
Mr, Hughes becoming the secretary.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 43

CHAPTER VI.

Rev. Rowland Hill — Opening of the first Sunday School
in London — Mr. Thomas Cranfield.

MR. HILL, to whom reference has thus been made, was
the sixth son of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart, of Hawkestone,
Shropshire. This good man received the. first rudiments
of knowledge at the grammar school of Shrewsbury,
and at an early age became the subject of religious
impressions, through reading Dr. Watts' Hymns for
Children, presented to him by a lady. These impres
sions were afterwards strengthened by hearing a sermon
of Bishop Beveridge's read by his brother Richard. It
was his privilege to have a brother and sister who were
very anxious for his spiritual welfare ; they often talked
to him on religious subjects, prayed to God on his behalf,
placed in his way books suitable for him to read, and
corresponded with him when he went from home. His
education was continued at Eton school, and here his
serious impressions increased, until about the age of
eighteen when his heart was fully given to God. This
was evidenced by his efforts to benefit his fellow scholars.
At the close of the year 1764, he entered as a pensioner
at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he afterwards
became a fellow commoner. Here he became acquainted
with the Rev. John Berridge, of Everton, and the Rev.

44 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

George Whitefield, by whose counsel and example he
was cheered and encouraged in his efforts to do good to
the inmates of the jail and workhouse, as well as by his
visits to the sick and dying. He did not neglect his
studies, but by early rising, and careful improvement of
his time, became a diligent and successful student —
taking the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, and
leaving Ca'mbridge with the esteem of those who knew
him. He had, however, to bear the displeasure of his
parents, who did not approve of his undertaking duties
which they thought belonged exclusively to the clergy
men of the Established Church. He had not confined
himself strictly to the rules of that church, and when
he sought for ordination, met with no less than six
refusals. He was at length ordained Deacon by the
Bishop of Bath and Wells, in the year 1773, and
accepted a curacy of £40 a year, in the parish of
Kingston, near Taunton, in Somersetshire. He after
wards removed to London, and preached with great
acceptance and success in the Tabernacle, and Totten
ham Court Road Chapel, which had been erected by the
Rev. George Whitefield. Like that distinguished evan
gelist he spent his time mostly in itinerating, and, as a
clergyman, found access to the pulpits of many churches.
His catholic spirit made it a matter of indifference to
him where he preached the gospel — in church, or chapel,
or in the open air ; but he found it desirable to have a
settled residence, and a congregation over which he
might especially preside. In the year 1780, Mr. Hill
felt a strong wish to introduce the Gospel into the south
of London, and on the 24th June, 1782, he laid the first

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 45

stone of Surrey Chapel, on which occasion he preached
from Isaiah xxviii, 16. The building, which cost more
than £5,000, and will seat about 2,500 persons, was
opened for Divine worship, June 8, 1783, when Mr.
Hill preached from 1st Corinthians i, 23. Under his
auspices the first Sunday school in the metropolis was
established. There are no records in existence to show
the exact time of its opening, but it was probably about
1784, for in 1827, at a meeting of the old scholars who
had been educated in the school, an elderly female stated
that her first serious impressions were received in the
school about forty-two years previous to that period.
The children were first collected in the chapel, and
afterwards in the school-house adjoining, of which we
have already spoken, where they were instructed by
paid teachers and superintendents for nearly twenty
years, but under this system there was but little pros
perity. There was the want of that generous and
hallowed feeling which is produced by the disinterested
labour of instructors, who are constrained by the love of
Christ freely to give what they have freely received,
At length, here, as elsewhere, Christian men and women
came forth freely to undertake the work, which has ever
since been carried on with great success.* The estab
lishment of the school at Surrey Chapel was followed by
the opening of a second at Hoxton by Mr. Kemp, and
gradually the system spread through the metropolis.

One of the most active and successful agents in this
work was a man in humble life. Thomas Cranfield, the
son of a baker in Southwark, but who was brought up

• Memoir of the Rev, Rowland Hill, M.A., by \Villiam Jone?.

4(5 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

to the business of a tailor, enlisted in the 39th regiment
of foot, in August, 1777, and proceeded to Gibraltar,
where he continued until its celebrated siege in 1782.
On his return to England in 1783, he was induced by
his father to hear the Rev. W. Romaine, whose instruc
tions were blessed to his conversion, which was followed
by that of his wife. He resumed his business, but had
much difficulty in obtaining the means of supporting his
family. He, however, devoted himself to the service
of his Saviour, with an extraordinary energy and with
a perseverance which accompanied him through life.
About the latter end of 1791, Mr. Cranfield opened a
Sunday school in his own house at Kingsland, and was
assisted in the work by a Mr. Gould, while his wife
instructed the girls. The number of children soon
amounted to 60; and his room being too small, he
removed the school to the factory, a building which he
had hired near Kingsland Turnpike. He then left the
school in the hands of some Christian friends, and pro
ceeded to Stoke Newington, where he opened another
school, which he put into the hands of others, and estab
lished a school at Hornsey. He had been assisted in his
efforts by pecuniary assistance from Mr. Joshua Reyner,
who held for many years the office of treasurer to the
Religious Tract Society, and by Mr. James Robert
Burchett, a proctor in Doctors' Commons, and a member
of the Surrey Chapel congregation. In 1797, Mr.
Burchett, at the suggestion of Mr. Cranfield, wrote and
published a tract, entitled "Palm Sunday." Of this
tract 1,000 copies were printed, and on the morning of
Palm Sunday, 1797, the two friends met at Shoreditch

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 47

Church, for the purpose of commencing the circulation
of these tracts: Mr. Burchett took the round towards
Hornsey, and Mr. Cranfield that towards Whitechapel.
Mr. Cranfield returned through Thames Street, and
crossing London Bridge, proceeded to Rotherhithe. He
was induced by the scenes of depravity which presented
themselves to his notice, to form the resolution of open
ing a Sunday school, and in the middle of the week,
hired a room in Adam-street, and issued a circular,
informing the inhabitants that a school would be com
menced on the following Sabbath for gratuitous instruc
tion. On Easter Sunday, accordingly, Mr. Cranfield
began the work of instruction, when upwards of twenty
scholars attended. At this time he had three children,
and it will illustrate his indomitable energy, as well as
that of his wife, to state that, as he could not obtain any
other assistant, she attended the school with him every
Sabbath, though with an infant at her breast — Mr.
Cranfield carried another child in his arms, and the
third was left at home with a female servant. They
dined in the school-room, and returned home in the
afternoon to tea. The number of scholars soon increased
to 100, and Mr. Cranfield obtained permission to conduct
them to the Rev. John Townsend's chapel to public
worship. Having obtained assistance in the carrying on
the school from some members of that congregation, he,
in December, 1797, opened another school in a brick-
maker's house, near the High Cross, Tottenham. At
this place were several youths of most abandoned
character, and he calculated upon receiving much an
noyance from them ; but, on the contrary, they were

4g THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

among the earliest who applied for admission. Some of
them, as soon as they began to perceive the benefits of
instruction, formed the plan of meeting at each other's
houses after the labours of the day, for the purpose of
learning to read ; and to facilitate their progress, obtained
the assistance of the boys in the Bible Class, for which
they each allowed one penny per week. Four of these
ringleaders in wickedness were subsequently converted
to God.

When the charge of the schools at Rotherhithe and
Tottenham was undertaken by Christian friends residing
there, the active mind of Mr. Cranfield sought for
another sphere of labour in Kent-street, Southwark.
He therefore took an opportunity of reconnoitering this
stronghold of iniquity, and found it inhabited by the
lowest of the low, and the vilest of the vile. He con
ferred with his friends as to what should be done, and
unpromising as the prospect appeared, it was determined
to attempt to benefit the young portion of this degraded
population. Mr. Cranfield hired a room at No. 124, at
a rental of three shillings a week, and on the first Sunday
in August, 1798, the school was opened. The children
attended in considerable numbers, and after he and his
friends had instructed them for some time, he ventured
to take them to public worship, at a chapel in the neigh
bourhood, but it was with the greatest difficulty he could
keep them in order. So novel was the scene to them,
and so rude and uncultivated were they, that when the
service was over, and they had got into the street again,
they gave three cheers for the minister. The opposition
which Mr. Cranfield and his friends encountered in this

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, 49

district was dreadful. Every species of insult was
heaped upon them; they were pelted with filth of all
descriptions, and dirty water was frequently thrown out
of the windows upon their heads. His two friends
retired from this unpromising field of labour, but his
wife again became his assistant, although she had to
travel three miles from their home at Hoxton, leading
two children, while her husband carried a third. In the
spring of 1799, Mr. Cranfield finding the work too
much for himself and wife, sought in various quarters
for aid, but without success. Asa last resource, he went
to his friend, Mr. Burchett, who brought him the help
he required.* An apparently fortuitous circumstance
had on that very day directed Mr. Burchett's attention
to the subject of Sunday schools. He had been with
Mr. Hugh Beams, of the Stock Exchange, to Surrey
Chapel, where Mr. Hill, who had recently visited
Scotland, mentioned the great good which he had
found effected there by these institutions, and made
a powerful appeal to his congregation, to go and
imitate their Scottish brethren. Mr. Burchett's ardent
mind immediately caught the idea, and began to consider
how it might be best accomplished. Mr. Beams offered
the use of his rooms, and remembering that whatever
we do should be done with all our might, they agreed to
open a Sunday school the next Lord's day. It was
while they were thus engaged that Mr. Cranfield came
in to make his application to Mr. Burchett for help.
On his entering the room, Mr. Burchett exclaimed, " I
am glad to see you ; we have just been contriving a plan

*" The Useful Christian," a Memoir of Thomas Cranfield.

I

gQ THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

to open a Sunday school, but I recollect you have one
already in Kent-street, perhaps we had better endeavour
to enlarge your border." Messrs. Burchett and Beams
visited Mr. Cranfield the following Sunday, and found
him labouring alone with forty children. They under
took to provide additional teachers, and Mr. Cranfield
promised that scholars should not be wanting. The
condition of other parts of the Borough of Southwark
then excited attention, and schools were successively
opened in the Mint, Gravel-lane, and Garden-row, St.
George's-fields. The Mint was found to be a locality
worse, if possible, than Kent-street. There a room was
hired at <£?4 per annum, and the school opened on Sunday,
June 16, 1799, with 40 scholars. The children appeared
in a most wretched condition; few of them wearing
shoes, and scarcely more than two or three having
covering to their heads. Similar difficulties to those
experienced in Kent-street were met with, but Mr.
Burchett, who superintended the school for eight years,
aided by Thomas Cranfield and others, persevered in
his efforts, and this school is still continued in a new
building erected in the year 1854, in Harem-place,
Mint.*°

These schools may be considered as the precursors
of wThat have since been called " Ragged Schools," in
the formation and carrying on of which John Pounds, of
St. Mary-street, Portsmouth (who, while earning an
honest subsistence by mending shoes, was also school
master gratuitously to some hundreds of children of his
poor neighbours); the Rev. Dr. Guthrie, of Edinburgh ;

* Ragged School Magazine, 1860, p. 243, 244.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. £1

Sheriff Watson, of Aberdeen ; " the Poor Tinker " of
Westminster; and "the Poor Chimney Sweep," of
Windsor, have been so useful. In April, 1844, the
Ragged School Union was formed under the presidency
of Lord Ashley, M.P. (now Earl Sliaftesbury), and
has conferred real and vast blessings on the lowest classes
of our youthful population.

Mr. Burchett had made himself responsible for all
expenses, but when Mr. Hill returned to town in the
autumn, he was informed of what had been done, and
his patronage solicited. He immediately said, " Since
you have undertaken to provide teachers and children,
I will find the requisite money." He recommended that
a junction should be formed with the school at Surrey
Chapel, and the whole was denominated " The South-
wark Sunday School Society." Mr. Burchett was not
content with the services which his counsel and his purse
rendered to the Society, but he was also for many years
a zealous teacher in any of the schools where his labours
were most wanted. At the time of his death, in 1810,
there were eight schools, containing nearly 2,000
children.* At March, 1860, the Society had under its
care 12 schools, comprising 411 teachers and 4,384
scholars.

*" Memoir of the Rev. Rowland Hill, M.A.," by William Jones.

E2

52 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER VII.

Introduction of the Sunday School into Scotland.
Opposition of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authorities.

THE reference made to Mr. Hill's visit to Scotland, and
its important results, naturally lead to some account of
what had there so much excited his interest. In that
country family teaching existed to a large extent many
years previously to the introduction of Sabbath schools.
It was the custom, when a young man came to his minister
and desired to be married, that he underwent an examina
tion as to his qualifications to act as the head of a family ;
and if it was found that he was not properly qualified,
the minister delayed the ceremony! It was also the
custom in Scotland for the ministers to have periodical
examinations — that is to say, they went through their
congregations once a year, calling together the families
in a particular district, and catechizing them, men,
women, and children. This custom gave a certain
stimulus to family education. As early as the year
1756, a Presbyterian minister started a Sabbath school
in his own house, which was attended by thirty or forty
children. This school he maintained for a period of not
less than fifty years, and it has continued unbroken to
the present day. But after all these statements, it
cannot be doubted that the Sabbath school, in Scotland,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 53

as it now exists, sprang from the effort of Robert
Raikes.* In the year 1797, a number of pious persons,
of various denominations in Edinburgh, and its neigh
bourhood, who had been meeting for some time
monthly, for the purpose of praying for the revival
of religion at home and the spread of the Gospel abroad,
thought that some active exertions to promote the im
portant object for which they had associated should
accompany their prayers. Their attention was directed
to the state and character of the rising generation, and
a society was formed by them, under the title of the
" Edinburgh Gratis Sabbath School Society," the sole
object of which should be to promote the religious
instruction of youth, by erecting, supporting, and con
ducting Sabbath evening schools in Edinburgh and its
neighbourhood, in which schools the children should be
taught the leading and most important doctrines of the
Scriptures, and not the peculiarities of any denomination
of Christians. It was agreed that the schools be con
ducted by gratuitous teachers, and the first school was
opened in Portsburgh, in March, 1797. The Committee
reported in 1812, that they had then 44 schools under
their care, attended by 2,200 children.! The establish
ment of Sunday schools in the North of Scotland was
met by some opposition. In the year 1798, two young
Englishmen, Messrs. Coles and Page, were students at
King's College, Aberdeen. They were Baptists, and
men of fervent piety. The state of spiritual death in
which they found the people around them, moved their

* Report of the Proceedings of the General Sunday School Convention, p. 29,
t Sunday School Repository, 1813, p, 125.

54 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

hearts and led them to attempt the formation of Sunday
schools. They found a few godly men prepared to
sympathise and co-operate with them. One of these
wrote on the 25th of April, 1798, to John Morisou, of
Millseat, and father of the late Eev. Dr. Morison, of
Brompton. " Each of them (Messrs. Coles and Page,)
teaches a school, and the people tread upon one another
to hear them. I went to hear one of them last Sunday
evening, who teaches in St. Mary's Hill, below the East
church. I think there were about one thousand people
present. The schools are six in number, and very well
attended. The children are rapidly advancing in know
ledge. Had I not heard their answers, I should not
have believed that persons so young could have been
capable of acquiring such clear views of religious truth.
These schools indeed appear to be among the most
effectual means ever devised for training up a seed to do
service to the Lord in their generation. At the first
formation of the society for the support of the schools,
several of the more liberal of the clergy attended, but
they have almost all deserted us now, and are beginning
to look upon us with a somewhat jealous eye. One of
them said the other day that we were striking a blow at
the very vitals of the Establishment by means of these
schools." Mr. Morison was moved by these accounts to
attempt something for the ignorant young of his own
neighbourhood, and was aided by a little band of good
men, who had the courage to join him in the novel pro
ceeding. For several years the schools thus originated
continued to prosper, and new ones were opened in the
surrounding district. They became nearly as popular

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

an attraction as the parish church ; the largest rooms in
which they were held were crowded to excess ; religious
knowledge was diffused to a most happy and unheard of
extent; they repressed the desecration of the Sabbath,
and became in all respects important branches in that
vast system of operation which was paving the way for
happier times to the North of Scotland.

The apprehension of one of the clergy of the Scottish
National Church, that these schools would be injurious
to that establishment, appears to have been shared by
his brethren to an extent which now appears ludicrous,
and under its influence, the "Assembly" issued its
" Pastoral Admonition,'7 which condemned nothing in
severer terms than the unauthorised instructions of lay
teachers. Mr. Morison received a summons from the
vestry clerk of the chapel of ease in his immediate
vicinity, requiring him to appear before the Presbytery
of Turriff, to give an account of the circumstances
which had induced him to violate the statutes obligatory
upon those who became teachers of religion, and by
which they were compelled to obtain license, and to take
certain oaths of allegiance to government. He however
deemed the interference of the Presbytery impertinent
and illegal, and in this opinion he was fully borne out
by the decisions of the highest legal practitioners in the
land. Not wishing however to show any feeling of
disrespect or resentment, he made his appearance at the
Presbytery, explained the nature of his proceedings at
the Sunday schools; gently hinted that the neglect of
the clergy had rendered them necessary ; expressed his
determination to persevere, and eventually apprised the

5(5 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

reverend body that he had sought legal advice, and was
prepared to abide by whatever consequences might
follow upon refusing to meet their wishes. From some
parts of Aberdeenshire Sunday school teachers were
marched into the city of Aberdeen, under the charge of
constables, to account before the magistrates for their
presumption. But after this interview with the Pres
bytery of Turriff, Mr. Morison had no further trouble
on the subject of his Sunday school labours ; and it is
but justice to add, that most of the men who sat in
judgment upon the case, lived long enough to feel con
vinced that all such attempts to put down Sunday schools
were alike impolitic and unjustifiable.*

Similar opposition was met with in other parts of Scot
land, both from the civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
In the town of Paisley, in 1799, the sheriff of the county
intimated to the Sabbath school teachers that he con
sidered their meetings to be illegal, and demanded from
them a sight of their books. He also required that
every Sabbath school should obtain a license, and sum
moned the various teachers to take the oath of allegiance
before the magistrates. In the small town of Lauder, in
1797, information against the Sabbath school was laid
before the sheriff, who sent to the minister, and said,
" You must let me see the books you use in the Sabbath
school." The minister sent him the Bible and the
Shorter Catechism, both of which the sheriff returned,
with the remark, " I wish you God-speed." In a few
years after this, Sabbath schools became popular. By-

* Service and Suffering : Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Morison, D.D., L.L.D.,
1860, pp. 98-102,

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. eft

and-bye the magistrates were invited to open the schools,
and see them examined. In one case, their authority
was carried a little too far. In a small town of some
1,500 inhabitants, an order was issued that no scholar
should be allowed to leave the house until the church
bell rang, when all the doors were thrown open, and the
children admitted to the school. Still it must have
worked well, for we find that of the 1,500 inhabitants,
there were 500, or one-third of the whole population in
attendance at the schools.

The opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities was
somewhat more formidable. At that time lay teaching
in Scotland was almost altogether unknown, and the
ecclesiastical courts declared that Sabbath-school teach
ing by laymen was not only an innovation, but was
contrary to Presbyterianism. Some ministers stated
from the pulpit that the conducting of a Sabbath school
was a breach of the fourth commandment, and others,
that if any parent sent his children to the Sabbath
school, he should be cut off from the communion of the
church. Such were the extreme measures taken by
certain parties in Scotland at that time. The pious
ministers and laymen, however, continued their labours,
heedless of the anathemas which were fulminated against
them, and the result is that all opposition has entirely
ceased, and there are now none more cordially devoted
to the Sabbath-school cause than ministers, many of
whom have been educated in those institutions, and have
been engaged as Sabbath-school teachers. And those
very bodies which passed formal resolutions against
Sabbath schools now have an annual statistical return of

53 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

their operations. It was well tliat this battle was fought
and won ; for it was not the cause of Sabbath schools
only, but of all those lay agents who are now labouring
so zealously and successfully in the country.*

* Report of the Proceedings of the General Sunday School Convention, pp. 30, 31,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 59

CHAPTER VJII.

