The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-02-24 00:00:00

CHURCH OF ENGLAND SUNDAY SCHOOL

INSTITUT&

The Weymouth rurklecanal brenoh of thie Institute
was Inaugurated on Thursday haat, when a special
choral perste* was perform ,t 1 at Trinity Church by
Heys. V. F. Ransoms and C. Drultt. The Rev. T. I'.
Perowne, of Stalbri.ige, preached from Matthew trill.,
10in and following v,rees.

After ber.me aa was 'taken In one of the Trirlty
echo droorns. and followiog this, • public, meeting wu
held to another sooolroom, plealded over by the Rev.
'l'. Baker, rural dean, who told the history of establish-
Irtc this branch, he principal mover being Mr. G. I.
E., ,t.

Tito Rev. AEI'RUB HILL then read a very able and
interesting paper on "The Importapoe of Sunday
Bohool Instruction, considered with referdice to the
R'itleNtiODAl Tendencies of the day." In th • course of
Ole the writer said Sunday Sehool instruction and
religkus instruetion were convertible terms. The
ot j..cit of the Sunday school was to gather together the
children of a parish or district for the purpose of !n-
-itro°, in in things concerning their duty to Gad, their
ce iehhour, arid themselves. Filing short of this there
would assuredly be • @scalar it armee overhangiug all
said and done. Elneatioo, as they must .11 arlioit, wee
elm ni id to their pismire and prosperity as a gr at nation,
but this should be conducted on the principles and la
the Spirit of their Divine religion, and that was the I
work contemplated by Sunday schools. It might be
safely said that la years hack very many of the
children of the labouring class 'depended upon Sunday
schools for whatever religious Instruction they received ;
hut eh.t, he asked, must be its increasing importance
when they wero now compelled to contem elate the ,
rapid and, alas, too ancoeseful strides made by the
advocates of secidarising all education in the elementary
tohools of the laud It was impossible to view with
abything short of alarm what had already been done,
and what it appeared to him was further oohtemplated.
The tendencies of the age were undoubtedly towards
secular:ern and unbelief, and to oppose these tendencies
and cultivate a growth of godly veneration and deep
religious couselentlousness in themselves and others
was the solemn necemity laid upon them. Since,
therefore, lat. legislation tended to secularise society
end to withhold the teaching of religion, in this
difficulty Sunday schools must become of more mealiest
value. The mluister and true members of the Ceureh
were finding blessed opportunities of inculcating what
the politician feels he cannot recognise and the no.
believer deliberately ignores. The Sunday school must
become the garden where the futore Ire. s of righteous-
ness must be cultivated and raised, when the youog
me nob, re were to be trained up for future usefulness at d
to the salvation ef their own souls. It was impossible
to do-e their eyes to the mournful truth that there were
sal sod dangerous tendencies lathe present days. From
odd sourer or another bad arisen ict their minds the
conviction that the freedom of religious instruction
In their week schools mast be cortalird, and with too
0131:11t rOll. a clam that it must be altogether expelled.
Whou he found that permissive suppression of religiose
truth had been adopted to the fullest extent in one of
tie moat deportatit and IpfluentiM towns in this king.
dein (Itiruitegham), and • resolution passed by the
E luoation Baud there that any person proposing to
give religious instruction in any bo.rd school should be
tequired to pay to the Board • rent for the tis.) of tie
budding proportion•te to the cumber of children to
whom the religious instruction is give,, ant that II s
time occupied should be °enacted to three quarters of
an hour twice an week—wboa they knee that in
large number of schools religious instruction given by
masters and mlstreeles bad altogether cowed—he
thought, indeed, they had fallen on evil timer, and the
question premed upon them with overwhelming furor
—What were they to do to meet and check the evil!
At enure length the speaker proceeded to show this
Gould only be done through Sunday school agency, but
add more uelon was wanted among the teachers, lie
afterwards said that in the midst of much they had to
lametit there was one good result to be hoped I r with
referenoe to the worktog of the Educate° Act, e v.n
