The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-10-08

Delivered Before the M. f. Sunday
school at Spring Hill, by RObt. M.
Mckay, Oct. 3. 1873.

g
Mckay, Oct. B. 1870.
/ Ladies and gentiemen:-Permit me to first
. thank your good superintendent for the
/ kind invitation to address you at this hour
| shall claim your attention to some crude
I | thoughts on Sunday schools; and hope to
I | be able to speak of them in that way, which
j will make the subject interesting 10 you,
and, if possible, to increase the interest and
I; members in the one now assembled before
me. We desire first to notice the origin OF
sunday schools: 4 young Meth oS Sot wo,
Raikes the Organization of Sunday schools.
She and Raikes opened the first school at
Gloucester England, 1851. That was the f1rSt
school organized in England. Robert
| RatkeS is recognized the world over as the
founder OF Sunday schools. His schools We're
conducted like our day schools, except he
taught on Sunday. His object was to keep
cLildren out of the streets of London OF
sunday, where he knew they would fall in
to bad habits. Sunday schools are of recent
| origin in this state, within the last half
century in the city of Nashville, the eStab-
Church was hotly contested. What a great,
grand and glorious discovery was this
| Thousands had lived and died in whose
bosom God had planted the Divine com
| nand, bring your children up in the muture
and admonition of the LORD, but none be-
| fore formed the beautiful order into an organ
| IZatiOn. They have progressed until to-day
| they are almost innumerable, and almost
| cO-extensive with the human race. They
| are here, then and there almost everywhere,
| from pole to pole, from the great Atlantic
| to the great Pacific, from Greenland's icy
| mountains to Afrlca'S sunny fOun talnS, ana
| from the bright center of civilization TO the
| Lonely Indian, that hides himself from the
| light of civilization amid the solitude of his
| native woods. What is Sunday school?
| According to our theory, they are part OF
| the working machinery of the church, as
| much so as the prayer meeting, the weekly
| are the nursery of the church, where the
| children are prepared, trained and educa-
| Ueu LOT Ine cnurcn, anu part Oi the Gil uTcn,
| as Gods work among the children. They
| are the great antechamber from which the
| children are uShered into the church. They
are not an institution of themselves, hav-
| ing:an independent existence of their own,
| but they are the church working in that
particular way while carrying out its APP
pointed mission upon earth, that of eVange-
lizing the world. 1t has so come to pass in
the providence of God, that much of the
work of evangeliztng the mass of the people,
Doth within and without the pale of the
church, is now being accomplished by the
sunday school. Whatever, therefore, this
institution may have been in origin,
they are now clearly church institution.
not outside the church. The Methodist
| Church moved in the right direction in the
changes adopted few years ago in their
Discipline, in which they were formally
incorporated as part of the working ma
chtnery of the church, and as such subject
to it's control. hope the day is not far
distant when every church will not only
| assume the control of its schools, but will
give them that ef1clent and systematic
support accorded to other acknowledged
agencies OF the church. If you want strong
church train your children in the Sunday
school for the church, and just to the ex-
tent you do this, just so much will your
church increase. Children may be taught
the Bible privately at home, by their pa
rents personally, or others specially en-
plOyed for the purpose. The same is true OF
all parts of child's education. They may
be taught the languages, sciences and arts.
But few parents have the education and
the leisure to discharge the duty personally,
and still fewer have the wealth to enable
them to employ private teacher. 1t would
be {. sad day for the church, world and
children, II children were to receive no
VgFif inc I(r1h hint
who have educated and religious parents
willing to do the work. To the great mass Of
mankind, the ninety and nine out of the
hundred, knowledge comes by schooling.
The children learn the doctrines and pre-
cepts of the Bible most readily and effect
uailyJuSt as they learn thesruleS OF arithme-
tic and grammar, by going to school for the
purpose, by making of it a business. Chill
dren believe what they are told and what
they are taught to believe. They are what |
they are trained to be. "AS the twig is bent
so is the tree inclined" Teaching and
What must the Sunday school dog They are
not acting up TO t. e eXigencies of the case,
and will not be until they are willing to
spend upon the work an amount of time
and money equal to that which the State |
eXpends upon secular education. The city |
of n. Y. spends annually upon its public |
schools more money than is spent by all the |
christians of L. ). on Sunday schools. They |
must first bring into the Sunday schools all |
the children of the members of It's church, |
and it should not be cOntented with mere /
~ holding their own with merely taking |
care of their own flock, but every SChOOl
should consider itself bound to make ag-
gr SsiOns, not into lis neighbours fold, but |
INTO the territory not yet gained from the
enemy. They should with organized |
effort go out into the highways and byways,
into the mansions of the rich and the how |
els of the poor, and into the homes of the
orphan, ragged, dirty and neglected ones.
90 out into The highways and byways of
sin, and gather, gather into the Sunday
school. There are few communities in |
which one third of the population is not |
OGtSide the church. In the United States |
the proportion of those who attend no
church, and those who are openly of the
members of the ungOdly, is reckOned at |
one half the population. More than one
half the children in the L. $, are out Ofthe |
Sunday school, this is an acknowledged |
fact, which the church is called upon to
consider. must these things continue to be,
four millions or more of children who at
tend the Sunday school every Sunday re-
mem Der that not less than five millions at
tend no school, and are entirely without
the means OF religious instructions. The
poorest school that was ever kept together
is better than no school. Every school
should have a special committee t. look af-
ter the poor neglected and absent children,
and would urge upon this school the APP
pOintment of such d committee, and let the
committee report each Sun day, and be-
interest materially. To gather into the
Sunday school five millions of neglected
children, can only be done by the co-opera-
ton of the six millions protesting chris
tianS. Deducting One-SiXth for those physi-
caIly disabled by i'll health and the infirmi-
ties OF age, there would then be left one
protesting christian for each absent child.
Now VIII each christian present to-day
bling new scholar next Sunday, and you
little boys and girls RENE mber and do this
also. In every Sunday school there should
be a t q The S m" ct ng once a month, te-
cause the main work dOne in the Sunday
school is done by the teachers, and there
fore, The teachers in council together could
adva zee The Sunday school interest very
much. Teachers study more to incuIcate
tn tTath, and if the iron you are b -ating
be Dlunt-Put til mOretStrength. The Bible
i the text book i'll the Sunday school, be- |
sides Il knowledge of the meaning of the |
Bible aim to get your pupils to store up a
ingly the Divine seed in the minds of your
pupils. They may lie long before they
come up, but in time they will take root |
and grow, and bear much fruit. Drop
good seed into the tender little hearts Ofthe |
"scatter seeds of kindness, then
by" Then when the green grass grows
upon the face of your grave, and the letters
upon your tom bStOne b defaced by the ele- |
mentS, some day high up in heaven when
you are ranging the fields of glory, the
heavenly gate will swing open, and some of
those you once taught in the Sunday school
will fly into your Outstretched arms of well
come. This thing of teaching children in |
The Sunday school is a responsible thing. |
Man is immortal. 1t cannot be that mans |
life is hut a bubble cast by the ocean of eter-
nifty to float for moment upon its waves, |
and then sink again into nOthingneSS.
Else why is it that the high and glorious
of our hearts are unSatisfed? Man
is immortal, and is born for a higher and
nObler purpose than that of the earth.