Introduction of the Sunday School into Wales — Consequent
demand for copies of the Scriptures — Rev. Thomas
Charles. Formation of British and Foreign Bible
Society.

VERY early in the annals of the Sunday-school Society
arc recorded their desires and endeavours to carry the
blessing into Ireland; it was not, however, effected to
any considerable extent for more than twenty years
afterwards. A similar attempt was made on behalf of
"Wales, which proved more successful. As the only
obstacle was want of funds, a subscription was com
menced in 1798 for the benefit of Sunday schools in
Wales. In 1800 the funds were raised, and so rapid
was the progress of the design in that Principality, that
in three years 177 schools wrere raised, containing up
wards of 8,000 scholars.* In 1787 a Sunday school
was formed in connection with the Baptist church at
Hengoed, in Glamorganshire, by Morgan John Rhys.
This school was formed on the principle of teaching the
Word of God and religious lessons only. But the
person to whom the honour belongs of carrying out
this work was the Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala. In
the course of his evangelistic efforts he had found
ignorance as to religion prevailing to an extent

* Sunday School Jubilee, 1831, p. 23.

gQ THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

scarcely conceivable in a country professedly Christian.
Having thus acquired a knowledge of the religious state
of the community at large he felt anxious to provide
some remedy. The plan he thought of was the estab
lishment of circulating schools, moveable from one place
to another at the end of nine or twelve months, or some
times more. Some of the first teachers he taught himself.
These schools were commenced in 1785, and increased,
and supplied teachers for the Sunday schools, which
were set on foot in 1789, and increased very rapidly,
soon spreading over the whole country. Mr. Charles
availed himself of every opportunity to encourage them.
He had a peculiar talent for examining and catechising
the children. He possessed in a high degree that tender
ness and sympathy for them which were so conspicuous
in our Saviour. His familiarity took away every re-,
straint. His condescension and kindness engaged their
tenderest feelings. He never seemed to enjoy himself
so much as when he was surrounded by children, and
they loved him as he loved them. What soon became
very peculiar in these schools was the attendance of
adults. Grown-up people attended as scholars. The
children having been taught not only to read, but to
understand in a measure the doctrines of the Gospel,
those grown into maturity felt ashamed of their igno
rance. Many parents came and submitted to be taught.
From attending the examination of their children they
were by degrees rendered anxious to be taught them
selves. But what more especially produced this happy
result was the constant practice of Mr. Charles of
urging upon all of every age the duty of being able to

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gj

read the Word of God. In the pulpit, in examining the
children, and in his conversation with the poor people
he met with in his travels, this was the subject.*

In a letter written by Mr. Charles, in 1808, he gives
some encouraging accounts of the progress of the Sunday
schools in Wales, which had greatly increased, especially
in South Wales; and of their beneficial influence he
adds:

"We have also this year held associations of the
different schools. They meet in some central place to
be publicly catechised together. Three meetings of this
nature have been held in North Wales, and three in
South Wales. A subject is given to every school on
which they are to be examined, and which they are to
elucidate by repeating appropriate passages from the
Sacred Writings. At the appointed time, generally a
Sabbath day, the children of the different schools as
semble, accompanied by their teachers. Some of the
schools have walked ten miles by eight o'clock in the
morning. The children being scattered in their different
habitations over the country, for they dwell not together
in hamlets as in England, they all meet at an assigned
place, and at the appointed hour pray and sing a verse
of a hymn together, and then march cheerfully and
orderly for the place of their destination.

"As no place of worship is spacious enough to contain
the immense concourse of people which attend on these
occasions, we have been obliged to erect stages out of
doors in the fields : a large one for the children, two or
three schools at a time; another for the catechists,

* Brief History of the Life and Labours of the Rev. T. Charles, 1828, pp. 229— 2?8.

FIBST FIFTY YEARS

opposite to that of the children, at fifteen or eighteen
yards distant; the space between is for the assembled
congregation to hear. We begin the work early in the
morning, and the whole day is spent in these examina
tions. Every examination lasts three or four hours, and
is generally concluded by an address to the children and
the congregation. In the short intervals between the
examinations, the children of each school are conducted
by their teachers into a room engaged for the purpose
to partake of a little refreshment, and at the appointed
time they are reconducted to the place of meeting. We
have had on these occasions from fifteen to twenty
schools assembled together. Hitherto these associations
have been most profitable. The previous preparation
gives employment for two months to all the youths of
both sexes, in which they engage with great eagerness
and delight. The public examinations, we have every
reason to conclude, are also very profitable to the hearers
assembled. This is clear from their great attention, and
the feelings produced by hearing the responses of the
children. I have seen great meltings and tears among
them. When the work of the day is over the children
are reconducted by their teachers to their respective
homes, or committed to the care of their parents.

" In my intercourse with the children I have met with
many instances of uncommon quickness of intellect and
strength of memory. I have met with more than one
who at the age of three years would learn any common
tune in a very short time ; and others at the same age
who would very soon commit to memory long chapters
without any apparent difficulty. There is a little girl

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gg

only five aiid a half years old who can repeat distinctly
above one hundred chapters, and goes on learning a
chapter every week, besides the catechism, and searching
the Scriptures for passages on different points in divinity.
We have many blind people who treasure up the Word
of God in their memory. One blind lad commits a
whole chapter to memory by having it read over to him
about four times. I have also met with many melan
choly instances of very great ignorance among grown-up
people, which has induced me to press them earnestly to
attend the Sunday school."

Mr. Charles adds :

"No minister who wishes to see the success of his
ministry, if he knew the satisfaction it would give him
self, and the advantage it would be to others in preparing
them for eternity, far beyond his mere preaching all his
days, but would immediately set about teaching his
people to read and catechising them." *

The efforts made by Mr. Charles to secure the attend
ance of adults at the Sunday school have resulted in
impressing a peculiar character on the Welsh schools.
In them the adults not unfrequently form the majority
of the scholars present. In one school three persons
upwards of seventy years of age were seen conning over
their lessons, and standing up in the class with their
grandchildren. One of those at that advanced age
underwent a painful operation from which he recovered.
During the confinement which it occasioned, he used to
engage some of the Sunday scholars to visit him, and to
go over with him the lessons they had been taught at

* Brief History of the Life and Labours of the Rev. T. Charles, 1828, pp. 241—244.

(54 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

school,, that his learning might not be hindered.* In a
school at Bangor, at a very recent period, a class was
seen every member of which wore spectacles. The class
is often the scene of lively theological discussion between
the scholars and the teacher, and one verse will fre
quently occupy the whole time of meeting. Sometimes
the servant will be the teacher, while the employer
willingly takes the position of a scholar.

Two years after the establishment of Sunday schools
by Mr. Charles, a remarkable awakening as to religion
took place, especially at Bala and its neighbourhood,
which was instrumental ly owing, in a great measure,
according to all appearances, to these schools. In a
letter, dated September, 1791, Mr. Charles says : " Here,
at Bala, we have had a very great, powerful, and glorious
out-pouring of the Spirit on the people in general, espe
cially on children and young people. Little children,
from six to twelve years of age, are affected, astonished,
and overpowered." But a still more remarkable, exten
sive, and enduring event was brought about by the
establishment of these schools. When the capacity of
reading became more general, and a serious impression
was made on the minds of the young people, Bibles were
wanted. As early as the year 1787, two years after the
commencement of the circulating schools already men
tioned, Mr. Charles corresponded with the Rev. T. Scott
about procuring Welsh Bibles for supplying the wants of
his countrymen. Mr. Scott tried all means in his power,
but eventually failed. The Sunday schools greatly
increased the want, which was also rendered more urgent

* The Sunday School Jubilee, 1831, p. 24,

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. g£

by the extraordinary revival in North Wales, to which
we have adverted. The Rev. T. Jones, of Creaton, had
noticed the want when on a visit to Wales, in 1791. It
made such an impression on his mind that he corre
sponded much with Mr. Charles on the subject, and
made strenuous efforts to get the necessity supplied. He
made application to the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, in 1792, to print an edition of 10,000 copies
of the Welsh Bible, and offered security to pay for 5,000
as soon as printed. The proposal was reluctantly accepted,
but afterwards declined, on the ground that such an
edition was not wanted. Mr. Jones then interested his
diocesan, Dr. Madan, the Bishop of Peterborough, in the
object, whose influence succeeded, in 1796, in obtaining
a resolution of the Board to print the number required.
The edition was published in 1799, and liberally offered
for sale at one half the cost price. It was no sooner
published than sold, "though not one-fourth part of
the country," according to Mr. Jones's account, "was
supplied. " * But neither the solicitation of Mr. Jones,
nor the influence of the Bishop, nor the intercession of
other parties, could induce the Society to issue another
edition. They were, probably, deterred by the expense
which the publication involved.f In the year 1802, Mr.
Charles was walking in one of the streets of Bala, when
he met a child who attended his ministry. He inquired
if she could repeat the text from which he had preached
on the preceding Sunday. Instead of giving a prompt
reply, as she had been accustomed to do, she remained

* Brief History of the Life and Labours of the EOT. T, Charles, 1828, pp. 283—285.
t History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1816, pp. 6—14.

66

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

silent. CfCan you tell me the text, my little girl,"
repeated Mr. Charles. The child wept, but was still
silent. At length, she said, es The weather, sir, has been
so bad that I could not get to read the Bible." This
remark surprised the good man, and he exclaimed,
" Could you not get to read the Bible ! how was that? "
The reason was soon ascertained — there was no copy to
which she could gain access, either at her own home or
among her friends, and she was accustomed to travel
every week seven miles over the hills to a place where
she could obtain a Welsh Bible, to read the chapter from
which the minister took his text. But during that week,
the cold and stormy weather had prevented her usual
journey. This incident made a deep impression on the
benevolent mind of Mr. Charles, and increased the
anxiety he had long felt to secure for the Welsh a good
supply of the Scriptures in their own tongue. In
December of that year, he took his annual journey to
London, intending to lay certain plans for securing his
object before some charitable friends, particularly the
Committee of the Religious Tract Society. The subject
was much upon his mind, and while awake in bed, the
idea of having a Bible Society in London, on a similar
basis to the Religious Tract Society, occurred to him.
He was so cheered by the thought that he instantly
arose, and went out to consult some friends on the sub
ject. The first person he met was Mr. Tarn, who was
then on the Committee. They discussed the subject
together for a considerable time, and at the next meeting
of the Committee, on Tuesday, December the 7th,
1802, after the regular business was finished, Mr. Tarn

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gy

mentioned the particulars of his conversation with Mr.
Charles, who fully unfolded his plans, and urged assist
ance in the attainment of an object which had long
occupied his mind. On this occasion, the Rev. Matthew
Wilks occupied the chair, and there were also present
the Rev. Messrs. Steinkopff, Townsend, and Hughes,
Messrs. Pellatt, Alers, (afterwards W. Alers Hankey,)
Mackenzie, Goldsmith, Shrubsole, Preston, Freshfield,
Reyner, Hamilton, Fowler, Shelter, and Tarn. At the
moment when Mr. Charles was appealing for the Bible
for Wales, it occurred to Mr. Hughes, " Surely a Society
might be formed for the purpose, and if for Wales, why
not also for the empire and the world ? " He mentioned
to the Committee that it appeared to him desirable to
extend the plan suggested by Mr. Charles, so as to
facilitate a general circulation of the Scriptures.* It
does not belong to our design to detail the mode in
which Mr. Hughes, in concurrence with the Committee,
and as their official organ, developed and made public
the idea thus suggested to his mind. The result was
that on the 7th March, 1804, the BRITISH AND FOREIGN
BIBLE SOCIETY was fully established ; and so eminently
has the Divine blessing rested on its labours, that
47,989,579 copies of the Scriptures, in whole or In part,
have been issued by its means, in 160 languages and
dialects of the earth. Like the Religious Tract Society,
by the exertions of whose Committee it had been origi
nated, it was formed upon the Catholic principle of
union amongst Christians of all denominations ; and the
Rev. Josiah Pratt, a clergyman of the Established

* The Jubilee Memorial of the Keligious Tract Society, 1850, pp. 46—48.

F2

gg THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

Church, the Rev. Joseph Hughes, a Baptist minister,
and the Rev. C. F. A. Steinkopff, of the German
Lutheran Church, were appointed its secretaries.

A review of these events will show how the formation
of the Sunday school led on to efforts for the improve
ment and extension of general education amongst the
people ; thus necessitating a supply of reading to meet
the demand created by that education, and, above all,
compelling the adoption of means for putting into the
hands of the people of this and other lands the Holy
Scriptures in all their purity and completeness.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. W. B. Gurney — Formation of the Sunday School
Union — Mr. James Nisbet — Mr. Thomas Thompson.

WE now resume the narrative of the progress of the
Sunday-school system in the Metropolis. Amongst
those who devoted themselves to the gratuitous instruc
tion of the rising generation at an early period, were
found Mr. Joseph Fox, the intimate friend of Joseph
Lancaster, and Mr. William Brodie Gurney. The latter
gentleman was born at Stamford Hill, on the 27th of
December, 1777. His grandfather, Thomas Gurney,
was a man of considerable mechanical genius. When a
youth he took a great interest in astrology, and for the
sake of a work on that subject, he bought at a sale a
lot of books labelled " Sundries." Among them was
(i Mason's Shorthand," a system which had fallen into
disuse on account of its complexity. This book imme
diately engaged Mr. Gurney's enquiring mind. He soon
learned the system, and simplified it to enable him to
take down sermons. There still exists in the family a
book of sermons taken by him at Ridgmount, in Bed
fordshire, in 1732 — 33, while only about eighteen years
of age. This acquisition had an important effect on the
history of his family. Fifteen years afterwards he
learned, from an advertisement, that the shorthand
writer of the criminal court held in the Old Bailey, had

7Q THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

died, and that a successor was required. He applied
for the office, gave proof of his qualification for it, and
was elected. For thirty years he continued to discharge
its duties, and was respected by all with whom he became
officially connected. His leisure time he filled up with
clock and watch-making, his original business.

In the year 1770, he was succeeded by his son Joseph.
In his hands, after a few years, the business considerably
increased. The frequency of courts-martial during the
American war; the trial of Warren Hastings, and
Home Tooke ; the Mutiny at the Nore, and enquiries
connected with it; the question of the abolition of the
Slave trade, on which evidence was taken at the bar of
the House of Lords, all called for the exercise of his
talent. Some of the speeches taken by him on these
occasions, especially during the trial of Hastings, were
delivered with a rapidity which it had been thought
impossible to meet. A conversation between his Royal
Highness the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William
the Fourth, and Joseph Gurney, affords an amusing
instance of his Royal Highness's discrimination. One
day during the enquiry into the Slave trade, the Duke
asked Mr. Gurney for which side he attended. Mr.
Gurney told him for the planters, " Oh ! " he replied,
" then I am mistaken. I really supposed yflu were an
abolitionist. I thought you had an abolition face."
Those who remember the countenance of William Brodie
Gurney, and how readily it was excited by any tale of
wrong, will appreciate his Royal Highness's suspicions,
and conclude that the abolitionism of the father's face
was inherited by his son.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 7]_

During the first ten years of Mr. W. B. Gurney' s life
his family continued to reside at Stamford Hill. He him
self relates the following incident. " In the course of the
last two or three years that my father resided at Stam
ford Hill, I was occasionally sent by my mother to
enquire after the health of Mr. Henshaw, a superannuated
Independent minister, who resided at KiBgsland, in the
house of Mr. William Fox." Mr. Fox, of whom we have
already spoken, was the founder of the Sunday School
Society. " Frequently while I trundled my hoop, I took
on my left arm a little basket with some jelly, or a little
cake, refreshments which he (Mr. Henshaw) had not the
means of purchasing, his income being very small ; he
having refused assistance which was generously offered
him from Mr. Whitbread, and from Mr. Howard, both
of whom felt a great esteem for him. On one of those
occasions I found an elderly gentleman, whose figure
I still bear in my mind, as well as his dress : a pepper
and salt coat, a scarlet waistcoat, and lying by him a
cocked hat. This was John Howard the philanthropist.
This visit must have occurred in the year 1787." In
the October of that year the family removed to Wai worth,
a village to the south of London, where Mr. Gurney
received at first the instruction of Mr. Burnside, but
was afterwards sent to school to a Mr. Freeman, who
had been a Baptist minister, but had embraced Arian
views, and ultimately sank into Unitarianism. The
influence of Mr. Freeman's religious opinions was ex
ceedingly injurious to Mr. Gurney 's mind; but after
leaving school, the sermons of Mr. Dore, the pastor of
Maze Pond Chapel, Southwark, where his parents

72 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

attended, were made the means of leading him to right
views of his own condition as a sinner in the sight of God,
and of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners. He was
baptized at Maze Pond, on August 1st, 1796, together
with Miss Benham, whom he afterwards married.

Although his father's business had largely increased,
it was an uncertain one, so that when he left school it
became a grave question whether he should follow his
father's profession. He, therefore, turned his thoughts
in other directions ; but ultimately his appointment, in
conjunction with his father, as shorthand writer to the
House of Lords decided his course. Thenceforth he
gave himself to that profession.*

Before Mr. Gurney had publicly joined the Church
of Christ his career of usefulness had begun. In the
neighbourhood of his father's house at Walworth was a
school which his mother had been instrumental in raising.
The master was encouraged by the committee to open it
on Sunday for religious instruction, and was rewarded
with a penny a child for each Sunday up to the number
of thirty. The result was, that the number was always
thirty, a lad being sent out to fetch in one or two if it fell
short; but it was never exceeded, except by accident.
Mr. Joseph Fox and Mr. Gurney, with two friends, took
charge of the school in 1796. In the following year
Mr. Gurney became the secretary, and under the care
of gratuitous teachers it increased to 180 children, for
whose accommodation it became necessary to erect a
new school-room, the funds for which were raised to a
large extent by his own personal appeals.

* Baptist Magazine, 1855, pp. 529—532.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 73

In 1801, Mr. Gurney, with the assistance of some
young friends, began the Maze Pond Sunday school, the
boys' school being for several years in Bermondsey-
street, close to the outlet of Snowsfields ; the girls' school
was close to Weston-street. The boys' school compre
hended some of the raggedest colts that were ever got
together, but the change in their appearance within a
year was surprising. The school at Wahvorth, though
commenced five years previously, was never so bad as
that called the " Maze Pond Sunday School," from the
chapel it attended and which kept it up. Both the boys*
and the girls' school were the means of spiritual good to
some of the children.* The neighbouring church at
Carter-lane, under Dr» Rippon's care caught the spirit,
and large schools were speedily in operation there. f

It was natural that these teachers should seek to
improve the quality of the instruction given to the
young persons thus gathered together, and they were
stimulated and guided in this by the interest which Mr.
Gurney 's sister took in the "Missionary Magazine,"
commenced in Edinburgh in the year 1796. That lady
was a frequent contributor to the publication, and some
times employed Mr. Gurney as her amanuensis. He
was thus brought acquainted with the mode pursued in
the schools of Scotland of catechising on the scriptures,
and also with Elliott's " Scripture Catechism," and other
works intended to aid beginners in adopting it. He
introduced the plan into the Sunday school. Mr.
Gurney was not aware that such a mode of instruction,

* Letter of Mr. Gurney in British Banner of May 2nd, 1855.
t Baptist Magazine, 1855, p, 594.

74 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

which is now happily so universal, had then been
introduced into any school; but he found its adoption
attended with the most beneficial results. While the
minds of the scholars were imbued with the knowledge
of the scriptures, they also contracted a habit of reading
the sacred volume, which had its influence long after
they left the school.

