The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-03 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER:

the effects of which we see to-day in a vast system of
schools extending over the whole Christian world. In
the United Kingdom alone the number of Sunday
scholars is estimated to exceed three millions and the
number of teachers 300,000. The idea of gratuitous
teaching is said to have originated with a Wesleyan,
who, discussing with his friends the embarrassing
question of ways and means, suddenly exclaimed,
'Let us do the work ourselves.' However this may
be, gratuitous teaching, which Wesley speaks of as
early as 1785, appears by the year 1810 to have
become pretty general. Raikes lived to see the new
order of things. He died in 1811 at the age of
76
"It is a curious coa.inentary on the customs of the
time that Raikes, in addition to his labours as a philan-
thropist and a nev.-spa9er editor, should have acted as
agent for the sale of ihll sorts of patent medicines.
The fact has never hitherto been stated in connexion
with his life, but it is proved by the pages of
his own journal, which has maintained an un-
interrupted existence from that time till the present.
The present proprietors of the paper, to mark the
occasion, have isssued a fac-simile of the number of
the Glocester Journal containing the first editorial
allusion by Raikes to the great movement he had
begun. It is dated November 3, 1783, and as a speci-
men of typography alone is very quaint and curious.
The advertisement columns of this number teem with
announcements of the wonderful virtues of pills,
tinctures, and ointments' all of whith are 'sold by R.
Raikes.' One preparation is recommended as an
infallible 'cure for the bite of a mad dog.' About his
own work Raikes is very modest. He makes no men-
tion of himself, and does not in any way attempt to
take credit for his share in the movement, although at
that date it was assuming considerable proportions.
Lord Shafesbury arrived on Monday afternoon from
London,' and was formally welcomed at the railway
station by the Mayor and several members of the
Corporation. He went to the Deanery as the guest of
the Dean, and there received a deputation from the
executive committee, who presented him with an ad-
dress. At the special service in the Cathedral in the
evening, the bishop preached on the subject of Sunday
schools, identifying himself 'neither with the
Raikes nor with the Stock parties, but
ascribing the commencement of the work to
'a good layman aid a good clergyman of this
city, who were eaFtegially moved at the prevalence
of profane language ccLe.„,.viig the young on Sundays.
The working of the Sunday-school system he criticized
pretty freely. Sunday-school teaching he held to be
too vague in its character and wholly insufficient to
sustain the stress of unbelief, and it consequently
failed to serve to the extent it ought to do the purposes
of the Church. He trusted that as the result of the
conferences about to be held some clearer and more
distinctive system of teaching would be adopted.

The model of the statue of Robert Raikes, which it
is purposed to place in Gloucester Cathedral, was un-
veiled on Tuesday afternoon in the Shire Hall, at
Gloucester, by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who was
escorted to the hall by the Bishop, the Mayor and
Corporation, and others. The audience numbered
about 3,000 persons, including many of the principal
inhabitants of the county. After the statue had been
uncovered, Lord Shaftesbury said it was proposed to
place it in the cathedral, opposite to that of Dr.
Jenner, also a native of Gloucestershire. The Bishop
also gave an address, and he was followed by Mr.
Cecil Raikest who spoke with pride of his kinship with,
and his admiration for, the labours of his illustrious
ancestor.

