PART I.

BEING AN ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN, DESIGN AND TEN, DENCY, OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETIES.

CHAPTER I.

RISE, PROGRESS AND IMPORTANCE, OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

THAT the Sabbath is a Divine institution, and one, too, of perpetual obligation, will not be denied by those who have made the Bible their study. And, that the Sabbath had an earlier origin than Judaism, is a truth which does not depend on doubtful inference. We have an explicit account of its being instituted immediately after the creation of the world. The inspired historian, having represented the great Creator as resting from his work on the seventh day, adds, "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all his work which God created and made." When, therefore, God sanctified the seventh day, He reserved it, set it apart for himself, to be spent in religious exercises; declaring, at the same time, that this mode of spending it should be made beneficial to mankind. Again: on tracing the personal history of our Savior, as recorded by the evangelists, he is seen regularly devoting the Sabbath to the exercises of religion, and assembling with the congregation at the public worship of God; and on examining those of his actions to which the Jews so seriously objected, it is evident they were performed, not with a view to weaken the Sabbath, but to vindicate it from those unauthorized additions with which it had been encumbered, by the corruptions of the Pharisees.

Once more:-In every age of Christianity, on this day the great Head of the Church has manifested His gracious presence in the sanctuary, making the religious ordinances there administered the source of instruction, and comfort, and encouragement to His people, and rendering His word "quick and powerful" in the awakening and turning of sinners from the error of their ways. On this day God has ever granted His people special blessings, and has signally furthered, and graciously prospered the endeavors of pious teachers and

heads of families to imbue the minds of their pupils, children and servants, with religious knowledge, and to bring them under the influence of Christian principles. And on this day, especially, the religious instructions of the Sabbath school teacher, have been, in different branches of the Christian church, signally owned of God: the seriously disposed youth has ever found them, on this day, peculiarly conducive to the furtherance of vital godliness. The divine blessing thus conferred on the Sabbath day, is a standing proof, is perpetual evidence so to speak, of the importance of continuing a system of Sabbath school instructions, not only in this, that, or the other branch of the church, but in all her branches.But more of this in the close of this chapter.

It has been ascertained that Sunday schools for the instruction of youth, were instituted, to some partial extent, in Germany, nearly a century ago. But the effective system now in operation, and which has proved to be a blessing to thousands, owes its origin to one whose name will be repeated with delight by thousands who are now laboring in the cause, and by generations yet to come. ROBERT RAIKES, of Gloucester, England, and a member of the High Church, commenced his operations in the year 1781. Having under his control at that time, a periodical, his views were made known through this channel, and copied into nearly all the London papers. He seems to have had two objects in view in his laudable undertaking. 1st. To prevent the children of the poor from spending the Sabbath in idleness, filth, and mischief. 2d. To instruct them in the first rudiments of learning and the Christian religion. The Rev. Richard Raikes, of the Church of England, and brother of the founder of Sunday schools, ardently seconded the efforts of his revered brother, soon after he commenced this labor of love.

The pious and excellent Dr. Horne, a Bishop of the same Church, was one of the first, if not the very first, to avow himself an advocate for Sunday schools from the pulpit.But I should be doing great injustice to the memory of that great and good man, JoHN WESLEY, not to say, that he was also among the first, and most ardent supporters of these schools. In the eighty-first year of his age, as may be seen in his Journal, he uses the following language: "Sunday, 18th July, 1784, I preached morning and afternoon, in Bingley church, before service I stepped into the Sunday school, which contains two hundred and forty children, taught every Sunday, by several masters. So, many children in one parish are restrained from open sin, and taught a little good man

ners, at least, as well as to read the Bible. I find these schools springing up wherever I go. Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein than men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for christians?" No sooner had Mr. Wesley heard of Mr. Raikes' plan, than he approved it, and published an account of it in the Arminian Magazine for January, 1785, and exhorted all the Methodist Societies to imitate this benevolent and laudable example. They immediately took his advice, and laboring, hardworking men and women, began to instruct the children of their neighbors, and go with them to the house of God on the Sabbath day. The consequence was, many thousands of those who had been rambling on the barren mountains of sin and folly, began to repay the christian labor bestowed upon them, by becoming useful members of society, and not a few of them continued to the day of their death, both to know and adorn the doctrines of the gospel of God their Savior. Charity sermons were soon preached throughout every part of England, in behalf of these schools, and considerable sums of money were raised for their support. The Sunday schools in those days, it will be recollected, were ordinary schools, only taught on Sunday, by hired masters. There were, so early as 1802, thirty thousand children instructed in Sabbath schools by the Methodists of England, on the Lord's day. The conductors of the Methodist Sunday schools in London, formed in 1802, a committee for corresponding with persons in the country, engaged in the same good work, with a view of extending and establishing Sunday schools on the plan of employing gratuitous teachers only, in the different parts of England. Thus, it will be seen, that the Methodists in this, as well as in all other matters of religion, have been the first to do business on the gratuitous plan. They distributed some hundreds of the proposed plans, and were very prosperous in their efforts. Others of the Episcopal, Independent, Presbyterian and Baptist denominations also engaged in this good work, and great and many have been the blessings attending the labor of that one man, Mr Raikes, and many will rise up, no doubt, in the great day of judgment, and call him bless

ed.

For the information of such as may not be apprized of the fact, I will just say, that Mrs. Bradburn, consort of Rev. Samuel Bradburn, of the British Wesleyan Connexion, first suggested to Mr. Raikes, the plan of instructing children in Sabbath schools. Commiserating the case of a large number of ragged children, Mr. Raikes and Mrs. Bradburn together,

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conducted the first company of Sunday scholars to the church, exposed to public laughter as they passed along the street with their unpromising charge. Thus, it will be seen, that Sunday schools, under God owe their origin to Methodism.

Then, in the year 1785, schools were originated in various places in the neighborhood of London, and as early as 1789, were introduced into Wales, Scotland and Ireland. About the same time they were commenced in America. The Presbyterians claim the honor of establishing the first Sabbath school, in the present form in the United States, in the city of Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, in 1809. But in this, our Presbyterian friends are wretchedly mistaken. They did, it is true, form a small "moral society" in that city, in 1809, which, on the first Sabbath of September in that year, was converted into a Sunday school; but this being so late as 1809, proves them to have been several years behind the news! Bishop White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and of the City of Philadelphia, was the first President, of the first organized Sabbath school in the United States; and if I am not greatly deceived, the Bishop still holds the same office to this day. The first Sunday school, put in operation in America, on the plan of volunteer teachers, was in Christ Church, Boston; and in this school alone, since its organization, upwards of 2000 children have been instructed. In the year 1811, a flourishing Sunday school was organized in the city of Philadelphia, under the auspices of the Rev. Robert May, a missionary from London, of the Church of England. In the year 1813, another Sunday school was organized by a benevolent gentleman in the city of Albany, and continued in existence for a considerable time. In the year 1814, and in the month of June, two benevolent ladies of the city of New York, opened a Sunday school for adults and children, in which it is said between eighty and ninety were collected and taught for some time. In the fall of this same year, a Sunday school of much promise, was established in Wilmington, in the little State of Delaware. In the

1815, and in the month of April, a Sunday school was commenced in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, and in a very short time the different branches belonging to this school, contained something upwards of five hundred schol

ars.

And in the year 1816, Sunday schools began to be generally introduced in all parts of our country. Some few years ago, the efforts of the different denominations, to promote Sabbath schools in the different sections of our coun