In the year 1802, Mr. William Marriott, who was
engaged in conducting a Sunday school at Friar's
Mount, Bethnal Green, was introduced to Mr. Gurney,
who had then become connected with a society established
at Wai worth for opening schools in the neighbouring
villages. They both found reason to lament the want of
plan and order, and desired some means by which neg
lected districts might be supplied with schools, and
young persons of suitable dispositions induced to under
take the work. On the removal of Mr. Gurney into
London, early in 1803, his house became the place of
meeting for several active Sunday-school teachers,
amongst whom were Messrs. Beams, Burchett, Niven,
Weare, &c. ; and at one of these meetings the subject
of inducing the teachers in London to unite for mutual
encouragement and support, and with a view to the
extension and improvement of Sunday schools, was
made a matter of conversation; and its practicability
and desirableness becoming apparent, it was determined
to call a meeting to consider the subject more at large,
and adopt measures for carrying it into execution.
Accordingly, a numerous meeting was assembled on the
13th July, 1803, at Surrey Chapel School-rooms, where
in 1799 the meeting had taken place, which resulted in

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 75

the formation of the Religious Tract Society, and the
SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION was then established.

Mr. Marriott was appointed the Treasurer, Mr.
Gurney the Secretary, and a Committee was also elected
to carry out the objects of the Society. At the com
memoration of the Jubilee of the Union in 1853, the
only known survivors of the band who, animated by
love to the Saviour, and to the souls of the young, thus
met together and formed the Union, were Mr. Gurney,
Mr, James Nisbet, and Mr. Thomas Thompson, all
of whom have since entered into their rest. It was
felt to be a pleasing reminiscence, and one which cor
rectly marked the catholic character of the institution,
that those three survivors should represent respectively
three important sections of the Christian church. With
Mr. Gurney's early history the reader has already
become acquainted, Mr. Nisbet was born at Kelso, and
in the early part of the year 1803, found himself on the
18th anniversary of his birth-day, a friendless youth in
the metropolis. On the Sabbath he bent his way to the
Scotch church in Swallow-street. The Scotch psalms
were sung, prayer was offered, and a sermon preached
by a venerable and affectionate pastor. When the
service was ended, and he was introduced in the vestry
to Dr. Nicholl, he felt himself no longer friendless. He
was almost immediately installed as a Sunday-school
teacher, and besides finding Christian companions, com
menced that course of active usefulness which was never
to intermit for more than fifty years.* Mr. Nisbet was
anxious to discharge faithfully the duties of the office he

* Funeral Sermon, by Kev. James Hamilton, D.D., 1854,

7(5 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

had undertaken. He used to rise at four o'clock, to
study the chapters which had been appointed as the
lessons for the next Sunday in the school, lest he should
be asked a question by any scholar that he could not
readily answer; aiding his own study by the careful
perusal of Matthew Henry's Commentary.*

Mr. Thompson was a native of London, having been
born 19th August, 1785, immediately under the sound
of Bow Bells. His heart was early brought under the
influence of divine truth, and that, by means rather
singular. He was, when five or six years old, in the
habit of going to a baker's shop, near his father's
residence, to fetch the rolls for breakfast. The baker's
man took notice of him, and the child spent much
time in his company. To him Mr. Thompson owed
the instruction which first led him to seek his eternal
welfare. He often afterwards heard his early friend
preach when, as the Rev. William Chapman, he became
the estimable pastor of the Tabernacle, Greenwich, and
predecessor of the Rev. Henry Lucy, formerly of Bristol.
Thus commenced a long life of Christian usefulness,
which continued until December 8th, 1865, on which
day he had written his letters and sent them to the post,
immediately after which he became indisposed, and Mrs.
Thompson was called. He said to her — " There will be
none of this in heaven with Jesus," kissed her, smiled
sweetly, and the large and living heart stood still, f

The Committee of the Union, immediately upon their
appointment, proceeded to prepare and publish a Plan

* Union Magazine, 1852j p. 347.
t Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1866, pp, 111, 112.

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 77

for the establishment and regulation of Sunday schools
— A Catechism in verse, entitled Milk for Babes — and a
select List of Scriptures, designed as a guide to teachers
for a course of reading in Sunday schools. The two
former of these publications were prepared by Messrs.
Marriott and Gurney; the Milk for Babes by Mr. J.
Neale: and Mr. John Heard, subsequently Alderman of
Nottingham, who continued his interest in the cause of
Sunday schools until his decease, which only just preceded
that of Mr. Thompson, assisted in the preparation of the
select List of Scriptures. The "Youth's Magazine,"
designed for the upper classes in Sunday schools, also
originated in the Committee of the Union, but they did not
feel it prudent to undertake the responsibility, as they had
no funds to meet the loss, in case it should not succeed.
It was therefore published at the risk of some members
of the committee, who devoted the whole of the profits
(about £4,000) to objects connected with the diffusion of
scriptural truth, in which donations the Union has largely
shared. This work has been eminently useful, but has
of course no longer the extensive circulation which it
obtained when no similar publication existed, and when
60 copies were purchased monthly by the scholars in
one school.* At a recent period the Committee of the
Sunday School Union have taken the charge of it, and
in a greatly improved form it has now become one of the
periodical publications of that Society.

Pursuant to one of the rules, a sermon was annually
preached to the members of the Union : that in 1804 by
the Rev. John Burder, at the City Road Chapel ; and

* Sunday School Repository, 1831, p. J31.

78 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

that in 1805 by the late Dr. Bunting, in New Court
Chapel, from Nehemiah vi, 3 — "I am doing a great
work." The latter excited great interest. It was printed,
and went through three editions, the circulation of which
was very beneficial. It was so clear and cogent that it
produced immediate effect.

The following affords an interesting illustration : —
A gentleman travelling into the country on business,
shortly after this sermon was printed, took one in his
pocket. In a town he passed through, where there was
no Sunday school, he called on a lady who, as he heard,
laid herself out for usefulness, and suggested the im
portance of instituting one. Various difficulties were
started, which he endeavoured to remove, and at parting
put into her hands the printed sermon. He called for it
by appointment in the afternoon, when she informed him
that, after reading that sermon, she could no longer
hesitate ; that she had accordingly been round to several
of her poor neighbours to invite their children to attend
the next morning ; and (opening the door into the room
next to that in which they were sitting) she showed him
that she had already furnished it with such forms as she
could procure. A Sunday school was thus speedily
established.

In adverting to the magnitude and importance of the
Sunday-school teacher's work, Mr. Bunting referred to
the advantage which Scotland had gained over all other
parts of the British Empire from the attention which
was there bestowed on early education, and the provision
made for the wide and general diffusion of its benefits.
In support of this statement he quoted some statistics,

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 79

contained in Howard's account of Lazarettos. The
following anecdote may be added in confirmation. A
minister was requested some years before this period,
during his ministerial labours in Scotland, to distribute
a parcel of religious books and tracts. He offered some
to the servant of a family, in which he happened to
be a visitor, but previously asked her whether she
could read. (< Read, sir," she replied, with an air and
tone of mingled surprise and indignation, "Do you
think I was brought up in England ?" *

Sunday School Repository, 1853, p. 98.

gQ THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER X.

The extension of the Sunday School to America.

HAYIN& thus traced the beneficial results of the Sunday
school, so far as this country was concerned, we will
turn our eyes westward across the Atlantic to ascertain
what effect had been produced by it on the American
continent. As in England, single Sunday schools were
in existence in various localities of that land as early
as 1750 and 1760, but they never extended them
selves, nor were reduced into a system until after the
result of Mr. Raikes's efforts at Gloucester had been
made known, and he is therefore universally acknow
ledged in America as the founder of Sunday schools.
The Sunday-school idea, improved by the introduction
of unpaid teachers, and with greater attention to its
religious character, was developed in the United States by
Francis Ashbury, the patriarch of American Methodism.
He planted what may be called the first American Sun
day school in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1786. In

1790 the Methodist Conference formally resolved on
establishing Sunday schools for poor children, white and
black.* It will be thus perceived that the Southern
States took the lead in this movement, but they were
speedily followed by the Northern ones. In the year

1791 a society was established at Philadelphia, under the

* Annual Report of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union, 1858.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. g]_

title of "The First-day or Sunday School Society."
Those who united in the enterprise were of different
denominations of Christians. Among them were several
members of the Society of Friends, and the Right Rev.
Bishop White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was
its first President, and held the office till his decease.
The schools established or aided by its funds were con
ducted by paid teachers, but the Society has had no
school under its care since December, 1819. Its chief
office at present is to take care of a small fund which
has accumulated from legacies and subscriptions, and to
distribute the income (about 300 dollars per annum) in
appropriate donations of books to needy Sunday schools
in Philadelphia and its environs.* About the year 1803
Mr. Divie Bethune, an active Christian philanthropist,
visited England, and returned filled with the Sunday-
school idea. In 1804 he opened one of the first Sunday
schools in New York that had any permanence. Mrs.
Graham described the movement in her diary as "a
wonderful thing that young ladies, the first in station, in
society, and accomplishments, should volunteer to teach
the little orphans of God's providence," and she prays
devoutly for a blessing upon them.

In the year 1810, the Committee of the Sunday School
Union were solicited to grant assistance towards the
carrying on of Sunday schools established in the West
India Islands. At St. John's, Bermuda, a school had
been established, containing eighty children, mostly
blacks; at St. John's, Antigua, two schools, one con
taining 100, and the other 650 scholars. The Committee

* Popular Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Sunday Schools in the United States.

g2 THE FIRST FIFTY TEARS

made grants of books to these schools ; but finding their
means inadequate to meet the demands which would
thus come upon the funds, they induced the Sunday
School Society to extend assistance to the colonies of
this kingdom. As., however, the rules of that Institution
confined their grants to copies of the Scriptures, and
reading and spelling-books, the Committee of the Union
found ample room for their liberality, which they have
freely exercised. It is impossible to recall the early
efforts made by the Moravian Brethren and the
Methodists, for the religious instruction of the young in
the island of Antigua, without rejoicing at the testimony
afforded to its value. When by the emancipation act,
slavery was exchanged for apprenticeship, the planters
of Antigua were so well satisfied with their generally
educated slaves, that they declared their willingness to
set them wholly free ; and the system of apprenticeship
was never introduced into that island.

The example of the teachers of London in associating
for mutual encouragement and support, was followed, in
1810, by the teachers of Nottingham and Hampshire;
and since that time, similar Unions have been formed in
various parts of this country, as well as in foreign lands,
with the most beneficial results.

In addition to the efforts made by the Rev. T. Charles
for the religious education of the young, he commenced,
in the summer of 1811, schools for adults. In Bristol,
the formation of the Bible Association exhibited to public
view the deplorable situation of many adults who were
unable to read the Scriptures, and were anxious to learn,
A poor but pious and indefatigable man, named William

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gg

Smith, first felt deeply concerned for the situation of
these ignorant adults, and communicated his sentiments
to Mr. S. Prust ; he was encouraged by the promise of
assistance to commence his benevolent undertaking
without any delay. Smith procured some rooms, and
with the assistance of a few friends commenced an Adult
school. Eleven men and ten women were admitted the
first Sunday, and the number rapidly increased. In a
short time a few friends rnet, and formed the " Bristol
Society for instructing the Adult Poor to read the Holy
Scriptures." In 1813 there were 8 schools for men,
containing 147 scholars, and 8 for women, with 197
scholars.

A few extracts from the Report of the Society, then
published, will prove the necessity for these schools, and
the beneficial results attending them.

" I heard one of the scholars, who had learned at 85
years of age to read the Bible, say that she would not
part with the little learning she had acquired, for as many
guineas as there were leaves in her Bible, notwithstand
ing she ranked amongst the poorest of the poor. A
converted Jew, who is upwards of 80 years of age, did
not know, when he came into the school, a letter in the
alphabet, but in two months he could read tolerably well
a chapter in the New Testament. A young man about
20 years of age, who had some knowledge of the letters
when he was admitted, but was not perfect in them, in
four months was able to read a chapter well. A woman,
61 years of age, who did not know a single letter when
she began, in two months could also read a chapter in
the New Testament. A poor woman, wanting (to use

01

g4 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

her own expression) f only two years of a hundred,' goes
daily to the boys' school, established in Manchester for
one thousand and fifty children, to receive instruction
from one of the monitors." *

The Committee of the Sunday School Union addressed
a circular to several periodical publications, urging atten
tion to the education of adults, and on the 2nd of March,
1814, a meeting was held in the Friends' Meeting House,
Redcross Street, Borough, when a society was formed
for the instruction of the adult poor of Southwark.
Benjamin Shaw, Esq., M.P., who presided, was appointed
President, and amongst those who addressed the meeting
we find the names of Mr. Gurney and Mr. Lloyd. f

The progress of general education has happily dimin
ished the necessity for such efforts, which have conse
quently gradually declined.

* Sunday School Repository, 1814, pp. 414, 415.
t Sunday School Repository, 1814, pp. 348—358,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. §5

CHAPTER XL

Introduction of the Sunday School into Ireland.

IT has already been mentioned that the early endeavours
to introduce the Sunday-school system into Ireland were
not very successful. As in great Britain, individual
schools had been previously carried on.

About the year 1770, the Rev. Dr. Kennedy, curate
of Bright parish, in the county of Down, was painfully
struck with the total disregard of the Lord's day among
the young people and children in some villages through
which he had to pass in going to and from his duty at
the church. His congregation was very small. A
gentleman of the name of Henry, with his family, joined
it, and with him Dr. Kennedy consulted by what means
it could be improved. Having engaged a well-conducted
and competent man in the capacity of parish clerk, they
got boys and girls together on Sundays to practise
psalmody. This made a little stir. In 1774, to singing
was added exercise in reading the psalms and lessons for
the day, which, being rumoured abroad, excited further
attention. Ere two years had elapsed, the numbers had
considerably increased. Those who came were desired
to bring what Bibles and Testaments they could, in
order to their being better instructed and examined in
what they read. Then the children of other denomina
tions were invited to share the advantages of the meeting.

gg THE FIRST FIFTY YEAES

And thus, "by the year 1778, the gathering which had
begun as a singing class a few years previously, had
matured into a " school " held regularly every " Sunday"
for an hour and a half before the morning service.

The good work went on and prospered until the latter
part of the year 1785, when Dr. Kennedy heard of the
proceedings in England for the establishment of Sunday
schools. His own was, in reality, a Sunday school
already. But he and the gentleman with whom he advised
agreed that its plan should be made more comprehen
sive and systematic, according to the English method.
During the winter they spread information on the general
subject, and obtained funds among persons they in
terested in the project. The necessary preliminaries
being arranged, the Bright Sunday school was opened
on the first Sunday in May, 1786, with Robert Henry,
Esq., as its superintendent ; members of his family, and
other respectable individuals, as teachers; and honest
Thomas Turr, the parish clerk, ready to help in it as he
might be able or occasion require.

Thomas Chambers was entered as a scholar on the
first Sunday in June, 1786, just a month only from its
commencement. Being able to read well, he was placed
in the head class. The number of scholars in August
afterwards amounted to 343, including Episcopalians,
Presbyterians, Methodists, and Roman Catholics, col
lected from within a district nine miles in length, and
differing in ages from four years to upwards of twenty.
The senior classes., besides learning the Scriptures, com
mitted to memory portions of Watts's Hymns. A pair
of shoe-buckles for boys, and pieces of ribbon for girls,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. §7

were rewards for diligence. The most deserving were
favoured with a tract, and had their names inscribed on
a roll and posted in the church : the first thus honoured
was a Roman Catholic girl. Several years ago. Cham
bers sent up to the Sunday School Society's committee
in Dublin a pocket Bible, which Dr. Kennedy gave him
within twelve months from the opening of the school,
for having sometimes acted usefully as a teacher. Not
unnaturally, Chambers counted the book very precious,
and the more so as he considered it to be, which probably
it was, the first Bible ever given in an Irish Sunday
school. As a book, neither its paper, print, nor binding
will compare with those of Bibles easily procured now ;
but then it cost what to the poor was a serious sum.
The hold which that copy of the Scriptures had on the
good man's affections may be known by what he wrote
on the paper in which he wrapped it for transmission : —
" God speed thy journey, my dear Bible ! Farewell. —
T. C."

Chambers died in 1862, a patriarch of more than
fourscore and^ten, in the possession of his faculties to the
last, and trusting in the one Saviour. Though a plain
man in humble life, his letters contain touches of the
graphic and even of the poetic. Dr. Kennedy's removal
to another diocese, in 1791, interfered with the working
of the school. Through his absence, and consequent
changes in the management of parish affairs, it lingered
dwindling for some time, and became almost extinct.
However, it afterwards revived.

Passing on to about twenty years later, a gentleman
walking along in a midland town of Ireland, one Sunday

§3 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

morning, met a Methodist lady, who told him that she
was hurrying to the opening of a Sunday school,
pursuant to the directions of the Conference. He
accompanied her to the place. There they found a
crowd of children in utter confusion, without any pro
vision for putting them in order. He describes that, in
those days, even the Protestant children were <( no better
than heathens." By degrees, something like arrange
ment was made. The gentleman himself undertook
the superintendence. Several tradesmen — a grocer, a
chandler, a shoemaker, and a weaver — engaged to teach
the boys, and the wives or daughters of some of them,
did the same for the girls. But there were no books
such as the work required, except one, the Belfast
Spelling Book, and from that they had to cut out bad
words before it could safely be given to the scholars for
use. Even of that a supply could not be had without
sending to Dublin, for in those days it was not a singular
case that a country town in Ireland should be without a
bookseller's shop.

That school was only one of many which were formed
in consequence of resolutions passed by the Methodist
Conference in 1805, desiring that Sunday schools should
be established in every " circuit " in Ireland. The Rev.
Adam Averell, for many years before his death president
of the Primitive Wesley an Conference, went preaching
through the four provinces with the view of promoting
the system, he having witnessed its working in England
when there on conference business. Funds were want
ing beyond what Ireland was prepared to furnish. The
Sunday School Society in London was applied to, but

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gQ

could not afford help to Ireland. In this difficulty,
Joseph Butterworth, Esq., afterwards Treasurer and
President of the Sunday School Union, whose name yet
lives in many memories as forward among the Christian
philanthropists of his generation, offered to ask aid for
Sunday schools in Ireland from English Christians.

As the system spread in the country, need for assist
ance, particularly in books adapted to the population,
increased. The desirableness of having a local organiza
tion for obtaining and administering aid, also became
growingly apparent. Indeed, it could not be supposed
that a person in Mr. Butterworth's position, and with
his occupations, could give the time and work required
as an English collecting agent.

The gentleman already spoken of as concerned in
the Sunday school in a midland town, had attentively
watched its progress. He also carefully reflected on the
probable effects of such schools being generally estab
lished. Nothing could be more settled and gratifying
than were his convictions of the utility and importance
of the system, for improving the social condition of the
people as well as their more sacred interests. Pie threw
himself into its support and furtherance with his whole
heart.

This gentleman dining one day with an Englishman
who had come to reside in Dublin, the Rev. Mr. Averell,
and a friend who was connected with a Sunday school
in Bethnal Green, London, being of the circle, the table-
talk turned upon Sunday schools, and on the difficulty
of obtaining help for those in Ireland. In the course of
conversation, he is reported to have said, on the impulse

Q0 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

of the moment, "As the English Society can't help us,
why should we not have one of our own for Ireland ? "
The suggestion took instant hold of every one in the
company; they were all of one mind for the project.
He then asked Mr. Averell, " What would you give to
the society if it were formed ? " " Ten guineas donation
at once, and two guineas a year subscription," was Mr.
Averell's reply.

