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SUNDAY-SCHOOLS 



which they were to receive one chilling each for 

 their day's service. In this work he was assisted 

 by the Rev. Thomas Stock, of St John's parish. 

 The children gathered into the first Sunday schools 

 ranged from six to twelve or fourteen years of age. 

 Personal cleanliness was the one rcquiiement. ' All 

 that I require,' said Raikes, 'are clean hands, clean 

 faces, anil their hair combed.' Owing to the total 

 ignorance of the scholars the teaching was of an 

 educational nature at first ; the little folks learned 

 their letters, and to spell and read. The schools 

 opened at 8 A.M., by 8.30 lessons were begun ; after- 

 wards the children went home, or to forenoon ser- 

 vice, and in the afternoon to school again at the 

 close of the church service till 5.30 P.M. Boys and 

 girls were separately taught, and once a numili 

 they were publicly catechised in church as to their 

 religious knowledge. In a short period a visible 

 improvement was effected in both the manners and 

 morals of the children. One employer of lalmur 

 said ' the change could not have been more extra- 

 ordinary had they been transformed from the shape 

 of wolves and tigers to that of men.' More than three 

 years after ite foundation the scheme was noticed 

 in Itaikes's Gloucester Journal ( November 3, 1783) ; 

 but it was a letter by Raikes, quoted in the Grut/r- 

 iiinn'ii MMMMM in 1784, which first drew general 

 attention to the subject. In 1784 the first Sunday- 

 school was established in London by the Rev. I low- 

 land Hill. Numerous schools sprang up in all the 

 principal towns, and a society under high patron- 

 age was formed in London in 1785 for the establish- 

 ment and support of Sunday schools throughout 

 the kingdom, which in fourteen years s|>ent 4000 

 in payment of teachers. By 1789 there were 

 already 300,000 scholars throughout the kingdom. 

 Hannah More (q.r.) started a school in 1789, and 

 Sydney Smith one at Netheravon. Adam Smith 

 wrote that 'no plan has promised to effect a change 

 of manners with equal ease and simplicity since 

 the days of the apostles ; ' and Cowper and John 

 Wesley likewise approved of the system. 



One great impediment to the early prosperity of 

 the Sunday-school was the expense of hiring so 

 many teachers. But several young men banded 

 themselves together to teach the childien gratui- 

 tously ; the example spread, and soon the teaching 

 was almost universally gratuitous. One authority 

 says gratis teaching l>egan at Oldham. A higher 

 class of teachers offered their services ; the schools 

 ceased to be filled by the very poorest alone ; hand- 

 some buildings were erected in connection with the 

 dilTerent churches ami chapels, or by general sub- 

 scription, and that system was organised which 

 has covered the land witli schools. The secular 

 teaching, which in certain instances included 

 writing and arithmetic, was not of a very high 

 order ; hut it placed the key of knowledge in the 

 hands of multitudes who would otherwise have 

 been unable to read, and the religious instruction 

 with which it was combined moulded the character 

 of some of the best men in England. 



Sunday-schools were introduced into Wales in 

 1789 by the Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala (one of the 

 founders of the Bible Society, q.v. ), ami were much 

 appreciated even by adult* -in one class at liangor 

 every pupil wore spectacles. The Sunday-school 

 was known in Scotland in 1756, but it was not till 

 1786, when the Society for Promoting Religious 

 Knowledge was formed, that it was publicly recog- 

 nised, nor till 1795, when the Gratis Sunday-Hclioo] 

 Society was originated, that schools Wame general. 

 At first they met with con-i.lerable opposition from 

 both the civil ami ecele-ia-iieal 'minorities. The 

 names of Dr Chalmers, .lames (jail, and David 

 Stowe deserve mention in connection with the 

 progress of Sunday -schools in Scotland. In Ireland 

 Sunday school* had been partially anticipated by 



Mr Kennedy, in County Down, in 1770 ; but it was- 

 not till 1785 that the system pursued by Kaikes 

 wa adopted. The Sunday-school Society for Ire- 

 land was established in 1809. Of the teaching it 

 may be said that good progress has l>een made 

 since the parsing of the Education Act, and it has 

 more of a scriptural natuie than formerly. 



