There are two methods of indicating the progressive advance and the actual results of Sunday-schools. The one is by general statements, and the other by the com- parative showing of such numerical statistics as may be found trustworthy. As neitlier of these modes is fully adequate, both will here be cmploj-ed to a limited extent, in order that they may as far as possible supplement each other. Within the last fifty years Sunday-schools have come to be regarded as an essential branch of Church action, not merely in England and America,
but throughout the Protestant worhi, whether in home or mission fields. They have also been adopted bj^ Ro- man Catholics and Jews in Protestant countries. Not to speak of the infinence of Sunday-schools in tlie last- named bodies, it is safe to say that the great majority of all the ministers, missionaries, and communicants of all the Protestant churches of the world are at this time the alumni of Sunday-schools, and, as such, their active friends and supporters. Tlie recognised necessities of these schools have given rise to important changes in church architecture, by which nearly every church is provided with accommodations for the instruction of the young in graded classes, ranging from infancy up- wards. The}' have called into existence not only an extensive literature, but also a varied psalmody, con- templating the special tastes and wants of the young. While in England they have been chiefiy limited to the poorer and middle classes of the people, in the United States they have claimed, and in fact assumed, a rela- tion to public (week-day) schools corresponding to that which the Sabbath holds to the secular days of the week. In this relation they seek to supplement public and general education with the moral and religious in- fluences of Christianity. In this view, they secure the attendance of scholars from the higher as well as lower classes of the community, and enlist for their instruc- tion a quality of talent and an amount of effort which money could never hire.
In passing from general though significant state- ments like these to such showings as may be made iu figures, it seems necessary to explain that Sunday- school statistics, as minute and comprehensive as are now seen to be desirable, are very difficult to obtain on a large scale. Only in rare instances have govern- ments been interested to collect them, and compara- tively few of the promoters of Sunday-schools have so far recognised their importance as to take the requisite steps for securing tliem. Consequently, up to the pres- ent time, there has not been a uniformity of method and the extent of co-operation necessary to making up comprehensive exhibits of numbers and results. The most, therefore, that has been up to this time possible in the way of such exhibits has been to form estimates based upon accurate statistics taken within certain dis- tricts or churches, and extending the pro rata outward. About the middle of the 19th century an effort was made in England, under government sanction, to ascer- tain the number and attendance of the Sunday-schools of that country. On a given Sunday (]March 30, 1851) the Sunday-schools of England and Wales were simul- taneously inspected; and there were found in 23,514 schools, 302,000 teachers and 2,280,000 scholars. The number of children enrolled as scholars was 2,407,409, or about three fifths of the number of children between the ages of five anil fifteen enumerated by the census taken within the same limits. A similar jiroportion of children in American Sundaj'-schools at the same pe- riod would have reached the number of 3,000,000. If to those aggregates the probable number of Sunday- schools in Scotland, Ireland, and other countries at the same date be added, it seems safe to believe that there were in Sunday-schools throughout the world, at the end of 1850, not less than (3,000,000 scholars. Similar estimates made at the end of another quarter of a cen- tury indicate that at the end of 1875 there were in oper- ation in all countries 110,000 Sunday-schools, embrac- ing 1,500,000 teachers and 10,000,000 scholars. One statistician of some prominence has since estimated that there are in the United States alone not less than 81,858 Sunday-schools and 6,89().(596 scholars. On that basis the above aggregate for all countries might be enlarged. To illustrate the thoroughness with which Sunday-school statistics are taken by at least one of the American churches, and also the instructiveness of such statistics when taken through a series of j'ears, we subjoin the official summary of the iMethodist Episco- pal Church for the year 1878: Sunday-schools, 19,904;
SUNDAY-SCHOOL
23
SUNDAY-SCHOOL
Sunday-school officers and teachers, 212,442; scholars, 1,511,389; scholars over fifteen years of age, 493,704 ; scholars under fifteen and not in infant classes, 445,502 ; scholars in infant classes, 276,553; average attendance, 962,875; volumes in Sunday-school libraries, 1,911,263; annual expenses of the schools, |!516, 876.96; contribu- tions to the Sunday-school Union for establishing new and aiding poor schools, $82,968.27 ; officers and teachers who were communicants in the Church, 169,993 ; schol- ars who were communicants, 302,145; conversions in connection with the Sunday-schools, 77,644. The total membership of the Church at the same period was 1,688,783, or 35,000 less than the aggregate number of teachers and scholars in the Sunday-schools. A retro- spective comparison of the increase of members in the same Church from year to year shows a striking cor- respondence to the number of reported conversions in the Sunday-schools, To the extent that the above statistics may be considered representative of the con- dition and work of Scmday - schools in the American churches, they render superfluous any argument to prove the magnitude of that work and its auxiliary power for the promotion of Christian influence.