SUNDAY-SCHOOL
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SUNDAY-SCHOOL
ed to possess either the zeal or the ability of those who now engage in the work from motives of pure benevo- lence. Gratuitous instruction was an astonishing im- provement of the system, and which does not appear to have entered into the views of its benevolent author. ' If we were asked,' says a writer in the Suridai/scfiool Repository^ 'whose name stood next to that of Robert Raikes in the annals of Sunday-schools, we should say, the person who first came forwartl and voluntarily prof- fered his exertions, his time, and his talents to the in- struction of the young and the poor; since an imita- tion of his example has been the great cause of the present flourishing state of these institutions, and of all that future additional increase which may be reasonabl}' antici]iated.' "
While it maj' not be possible to fix upon any one per- son as having been the first to commence gratuitous ef- fort in the teaching of Sunday-schools, it is not difficult to determine, from the history of the times, who was probably more instrumental than any otlier man in establishing and diffusing the system of gratintous and Christian instruction in those schools. It was tiie Rev. John Wesley, who, for more than thirty j-ears prior to the first Sunday-school of Raikes, had been in the habit of assembling children in various parts of England for the purpose of religious instruction. It was he who, having recorded in his journal, July 18, 1784, that he found Sunday-schools springing up wherever he went, also recorded these memorable, if not prophetic, words: " Perhaps (lod may have a deeper end therein than men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians V" From that time forward notices of Sunday-schools were frequent in his journals. The following is a brief specimen . " July 27, 1787.— We went on to Bolton. Here are eight hundred poor children taught in our Sunday-schools, by about eighty masters, who receive no pay but what they are to receive from their great IMaster." This record cor- responds to the statement made in Myles's Iligtory of the People culled Methodists (Lond. 1803). Having referred to Sunday-schools as an excellent institution begun by Mr. Raikes, the author says, " Mr. W'esley no sooner heard of it than he approved of it. He published an account of it in the Arminian Magazine for January, 1785, and exhorted his societies to imitate this laudable example. They took his advice. Laboring, hard-work- ing men and women began to instruct their neighbors' children, and to go with them to the house of God on the Lord's day." Whatever was done by others, the Methodists, from the beginning, practiced only gratu- itous instruction in their Sunday-schools. By them the same institution and modes of instruction were simulta- neously introduced into the United States of America, under bishop Asbury, who sustained to the American Methodist societies a similar relation to that of Mr. Wesley in England.
As early as the year 1784 the following paragraph was incorporated in the Discipline of the Methodist Epis- copal Church :
" What shidl we do for the rising generalion ? Who will labor for them ? Let him who is zealous for God iind the souls of men begin now. 1. Wlieie there ;ne ten cliildieu whose parents are in society, meet them at leiist an honi' every week. '2. Talk with ihem every time von see any at home. 3. Pray in earnest for them. 4. Diliirently in- struct and vehemently exhort all parents at their own houses. 5. Preach expressly on education."
In sequence of this mandatory ride, addressed prima- rily to ministers, but involving the co-operation of the laity, Sunday-schools were established in many places. Of one of those schools a verj' definite and satisfactory record was made. It was taught in 178G, in Hanover County, Ya., at the house of Mr. Thomas Crenshaw, who, in 1827, forty-one years later, was a living witness of the fact, as was also the Rev. John Charleston, a minis- ter of thirty-nine years' service in the Church, who had been converted in that school (Bangs, f/isf. of the J/. E. Church). Further historic evidence of the early
adoption of organized Sunday-school effort by the Church referred to grew out, of the fact that persecu- tion arose on account of its endeavors to instruct the colored children of the South. In Charleston, S. C, the Rev. George Daughaday " was severely beaten on the head, and subsequently had water pumped on him from a public cistern, for the crime of conducting a Sabbath- sclidol for the benefit of the African children in that vi- cinity." Nevertheless, the Methodist Conference, which met in Charleston in February, 1790, resolved to con- tinue the work. Its minute on the subject wasinthese words :
" Qites. What can be done to instruct poor children, white and black, to read ?
''Ans. Let us labor, as the heart and soul of one man, to establish Sunday-schools in or near the place of pub- lic worship. Let persons be ajjpointed by the bishop, elders, deacons, or preachers, to teach <rrtiti.'< all that will attend, and have a capacity I o learn. . . ' The t'ouucil shall c(uui)ile a proper school-book to teach them learning and piety."
At the period of the origin of Sunday-schools the Jleth- odist Episcopal Church found one of its principal fields of action in the Southern States, being drawn thither by the great spiritual destitution of the iidiabitants. But it is easy to understand that, owing to the sparse- ness of the population and to other reasons, the condi- tion of that region was not favorable to the rapid de- velopment and permanent establishment of Sunday- schools. The same thing was, to some extent, true of the entire United States, owing to the general ex- haustion of the country following the war of the lle\o- lution and the unsettled condition of affairs in a newly organized government. Hence nearly or quite a quar- ter of a century passed by before Sunday-schools be- came common in either the Southern or Northern States.