Forthwith, the gentleman who had started the idea
took further and decided action upon it. In November,
1809, a meeting of leading Christian men was held in
the banking-house of the Messrs. La Touche> in Dublin.
Then and there the " Hibernian Sunday School Society"
was formed. At the same meeting, the co-operation of
James Diggles La To ache, Esq., was secured as secretary,
of whom it is next to impossible to speak too highly for
his talents and attainments, his genuine and catholic
Christian piety, his business capabilities, and his untiring
devotedness, during seventeen years, to the interests of
the society. By his death, after a week's illness, in
November, 1826, the Irish Sunday-school enterprise
sustained an irreparable bereavement, and Ireland lost
one of the purest, brightest, and most precious gems in
her crown.*

The objects of the institution to be carried out were,
" procuring and disseminating the most approved plans
of conducting Sunday schools, supplying them with
spelling-books and copies of the Sacred Scriptures at
reduced prices, and contributing to defray the expenses
of such schools, where necessary, without, however,

* Report of the Proceedings at the General Sunday School Convention, pp. 13—16,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. C)j_

interfering with their internal regulations; and as to
religious instruction, confining themselves solely to the
Sacred Scriptures, or extracts therefrom." In 1811,
the Committee reported that tlje number of schools
deriving aid from the funds of the Society had been 42,
containing 5,172 scholars, anc^ amongst them was one in
the Townland of Broughmore, distant about four miles
from Lisburn. This school was established by " Henry
Richy, an industrious weaver, who, observing with pity
the ragged boys of the neighbourhood increasing both in
numbers and vice, and becoming particularly offensive
to him in their total neglect of the Sabbath, conceived
the plan of a Sunday school, in order to reduce them to
some state of order. He intimated his wishes to as
many of the neighbourhood as were inclined to listen to
him without ridicule, and flattered himself in the hope
of having secured the assistance of a few. Accordingly,
early in the year 1809, he collected in a barn as many
children as could conveniently be arranged within.
After a few months his coadjutors had entirely left him
to. his own exertions; their excuses were various, but
the sovereign objection was the confinement during the
greater part of Sunday, a day on which they were
accustomed to indulge themselves, free from restraint,
after the toils of the week. Poor Richy, although
necessitated to be industrious at his loom, for the support
of a family, felt no discouragement at the falling off.
He redoubled his endeavours, and towards the end of
the year many of his pupils had made a considerable
progress in spelling. Now his difficulties began to press
upon him. In consequence of the poverty of the parents

92 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

of the children, books could not be procured in order to
teach them to read; however, he continued to beg,
borrow, and purchase from his little fund (reluctantly
subscribed to him by a few of the neighbouring farmers)
what were barely sufficient. The barn which had only
one aperture of any kind, and that the door, offered him
but scanty light, which was the more to be regretted, as
the books he had collected together being almost all of
different letters, necessarily compelled him to attend to
each child individually, and therefore demanded from
him not only the greater labour, but also- a greater
proportion of time. He however struggled with these
difficulties until desired by the proprietor to remove
himself to make way for the grain. With much entreaty,
he at last prevailed on an old woman to let him for
Sundays a spare room ; in this he continued his school,
which now diminished for want of accommodation. His
perseverance carried him through the winter, when he
was again admitted to the barn. On my visiting him,
about a week since, I found his school to consist of 70
regularly attending scholars, 30 of whom read tolerably
well, 20 repeat the Church Catechism from memory
with accuracy, and the remainder spell words from two
to eight syllables. His eldest son, impressed by the
example of so good a father, was assiduously employed
in teaching to write as many as could procure materials ;
an old door, supported by two barrels, supplied the place
of a table, and the fragments of an old loom, ingeniously
arranged on stones, offered them a seat. His hours of
teaching at present are, during the summer time from
nine to twelve and from two to four ; in the winter from

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 93

nine to three. The Townland is so situated, that no
place of worship is nearer than three or four miles,
which induced him in winter to trespass on the hours of
divine worship of the Established Church, with a view
to keep the children from idling and committing mischief.
He complains much of the scarcity of books, and even
these much defaced. The old woman refuses to admit
the scholars this winter unless better paid ; she expects
a guinea per annum, an expense he cannot meet. A
few forms and a table are also in the list of his wants."

This application will afford a specimen of the neces
sities the Society was called on to supply. The Sunday
School Union granted it 1,000 spelling-books, and 10,000
alphabets, and also supplied 5,000 more spelling-books
at a reduced price ; but it soon obtained liberal support,
and has been extensively useful, under the title of the
SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY FOR IRELAND. Its Fifty-first
Report states that there were then in connection with
the Society, 2,700 schools, containing 233,930 scholars,
and 21,302 teachers.

94

THE FIEST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER XII.

First Public Meeting of the Sunday School Union.

THE Sunday School Union having quietly pursued its
course for a period of nearly nine years, it was, in the
year 1812, thought by the Committee that the time
had arrived for making its proceedings more public.
Accordingly, it was determined to invite the teachers
and friends of Sunday schools to a public breakfast, on
the morning of Wednesday, May 13th, at the New
London Tavern, Cheapside. Breakfast was provided, at
seven o'clock, for two hundred : and the meeting excited
great interest. Mr. Marriott, the treasurer, presided ;
and after the Rev. Richard Watson had implored the
Divine blessing, a report of the proceedings of the
Union, from its formation, was read. From that report
it appeared that the following had been its only publica
tions : —

A Plan for the Establishment and Regulation of Sun
day Schools ; of which one edition had been printed.

An Introduction to Reading, part the first ; of which
150,000 copies had been printed.

The same, in a series of Lessons for Collective Teach
ing.

An Introduction to Reading, part the second; of
which 85,000 copies had been printed.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 95

A Catechism in verse, entitled " Milk for Babes," of
which 38,000 copies had been printed.

A Select List of Scriptures, designed as a Guide to
Teachers for a Course of Reading in Sunday Schools.

The first resolution submitted to the meeting was
moved by Mr. T. H. Home, author of the " Introduction
to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures." He was
then engaged in literary pursuits, and for some years
held an important situation in the British Museum. So
struck was Dr, Howley, Bishop of London, with Mr.
Home's work, that he offered him ordination, which
took place in 1819. In 1833, Dr. Howley, who had
become Archbishop of Canterbury, presented him to the
rectory of the united parishes of St. Edmund-the-King
and St. Nicholas Aeons, Lombard-street, which he held
until his death, on January 27th, 1862. The resolution
was seconded by the Rev. Legh Richmond, the author
of (t The Dairyman's Daughter." There were some
sentiments contained in the address of this devoted
minister of Christ which deserve to be recorded, as
showing the principles upon which the Union was
founded, and upon which its successive committees had
endeavoured to carry on its operations. He said, "I
confess it to be no small inducement to me, in delivering
my sentiments on this occasion, that I see the word
( Union ' in the title of the Society. Union, in all those
points wherein we can conscientiously and consistently
agree, appears to be the great secret, now at length
happily discovered, for bringing into effect, and into
prosperous co-operation, the hearts, the hands, and all
the combined energies of the men of God. I feel

gg THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

particularly thankful that a plan has been discovered
by which ministers arid other Christians may labour
together with so much affectionate exertion, and that,
frequently, with prospects of the greatest success, in the
first of national objects, the introduction of our British
youth to the knowledge of the religion of Christ. My
dear brethren, unite earnestly in the work. May the
Sunday School Union prove a union of affection, and a
union of opinions, as far as you can possibly unite, (and
God forbid that we should endeavour to find out how
much we can possibly differ.) May there be a union of
those general principles which shall make the Church of
God strong and united in the exertions of its most
enlightened and zealous members. It is my firm belief,
or I would never wish to address a meeting, consisting,
as this does, of persons of different denominations — that
the happiest event of the century that has now com
menced, is the growing disposition among Christians of
various names and denominations to unite in great and
glorious undertakings. I have heard the arguments of
the prejudiced on this question ; I have read the observa
tions of the worldly wise upon it ; but the more I have
heard and read them, the more have I seen that the
foolishness, as it may be called, of Christian charity, is
confounding the policy of the wise men of this world.
There must be some circumstances take place, as fore
runners of the latter day glory ; there must be something
come to pass, by which the divisions, heart-burnings, and
jealousies, which have too long prevailed among us, may
be brought to a close. A miracle to effect this we have
no reason to expect ; it must advance gradually ; nor do

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

I think there is anything fanciful in believing that that
work is now accomplishing ; not by the nominal, but bv
the real union of hearts, engaged in so many grand and
beneficial undertakings. I have happily experienced
some of the most delightful moments of my life in the
enjoyment of that brotherly communication with fellow
Christians of other denominations, which, though at a
former period of my life I thought highly desirable, yet
I confess I did not expect to see so speedily brought into
frequent and cordial existence. I can speak for myself,
and I am sure I can speak in the name of many of my
brethren in the Church of England, in testimony of the
pleasure which we have derived from finding that those
who had been accustomed to think themselves at a great
distance from each other, are at length, through the
influence of a sort of spiritual central attraction, if I
may call it so, brought to love one another, and almost
to wonder that they feel so affectionately and so nearly
allied. We compromise no principles of conscientious
attachment to our own views of church doctrine or
discipline ourselves; neither do we expect this from
others. But there is something in union for Christian
and benevolent purposes which acts like a talisman on
the heart, and elicits its best and noblest affections, that
they may be consecrated at the foot of the cross of Christ
By this means, a thousand half explained or ill explained
sources of difference and disputation among us gradually
lose their former importance, and we are mutually
becoming willing to consign them to oblivion."

The year 1814 was remarkable for events intimately

connected with the spread of the Sunday-school system,

H

go THE FIRST FIFTY TEARS

Mr. Prust, of Bristol, who, as we have seen, had interested
himself in the establishment of adult schools, sent to Mr.
Divie Bethune, of New York, a narrative, prepared by
Dr. Pole, of their history and progress. This proved
the means of awakening great attention to the subject.
Mr. Bethune, when on a visit to Philadelphia in January,
1815, mentioned it to a young lady, who procured the
insertion of several extracts from Dr. Pole's work in the
" Religious Remembrancer," a weekly paper of that city,
which excited general interest, and led to the establish
ment of several such schools, one of them being in the
jail. In her letter to Mr. Bethune, she says, " I never
undertook anything that afforded such heart-felt joy:
our precious little establishment goes on delightfully.
The first member was a pious soul, 52 years of age; she
comes with her spectacles on, and seems as if she would
devour the book. She never fails giving us a blessing,
and assures us she has long been praying that the Lord
would open some way that she might learn to read the
Bible. She looks at your little book with delight, and
often says, ' O, this blessed book — I know I shall learn
to read in this book.' I feel as if her prayers were as
good as an host. We have eleven scholars, two added
mostly of an evening; and after the first lesson they
advance wonderfully." *

In March, 1816, there were eight adult schools exist
ing in the city of Philadelphia, and many grown persons
were admitted into the Sunday schools, which had become
general throughout the city.f

* Sunday School Repository, 1815, pp. 189, l'.)0.
t Sunday School Repository, 1R10, p. ""I

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, 99

The effect of Mr. Prust's communications did not,
however, end with the establishment of Adult Sunday
Schools. Mr. Bethune inserted in a daily paper, published
in the city of New York, one of the letters sent him,
and Mrs. Bethune lent the different publications relative
to Sunday schools she had received to a number of their
friends, hoping that their perusal would awaken an interest
in these institutions. After waiting, however, for some
weeks, she conversed with several ladies upon the sub
ject, who agreed to unite with her in the formation of a
" Female Sunday School Union." In order to carry out
this design, they called a meeting of the female members
of all denominations, some hundreds of whom met o'a
the 24th January, 1816, in the lecture-room of one of
the churches. A clergyman opened the meeting with
prayer, and then withdrew. Mrs. Bethune was invited
to preside, and stated the purpose for which their attend
ance had been requested — the great need of such an
institution in a city, where numbers of one sex were
training for the gallows and State prison, and of the
other for prostitution. She likewise noticed the great
want of religious instruction in their small schools, and
urged that the parents of the scholars not having time to
teach them, would probably gladly avail themselves of
Sunday schools if within their reach. Mrs. Bethune
read extracts from the report of the Sunday School
Union, the second report of the Hibernian Sunday School
Society, two letters from Mr. Charles of Bala, ami Mr.
Prust's two letters to Mr. Bethune, and invited the co
operation of the ladies of different denominations, who
were willing to collect scholars and subscriptions. A

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

committee of one or two from each denomination was
appointed to prepare a constitution and general rules for
the Union and schools under their care, to be laid before
a meeting, to be held on January 3 1 st, in the lecture-
rooms of Wall Street Church. * The attendance proved
so numerous, that it became necessary to adjourn to the
church. The form of a constitution for the society, and
rules for the schools, under the designation of "'The
Female Union Society" for the promotion of Sunday
schools, as prepared by the committee were read and
approved of, and the following ladies chosen to preside
over the institution: — Mrs. Bethune, first directress;
Mrs. Mumford, second directress ; Mrs. Bowering,
treasurer; Miss Mumford, secretary. The first quar
terly meeting of the newly formed society was held on
April 17th, in the lecture-room of the Second Presby
terian Church, when, in addition to the officers, there
were present 16 superintendents and more than 200
teachers. The first directress congratulated the assembly
on the abundant success which had attended their labours
since the last meeting, and the secretary read the reports
presented by the superintendents of 16 schools belonging
to the following denominations — Episcopalian, Methodist,
Baptist, Reformed Dutch, General Assembly Presby
terian, Associate Reformed Presbyterian. It appeared
that the total number of scholars of all ao-es and com-

CD

plexions, from 6 to 67 years of age, in the different
schools, was 2,194. Before the meeting separated, a
committee of one or two ladies from each denomination
was appointed to visit the schools, as the duties were

* Sunday School Repository, 1816, p. 270,

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

found too arduous to be properly fulfilled by the
directresses.*

In the summer of 1817 a depository for the sale of
Sunday-school books was opened at 112, William Street,
and Sunday-school books were published under the
patronage of this Female Union ; and, as an evidence of
its efficiency, "they expended 9,000 dollars in twelve
years in paper and printing." f

The establishment and successful progress of this
institution bear unmistakeable testimony to the zeal,
energy, and prudence of Mrs. Bethune, by whom it was
originated. Tier useful life was preserved to a very
lengthened period, and she continued to teach a Sunday-
school class every Sunday, until compelled by infirmity
to desist, when she was at least 84 years old, making the
term of her active service about 53 years. The last
use she made of her pen, was to write to her pastor, the
Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander, a note, in which she
spoke of Sunday-school children. J

It would seem that the promptness and decision of
Mrs. Bethune and her coadjutors were not lost on their
fellow-labourers of the other sex. In a letter, written
by Mr. Bethune, dated February 4th, 1816, after giving
an account of the meetings we have described, and their
results, and stating, that (e next Sunday, I believe, was
appointed for the commencement of the work of teaching ;
the zeal of three of the congregation led them to begin
this day. Mrs. B. visited these three schools, which,
with a school of black adults, taught by my family,

* Sundfiy School Repository, 1816, pp. 409, 410.
t Sunday School World. No. 2, p. 18. t Sunday School World,

102 THE FIUST FIFTY YE Ail,-

made up 136 scholars. I presume the number next
Lord's day will amount to 1,000 in all the schools." He
adds, "the gentlemen are mustering their number, to
follow the example of the ladies, and to take charge of
the adults and children of their own sex." In a subse
quent letter, dated February 10th, Mr. Bethune says,
" The gentlemen of this city are now busily engaged,
and a general meeting is called on Monday next, for the
organization of a society for the instruction of children
and adults." * Thus originated the " New York Sunday
School Union," which has for so many years pursued its
labours with increasing usefulness and success. Before
the institutions, whose formation we have thus recorded,
came into existence, there were but four Sunday schools
in the city of New York.j In the following year the
Female Union was able to report 25 schools, with 3,000
scholars, taught by 340 ladies, while the New York Union
had under its care 34 schools, containing 3,500 scholars,
with 300 male teachers. J At a subsequent period, the
distinction between the two societies ceased to exist, and
the New York Union now comprises 2 1 6 schools, con
taining 70,000 scholars, with a band of teachers number
ing 5,250. The forty-fifth annual report of the Union,
however, reports, that there are 80,000 young persons
of the lowest classes still not receiving the benefits of
Sunday-school instruction, and that it would require at
least 150 mission schools, in addition to those now in
operation, with some nine or ten thousand teachers,
aided by competent superintendents, and other officers,

* Sunday School Repository, 1816, p. 27<?.

t Sunday School AVorld. No. 2, p. 18.
; Sunday School Repository, 1817, pp, 213, 217, 46(*.

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

were these destitute ones gathered into rooms suitable
for their instruction.

While these events were occurring in the New World,
an opportunity had been afforded for the introduction of
the Sunday-school system into France. The restoration
of peace on the Continent of Europe, and the intercourse
with England thus allowed, probably drew the attention
of several French Protestant ministers to this subject,
and the Committee of the Sunday School Union, in 1815,
made a grant to the Rev. Francis Martin, to assist him
in the formation of a school in Bordeaux. In their
report of the following year, the Committee reported,
"that their hopes as to the establishment of Sunday
schools in France are for the present beclouded ;" but
the school established at Bordeaux proved the forerunner
of many others; and the report of 1823 recorded the
opening of a Sunday school at the Protestant church at
Paris, by the Rev. M. Monod, who had attended the
previous annual meeting of the Union. Two hundred
scholars were in attendance, and among them were the
sons and daughters of some of the most wealthy and
influential Protestants of the capital, who wished to give
their offspring the religious advantages of the school,
and at the same time to present an example to the other
classes of Protestants attending the same church.

In 1827 it was reported to the Sunday School Union
that a Committee for the encouragement of Sunday
schools amongst Protestants had been established at
Paris, of which the Baron de Stael was President, and
£20, with copies of the Union publications, were voted in
aid of their efforts.

r-™E FIRi=T FIFTY TEARS

These schools, however, were not conducted in the same
manner as those in England and America. They were
rather juvenile congregations than schools, and in them
the pastor conveyed religious instruction in a simpler form
than it was presented from the pulpit. The advantage
of employing Christian men and women as teachers
was, however, soon perceived ; the schools increased in
number, and the greater intercourse with England
led to a more intimate acquaintance with the English
system. At length, and in the year 1852, the Paris
Sunday School Society was formed upon the prin
ciples of the Sunday School Union, and applied itself
with diligence and success to the work of extending
and improving Sunday schools throughout France. A
fraternal intercourse has been maintained between the
two institutions, and deputations to their annual meetings
have been exchanged, and the one school established,
with the assistance of the Union, in Bordeaux, in the
year 1815, has now multiplied into the large number of
744 schools, 55 of which are in Paris and its suburbs.
The following extract from the report of Mr. Reed,
who attended the anniversary of the Societj^ in 1863,
gives a lively sketch of the interesting scene presented
by the gathering of the Protestant scholars of that
city.

"The morning of the 16th of April witnessed an
assemblage of children such as could never been shown
in London, except in the area of St. Paul's Cathedral,
simply because in London there is no amphitheatre equal
to that of the Cirque Napoleon of Paris. The scene
was truly imposing and impressive. As your delegate

OF 1HE SUNDAY BCilOt'L.

entered, the whole body of 4,000 children were singing,
to our favourite tune ' Joyfully/ their hymn

Dieu nous appelle; avai^ons tous joyeux,
Vers le pays des esprits bien heurc-ux.