In the United States, as in Cn-at Britain, there 

 \\cie isolated attempts at Sunday-school teaching 

 liefore the example of Raikes reduced it to a 

 system. The Methodist Bishop Asbury (q.v.) is 

 said to have planted the liist . \meiican Sunday 

 school in Hanover county, Virginia, in ITSii. The 

 Methodist Conference in 1790 resolved to establish 

 Sunday-schools for white and black children. A 

 Sunday-school I'nion was formed at Philadelphia 

 in 1791 which employed paid teachers; the New 

 York I'nion a< formed in 1810 ; and the American 

 Sunday school 1'nioii in IS'J), which sprang from 

 the Sunday and Adult School I'nion (1817). 

 During the first lifty-nine years of its existence 

 74,000 Sunday-schools were organised, with 466,000 

 teacher-- ami over 3,000,000 scholars. In missionary 

 work 565,000 had been spent, and 120,000 in 

 grants of books and pa|>ers. The Congregation- 



alists. Methodist Kpjscopalians. I'resby lelians, and 



Baptists have also organisations, ami now the 

 United States stands in the forefront ax regards 

 the excellence of buildings ami the vigour and 

 earnestness with which the work bos been prose- 

 cuted. I)r Vincent, one of the founders of Chau- 

 tauqua (q.v.), which sprang from a Sunday-school 

 Convention, deserves mention for the excellence of 

 his Sunday-school lessons. Along with Mr Jacobs 

 of Chicago he took the initiatory steps which led to 

 the publication of the International Series nt Lesions 

 (1873) now used on both sides of the Atlantic. 

 Sunday-schools were introduced into the \\C-t 

 Indies in 1810, into France in 1815, and about the 

 same time into Ceylon and at Serampore. The 

 Sunday-school is an invariable adjunct to the work 

 of the missionary. The Roman Catholics have 

 also numerous Sunday-schools. 



The establishment of the English Sunday -school 

 Union in 1803 gave a powerful impetus to the 

 extension of Sunday-schools through the agency of 

 ministers and churches, and the improvement of the 

 voluntary teachers engaged in the cause. Mission- 

 aries are supported on the Continent and elsewhere. 

 Lectures are delivered, there are travelling agents, 

 and a publication department which issued eight v 

 new books in 1890 and circulated over 10,000,000 

 of their serial publications. The catalogue of 

 books oll'ered for sale now contains 1500 volumes 

 suitable for libraries. It affiliated schools in 1890 

 numbered 6528, teachers 153,S.'>1, and scholars 

 1,501,729. The Church of England Sunday-school 

 Institute (1844) estimates tin- number of scholars 

 in Kngland and Wales connected with the Church 

 of Kngland as 2,220,000, with 195,500 teachers. 

 The Wesleyan Sunday-school Union dates tiom 

 1874, and in less than ten years had 800,000 

 scholars. A Sunday-school jubilee celebration was 

 held in 1831 ; the centenary was observed in 1880, 

 and a monument erected bearing the names of 

 Cardinal Borromeo, Thomas Stock, and Rolwrt 

 Raikes. 



In 1818 the Sunday scholars in England and 

 Wales numbered 477,225; in 1833, 1,548,890; and 

 in 1851, 2,407,642 ; Scotland at the same date 

 having 292,549, and Ireland 272,112. The mini- 

 Iwrs in America were 3,000,000. The report of the 

 International Convention of 1881 for the United 

 States gave 84,730 schools, 932,283 teachers, and 

 6,820,835 scholars. At the centenary celebration 

 of 1880 the total number of teachers in the world 

 was given as 1,425,233, and of scholars 12,107,312. 

 Mr F. J. Hartley, of the Sunday-school Union, 



