The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1880-06-10
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
a Graphic History Of Their Origin
and Work by James
McCallum, Esq.

following interesting address deliv-
cred before the Giles County Sun
day School Association by James
McCallum, esq. It will be read
with interest by every person inter
ested 10 the sabbath school work.
The valuable information it con-
tains and the honored source from
which it proceeds will commend it
to general perusal
History, it has been said, is never
obsolete. Its facts and phenomena
are not merely isolated dumb incl
dents on the leaflets of time, but
they have their mission and their
Misunderstanding that change fol-
lows change as effect follows cause
that each succeeding era is but
the reflection of that which proceed
ed it. In no department of thought
or human effort are these aXioms
more clearly verified than in the
history of Sunday schools. AS a
knowledge of the past is essentially
necessary in devising plans for the
future, L propose to occupy the
time allowed me with a brief his
tory of the origin and founding of
sunday schools.
Schools on Sunday are of mod
ern origin. The city of Gloucester
in England was the birthplace and
cradle OF our present system, and
Robert Raikes has the distin-
guished honor Of being the founder
of the system in 1880. The 9th of
May was recently celebrated as the
centennial of sunday schools, or the
Robert RaiKes centennial, AS early
as the 10th century isolated schools
for the instruction of children and
and youth on Sunday existed, and
such schools were established from
time to time in England and the
United States prior to 1850, but
they were isolated and of short du-
ration. To fully comprehend the
motives of Raikes and his co-work-
ers; to trace the relation of cause
and effect, and to account for the
unparalleled rapldity With which
the system was adopted throughout
England, 1t is necessary briefly to
Tecur to the ther existing state of
society and TO Raikes' previous Ia
bors.
Robert Raikes, the founder of
our sunday school system, was born
in Gloucester, England, September
18th, 1885. The father of Robert
Raikes established the Gloucester
Journal in 1922, which he con
Quoted with great ability for thirty
five years, and gave it an extensive
circulation and great influence. He
intended his son Robert should sue
coed him, and gave him a liberal
education and an early training in
the business of the office. In 1857
Robert Raikes, on the death of his
father, took control of the Journal,
being then % years old. He soon
proved he was the equal Of his ia
Their, extended the circulation of
his paper and gave it additional
reputation. He was successful in
business, became rich, and was one
of the most influential men in the
city of Gloucester.
Some years before he became in
terested in sunday schools the pris
ons of Gloucester were in a deplor-
able condition. Men were impris-
oned for debt and for very small
offences. The lower classes of So
ciety were exceedingly ignorant,
depraved and lawless, and many
were committed for thefts and other
felonies. On an average from 40
to go were committed weekly.
Those for debt and small offences
were compelled to furnish their
own food and clothing, a scanty
supply of food being allowed felons
of a higher grade. Crowded to-
gether, famished and filthy, without
any attention to their sanitary con-
dition, infectious and malignant
diseases prevailed in the prisons at
all times. The death rate averaged
dozen q month. Robert Raikes
visited the prisons before Howard
commenced his crusaGe-contrib
uted food and clothing to the suf
tering and needy-procured contri
| buttons for them from benevolent
persons, and advocated prison re.
form through his Journal. He
found the prisoners ignorant, but
few of whom could read, or had
been brought up with respect and
reverence for religion. He engaged
those who could read, by presents
and other favors, to teach those to
read who could not. He gave them
books and sought to reform them.
By his appeals to the public through
his newspaper, he brought about a
reform in the prisons; and by his
kindness and generosity to the pris-
oners acquired great influence over
them. He made commendable pro-
gress in teaching the unlearned to
read, and in instructing them in the
relative duties of life, and a rever-
ence for God and religion.
Observing a large number of rag
ged, noisy children on the streets,
he reasoned with himself that these
children are growing up to take the
places of the adults in prison, and
that whatever individual reforms he
might effect among those in prison,
the supply would be kept up, and
came to the conclusion that his eff
forts had better be given to the
children-that any reform to be eff
fectual must begin with the children,
and conceived the idea of teaching
them Oh Sunday. He made known
his views to the Rev. Thomas Stork
and a Mr.. King and learned that
their minds were exercised in the
same direction. They readily as
scented to cooperate with him, and
are entitled to as much credit per
haps in starting sunday schools as
Raikes. Prepared as he was, by
his experience in prison teaching,
to see the advantages Of Sunday
teaching, it needed some immediate
impulse to bring him to the definite
decision of founding so novel an
institution. The necessary impulse
came in the following manner: He
went one morning into the suburbs
OF the city in the neighborhood OF
the great pin mandatory, where the
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