To look at that vast throng, to remember the day when
it was difficult to find one school in Paris, to find the
platform raised in the centre of the Cirque crowded with
pastors from all parts of France, all actively engaged in
the work, to witness the harmony of the brethren, and to
feel the contagion of their loving enthusiasm, brought a
sense of gratitude to the heart which could not better
find expression than in the utterance of those words,
< What hath God wrought ? '

" It became the duty of the English delegate to address
this interesting assembly, and he did so by the assistance
of the pastors Paumier and Fisch, who translated his
speech. He received the assurance of both children and
pastors of the hearty good will and entente cordiale of the
Protestant Christians of Paris. The addresses delivered
during the day were full of life and energy. Messrs.
Pressense, Yerrue, and J. P. Cook, together with the
President, M. Montandon, were the principal speakers,
and upon the platform, among other visitors, were the
Rev. R. Ashton, of London, and Mr. Martin, of Dublin.
The singing of the children was admirable. From the
very ceiling the clear voices of the little ones came down
and mingled with the deeper tones of the elder occupants
of the tiers of seats below. No organ was used. The
time was excellent, and all was done under the order of
one precentor. The good management of the singing
was only equalled by the admirable precision of the

THE FIRfcT FIFTY YEARS

movements of the groups of children when leaving the
assembly. The French are used to military exactitude,
and the conduct of the little ones was in close imitation
of marching order. Hence, probably 6,000 people dis
persed in a few minutes, and without the slightest
approach to crushing or crowding. The impression
upon the people of Paris must be good. The thing is
new. The files of children passing through the streets
attracted curiosity. The people see that the system is
increasing, and many are beginning to believe that these
children after all afford the promise of social order and
improved manners, to say nothing of higher religious
influences. The police who had charge of the building
were so interested in the proceedings of the day, that
they voluntarily offered the fees to which they were
entitled, to the funds of the Union."

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

CHAPTER XIII.

Efforts for the promotion of General Education.

WE may here appropriately halt in our narrative of the
progress of the Sunday school, and give some informa
tion as to the efforts which now began to be made for
the promotion of the general education of the people.
Lord Brougham has the high honour of being foremost
in this good work. Committees of the House of Com
mons had made inquiries into the state of mendicity in
the Metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood, and
also as to the education of the lower orders of the
Metropolis. In the course of these enquiries, several
witnesses were examined as to the operations and in
fluence of Sunday schools. Mr. Butterworth, who had
then entered Parliament, and was a member of the
Mendicity Committee, gave the following testimony :

"I would beg to state to the Committee, that from
much observation I am satisfied that Sunday schools, if
properly conducted, are of essential importance to the
lower classes of society. I have had occasion to inspect
several Sunday schools for some years past, and I have
particularly observed the children, who at first came to
the schools dirty and ragged, in the course of a few
months have become clean and neat in their persons;
and their behaviour, from my own observation, and the

THE 1'illsT 1'IFTY YEAil

report of a great number of teachers, lias rapidly
improved : I allude to those schools where the teachers
are gratuitous, as I find that no persons who are paid do
the work half so well as those who do it from motives of
real benevolence. , A large school which I frequently
visit in Drury Lane, which has upwards of 600 children,
has produced many instances of great mental and moral
improvement amongst the lower classes of society. At
this time there are no less than twenty chimney-sweep
boys in that school, who, in consequence of coming there,
have their persons well cleaned every week, and their
apparel kept in decent order ; I have the names of their
masters. Some of the employers of those chimney
sweep boys are so well satisfied with the school, that
they will take no child but what shall regularly attend
it, as they find it greatly improves their morals and
behaviour. In another school in Hinde Street, Mary-
lebone, there are eleven chimney-sweep boys. Some
time ago, when I happened to be the visitor for the day,
a woman attended to return thanks for the education her
daughter had received in Drury Lane School ; I inquired
whether her child had received any particular benefit by
the instruction in the school. She said she had indeed
received much good. And I believe the woman's words
were, she should ever have reason to bless God that her
child had come to that school; that before her girl
attended there, her husband was a profligate, disorderly
man, spent most of his time and money at the public-
house, and she and her daughter were reduced to the
most abject poverty, and almost starved ; that one Sun
day afternoon the father had been swearing very much,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

and was somewhat in liquor; the girl reproved the
father, and told him, from what she had heard at school,
she was sure it was very wicked to say such words.
The father made no particular reply, but on the Monday
morning his wife was surprised to see him go out and
procure food for breakfast; and from that time he
became a sober, industrious man. Some weeks after
wards she ventured to ask him the cause of the change
of his character. His reply was, that the words of
Mary made a strong impression upon his mind, and he
was determined to lead a new course of life. This was
twelve months prior to the child being taken out of the
school, and his character had become thoroughly con
firmed and established. He is now a virtuous man, and
an excellent husband. She added, that they now had
their lodgings well furnished, and that they lived very
comfortably; and her dress and appearance fully con
firmed her testimony. I have made particular inquiry
of a great number of teachers who act gratuitously in
Sunday schools, and they are uniformly of opinion that
Sunday-school instruction has a great tendency to prevent
mendicity in the lower classes of society. One fact I
beg to mention, of Henry Haidy, who, when admitted a
scholar at Drury Lane School, was a common street
beggar. He continued to attend very regularly for
about eight years, during which time he discontinued
InVformer degrading habits. On leaving the school he
was rewarded, according to the custom, with a Bible,
and obtained a situation at a tobacconist's, to serve behind
the counter. His brother was also a scholar ; afterwards
became a gratuitous teacher in the same school ; obtained

THE FIRST FIFTY YEAR?

a situation, and, up to the period of his quitting London s
bore an excellent character."

Other witnesses gave equally decided evidence as to
the benefits conferred by Sunday schools. Mr. William
Hale said, with respect to their influence in the district
of Spitalfields, the seat of the silk manufacture — " There
has been a great alteration in the moral condition of
Spitalfields since their establishment. The character of
the poor of Spitalfields is very different from what it was
thirty or forty years ago. You never hear of any attempt
to riot there. I know at one time there were individuals
sent up from Nottingham, with a view to effect something
like what they were doing there, and that they have been
more than once excited to riot during the last war, and
yet that they were very quiet. Great care is taken of
their mental and moral improvement And I believe no
instance is to be found where so multitudinous a poor
congregate together in so small a space, with so little
inconvenience to their neighbours." *

Amongst the witnesses examined before the Committee,
on the education of the lower orders of the Metropolis,
were Messrs. Althans and Lloyd, who gave full details
of the state of Sunday-school instruction in the Metro
polis.! Mr. William Hargrave, a member of the Society
of Friends, and connected with a society entitled The
Juvenile Benevolent Society, was also examined as to
the number of poor children uneducated in the North
East district of the Metropolis, many of whom were
prevented attending schools, and especially Sunday

* Sunday 9jhool Repository, 1816, pp. 217, 218.
t Sunday School Repository, 1816, p. 359, &t,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. m

schools, for want of suitable clothing. The society he
represented was designed to assist in removing the
difficulty which existed in procuring the attendance of
many children, especially at Sunday schools, from this
cause, For this purpose, the Society provided a cheap
kind of clothing, with which they clothed their poor
children — a boy at the expense of 8s., and a girl for 10s.
The boy's dress consisted of a leather cap — a pinafore
made of a brown kind of very strong sheeting, extending
from the neck down to the feet, and covering the arms —
with good, strong shoes. The girls were each provided
with a bonnet and ribbon — a pinafore, made of gingham
— and a pair of shoes. Mr. Hargrave stated that the
Society had lost but little of the clothing, in proportion
to the number of children it had clothed, owing to the
precautions the Committee had adopted. The materials
of the clothing were of little value to sell; it was
stamped on the inside with permanent ink, "J. B. S.
Charity," and the clothing was not given to the children,
but merely lent them on the Saturday, to be returned to
the depot on the Monday following. When any omission
took place, the parties were visited by a member of the
Committee, to ascertain the cause. The Society did
not, however, confine themselves entirely to the loan of
clothing. When a child had been under the care of the
institution some time, and appeared worthy, a gift of
clothing was made, and the child was placed in a day
school. This gift was made publicly before the rest of
the children, who were always summoned together once
a week, that they might be induced to qualify themselves
for similar o;ifts. In order to ascertain that the children

THE FIEST FIFTY YEABS

had attended the schools to which they belonged, tin
tickets were supplied to the teachers, who gave them to
the children, for production at the weekly meeting. In
the course of Mr. Hargrave's examination, he stated a
fact, to which many other testimonies could be added,
that, generally, children learnt as much on the Sunday
as they would have done if placed in a National or
British school all the other days of the week. The
explanation was to be found in the almost individual
attention which the children received in a Sunday school,
from the small number placed under the care of each
teacher.*

This Society was carried on with much energy and
success for several years. Its general meetings, which
were held at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street,
were numerously attended, and were generally presided
over by Mr. Brougham, to whom every institution con
nected with the education of the people immediately
commended itself.

The earliest statistics by which the progress of educa
tion may be measured, are contained in the Parliamentary
returns of 1818. According to them, there were then
in England and Wales 19,230 clay schools, containing
674,883 scholars, being 1 in 17 '25 of the population,
and 5,463 Sunday schools, containing 477,225 scholars,
or 1 in 24 '40 of the population.

This year, 1818, witnessed an alteration in the opera
tions of the Sunday School Union, which has exercised
an important influence on the institutions for whose
improvement and extension it was established. We

* Sunday School Repository, 181 G. pp. "77, &c.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,

have seen that hitherto the publications of the Union
had been but few. They had been sold by a bookseller
on behalf of the Committee ; in the first instance by Mr.
Kent, of High Holborn, exclusively; and subsequently
by him in conjunction with Mr. Hamilton, of Paternoster
Row. The Committee had long desired to have the
means of increasing the circulation of their own publica
tions, and to be enabled to provide for Sunday schools at
reduced prices, such other publications as might appeal-
suitable. They at length entered into an agreement
with Mr. John Offor, bookseller, 44, Newgate Street,
for the use of a part of his shop, and there opened a
Depository for the sale of approved publications adapted
for Sunday schools. The catalogue then prepared,
comprised, — first, school books, lessons, &c. ; secondly,
books for Sunday-school teachers ; and it was proposed
to extend it, so as to embrace a collection of select
reward books read and approved by the committee.

The following were some of the advantages con
templated by this measure : — furnishing Sunday schools
with lists and prices of such books, &c., as they might
be constantly in the habit of using; supplying Sunday
School Unions, and through them, Sunday schools, with
needful books, &c., at the lowest possible prices ; select
ing suitable books read and approved by the committee,
to the exclusion of those that were objectionable ; saving
time and trouble, by the whole order being completed at
one place, and immediately despatched to its destination ;
establishing a centre of communication, of influence, and
of information, for the whole Metropolis, the country at
large, and, if possible, for the whole world. A sub-

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

committee was appointed to manage the affairs of the
Depository, in order to ensure, as far as possible, the sale
and publication of suitable works only. It was agreed
that the approval of three members of the committee
should be had before a book could be placed on the
catalogue for sale ; and that the approval of six members
and the secretaries should be obtained to any work which
was to be published by the Union.

The anticipations which were indulged as to this
endeavour to extend the usefulness of the Union, might
at that time appear visionary, but its subsequent history
will show that they have been fully realized.

The attention of the Committee of the Sunday School
Union was occupied in the ensuing year, 1820, by a
proposal submitted to them for publishing a Penny
Magazine for Children. They decided in favour of the
undertaking, but hesitated in carrying it out. They
thus allowed Mr. William Gover, a teacher in the south
of London, to have the honour of commencing that series
of cheap religious publications for the young, which has
now been so greatly enlarged, and by which such great
blessings have been, and still are, conferred on the rising
population of this and other lands. The Religious Tract
Society quickly perceived the importance of the idea,
and commenced the publication of their valuable penny
periodical, "The Child's Companion," which rendered
unnecessary Mr. Gover's, which had been continued for
two years. Thus the "Youth's Magazine," and the
Magazines for Children, really originated in the Com
mittee of the Sunday School Union, although few are
now acquainted with the source from which these

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

blessings proceeded. If these works have become more
useful, in consequence of their having been brought into
existence by those whose time was not so much occupied
as that of the Committee of the Union, there will be no
cause for regret; but it is desirable that it should be
known from whence they sprang.

The attention which had been directed, by the in
vestigations of the committee appointed by the House of
Commons, to the state of education and morals amongst
the lower classes of society, led to various efforts for the
removal of the ignorance and vice which were so generally
prevalent. The patronage of " The Juvenile Benevolent
Society for clothing and promoting the education of
destitute children" was undertaken by His Royal High
ness the Duke of Sussex, and its title altered to that of
(( The Educational Clothing Society." The fourth report
of the committee in 1819 stated that they had clothed
and placed in different schools 1,621 children since the
formation of the society, in addition to which the com
mittee sent 862 poor children to school during the last
year, who did not require clothing.*

The benefits arising from this society did not terminate
with its direct efforts. The South wark Sunday School
Society also undertook a canvass of the district in which
their schools were situated, the result of which led the
committee to inform the public "that in Southwark
there are upwards of two thousand children entirely
destitute of instruction, the whole of whom are in want
of most articles of clothing, and the greater part are in
such distress as to be unfit objects to appear before the

* Sunday School Repository, 1810, p. 138.

II

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

public, while the parents of both classes are so poor as
to be unable to provide them with decent apparel." In
one case the committee discovered a widow and six
children in a most deplorable and destitute condition.
Some of the children, the mother said, had formerly
attended a Sunday school and derived much benefit, but
could attend no longer for want of clothes. One of the
children was employed by a neighbour as an errand boy :
all the rest were at home, and the few rags of clothing
they had were alternately worn by them, so that only
one or two could go out at a time, while the others were
obliged to remain at home nearly naked. In order to
provide for these destitute ones, fragment schools were
opened, cast off clothes were solicited, and others pur
chased. These were lent to the children to enable them
to attend the schools on the Sunday, and their return
required the next day, unless under very peculiar
circumstances, f

A great impression was made upon the public mind
by the facts that were thus made known; and it is
probable that if a plan of national education had been
brought forward, which allowed the use of the authorized
version of the Holy Scriptures in the schools, but without
any denominational catechism, it would have received
the unanimous support of those who dissented from the
Established Church. John Foster, a writer of great
authority amongst them, had written an essay on " The
Evils of Popular Ignorance," in which, after laying fully
open the state of ignorance and consequent demoraliza
tion then existing among the people, he says : " There

t Sunday School Repository, 1818, p. 351.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. j^

CANNOT be in the Christian world any such thing as a
nation habitually absolved from the duty of raising its
people from brutish ignorance. * *

The concern of redeeming the people from a besotted
condition of their reason and conscience is a duty at all
events, and to an entire certainty is a duty imperative
and absolute; and any pretended necessity for such a
direction of the national exertion as would be, through a
long succession of time, incompatible with a paramount
attention to this, must be an imposition too gross to
furnish an excuse for being imposed on. Now we
earnestly wish it might be granted by the Almighty, that
the political institutions of the nations should speedily
take a form and come under an administration that
would apply the energy of the state to so sublime a
purpose ; nor can we imagine any test of their merits so
fair as the question, whether, and in what degree, they
do this, nor, of course, any test by which they may more
naturally decline to have those merits tried." *

* An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance. By John Foster1. Second Edition,
1821, pp. 322, 323, 335,

118

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER XIV.

Mr. Brougham's Plan for the Promotion of General
Education.

IN the session of Parliament held during the year 1820,
Mr. Brougham brought forward his measure for better
providing the means of education for His Majesty's
subjects. The bill brought in by that gentleman, as
amended in committee, provided that a complaint of the
want of schools might be made to the quarter sessions,
by a grand jury, justice, minister, or householder. The
justices were then to try the complaint; and if they
determined that it was well-founded, they were to issue
a warrant to the receiver-general of the land-tax, requir
ing him to advance the sum necessary to purchase land
and build a school room. This advance was to be repaid
out of the consolidated fund. The salaries of the masters
were to be raised by the churchwardens, under a warrant
of the justices, and to be paid half-yearly. The masters
were to be chosen by the majority of householders present
at a meeting in the school house; to which meeting,
persons having real property in the parish, to the amount
of £100 per annum, were to be allowed to send a repre
sentative. The name of the party chosen was to be sent
to the rector, vicar, perpetual curate, curate, or other
resident officiating minister ; and if he objected to the

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

party elected, a fresli election was to take place ; and so
on, in like manner, as often as the person chosen and
reported should not be approved of by the resident
officiating minister, and until he should approve of the
person elected. It was provided, that no person should
be capable of being chosen by such meeting, under the
age of twenty-four, or above the age of forty ; or who
did not produce a certificate of his character and ability,
and that he was a member of the Church of England by
law established, signed by the resident officiating minister
and three landholders of the parish where he had lived
for the last twelve months. The clergyman of the parish
for which the master was chosen was declared ineligible
for the office; but any other clergyman might be elected.
It was further provided, that the master should teach the
Holy Scriptures according to the authorized version, and
use select passages thereof for reading and writing ; and
should teach no other book of religion, without consent
of the resident officiating minister; and should use no
form of prayer or worship, except the Lord's prayer,
or other select passage of the Holy Scriptures, The
Catechism of the Church of England, and such portions
of its Liturgy as the resident officiating minister might
appoint, were to be taught during the half of the school
hours of one day in the week, to be fixed by the minister ;
to whom the right of visitation and examination of the
school was given, and who was also to have the power to
direct the teaching of the Catechism and Liturgy, by the
master, on the evening of the Lord's day. The scholars
were to attend the divine service of the Church of
England once every Lord's day. Parents and guardians,

J20 THE FIRST FIFTY YEAfcS

however, might withdraw their children from the teach
ing of the Catechism and Liturgy, and from attendance
on such divine service, on their taking care that the
scholars so withdrawn should attend some other place of
Christian worship. The power of dismissing the master
was vested in the bishop of the diocese, either personally,
or through his archdeacon, chancellor, or dean.

This measure did not meet with general acceptance,
It was looked upon with suspicion by the members of the
Church of England ; probably on account of the quarter
from which it came. The following extract from a
pamphlet, written by the Rev. R. Lloyd, A.M., Rector
of St. Dunstan's in the West, will show the character of
the objections stated against it: — "The nature of Mr.
Brougham's plan of instruction does not, as far as I can
perceive, essentially differ from the Lancasterian or
British school. Whilst it admits some select portions of
the Scriptures to be used, it prohibits all notes and com
ments, all explications whatever, illustrative of their
sense, under the influence of a morbid and symbolizing
liberality, which renounces what is peculiar, and adopts
only what is common to all sects and parties. He has,
indeed, made some concession in favour of our eccle
siastical establishment, in order, it seems, to render his
bill more palatable to its members; but these conces
sions, which affect to relieve it of its obnoxious qualities,
produce no such effect."

The dissenters, on the other hand, complained of the
measure, as giving an undue preponderance in the
education of the people to the Established Church ;
inasmuch as the master was required to be a member of

OF THE SUNDAY tiCHOOL.

that church, the schools were to be placed under clerical
and episcopal control, and the provisions introduced for
relieving the children of dissenters, would, if made use
of, expose such children to painful observations.

Foster, in his preface to the Essay from which we
have already quoted, thus speaks of Mr. Brougham's
plan : —

" The luminous and comprehensive mind of the mover
of this important measure, the independent spirit of his
speculations, his contempt of old prejudices, his hostility
to diversified, restricted, and antiquated systems of policy,
and his admirable exertions and success in exposing the
iniquitous management under which a multitude of in
stitutions for education had become worse than useless,
seemed to give a certain pledge that any plan which he
would propose could not fail to be a model of liberality
and equity. It must have been from some widely
different quarter that we could have expected a scheme
framed in conformity to those very prejudices, those
invidious distinctions in the community, those principles
of exclusive privilege and unequal advantage of which it
had not been supposed there could be a more determined
enemy. And if the frame and substance of such a
scheme appeared in striking contrariety to its author's
long-avowed and proclaimed principles, the mode devised
for ensuring its pure and effective operation seemed to
present as signal a contrast with his reputed high-toned
pride. It was most surprising that for a due exercise
of supervision he should submit to the humiliation of
proposing — not any mode of placing the schools under
free public inspection, not any adjustment for subjecting

T1IE FJBST FIFTY YEARS

them to the vigilance of the respectable inhabitants of
the neighbourhood, who must naturally be most interested
for their right management, not any method which
experience had proved to be beneficial — but an appoint
ment of very much the same nature as that of which
he had himself just rendered the utter inefficiency so
notorious." *

The Committee of the Sunday School Union examined
the bill in reference to its effect on Sunday schools. They
soon came to the conclusion that it must be most injurious,
as it would withdraw the scholars, and undermine the
foundation of benevolent and gratuitous instruction.
They thought that the measure would deprive Sunday
scholars of the invaluable means of moral and religious
instruction they now enjoyed, without providing any
substitute ; that the mere repetition of catechism, attend
ance at public worship, and the routine of mechanical
teaching by a paid master, was very far inferior to the
unbought and inestimable labours of teachers who love
their youthful charge, feel deeply concerned for their
immortal welfare, and from principle devote themselves
unremittingly to promote the benefit of the children
whom they have voluntarily engaged to instruct.

