Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-02-02

said Raikes to the parents of the chill
dren, .are clean hands, clean faces, and
their hair combed" To many who were
bare-footed, after they had shown some
of attendance, he gave shoes,
and others he clothed. The law of kind
ness was usually on his lips. Thus,
literally true and beautiful are James
Montgomery's words of him -
'.Llke lone husbandman foriorn.
The man of Gloucester went,
Bearing his seeds of precious corn;
And God the blessing sent
"Now. watered long by faith and prayer.
From year to year it grows.
Till health, and hill, and desert BARE
Do blossom the rose"
At the time Mr.. Raikes began the
work, he was about A years of age; it
was great thing, in that day, to pos
sess respectable journal, newspaper
of acknowledged character and influence;
to this, very likely, we owe it, in some
considerable measure, that the work in
Gloucester became extensively known
and spread and expanded into a great
movement. 1t is very remarkable that
in the course of two or three years, sew
eral blshops-the bishop of Gloucester,
in the cathedral, the bishops of Chester
and Salisbury, in their charges to the
clergy of their dioceses, strongly COM
mended the plan. All orders of mind
poured around the movement their COM
mendation even Adam Smith, whom no
one will think likely to have fallen into
exaggerated expressions where Christian
activity was concerned, said, 'tNo plan
has promised to effect change of man
ners, with equal ease and simplicity,
since the days of the apostles" The
poet Cowper declared he knew of no
nobler means by which reformation of
the lower classes could be effected. Some
estimate may be formed of the rapidity
with which the movement spread, when
we find that, in 1887, the number of
children taught in Sunday-schools in
Manchester alone was no fewer than
5000. 1t was in this year also, Q787,)
that Mr.. Raikes was visiting some rela-
tives in the neighborhood of Windsor.
He must have attained to the dignity of
a celebrity; nor is this wonderful, when
we remember the universal acceptance
with which his great idea of Sunday
schools has been honored. The queen
invited him to visit her, and inquired of
him, he says, "by what accident a
thought, which promised so much benefit
to the lower order of people as the in
struction of Sunday-schools, was sug.
gested to his mind. The result of this
visit was that the queen established a
Sunday-school in Windsor, and also q
school of industry at Brentford, which
the king and queen occasionally visited
We think it may be taken as an illus
tration of the native modesty of Mr.
Raikes own character, that he never re
ferred in his paper to this distinguished
notice of royalty. Such an inciden
now, occurring to almost any one, woulc
t be splendid piece of capital.
: He was simple and good man, OIL
/; whose heart, as into fruitful soil, al
}, idea fell, and it became realized con
viction. His portrait suggests Cowper'
e well-known description of one of hi
o friends:
..Au honest man, close-buttoued to the chin
Broadcloth without, and warm heart Within"
( No words can describe him-not tin
r, of fanaticism seems to shade his charat
e ter; he had warm enthusiasm for end
# and aims which commended themselve
# to his judgment. It is pleasant to kno
# that. as he lived when the agitation fl
k the abolition of the slave trade was con
d mencing, he gave to the movement b
g hearty blessings and best wishes. A
d 81 years of age he retired from business
e, no doubt a very well-to-do man. for
te was the owner of two freehold estat
so near Gloucester, and he received an a
le nuity of 93O0 from the Gloucest
n- Journal. He died at his house in Be
lane in the city of Gloucester, where
had taken up his residence when he +
= tired from active life; he died sudden
in his 18th year in 1911. Then Il
~ -, family vault in st Mary-le-Crypt, whi'
go years before had received his father
~ ashes, received the body of the gent
:, philanthropist. He had kept up b
= Sunday-school work and interest to t
:, - close, and he left instructions that /
:, Sunday-school children should be I'M
ts ted to follow him. to the grave, and th
as each of them should received shillil
and a plum-cake.-Suaday at Home.