SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIETIES 24 SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIETIES
In 18G5 tho London system, with some moditications, was brought to the attention of the American [niliUc by Kev. J. H. Vincent, then etUting a Smulay-school periodical in Chicago. The question was soon alter proposed by him in a Sunday-school institute, " Is it practicable to introduce a uniform system of lessons into all our schools'?" This question was earnestly and hopefully discussed in various ways for several years following ; until, at the National Convention at Indianapolis in 1872, it was answered in the artirmative by a large vote. When the project was agreeil to by representatives of the leading denominations in America, it was through friendly correspondence endorsed by the London Sun- day-school Union, and has since been in actual and ex- tensive use on both sides of the Atlantic. The inter- national use of systems of lessons, prepared by joint committees, has had a happy tendency to jiromote in- creased interest in scriptural study throughout the world. This mode of sinniltaneous study has been greatly popularized by the publication of notes and comments on the uniform lessons in hundreds of peri- odicals in various countries and in diflerent languages. At the present time, the system of international study seems to have won general favor throughout the Prot- estant world, and to have the promise of a long, if not permanent, continuance.
In ch)sing this article, it seems proper to say that it is in the Lhiited States that the greatest work has been done in the preparation and publication of Sun- day-school literature, although not without a great debt of obligation to English writers. Here Sunday- school circulating-libraries were first adopted as an es- sential auxiliary of Sunday-school effort. By this means, the iurtuences of the Sunday-school were pro- jected through the secular days of the week. In this country also, Sunday-school requisites and periodicals, combining both elegance and cheapness, have been pub- lished in the greatest profusion. The Sundav-school libraries of the LTnited States have, in fact, become so numerous and important as to have challenged and se- cured a partial enumeration in the official census of the government. The census of 1870 reported 33,580 libra- ries, and 8,34t),lo3 volumes in those libraries. This ag- gregate, large as it is, does not include the State of Con- necticut, and for other reasons is evidently far below the facts in the case at the present time. No other libraries are so widely diffused as those of Sunday- schools; they are not only found in cities, where most great libraries are estahlishcii, but in the remotest sec- tions and neighborhoods of the land, and everywhere they are free to all who by attendance on Sunday- schools become entitled to draw their books for them- selves or their friends. In so vast an aggregate of vol- umes, it would not be strange if there were some of an indifferent or even of a very objectionable character. But such would be only exceptions to the general rule that Sunday-school libraries furnish wholesome and at- tractive reading to millions of youths and children, many of whom, without them, would have no reading, or only that which is bad.
The most cursory view of the various agencies now in active operation as parts of the Sunday-schord enter- prise can hardly fail to impress any thoughtful mind with the moral grandeur of that enterprise as a whole. Especially will any true Christian that contemplates the feeble beginning of 1780, in comparison with the vast array of Sunday-school activities and agents at ■work in 1880, be led to exclaim, What hath Cod wrought through the instrumentality of those who have en- deavored to obey the command '• Feed mj' lambs !" When, moreover, he considers the glorious results of the Sunday-school efforts of the past hundred years, and the cumulative power of those that may be made in the centuries to come, he will see that the prob- lem of the world's conversion is in process of solution. (D. P. K.)
SUNDAY-SCHOOL Societies, Unions, etc. As-
sociated Christian effort may be designated as the ge- neric agency by which, under tlie divine blessing, the great results of tlie Sunday-school enterprise have been accomplished. Such effort has assumed two forms — 1, local; 2, general— each correspondent and supple- mentary to the other. Local associations, whether in neighborhoods or churches, have from the first been necessary as a means of raising the money to found, and of enlisting the teachers to instruct, Sunday-schools, (ieneral associations were also, from an early da}', seen to be important for the purj)ose of awakening public interest and of diffusing information both as to the necessity and the best means of instructing in religious truth. They have likewise had an important function to perform in prompting and gidding individual and local effort in the work of organizing and maintaining Sun- day-schools, becoming at the same time an important bond of union between great inimbers of schools not lo- cally comiected. General associations for these objects have assumed, somewhat interchangeably, the title of societies and unions, the latter predominating, appar- entlv, on account of its expressiveness of their charac- ter and objects. The most important of those estab- lished in England and America will now be enumerated in chronological order.
1. EiujUsh. — 1. In 1785 "The Society for Promoting Sunday-schools in the British Dominions" was organized in London. It was under the leadership of William Fox, who in various ways proved himself to be a true philan- thropist, but specially in his zeal, liberality, and personal efforts for the education and moral elevation of the low- er classes of his countrymen. This society, during the first sixteen years of its existence, paid out £4000 for the services of hired teachers in Sunday-schools. When, however, the plan of gratuitous teaching came to be uni- versally adopted, and Christians and churches became generally enlisted in promoting Sunday-schools from purely religious motives, the importance and influence of this society declined until it became extinct.