though .11 bible reading and red./tow instruction might
be abut out, and which be trusted would lead to an
• inn eased demand on their Sunday schools. The
practise p evaded acme years ago of teaching the tint
e'ements of reading in Sunday schools. This was a
heavy drag upon the energies of the teacher, and often
made the Sunday who ii distasteful to the learner. It
was then a n.oessity, but it was now 01111 which woeld
rapi-ily die out, and the day and Sunday school would
feed each other. After some further remerke the
▪ r 'bid that they lived in very stirring
Too wave, of change often rolled in with much
?iodine.% and there was a tencleaey to remove ateirut
landmarks. The most effectual way to cheek this evil
and render all such attempt" nugatory weed' b. to
prayerfully educate the young in the pure principles of
the 0 repel, for which the Church was so great". oitnee
They mi4ht do all this without bigotry mei withoat
tinkle Incas, but not without meeting many &Made's'
---,dill :were., however, which the great Head of the
Mime would enable them to overcome. A. a mazes
of .tiring up an merest in this haeort•Get work, end
under blessing, forward It to a anoomerul issue,
he r. j deed IN the esteblishorent of this Sends, School
Ineritute. It opened rip a bright and el, Asset pros-
pect. 'rhe j ,orney was not henceforth to be taken
alone. Thu isolation which had so long esi tod among
thorn who should ever call themselvee brettcen, and
who had cedes.w ured in their various 'spheres to pro-
mote the eau.° of Scriptural education, to longer
exbdel. As labourer, they were te toil on the
sane vineyard; as brethren to draw neater le the
bonds of unity ; to assist and encourage, to Melte and
strengthen and to bless each other, They exoected
within the tunbraire of this institute the ochry of faith
and love, the loyalty of true Christian heart., the
devotion of these who knew the price at which they
had boon redeemed the burning aril of those to whord
sionseienoes the words of the Redeemer had come with
power, " Feed My lambs." Theis they expeotal, and
there they were sere to find in the company of those
who teeth the heart bed received "One Lord, one faith,
one heptism"—(or
A discussion followed, In which the Rev. E. Headland,
Mr. George Eliot, and the Rev. J. Stephenson took a
brighter view of he question than Mr. Gill.
Mr. HEADLAND said the advocates of Realm edema.
Mon had been beaten every•here at the general eleo-
Mon, and many Liberal members, Including those for
this borough acid the twenty, were in favour of chiliren
receiving religious instruction. Birmingham woo the
only melancholy exeeption, and they had no reason to
despond.
Mr. Ommeole ELIOT sould hardlT think that the nation
which had done so mach for the propagation of the
gospel would &salient to have it removed from the
elementary "shoal. But shouli it so decide, Sunday
Jerboas would be found miserably inadevate, tb,y
',mild no more teach the whole oourse of religious
education than a ld-horee engine could drag a !voice
hr-in. Still they were culled on to inertias., the
efaciency of Sunday schools, ant this had been com-
menced by the Sunday School Inathete in London, of
which the school represented at that meeting formed
an affiliated branch.
The Rev. J. bTSPIHNBOV, did not think there was
°atm for Mum It the E lueetion Act, which he b,lieved
to have b en honestly framed to do goof and not check
religions instruction. He did not And himself hindered
in givieg r Ingocs Instruction In his school. But the
Sunday schools can never tilts the plate of the day
wheels, and if ever the dark day should come when
the elementary clay schools were entirely etroululsed,
then relieion would fall.
The It,. T. T. YonomNe said that after many
years' experience both of Sunday and day echools, be
was convinced the religious Instruction e,f the nation
cannot be fully egmemplished by the Sunday school'
alone. Hs bed • hearty interest and sympathy in this
'movement, and considered it a great privilege and
honour to take a part. He hoped there would be more
union among Sunday 'school teachers and witted them
God speed.
The Rev. T. S. BAIZE said en far se lie could ascer-
tain there had been no diminution of religioise ednue•
ton in his rural deanery ; on the whole it was in •
most satisfactory state.
The meeting was °kited with singing and the Bons-
Motion.