The result of the plan, as it respected Sunday schools,
was pointed out to its author. His reply was, "Oh,
they were only for the occasion : when the bill passes,
there will be no more occasion for them." He was told,
" If you lose our Sunday schools, you will lose one of
the best bonds of society ; for these voluntary teachers "

* Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance. By John Foster. Second Edition, 1821 .

pp. 14, 15.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

" Voluntary teachers ! " he exclaimed, fi what do

you mean? I don't understand what you mean by
voluntary teachers." Some explanations were then
given as to the constitution of Sunday schools : and with
a view to further information, Mr. Butterworth requested
him to visit the school in Drury Lane, to which reference
has been already made ; and then, for the first time, did
the talented author of the bill become aware of the
beneficial influence which the labours of gratuitous
teachers were exerting upon the rising generation of our
land. The speech made in the House of Commons by
Mr. Brougham, on introducing his measure, showed his
ignorance on the subject of Sunday schools. He said
that the scholars in them obtained none of the useful
habits inculcated by the discipline of schools under the
eye of a master, which was more beneficial to a child
than that of a parent. Though a dunce might go to
church twice on a Sunday, he feared it would not make
him more fond of the divine service. In his opinion it
was not a good plan to keep children more than an hour
and a half at religious worship on the day set apart for it.
It was not the proper way to make them love and respect
it. Let them go to church in the morning, and let their
evening be devoted to that innocent play which was most
congenial to their age.*

A general meeting of the gratuitous Sunday-school
teachers of London and its vicinity was convened, on the
16th February, 1821 ; at which resolutions were adopted,
embodying the objections against the bill, entertained by
the committee, and instructing them to use the most

* Sunday School Repository, 1820, p. 522,

THE FIRST FIFTY YEAHS

energetic means to oppose its progress. It did not, how
ever, become necessary to take any further steps, as Mr.
Brougham was deterred by the resistance which had
been excited, and did not again bring forward the
measure.

The discussions to which this measure gave rise were
carried on with great activity. A writer in the 31st
number of the " British Review," while objecting to the
extension of general education among the poor, bore
the following important testimony to the value of the
religious instruction imparted in Sunday schools.

" Sunday schools are precisely those institutions to
which on the grounds and reasons above set forth we
have always been zealously attached. We are tempted
to call them fine establishments : their end is incontro-
vertibly good; their means direct, decided, and pure.
Standing on the very foundation of the Sabbath itself,
and engrafted into its ordinances, they cannot, as long as
that day is considered in this land as a holy day, be
alienated from its objects or made subservient to human
corruptions. Their very name designates and determines
their character ; nor can they without a profane absurdity
admit anything into their procedure that does not pro
fessedly advance the work of religion in the soul.
Sunday schools must be for Sunday purposes connected
with Sunday duties and dedicated to Him to whom the
Sunday, by an everlasting proclamation of his will,
especially belongs. They are the chartered institutions
of our Omnipotent Founder, who ratifies with the seal of
his gracious adoption whatever man contrives, with
singleness of heart, for his glory and places under his

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

protection. The wise teaching, therefore, of these
schools we believe to be placed under the surest guarantee ;
they are under an implied covenant in which God himself
is a party, to dispense in his name only one sort of
instruction — that holy, unambiguous instruction which
lays the foundation of Christian morals in Christian
belief, and deduces all the duties, obligations, charities,
and claims of social intercourse from scriptural authority."

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER XV.

Formation of the American Sunday School Union.

We have already given some account of the introduc
tion of the Sunday-school system into America, and of
the formation of the " First-day, or Sunday School
Society " in Philadelphia, and of the " New York Sunday
School Union." In addition to these institutions, the
"Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union" was
formed May 26th, 1817, and its leading design, as
expressed in the constitution, was to "cultivate unity
and charity among those of different names — to ascertain
the extent of gratuitous instruction in Sunday and Adult
schools — to promote their establishment in the city and
in the villages in the country — to give more effect to
Christian exertion in general — and to encourage and
strengthen each other in the cause of the Redeemer."

These three associations were local in their operations
and influence. All of them, however, recognised the
union of evangelical Christians as the basis of their
organisation. After a useful career of seven years, the
Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union, in
obedience to a loud call for a new and more general
institution, was merged in the American Sunday School
Union. The suggestion of forming such an association
first came from New York, and on the 25th of May,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

1824, that society was formed in Philadelphia, and in
1845, was incorporated under a Charter from the
Legislature of Pennsylvania. In the " Popular Sketch
of the Rise and Progress of Sunday Schools in the
United States," published by the American Union, the
truths sought to be inculcated by the institution are thus
described: "In the doctrines of the supremacy of the
inspired Scriptures as the rule of faith and duty, the lost
state of man by nature, and his exposure to endless
punishment in a future world ; his recovery only by the
free, sovereign, and sustaining grace of God, through
the atonement and merits of a Divine Redeemer, and by
the influence of the Holy Spirit ; the necessity of faith,
repentance, and holy living, with an open confession of
the Saviour before men, and the duty of complying with
His ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper; in
these doctrines are found the essential and leading truths
of the Christian system; in the reception of these
doctrines the members of the society agree, and with
God's help they endeavour to teach and inculcate them
on all whom they can properly reach."

The plans adopted for carrying out the purposes for
which the Union was formed are thus stated. " The
two chief objects of the Society were — 1. To open new
Sunday schools in neighbourhoods and settlements where
they would not otherwise be established; and 2. To
supply them with means of carrying on the schools
successfully when thus begun. In the prosecution of
this design the first obstacle to be overcome was the
existence of various creeds and conflicting religious
opinions and usages, especially in those districts of the

128 THE FIRST FIFTY YEAR*

country where the influence of Sunday schools was most
needed. To meet this difficulty the American Sunday
School Union retained two of the most important features
of the previously existing Sunday and Adult School
Union, viz.: that the Board of Officers and Managers
should be laymen ; and second, that it should embrace
members of the principal evangelical denominations of
the country. The position of clergymen as public teachers
of religion in their respective communities, gives them
peculiar prominence and notoriety as the advocates and
upholders of their respective modes of faith. Their
professional pursuits and offices necessarily lead them to
such views of controverted truth as must to some extent
embarrass, if it would not prevent, a full measure of
usefulness in the management of such an institution.
As their influence is wide and thorough in the individual
schools, and as we enjoy their co-operation, are favoured
with their counsel, and are able to avail ourselves of
their services in a variety of ways, as agents, authors, &c.,
we lose nothing essential to our success by this feature
of our organization, while we secure a vast amount of
lay labour in the promotion of the interests of religion,
and relieve the clergy of a burden which would be
extremely onerous."

The thin and scattered population of the western parts
of the country soon engaged the attention of the Board.
They found that in some of the settlements the preaching
of the gospel was seldom or never enjoyed; in many
there were services at intervals of some weeks, but not
very regularly. Hence the Sabbath became an idle day,
or was spent in secular labour and vain amusements, if

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

not in vicious indulgences. To supply this want in some
degree, it was thought desirable to employ both clergy
men and laymen to travel into various parts of the
country, explore the districts and neighbourhoods in the
greatest want, and endeavour to establish Sunday schools.
Books for use in the school and for a lending-library
were supplied gratuitously, or otherwise, if the means of
the people amongst whom the school was established
rendered it desirable. It can easily be imagined that in
very many instances suitable individuals could be found
to assist in conducting such a school, who would have
shrunk from undertaking a more public office, while the
children were glad of the excitement, and were at once
interested in its proceedings. Parents readily accom
panied their children to the place of meeting, and thus
associated under good influences. The religious exercises
of the school were easily expanded or prolonged to meet
the religious wants of the adults, and thus habits were
formed which finally resulted in a call for the introduction
of regular gospel institutions. The school-house was
transformed into a place of public worship, the Sunday
school became the nucleus of a Christian church and
congregation, and in due time a minister of the gospel
was permanently established among them.

This important department of labour was systematized
in 1830, and has since that time been carried on with
energy and success. In order to provide the books
which were required, the Board have devoted themselves
to the preparation and printing of books, not merely
adapted for school use, but for libraries, thus adding to
their other labours the work which is done in England

130 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

by the Religious Tract Society and other publishers.
The extent of their operations in this department may
be estimated by the fact that they now publish about
one thousand bound volumes, in addition to smaller
works, and that the whole number of the Society's pub
lications exceeds fifteen hundred.*

At the general meeting of the Sunday School Union, in
1825, great interest was excited in reference to the estab
lishment of Sunday schools in Greece ; whose inhabitants
were then asserting their independence of the Turkish
empire. A resolution, moved by the Rev. J. Bennett,
seconded by the Rev. Sereno D wight, of Boston, North
America, and supported by the Rev. Thomas Mortimer,
was adopted, by which it was declared, "That this
society, anxious to promote Christian instruction among
the rising race of Greeks, engages to devote to the
formation and support of Sunday schools among that
people whatever contributions may be forwarded to it
for this specific object." In furtherance of the design
contemplated in this resolution, the Committee agreed to
encourage the preparation, in modern Greek, of a Sum
mary of the History of Sunday Schools, and a Sunday
School Hymn Book. To the former work they appro
priated £50, and to the latter, £20. Efforts were also
made to obtain additional funds, and a correspondence
was opened with various parties who, it was thought,
would feel interested in this effort to extend religious
instruction; but no considerable results attended the
exertions thus made. A few Sunday schools were

* Popular Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Sunday Schools in the United States.

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,

established in the Island of Corfu, under the zealous
superintendence of the Rev. J. Lowndes, but the attempt
to introduce them on the continent of Greece was not
attended with success.

The cause of Sunday schools sustained the loss, during
the year 1826, of William Fox, Esq., the founder of the
Sunday School Society. He died on April 1st, 1826, at
Cirencester, in the 91st year of his age. He continued
to the last to take a very lively interest in Sunday schools,
and would often detail in an interesting manner the
circumstances connected with the formation of the Sun
day School Society.*

The Committee of the Sunday School Union had for
a long period been sensible of the importance and
necessity of increasing Sunday schools throughout the
country, and of rendering those already established more
efficient, especially as related to religious instruction.
While much had been done, much still remained to be
accomplished; and the establishment of efficient Sunday
School Unions seemed to be the best means of attaining
the desired objects. Mere correspondence, or an occa
sional transient visit by a member of the Committee, it
was thought, could not produce the desired impulse.
In America, as we have seen, the example had been set
of employing Sunday School Missionaries, who had there
been extensively useful. The Committee had long been
convinced that it was desirable to adopt such a plan in
this country, but had been deterred from attempting it
by the smallness of their funds. This difficulty was

Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1826, p. 217.

K2

THE FIR£T FIFTY YEARS

now removed by the liberal offers of some friends in
the North of England; and the Committee thereupon
engaged Mr. Joseph Reid Wilson, formerly Secretary of
the Newcastle Union, to devote his whole time and
energies to the arduous work of a Sunday School
Missionary. Mr. Wilson's acquaintance with the Sun
day-school system, and his zealous, persevering, and
successful exertions in extending and improving it,
through the neighbourhood of Newcastle, pointed him
out as admirably adapted for this employment. He
laboured for several years most zealously in the discharge
of the duties of the office thus undertaken by him. His
visits to the schools, his earnest, practical addresses to
assemblies of teachers, and his lively but thoroughly
Christian appeals to the thousands of scholars whom he
from time to time addressed were of great benefit. The
short prayer which he was in the habit of teaching the
children to use in private — " Lord, convert my soul, for
Christ's sake. Amen." — was blessed by the Holy Spirit
to the conversion of many. His labours were suspended
in the year 1837, in consequence of the death of his
father, which compelled him to devote himself for a
season to the duties thereupon devolving upon him.
Those duties proved more onerous than had been
anticipated, and ultimately a variety of circumstances
concurred to induce Mr. Wilson to tender his resigna
tion. The Committee did not fill up the vacant office.
They had, during its continuance, occasionally sent out
deputations of their own number to visit the several
Unions, and finding that such visits proved acceptable
and useful, they resolved to render them more frequent,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, JQQ

and this fraternal intercourse with their fellow teachers
has become an important branch of the operations of the
Union. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France,
and Switzerland have been thus visited with mutual
benefit.

THE FIRST FIFTY YEABS

CHAPTER XVI.

The Establishment of Infant Schools.

WHILE the Sunday-school system was thus being
gradually extended and consolidated, the attention of
those who were interested in the education of the young
had been directed to the importance of commencing that
education at a much earlier age than had hitherto been
thought necessary. With whom the plan of taking the
children into school at two years or two years and-a-half
old originated is not clear. Emmanuel de Fellenberg,
it appears, had long entertained the idea, and Robert
Owen, of New Lanark, in Scotland, had it in mind a
considerable time before he reduced it to practice. Mr.
Brougham said he hardly recollected the time at which
he himself did not feel persuaded that what is commonly
called education begins too late, and is too much confined
to mere learning. He thought that Robert Owen was
the first person who made the experiment, as Fellen-
berg's plan, although in principle the same, did not
extend to infants of so early an age. Robert Owen's
infant school was completely established about the year
1816. Fellenberg's school was formed some few years
previously. The former was connected with Robert
Owen's manufactory, where about 2,500 persons of all
ages capable of assisting were employed, all of whom
lived on the spot, excepting about 300 who lodged in the

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

town of Old Lanark, about two miles distant. Fellen-
berg's establishment for poor children was in like manner
connected with his agricultural concerns, but still more
closely, for the scholars lived entirely on the farm, and
held no intercourse with their parents, who were for
the most part persons in the worst classes of society,
and had deserted their children.

Mr. Brougham had seen Fellenberg's establishment in
1816, and was acquainted with the principles and details
of Owen's school, from his own statements, and from
the testimony of friends, amongst whom were Benjamin
Smith, Sir Samuel Romilly, and William Allen, on
whose judgment he could rely. He had thus become
convinced that the principle might be advantageously
extended to the poor population of a crowded city. In
the winter of 1818, his friend James Mill, of the India
House, and himself, had much discussion with Mr.
Owen respecting the plan, and were immediately joined
by Mr. John Smith, M.P., the Marquis of Lansdowne,
Mr. Zachary Macaulay, and Mr. Thomas Babington, in
the attempt to establish an infant school in Westminster.
In a few weeks they were joined by Lord Dacre, Sir
Thomas Baring, Bart., Mr. William Leake, M.P., Mr.
Joseph Wilson, of Spitalfields, Mr. Henry Hase, of the
Bank of England, Mr. John Walker, of Southgate, and
one or two other friends. Mr. Owen furnished them
with a master in the person of J. Buchanan, who had
been superintendent of his school at New Lanark, and
the necessary preparations being completed, the children
were received early in the year 1819.*

* Observations relative to Infant Schools, by Thomas Pole, M.D.

THE FIHST FIFTY YEARS

Mr. Joseph Wilson speedily established an infant
school in Quaker Street, erecting and furnishing the
school-room at his own expense, and engaging Mr.
Samuel Wilderspin and his wife as the master and
mistress. The school was opened July 24, 1820, and
under the judicious management of Mr. and Mrs.
Wilderspin soon contained 200 scholars. This extension
of the benefits of education to infants excited much
interest. The method of instruction was found to be a
happy combination of exercise, relaxation, and learning,
Nothing was made a toil, but all was rendered pleasing
as well as profitable. The cultivation of kind and
benevolent dispositions, and the inculcation of moral and
religious feelings were prominent parts of the plan.
After the school had been some time in operation, Mr.
Wilderspin published a work, entitled — "On the im
portance of educating the infant children of the poor,
showing how 300 children from 18 months to 7 years of
age may be managed by one master and mistress."

Mr. Wilderspin has left an amusing account of his
troubles at the opening of his school, and of the means
by which he obtained relief.

"As soon as the mothers had left the premises I
attempted to engage the affections of their offspring. I
shall never forget the effort. A few who had been
previously at a dame school sat quietly, but the rest
missing their parents crowded about the door. One
fellow, finding he could not open it, set up a cry of
f Mammy, Mammy ! ' and in raising this delightful sound
all the rest simultaneously joined. My wife, who, though
reluctant at first, had determined, on my accepting

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

the situation,, to give me the utmost aid, tried with
myself to calm the tumult, but our efforts were utterly
vain. The paroxysm of sorrow increased instead of
subsiding, and so intolerable did it become that she could
endure it no longer and left the room, and at length
exhausted by effort, anxiety, and noise, I was compelled
to follow her example, leaving my unfortunate pupils in
one dense mass, crying, yelling, and kicking against the
door. I will not attempt to describe my feelings, but
ruminating on what I then considered egregious folly,
in supposing that any two persons could manage such a
large number of children, I was struck by the sight of
a cap of my wife's, adorned with coloured ribbons, lying
on the table, and observing from the window a clothes
prop, it occurred to me that I might put the cap on it,
return to the school, and try the effect. The confusion
when I entered was tremendous, but on raising the pole
surmounted by the cap all the children were instantly
silent, and looked up in mute astonishment, and when
any hapless wight seemed disposed to renew the noise a
few shakes of the prop restored tranquillity, and perhaps
produced a laugh."

The charms of this wonderful instrument soon vanished,
but he had got the key of the position — visible illustra
tion ; he had found the key to the proper training of
infants. It was evident that their senses must be
engaged, and the grand secret of training them was to
descend to their level and become a child.

The following description of the mode of instruction
adopted will show how the objects aimed at were sought
to be attained.

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

" The children are all ordered to sit on the ground,
which they readily obey ; they are then desired to take
hold of their toes, which being done they are desired to
count 100, or as many as may be thought proper, which
they do by lifting up each foot alternately, all the children
counting at one time. By this means every part of the
body is put in motion, and with this advantage, that by
lifting up each foot every time they count one, it causes
them to keep time, a thing very essential, as unless this
was the case, all would be confusion. They also add up
two at a time by the same method, thus, two, four, six,
eight, ten, twelve, and so on, but care must be taken not
to keep them too long at one thing, or too long in one
position.

" Having done a lesson or two this way, they are
desired to put their feet out straight, and putting their
hands together, they say one and one are two, two and
one are three, three and one are four, four and one are
five, five and one are six, six and two are eight ; in this
way they go on until they are desired to stop.

" They also learn the pence and multiplication tables
by forming themselves in circles around a number of
young trees that are planted in the play ground. For
the sake of order, each circle has its own particular
tree, and when they are ordered to the trees every
child knows which tree to go to. As soon as they are
assembled round the trees they join hands and walk
round, every child saying the multiplication table until
they have finished it ; they then let go hands and put
them behind, and for variety sake sing the pence table,
the alphabet, hymns, &c., &c. ; thus the children are

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

gradually improved and delighted, for they call it play,
and it matters little what they call it, as long as they are
edified, exercised, pleased, and made happy."

As the infants were of course unable to read, the aid of
Scripture prints was called in to assist in conveying to
their minds a knowledge of the facts recorded in the
Bible, thus laying a right foundation for the truths to be
educed from those facts.