In London the Sunday School Centenary Services were
continued on Monday by a meeting held at the Guildhall,
under the presidency of the Lord Mayor. A resolution
acknowledging the benefits which have accrued from the
establishment of Sunday Schools, was moved by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, which was as follows That this
meeting, inspired with feelings of profound thankfulness to
Almighty God for the blessings vouchsafed to Sunday schools
during the past hundred ygars, desires on the occasion of this
centenary to acknowledge the benefits which have accrued
from their establishment to the whole of Christendom."
His Grace remarked that no more fitting place could have
been found for such a celebration, and no time, perhaps,
was more appropriate than the busiest time of a busy week-
day, when men were occupied with a thousand worldly
cares. They showed that in the midst of wordly business
and prosperity they did not forget the great work which
the Lord had given them to
_perform in training little
children to the knowledge of His Gospel and placing in
their hands that Book which it was the glory of our country
to make the rule of our lives. (Cheers.) The movement
begun at Gloucester 100 years ago had spread throughout
Christendom. Ever since the Reformation the Church of
England and all the various communities which had
separated themselves from the Church of Rome had felt
that it was their great duty to place the Word of God in
the hands of all people, and to train up children accord-
ing to the precepts in that Book. This movement had ex-
tended even to the Church of Rome, and to this day in one
of the principle churches of Milan there were to be seen
gatherings of Sunday-school children and teachers who
were carrying on the work inaugurated generations since.
Thousands of Christian people, whose names had long since
been forgotten, had engaged quietly in this Christian work,
and it would indeed have been strange if, when the Lord
had said so distinctly, "Stiffer little children to come unto
Me, and forbid them not," any of His disciples, in any period
of the Church's history, should have been insensible to the
great duty of training the young in the knowledge of the
Gospel. His Grace paid a warm tribute to the labours of
Lord Shaftesbury, and then passed on to urge the need of
unity among Christians in the face of dark clouds upon the
horizon, in order that they might maintain their common
Christianity. He trusted that in the union on such great
work as that of Sunday schools the comparatively unimport-
ant divisions existing would disappear.
Sir Charles Reed, 31. P., Chairman of the Sunday School
Union, in rising to second the resolution, said that he had
been for nearly fifty years actively engaged in Sunday-school
work. Standing in the centre of the City of London and in
the presence of its Chief- Magistrate, lie could not but
contrast the present state of the metropolis with that a
century Iwo. In June, 1780, London was in the hands of a
fierce and lawless mob, iecendiary fires were burning in
every direction, the trained bands were called out, the
military were quartered in St. Paul's Cathedral, the Lord
Mayor was summoned to the Council, and on the Mansion.
house was posted a Royal proclamation respecting " out-
rages committed by band of desperate and abandoned
men in various parts of this metropolis." The whole
kingdom in 1780 was in much the same state • men's hearts
failed them for fear, and the nation was declared to be
" on the brink of ruin." Ministers of State and Judges
deplored the great delinquency of the times, and notably
Judge Garrow, charging the grand jury at GlOcester,
spoke ih urgent terms of the enormous increase of capital
crimes and the universal depravity of the people. Of
this period Lord Mahon said, "Throughout England the
education of the labouring classes was most grievously
neglected ;" and then he bore the following honourable
testimony :—" Among the principal means which under
Providence tended to a better spirit in the coming age may
be ranked the system of Sunday schools, in the institution
of which the main praise belongs to Robert Raikes." That
event, unimportant at the time, was now celebrated by
them with grateful enthusiasm. but how humbly Raikes
thought of bis work must be seen when he said, It is a
harmless attempt if it is productive of no good, and it is
intended to check the deplorable profanation of the Sab-
bath day." The twenty children and one teacher of the
first school of Raikes were represented that day by four
millions and a half of children in the United Kingdom, by
six millions and a half in the United States, and by a
grand total in all nations of at least twelve millions of
scholars under Christian instruction every Sunday by a
million and a quarter of voluntary religious teachers. It was
not too much to say that to this was mainly due the fortitide,
forbearance, and law-abiding spirit of the people in times of
trial and popular distress. Though no appeal was mads,f:r
funds, it was hoped that the merchant princes of London
would respond to a call for at least 425,000 for a loan fund
to aid the extension and improvement of Sunday schools.
The Earl of Aberdeen supported the motion, and the Rev.
Dr. Vincent, of New York, addressed the assemblage.

The resolution was carried, as was also a resofti uon in-
viting all Christians to make the present opportunity an
occasion for prayerful effort in regard to the further develop-
ment and progress of Sunday schools.

The Sunday Schccd Union gathering was held in the
Memorial-hall, Farrmgdon-street, when various papers
were read. The inaugural service of the Church of Eng-
land celebration was at St. Paul's Cathedral.

• In continuation of the Sunday School Centenary celebra-
tion, the Conference of the Sunday School Union reassem-
bled at the Memorial Hall on Tuesday, when the subject of
discussion was the position cind prospects of Sunday Schools
on the Continent.—In the evening a representative meet-
ing of Church Sunday Schools was held in the large room
of Exeter Hall, the Bishop of St. Albans presiding. Amongst
the speakers were the Bishops of Meath and Tasmania,
Lord Justice Thesiger, Lord Mount-Temple, Canon Barry,
the Rev. IV. Boyd Carpenter, and the Rev. Eugene Stock.

The Times (in a leader) observes that -England is now cele-
brating a very genuine and remarkable centenary. With
all the explanations, deductions, and qualifications that can
be made, the introduction of Sunday schools is an event of
epochal character, fully justifying the zeal and unanimity of
the present commemoration. The Sunday school has proved
the parent f the week-day school, now represented by three
millions in the annual expenditure of the nation, and by a
thriving institution, if not also by a warm controversy in
every parish in the kingdom. So essential is the public
elementary school now held to the well-being of the people
that the wonder is how they ever got on without it, what
they did to keep up the light of learning and religion, and
what sort of a country it was that punished poverty with
ignorance and made knowledge the monopoly of .a few. To
a great and increasing part of the population Sunday is
becoming the day, the only day in the week, for religious
Instruction. There can be little doubt that the Sunday
school will have to be utilised to the very utmost; and, as
it is no longer necessary to waste a single minute of that day
in merely teaching to read, or in any other secular matter,
there is no reason why a great deal of religious work should
not be got through on that day.