It is not to l3e supposed that results of the importance indicated in the foregoing sketch have naturally arisen from the spontaneous growth of Sunday-schools. On the other hand they are only to be attributed to the divine blessing upon the systematic and well-directed efforts of intelligent Sunday-school workers extending through successive years. In fact, a considerable por- tion of the second half century of Sunday-schools had passed away before it could be said that these schools were thoroughly popular with even the Christian pub- lic of America ; nor did they become so without great and continuous exertions on the part of enthusiastic friends of the cause. As one great agency for accom- plishing that result, Sunday - scliool conventions were appointed and held in various places and in a great variety of circumstances. There were conventions for cities and towns, for counties, for districts, for confer- ences, and for states. Some of them were managed by .single denominations and some by a union of all de- nominations. In these conventions, prominent Sunday- school workers came in contact with masses of people, answering objections, diffusing information, and stimu- lating zeal. Such gatherings gave an opportunity for the discussion of new methods, and became a great agency for the promotion of all real improvements in the organization and conduct of Sunday-schools even in the remotest sections of the land. In proportion as the Sunday-school idea became popular, and agitation in its behalf became unnecessary, conventions of Sun- day-school friends and workers began to take the form of institutes after the analogy of teachers' institutes de- signed to elevate the standard of secular instruction. For a long period the most that was thought possible to be done for the higher training and special instruc- tion of Sunday-school teachers, was sought to be ac- complished through superintendents' and pastors' Bible- classes. But at length it was found practicable, with no design of superseding the Bible-classes referred to, to secure many of their benefits on a more popular scale, coupled with the enthusiasm derived from the assem- bly of numbers of people interested in common objects. Hence at Sunday-school conventions and institutes, lect- ures were given on important topics, apparatus and new publications were exhibited and explained, and model and normal classes were taught and trained by skilled teachers. By these public proceedings, not only was the better classification and instruction of Sundaj^-schools promoted, but an esprit du corps was aroused among teachers; and in many schools normal departments were established for the special instruction and quali- fication of teachers.
The success of Sunday-school institutes and normal classes reacted upon the conventional idea and caused it to expand into that of Sunday-school assemblies, de-
signed to continue in session from one to three weeks at a time. In connection with the growing American hab- it of taking summer vacations and of gathering in masses at popular resorts, Sunday-school assemblies, under wise and energetic management, have speedily grown to be influential of great good and promissory of long con- tinuance. The Chautauqua Sunday-school Assembly, held on the borders of a beautiful lake in Western New York, under the presidency of Dr. John H. Vincent, may be considered at once the originator and model of vari- ous similar assemblies already held, and now said to be established for regular annual sessions in different parts of the United States ; e. g. at Clear Lake, la. ; Lake Bluff, 111. ; Loveland and Lakeside, O. ; the Thousand Island Park in the St. Lawrence Kiver; and at Round Lake, near Saratoga, N. Y. These assemblies are de- signed to do, for vast and widely separated sections of America, what was contemplated by the London Sun- day-school Union in the erection of a building at 56 Old Bailey, in the heart of London. In that building is a Sunday-school museum and a large hall in which courses of lectures are given, while in other rooms train- ing-classes are taught and competitive examinations held. While the centre of a million-peopled city af- fords some peculiar advantages for the objects above indicated, and specially in being accessible at all seascms of the year, yet the ample spaces and the romantic as- sociations of a beautiful American grove adapted to such uses leave nothing to be desired in view of the objects of the assembly and during the season allotted to it. Jlany of the constructions are somewhat rude, but the appointments are in excellent taste and con- stantly improving. Everything, however, is made sub- servient to the grand idea of intellectual and spiritual improvement, with specific reference to the promotion of Christ's kingdom upon earth through the agency of Christian instruction. No one can properly appreciate the importance and future bearing of the agencies now under notice without considering that each coming generation will require, in its turn, to be trained and fitted for the ever-expanding work of teaching all na- tions the truths of the Gospel.
It may here be remarked that Sunday-school con- ventions liave not been limited even to large states; in fact, they have been expanded so as to enlist national and even international representation. A World's Sun- day-school Convention met in London in 1862, and a German National Sunday-school Convention in Ham- burg in 1874. In the United States, in 1875, twenty- one Stale Sunday-school conventions were held, besides one of a national and one of an international character. The meeting of leading and delegated Sunday-school workers from different churches and nations has had a happy tendenc}' towards the promotion of practical Christian union on the largest scale. One of the best evidences of this may be instanced in the general adop- tion since 1872 of a system of international lessons for Bible study. Uniform schemes of simultaneous study had been previously adopted to a considerable extent, especially in Great Britain, where they had long been promoted by the London Sunday-school Union, but never officially accepted throughout the kingdom. As early as 1860 Mr. Orange Judd, editor of the American Agriculhtrist. originated a scheme of lessons having all the essential features of the present International Series — namely, a selection of about seven consecutive verses for each week, in historical order, from the several por- tions of Scripture. At his suggestion Dr. James Strong drew up such a scheme, which was printed in tabular form in the Agriculturist for February, 1862, and hun- dreds of thousands of copies of it were distributed and used in the Sundaj'- schools of various denominations throughout the United States. A similar plan was pub- lished in the same manner the following year, and in 1862 the first of four consecutive question-books, enti- tled Lessons for Every Sunday in the Year, was ]irepared under the same auspices, and published in New York.