It will be perceived that at this early stage the infant
school was not furnished with that important adjunct
which has now come to be considered indispensable — a
gallery — by means of which the teacher obtains a more
perfect command of the whole body of the scholars, who
can at the same time see and hear the teacher without
difficulty or hindrance.

The attention of Sunday-school teachers was speedily
directed to this enlargement of daily instruction, and the
question was agitated as to the extent to which it could
be made subservient to the more specific object of the
Sunday school. The Committee of the Sunday School
Union devoted one of their quarterly conferences in the
year 1823 to a consideration of the question — "Are
infant schools beneficial, and how far are they adapted
to promote the objects of Sunday schools?" * There
was little, if any, hesitation expressed by the various
speakers, in answering the first part of this question in
the affirmative ; but there was some difference of opinion
as to the latter part of it. Generally, it was considered
that infant schools were desirable, as if they became
general, teachers would no longer have to be chiefly

* Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1823, pp. 329-333.

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

employed in rooting up the weeds and briars, but only
in continuing an excellent system of moral and religious
cultivation. There was* however, scarcely a suggestion
made in favour of making an infant class a constituent
part of the Sunday school. On the contrary, one teacher
"feared that if Sunday schools were to be brought
down to the standard of nurseries, they would lose their
character as religious institutions, and thus the cause
would be injured. He did not suppose that the friends
who had spoken wished these very little children to be
brought into Sunday schools. They were not capable
of appreciating the religious instruction communicated
in a Sunday school, and he thought to devote attention
to them would interfere with what was at present doing,
and that the time might be better employed. * * *
He must oppose the plan of teaching by pictures; he
pitied the men who could place such pictures in the
Bible as were to be seen in some old books. Would the
picture of the brazen serpent convey the idea that f like
as Moses lifted up the serpent ' * * He had

no objection to the teaching of infants; he did not
disapprove of infant schools ; but what he opposed was
the plan of attaching them to Sunday schools."

Mr. Wilderspin attended this conference and spoke at
some length in favour of the infant-school system. He,
however, also viewed it rather as a preparatory system,
and was not prepared to recommend its adoption as a part
of the Sunday school. As the arguments used by him for
gathering infants into school are now generally considered
to be as applicable to Sundays as to the other days of the
week it may be well to mention them. He informed the

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

meeting that "866 children had passed through his
hand; and ho ventured to say, that had it not been
for the infant school, not 100 of the number would have
been sent to school, but they would have been suffered
to run about the streets into all manner of evil. * * *
If infant schools only took the children out of the streets
they would be very useful. * * The pictures

were very attractive to infants ; he had a little child in
the school between four and five years of age who was
much pleased with the pictures; he had parents who
possessed a beautiful Bible which they kept merely to
look at for its beauty without examining its contents.
This child, having been taught by the pictures, said
when he went home ' father will you please read to me
about Joseph and his brethren?' The father replied,
( don't bother me.' The child added, f master told me
about it and said it was to be found in the Bible :' the
father put the child off, and referred him to his mother.
The child was persevering, and applied to the visitor who
came to the house, and the parents were at last induced
to comply with the child's desire. He should never have
heard of this incident had not the time arrived when the
child was old enough to be drafted off to the national
school, and then the father waited on him and said he
.was sorry I should send the child away. He was
informed that his boy being six he was removed to make
room for others. The father then gave his reason why
he wished the child to stay — ' it seems you have pictures
in your school, and I have a Bible in my house which I
did not much like to look into till my child made me ;
having done with Joseph, then the boy would make me

THE FIRST FIFTY YE ASS

read about Lazarus being raised from the dead ; and, in
fact, he kept one so well employed that I have now
learned to read the Bible for myself, and as soon as I
can I will associate myself with a body of professing
Christians and hear this book explained which I have
too much despised.' Thus the infant scholars act as
missionaries to their parents. It is a great advantage of
infant schools that they liberate the elder children of a
family who formerly were compelled to look after the
younger, but who are now enabled to attend school and
improve themselves."

Mr. Wilderspin died at Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the
year 1866. His long-continued labours in the cause of
Infant Education were acknowledged by the raising an
annuity, partly from Government and partly the result
of public subscriptions, to provide for his declining years.

The infant class has thus become a necessary part of
every well-conducted Sunday school, and is found to
exert a most beneficial influence on every department of
the institution. The earlier the scholars enter the walls
of the school, the more do they become attached to it so
as to quit it with reluctance : not only are they preserved
from the acquisition of much knowledge that is evil, but
scriptural truth is presented to them in a form adapted
to their infantile understandings, and thus exercises its
power on their affections, and, as Mr. Wilderspin
observed at the above conference, the older children of a
family are not compelled to remain at home to take care
of the younger, but all can derive the moral and spiritual
advantages which the Sunday school provides.

OF THE SUKDAY SCHOOL.

The committee of the Sunday School Union have
given much attention to this subject. Their deputations
to the country have always kept it before them,
and have urged upon the teachers they have met the
importance of providing in connection with every school
a separate room for the instruction of the infants,
furnished with a gallery and the other appliances adapted
to render the instruction more pleasant and efficient.
In the year 1851, they offered prizes for essays on the
subject of Infant Classes in Sunday schools. That which
was selected by the adjudicators as entitled to the first
prize was found to have been written by Mr. Charles
Reed, a member of the committee, and was published
under the title of "The Infant Class in the Sunday
School."

But a still more important service was rendered by
the committee to infant education, both in day and
Sunday schools, by the introduction of what is now
known as " The Letter Box." This important addition
to the appliances for infant instruction consists of the
adaptation and enlargement of what had been long known
as a help to teaching the letters of the alphabet to the
younger members of families. It consisted of single
letters on wood or bone, contained in a box, from which
they could be selected and arranged by the children,
who thus acquired the first elements of literary know
ledge, while they considered themselves at play. It is
recorded of the Rev. Rowland Hill, who opened the first
Sunday school in London, that " he was accustomed to
give away boxes of letters which he had prepared for
the young, who, by selecting the letters which compose

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

the words of a sentence, may be taught to read and spell
at the same time."*

The year 1833 witnessed the removal from earth of
this venerable man. He never altered his views on the
subject of education. His deliberate conviction was
" the more I look at the matter the more satisfied I am
that the reign of education is the reign of order and
happiness, and that to promote it is an injunction arising
out of the essence of Christianity itself." For many
years he had an assemblage of the Sunday-school
children of London, in Surrey Chapel, on Easter Monday
and Tuesday ; the boys on one day and the girls on the
other. He composed and printed a hymn for the occasion,
and addressed the young people from the scripture
printed at the head of the hymn. Two days before his
death he stood, on Easter Tuesday, at his drawing-room
window and saw the children thronging the chapel-yard,
and spoke with much delight of by-gone days when he
had met them and preached to them the Lord Jesus
Christ. His constant practice, till within a year or two
of his death, was to visit his school for a few minutes
on the Sabbath afternoon. His presence cheered the
teachers, whose services he often kindly acknowledged.
The last ministerial effort which Mr. Hill made was in
the cause of Sunday schools. He had engaged to address
the teachers of the South London Sunday School Union,
on Tuesday evening, the 2nd of April, only eight days
before his decease. Although he was in so weak a state
as to be scarcely able to ascend the pulpit, yet he
was anxious to discharge this duty. He spoke with

-Memoir of the Rev. Rowland Hill, 1S44,

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

affectionate fervour about ten minutes. He became
greatly exhausted, and finished his address and his
ministry with his favourite and oft-repeated exhortation
— " Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in
the Lord." In this last address Mr. Hill referred to the
subject of infant schools. "I did think till I had con
sidered the subject more deeply that we were carrying
things a little too far bv the education of children in

o */

infant schools. Now I think otherwise, and feel that we
cannot begin too early — the earlier they are brought
under a religious education the better."

In the early part of the year 1842, the Committee of
the Sunday School Union heard that one of their number,
Mr. W. J. Morrish, a teacher in the Paddington Chapel
school, was conducting a large class of young children
with much convenience and advantage, by the use of an
enlarged specimen of a box of letters. A deputation .was
appointed to visit the school and report the result of the
experiment, which proved so satisfactory that it was
determined to construct similar boxes for sale. This
matter, trifling as it may now appear, occupied much
time and attention, but ultimately this assistance to infant
class instruction was offered in a considerably improved
form. It was seen at the Union by Mr. Kay, now Sir
James Kay Shuttleworth, Bart., then Secretary to the
Committee of the Privy Council on Education, was
adopted by that Committee, and has now in a variety
of forms, and in larger sizes than are necessary for Sun
day schools, found its way into the great educational

146 THE FIRST FIFTY YEAES

institutions of our land. The " letter box," as issued
by the Union, contains in separate compartments an
adequate supply of letters, large and small, stops, and
figures, to enable sentences of some length to be set up
in the grooves with which the inside of the lid is supplied,
and which can be detached for the convenience of the
teacher. The effect of this " letter box " has been great
in the assistance afforded to the teachers of infant classes,
the scholars in which thus obtain the art of reading with
almost inconceivable rapidity. Elementary books and
classes become unnecessary, and a well conducted Sun
day school comes to consist of infant, scripture, and
senior classes alone.

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

CHAPTER XVII.

Senior Classes in Sunday Schools.

THE mention of " senior classes " naturally invites atten
tion to tliat which has become so important a department
of the Sunday school. For many years, it was on the
one hand the custom not to admit very young children,
and on the other to dismiss them when they had attained
the age of 14. This dismission was made an event of
some solemnity ; bibles were publicly presented to the
retiring scholars, often by the minister, and suitable
advicef'given. Thus so far as the teachers were
concerned, the influence of the school over these young
persons was withdrawn at a period when it was peculiarly
needed. As the young children were prevented from
entering until they had in many cases acquired evil
principles and practices which gave anxiety and trouble
to their teachers, so those young persons in whom the
good effects of religious training might be expected to
be found were separated from their teachers, who thus
lost the opportunity of continuing that training and of
witnessing its results in their consecration to the service
of Jesus Christ.

The introduction of the infant school system in con
nection with Sunday schools has removed the difficulty
with respect to the young children, and the infant class
now generally forms the most delightful and successful
portion of the teachers' labours.

L9

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

The establishment of distinct classes for scholars who
had arrived at the age of 14 or 15, and who were dis
inclined to remain in the ordinary classes of the school
was first suggested by the teachers of America. In
order to preserve these scholars under religious influences
it was proposed to establish distinct schools, to which the
elder scholars of other schools might be transferred, and
where a more enlarged course of Scripture instruction
might be entered upon.* In many cases the ministers
conducted Bible classes for these young people, and as
the American schools generally consisted of the children
of members of the congregation, this arrangement, where
carried out, secured some of the advantages sought for ;
but not all. It was obviously impracticable for the
minister thus to employ the Lord's day, which was the
time when the young people were at liberty, and when
it was most important that they should be profitably
employed. The Committee of the American Union
adverted to this subject in their report for 1826, and it
speedily excited the attention of the teachers in England
and of the Committee of the Sunday School Union.
They were not then prepared to recommend any
measures for retaining the senior scholars in immediate
connection with the schools to which they belonged,
but in an article inserted in the Teachers' Magazine for
1827, p. 2, the idea of a senior or adult class was thus
developed: — "I would form young persons of 14 and
upwards, who had passed through the catechisms used
in the other classes and obtained a good report of their
teachers, into a distinct class, to be termed the senior or
select. These should not be required to commit hymns

* Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, 1826, pp. 130-136, 337, 338.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

and catechisms to memory ; the avocations of many at
this period of life would probably in some measure
oppose obstacles to this ; -a portion of scripture, bearing
on a certain and intelligible subject should be appro
priated for each Sabbath's reading, and the scholars be
encouraged to bring written questions or remarks on the
same, together with references to other portions of
scripture on the subject."

Thus the attention of teachers was gradually roused
to the importance of distinct efforts being made to retain
the elder scholars in the schools, and to provide for them
instruction adapted to their advancing years. In the
year 1829, the Committee of the Sunday School Union
requested the Rev. H. F. Burder to prepare an address
inviting the serious attention of ministers of the gospel
to the nature and importance of Bible classes. In the
address prepared in compliance with that request, and
widely circulated, it was suggested that the characteristic
principle of the tuition in such classes was that of
catechetical instruction — that this principle had the
sanction of immemorial usage, having been adopted
with success by the wisest preceptors in successive
generations. Catechisms without number, not only for
the purposes of religion, but also of science, might be
regarded as so many attestations to the excellence of the
general system. It was further observed that it was
important to bear in rnind that the application of the
principle was not dependent on a printed form or on a
fixed series of questions and answers, neither did it
necessarily require the labour of committing to memory
specific phrases or sentences. If certain truths or facts

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

had been previously conveyed to the mind of the learner
with simplicity, with clearness, and with force, it might
be easy for the teacher to put to the test and to elicit the
amount of knowledge the learner might have acquired,
and it might not be difficult to him after being a little
accustomed to the effort to express the ideas he had
imbibed in terms the most familiar to his own mind.

It will be perceived that the classes thus recommended
would only have a very indirect bearing on Sunday
schools. It would be unreasonable to expect that pastors
should give up their time on Sunday to the exercises of
such classes, and as that day is the only one when the
larger portion of scholars can attend, they must be
necessarily shut out from the advantages to be thus
attained. Teachers, therefore, sought to establish classes
for senior scholars in immediate connection with the
schools, and especial success attended such efforts in the
northern parts of the country, where manufactures afford
daily employment for large numbers of young persons,
who are left at liberty on Sundays. In the Sunday
school in Bennett-street, Manchester, the average of the
individuals composing the young women's class was
found on inquiry to be 19 J years, and in the young
men's class 17^ years. In the Hanover-road school, at
Halifax, containing 500 scholars, 160 were more than
16 years of age, and one of three classes connected
with Sion Chapel School, Halifax, contained 57 females
whose ages varied from 16 to 45.

In consequence of the attention drawn to this subject,
classes under the varied designations of senior scholars',
young men and women's, or adult classes, have come to

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,

be considered necessary to every well-conducted Sunday
school.

Pursuant to the opinion expressed by Mr. Horace
Mann, in his admirable report on the education returns
of the census of 1851, "The senior class is the grand
desideratum to the perfect working of the Sunday-school
system, for without some 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." His observations also on the mode of conducting
and sustaining such classes are well worthy of record.

" But in proportion to the importance of these senior
classes is the difficulty of establishing and conducting
them, a higher order of teachers being needful, whose
superiority of intellect and information shall command
the willing deference of the scholars, while their hearty
sympathy with those they teach shall render the connec
tion rather one of friendship than of charity. Such
classes, too, will not be long continued with efficiency
unless the teacher feels so strong an interest in his pupils
as to make their secular prosperity a portion of his care.
It is obvious, therefore, that the scheme requires for its
complete development more aid from those who are in
age, position, and intelligence, considerably superior to
most of the present teachers, and who hitherto have
very sparingly contributed their personal efforts to the
cause of the Sunday school." *

Census of Groat Britain, 1851.— Education in Great Britain.— The Official Report
yf Horace Mann, Esq.. p. 71,

152

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Julilee of Sunday Schools, — Conclusion.

THE year 1831 will ever be memorable, on account of
the celebration of the Jubilee of Sunday schools. The
idea had been suggested to the Committee of the Union
by Mr. James Montgomery, the warm friend of Sunday
schools, as well as the Christian poet. In a letter to
Mr. Lloyd, dated December 11, 1829, Mr. Montgomeiy
remarked — " It has occurred to me that a Sunday school
Jubilee, in the year 1831, fifty years from the origin of
Sunday schools, might be the means of extraordinary
and happy excitement to the public mind in favour of
these Institutions, of which there was never more need
than at this time, when daily instruction is within the
reach of almost every family; for the more universal
the education of the children of the poor becomes, the
greater necessity there is that they should have religious
knowledge imparted to them; which can be done,
perhaps, on no day so well as the Lord's." Tins com
munication excited much anxious deliberation. The
result was, that in the Report presented to the Annual
Meeting, the Committee of the Sunday School Union
stated the plan which they recommended for the celebra
tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of
Sunday schools, namely : —

1. That the Sunday school Jubilee be held on

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Wednesday, the 14tli of September, 1831 — the anni
versary of Mr. Raikes's birthday.

2. That a prayer meeting of Sunday school teachers,
either united or in each separate school, as may be
thought most advisable, be held from seven to eight
o'clock in the morning.

3. That the children in the schools connected with
the Auxiliary and Country Unions, be assembled for
public worship; the service to commence at half-past
ten, and close at twelve.

4. That at six o'clock a public meeting be held in
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.

5. That as Sunday school Unions do not at present
exist in some parts of this country, it is recommended
that in such places Sunday school teachers should unite
for the purpose of celebrating the Jubilee according to
the above plan, and transmit their contributions to the
Sunday School Union.

Mr. Montgomery kindly wrote two hymns for teachers
and one for scholars, and Mrs. Gilbert another for
scholars, to be used at the above meetings, which, with
a portrait of Mr. Raikes, were engraved on steel. Medals
were also struck in commemoration of the occasion ; and,
at the request of the committee, Mrs. Copley prepared a
sketch of the History of Sunday schools, adapted to the
perusal of children. The sale of these publications was
so extensive, that the profits arising from them wholly
defrayed the large expenses which the committee incurred
in the celebration.

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

The arrangements thus made by the committee were
carried out, not only in London, but in most parts of the
country ; and a season of holy excitement and pleasure
was experienced, which still dwells in the memory of
those who were privileged to partake of it. The largest
assemblage of scholars in London was at Exeter Hall,
where 4,043 were gathered together. It was found
impossible to admit the whole into the large Hall ; where
the Rev. John Morison, D.D., delivered the address,
from Jer. iii, 4 : " Wilt thou not from this time, cry
unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth ? "
Those who were thus excluded, were addressed in the
lower Hall, by the Rev. Joseph Ivimey. Yery many
similar meetings were held, in various parts of London
and its vicinity; and, probably, 50,000 scholars thus
joined in celebrating the Jubilee. In the afternoon,
however, the interest which, in the earlier parts of the
day, had been distributed in different portions amongst
the respective prayer meetings of teachers, and assemblies
of scholars, became concentrated upon one object — the
great Jubilee Meeting of Sunday School Teachers at
Exeter Hall.

The chair was taken by the Right Hon. Lord Henley.
After singing the Jubilee Hymn, "Let songs of praise
arise," &c., the Rev. R. H. Shepherd offered up prayer
to God; and Mr. Lloyd read an address from the
committee, stating the circumstances under which the
meeting had been convened. The business of the meet
ing was then introduced by the Noble Chairman ; and
the Rev. John Blackburn moved, and the Rev. F. A.
Cox, D.D., seconded, the following resolution:- — "That

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

in reviewing the past fifty years, the small beginnings,
the gradual progress, and the present extension of Sun
day schools, at home and abroad, demand our grateful
acknowledgments to Almighty God, by whose blessing
these Institutions have been made the means of greatly
promoting the instruction of the young, and of raising
up, both from the scholars and teachers, many devoted
and successful labourers in the Church of Christ."

The second resolution was moved by the Rev. John
Burnet, and seconded by John Ivatt Briscoe, Esq., M.P.,
and was to the following effect : — " That the increase of
our population, and the extension of general knowledge,
show the vast importance of augmenting the means of
religious education ; and that, from the present era, the
friends of education are called upon to make the most
strenuous efforts to increase the number of Sunday
school teachers and scholars, both at home and abroad."
The Rev. J. C. Brigham, of New York, Secretary to the
American Bible Society, then furnished to the meeting
some details relative to the progress of Sunday schools
in America; after which the Rev. John Morison, D.D.,
moved — "That in order to promote the extension of
religious education, it is of great importance to raise the
means for the promotion of Sunday School Missions,
and to encourage the erection of additional permanent
buildings, adapted for Sunday schools, which may also
be suitable for infant or day schools." This resolution
was seconded by the Rev. Samuel Drew, A.M. ; and,
with a vote of thanks to the Chairman, who presented
a cheque for twenty guineas, as his contribution to the
Jubilee Offering, terminated the business of the meeting.

THE FI^ST FIFTY YEARS

In acknowledging the vote of thanks, his Lordship said

— " You will easily, I am sure, believe me, my Christian
friends, when I inform you, that I never yet felt so great
a degree of embarrassment, in receiving the approbation
of my fellow Christians, as on the present occasion, This
meeting — exceeding in point of numbers any that I have
seen — exceeding, as I am sure it does, in knowledge and
intelligence, and in Christian spirit, every meeting that
I ever before beheld collected within the walls of an
assembly, — to receive the thanks and the approbation of
such a meeting is a proud moment in the life of one who
never sought public applause or public favour. It is a
moment that cannot be appreciated. Ladies and gentle
men, — till to-day, though I was aware of their excellence

— though I was aware of much of the good that has been
done by Sunday schools — I was, to a degree, ignorant of
the vast amount of good derived from their hands. In
the words of one of our poets, I would say,

Greatly instructed, I shall hence depart,

Greatly improved in mind, and thought, and heart.

May you proceed from grace to grace. May this work
of faith and labour of love extend, not only throughout
this country, but to the most distant shores. May it
extend to nations yet unborn, and be the means of raising
millions to happiness in this world, and to a crown of
glory in the world to come."

The vast assembly then rose, and sang the Jubilee
Hymn, " Love is the theme of Saints above," &c. The
effect of this concluding exercise was most overwhelming,
and will never be forgotten by those who had the happi
ness to be present.

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. }5~

Iii order that those who had been unable to obtain
admission might not be wholly disappointed, the lower
Hall was opened, and quickly filled. Here, the Rev.
Samuel Hilly ard, of Bedford, presided; and addresses
were delivered by Mr. Gurney, Rev. Robert Vaughan,
Thomas Farmer, Esq., Rev. Jos. Belcher, Rev. Arthur
Tidman, Rev. Thomas Binney, and Rev. George Evans.
The last speaker communicated the intelligence, which
had arrived that afternoon, of the simultaneous celebra
tion of the Jubilee in America. Notwithstanding this
additional meeting, there were still many who were
unable to share in the intellectual feast thus provided ;
and for their accommodation, the Rev. J. Macnaughten,
the minister of the Scotch Church in Crown Court,
kindly lent the use of that place, where a third meeting
was held. James Wyld, Esq., presided ; and the Rev.
J. Ivimey, Rev. W. D. Day, Rev. W. Davis, Missionary
to Graham's Town, South Africa, Rev. J. Macnaughten,
Thomas Thompson, Esq., and Lieut. Arnold, addressed
the assembly.

In no part of the country was the celebration of the
Jubilee Carried out with greater earnestness than at
Halifax, in Yorkshire, a town celebrated for its attach
ment to Sunday schools, and where about one fourth of
the population is to be found enjoying their advantages.
So much interest did the proceedings excite that the
celebration has been repeated ever since at intervals of
about five years. In 1861, the sixth repetition occurred,
and a few particulars from the report to be found in the
Union Magazine for that year will appropriately close this
review of the FIKST FIFTY YEABS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

158 THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

" The sun shone brightly, the factories and shops were
all closed, the streets became alive with visitors hastening
to the place of meeting. The schools from the country
entered the town preceded by their respective bands,
who were to assist in conducting the singing. At ten
o'clock the schools commenced entering, but two hours
were occupied before they were stationed in their allotted
places. At length 87 different schools, comprising nearly
28,000 teachers and scholars, and 580 musical performers,
were assembled in the Piece Hall. This building is of
stone, quadrangular in shape, and incloses a piece of
ground of about 10,000 yards. The open galleries of
the building were occupied by thousands of spectators,
who had paid from 2s. 6d. to 6d. each for admission, and
from which all the expenses were paid.

"Mr. Abel Dean conducted the music. Having
obtained order by the elevation of a large board, on
which was printed in large letters the word e silence/ the
first hymn was sung —

The day of Jubilee now breaks, &c.

"The effect was very startling. The vast mass of
children sung together, and as the volume of sound from
the little ones, accompanied by the powerful yet sweet
music of the 27 different bands, rolled out upon the air,
the effect upon the visitors in the galleries, as well as
upon those outside the Hall, was grand in the extreme,
and could not fail to remind us of that great yet more
perfect gathering of the redeemed in heaven.

"After an interval, during which the Low Moor band
performed the chorus, ( The heavens are telling,' the
second hymn was commenced to the tune of St. George —

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 159

How vast the temple \vhere we meet,

As we have met before;
With grateful joy each other greet,

And nature's God adcie.

" To this hymn there were seven verses, but so pleased
were the audience with the way in which it was sung, as
evinced by the vociferous cheers which greeted it, that
it had to be repeated, after which was sung, e Be preserrt
at our table, Lord,' &c., when refreshments, consisting of
buns, water, oranges, &c., were freely distributed to the
children, who judging from the rapid manner in which
the various edibles were disposed of, were as much
pleased with this part of the day's pleasure as any.

"After an interval of an hour, the conductor again
ascended the box, and the roll of the drums having called
for silence, the next hymn was sung, commencing —

'Twas God that made the ocean,
And laid its sandy bed.

" The singing of this hymn was beautiful, and it had
to be repeated.

"The Hallelujah Chorus was then beautifully and
correctly given arid repeated, after which followed,
f Before Jehovah's awful throne,' &c., to the tune
6 Wareham,' when this interesting celebration was
brought to a close by singing the National Anthem."

The preceding narrative of the origin and progress of
Sunday schools during the first fifty years of their
existence, will fail of its design if, in addition to the
gratification which it may afford in tracing the com
mencement and onward progress of a benevolent and
Christian effort, which has exerted, and is still exerting,

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS

so powerful and beneficial an influence on the national
character, it does not also excite feelings of devout and
humble gratitude to the Author of all Good, who has so
eminently blessed an instrumentality so humble and
feeble in its commencement.

A contrast of England as she is, with what she was
prior to the introduction of Sunday schools, will show
the vast improvement in her intellectual, moral, and
religious condition; and the only question which can
arise, will be, to what extent that improvement is attri
butable to the introduction of Sunday schools. Our
universities are increased in number — their advantages
are, to a considerable extent, thrown open to all classes
of the community — their discipline is improved, and
their honours can only be obtained as the result of
examinations, which bring out evidence of careful study ;
while our nobility and legislators exhibit the influence
which their superior education has had upon their minds
by their readiness to assist the intellectual pursuits of
those who are less favourably situated. We have passed
through seasons of intense political excitement and of
severe distress, but they have disturbed the public peace
in the smallest possible degree, while the manner in
which the recent suffering among the manufacturers of
cotton goods in Lancashire was borne, excited the
astonishment and thankfulness of us all.

And what connection have Sunday schools with this?
We answer, that to Sunday schools is owing that in
creased attention to the general education of the people,
which has ended in raising England from almost the
lowest in the scale to but one step below the highest,

OP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,

there being now 1 in 7 of her population in attendance
at daily schools. The increase in the number of those
able to read, " through the medium of Sunday schools,"
as stated in one of the early addresses of the Religious
Tract Society, led to the establishment of that great and
remarkably useful institution, which has issued 959
millions of publications ; while the want of Bibles for
the Sunday scholars of Wales induced the formation of
the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has circu
lated 70 millions of copies of the sacred volume in whole
or in part. At the present time there are also published,
mostly in London, 801 periodical publications, many of
which have an enormous circulation throughout the
country. We are now looking merely at the intellectual
influence of this extension of knowledge, and in connec
tion with it there has to be borne in mind the fact that
every Lord's day, and on many other occasions, there
are nearly 300,000 teachers, of various grades of intel
lectual acquirement, in close intercourse with above
3,000,000 of the young people of our land. It is not
surprising, under these circumstances, to find a great
improvement in the intellectual character of our people,
and that it has been thought right to extend largely the
enjoyment of political privileges.

Nor is the change less strikingly marked in the moral
character of the nation. Look at the manners of our
court, study the habits of our nobility and aristocracy,
and what a striking contrast do they present to those of
former days ! And if we descend to the lower classes,
where are the bull-baitings, the cock-fightings, and the
coarse and brutal practices of bygone years ? If they

occur, they are heard of with general surprise and
disgust. A few years since, in a provincial town, some
public event led to the appointment of a general holiday.
Many entertainments were provided, and amongst others
some of the old-fashioned vulgar sports were intended
for the working classes. They, however, met, and passed
resolutions, denouncing in strong terms the mistaken
kindness of those who, under the idea of promoting
the comfort of their fellow-countrymen, were offering an
insult to their understandings by a supposition that such
coarse amusements could be acceptable to them. There
is, doubtless, much evil in this respect yet to be removed,
but there is always a tendency to magnify present evils,
and think lightly of present mercies. Each advocate
for reformatory measures naturally draws a dark picture
of the evil against which he is striving, and thus unin
tentionally produces an incorrect impression. We were
struck some years since by the remark of an American
friend who had been some time in London, that he had
that day seen for the first time* a drunken man; and it
is certain that there is in this respect a great and increas
ing improvement in the habits of the nation; and we
fear not to attribute the improvement of the morals of
the people to those influences which have been directly
and indirectly brought to bear upon them through the
Sunday schools of our land.

If there should be any disposed to" think that we have
attributed too much influence to Sunday schools in con
nection with the intellectual and moral condition of
England, we believe that even they will be ready to
admit this influence to its full extent in relation to

OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

163

its religious condition. What a delightful contrast do
the present times present in this respect to those of
former days ! We see the clergy of the Church of
England labouring diligently to provide for the religious
instruction of the people, while the various bodies of
Nonconformists are running a not unequal race. Some
collisions are perhaps inevitable ; but, on the whole, the
result is good, for the religious instruction of the people
is cared for to an extent which neither of these parties
could alone have accomplished. It is well to remember
the statement of Dr. Paley, an eminent dignitary of the
English Church, on the subject of differences of religious
opinion. He says — "They promote discussion and
knowledge. They help to keep up an attention to
religious subjects, and a concern about them, which
might be apt to die away in the calm and silence of
universal agreement. I do not know that it is in any
degree true that the influence of religion is the greatest
where there are the fewest Dissenters." When we look
at the number of buildings erected during the present
century for public worship, the yearly increasing list of
godly and studious ministers, the congregations of faithful
men by whom those buildings are occupied, and where
those ministers preach the gospel, and in connection with
which such a variety of Christian influences are being
continually sent forth, our hearts cannot but be filled
with gratitude and joy.

Lord Mahon records that the Lord-Lieutenant, and
for very many former years the representative in Parlia
ment of one of the midland shires, had told him that
when he came of age there were only two landed

THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,

gentlemen of his county who had family prayers ; whilst
at present, as he believed, there were scarcely two that
have not. Nor can we forget that it was the Sunday
school which stirred up this concern for the religious
condition of the people — that many of those congrega
tions and places of religious worship have originated
with the Sunday school — that vast numbers of the
ministers who there labour, as well as of the most
successful missionaries who have gone forth amongst the
heathen, have received their religious impressions and
acquired their aptitude for public instruction in these
institutions— and, finally, that an increasing conviction
rests in the minds of thoughtful Christian men, that
whatsoever influence the instruction of the day school
may have on the intellectual and moral condition of
the people, it is to our Sunday schools we must
look for that sound scriptural instruction which, while it
strengthens the mind, enlarges the intellectual, and
purifies the moral faculties, will, at the same time, renew
and sanctify the soul, and prepare it for a land of purity
and of never-ending happiness, where the great work of
redemption by Jesus Christ shall be completed, and God
shall be All in all.

INDEX.

PAGE

loucester .,
Adult Schools — formation of the Bristol Society

Adey, Rev. John — revived Sunday schools in Gloucester . . • 34

83
Formation of a society in Southwark

Establishment of adult schools at Philadelphia . . . . . 9

Alleine, Rev. Joseph — gathered young persons for religious instruc

tion en the Lord's day, 1688 . . . . . . . . , 6

American Sunday Schools — introduction of the Sunday school into

America . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . 80

American Sunday School Union — its formation and rules . . 126-128

Its progress 129

Antigua — grant made by Sunday School Union to schools in that

island .. ,. .. .. .. .. .. . . 8l

The effect of religious instruction there . . . . . . . . 82

Ball, Miss, of High Wycombe — gathered young persons for religious

instruction on the Lord's day, 1769 . . . , . . . . 6
Sell, Rev. Dr. Andrew — his efforts in behalf of popular education 39
Bethunc, Divie — opened Sunday schools at New York . . . , 8 1
Borromeo, St. Charles, Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan — originator

of Sunday schools . . . . . , . . . . ... 4

British and Foreign Bible Society — its formation .. .. ..67

British and Foreign School Society . , . . . . , . . . 38

Brougham, Mr, (now Lord) — his estimate of Sunday schools . , 123
Bunting, Rev. Dr. — his sermon to the members of the Sunday

School Union , . . . . . . , . . . , 78

Biirder, Rev. John — his sermon to the members of the Sunday

School Union . . , . . , . . . , , . 77

Butter-worth^ Joseph — Treasurer and President of the Sunday School

Union . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . 89

His evidence before the Mendicity Committee of the House of

Commons 107

Charles, Rev, Tliomas — his efforts to establish Sunday schools in

Wales 59-64

His desire to provide Bibles for the scholars . . . . 64-66

Cranfield, Thomas — his history. Establishes Sunday schools at
Kingsland, Stoke-Newington, Hornsey, Rotherhithe, Totten
ham, Kent-street, and The Mint, Southwark . . 45-50

Edinburgh Gratis Sabbath School Society — its formation . . . . 53

Eldon, Lord — his examination at Oxford, 17/0 .. .. .. 9

The habits of the University . . . . . . . . 1 1

Female Sunday School Union — established at New York, by Mrs.

Divie Bethune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

First Day or Sunday School Society at Philadelphia . . . , , . 81

166 INDEX.

PAGE
Foster •, John — on general education .. ., .. .. ..116

His comments on Mr. Brougham's plan , . . . . . . . 121

Fox, William — his correspondence with Mr. Raikes . . 28

His formation of the Sunday School Society . . . . . . 30

His death .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 131

French Sunday Schools — one opened at Bordeaux, 1815 . . .. 103

One opened in Paris, 1823 . . . . . . . . . , . . 103

Formation of Society for the Encouragement of Protestant Sunday

Schools . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . , 103

Paris Sunday School Society, 1852.. .. ., ,. .. 104

Ga ming in England in the last century 12

General Education — efforts of Mr, (now Lord) Brougham to

promote it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

The plans brought forward by him in 1820 118

Objections and opposition to it . . . . . . . . 120-124

Gibbon, Edward — his statement as to the condition of Oxford

University , . . 9

Greek Sunday Schools— efforts to establish them . . . . . . 130

Gurney, William Brodie — his history.. .. .. .. 69-72

Becomes Secretary of Sunday school at Walworth, with voluntary

teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Commences the Sunday school in Maze Pond, Southwark , . 73
Forms the Sunday School Union and becomes its first secretary. . 75

Hanway, Jonas— one of the founders of the Sunday School Society 30
Harrison, Miss, of Bedale — gathered young persons for religious

instruction on the Lord's day, 1765 . . . . . . . . 6

Hibernian Sunday School Society — its formation . . . . . . 90

Highway Robbery in England in the last century . . . . . . 14.

Hill, Rev. Rowland — promotes the formation of the Religious

Tract Society 41

His previous history 43

Opens the first Sunday school in London 45

His death . . . . 144, 145

Hoare, Samuel — Treasurer of Sunday School Society . . 30

Hughes, Rev. Joseph— first Secretary of the Religious Tract Society 42
And one of the first secretaries of the British and Foreign

Bible Society .. .. 68

Infant Schools — their commencement by Emmanuel de Fellenberg

and Robert Owen 134

Establishment of one at Westminster by Mr. Brougham and

others 135

In Spitalfields, by Mr. Joseph Wilson, under the mastership of

Samuel Wilderspin . . . . 136

Conference of the Sunday School Union as to the introduction
of infants into Sunday Schools — Mr. Wilderspin's address

at the Conference 139-142

His death 142

Prize Essay on " The Infant Class in the Sunday school " . . 143
The introduction of " The Letter Box " into the Infant Class . . 145

JSDSX,

PAGE

Johnson , Dr. — his outset at Pembroke College, Oxford . . . . 9
Jubilee of Sunday Schools — suggested by Mr. James Montgomery 152
Arrangements recommended by Sunday School Union .. . . 153
Scholars' and teachers' meetings in London . . . . 154-157
Its celebration at Halifax, and the repetitions of that celebra
tion IS7-I59

Juvenile Benevolent Society — its objects and plans . . . . 1 10-1 12
Juvenile Religious Literature — publication of a Penny Magazine

for Children . , ,,114

Knox> Dr. Vicesimus — his testimony as to the mode of obtaining

degrees at Oxford , . . . . , . , . . . . 9

Lancaster, Joseph — his commencement of popular education in

England .. .. ., .. .. .. ., • • 37

His troubles and death .. .. ., .. ., ..38

Lindsey, Tfuophilus, of Catterick, gathered young persons for

religious instruction on the Lord's day, 1 763 . . . . . , 6
London — comparison of number of houses in which intoxicating

liquors were sold in 1736 and 1835 •• •• •• II, 12

Lord Mahon—\i\s, representation of life and manners in the age

immediately preceding the introduction of Sunday schools. . 16
Hit testimony as to the influence of Sunday schools . . . . 17

More, Hannah — her account of the inhabitants of Cheddar . . 17

Morison, Rn>. John — his efforts to establish Sunday schools in

Scotland . . . . . . . . . , . . . . • • 54

National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the

Principles of the Established Church . . . . . . . . 40

New York Sunday School Union — established 1816.. .. ..102

Nisbet, James — one of the founders of the Sunday School Union 75, 76

j Robert — circumstances leading him to establish Sunday

schools 18

His letter to Colonel Townley 20

Rebuke received by him from a Quaker lady . . .21

His letter to Mrs. Harris .. .. .. . . .21

His treatment of a stubborn girl . . . . . . .25

His testimony as to the result of his efforts . . .26

His letter to the Rer. Mr. Bowen Thickens . . .27

His communication to Mr. William Fox . . . . .29

His death and burial . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 33

Religious Indifference in England in the last century . . . . 15, 16

Religious Tract Society — its formation .. .. .. .. ..41

Richmond, Rez>. Legh — his address at first public meeting of Sunday

School Union . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 95

Senior Classes in Sunday Schools — first suggested by the teachers in

America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Recommended by the Sunday School Union . . . . 149-151

168

PAGE

Simpson, Rev. David — founded the Macclesfield School, 1778 .. 7
Southicark Sunday School Society — its formation . . . . . . 51

Statistics of General Education in 1818 . . . . . . ..112

Stock, Rev. Mr. — his statement as to the origination of Sunday

schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . 24

Stockport School — formation and rules .. .. .. ., . . 31

Sunday Schools — their introduction into Scotland — opposition of

civil and ecclesiastical authorities 55-58

Their introduction into Ireland by the Rev. Dr. Kennedy . . 85
The Bright school — Thomas Chambers, one of the first scholars 86
Resolution of Methodist Conference, in 1805, in favour of Sunday

schools 88

Sunday School Society for Ireland — succeeded the Hibernian Sunday
School Society . . . . . . . . . .

Sunday School Union — its formation, 1803 .. .. .. ..75

Its first public meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Establishment of a Depository .. .. .. .. ..113

Employment of a Missionary .. .. .. .. .. 132

Thompson, Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Thornton, Henry — one of the founders of the Sunday School Society 30

Voluntary Teachers in Sunday Schools — their substitution for hired

teachers .. ., 30,31,72

YoutKs Magazine— its commencement « 77

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