New-York tribune., 1880-06-27
SrNn1YNCHOOL CENTEEART.

The International Sunday -SchOOl Centenary
which opens tomorrow in London will probably
be one Of the largest religious meetings which
have been held for several years Delegates from
many parts of the United States and from
Canada viii he present. The Sunday-school
Union OF Great Britain, tie Church OF England.
Wesleyan and Ragged School and other Dis
sentng sunday school Unions all viii take
part tremendously in it. Differing rs the7 may
i'm other points Of creed or government, all
Christians, rom the Papal Church to the Friends,
arc agreed as tc the necessity of instruct
ing the children, and have accepted the plan oil
free schools on Sunday as the only way in which
the Church can safely interfere with the family
training.
/ This Centenary is held. like on, own quicter
celebration few weeks since, in
honor of the establishment of such
schools in Gloucester in 1850 by Robert
Raikes. Ii IS only just TO remember,
however, that the idea of Sunday teaching for
children did not originate with Mr.. Raikcs Mar
tin Luther, tvs hundred and fifty years earlier,
opeucd sunday class for the instruction of
such children as could not attend the day
schools in the art of reading, and that they
"might be better able to read the Holy
"Scripturcs.' 1t would give to this centennial
celebration more practical value if the enthus.
iastic Sunday school teachers there assembled
would carefully consider the totally different
objects which Luther and RaikcS had in view
from those which the present system of Sun
day teaching Is meant to meet. Robert Raikes
had precisely the same idea as Luther, when no
hired the four old danes to teach the vicious
alittle wretches who spent their Sabbaths in the
Gstreets of Gloucester playing chuck,
@swearing and riot" The cure for
profanity, Sabbath-breaking and all other
vices lay, in the minds of our
forefathers, in the three Rs. The lower classes
in England or in any other country in Europe
had the no weekday chance Of instruction.
The education Of men Of Raikes's own class
was both costly and limited. 1t would surprise
us to examine into the amount of actual know
ledge possessed by our great-grandlathers and
flnd how limited 1t was.
On the other hand, religious instruction was
more rigidy enforced than it Is now. The re-
cognlton Of God and of His control in everyday
matters was acknowledged by the courts, the
government, and in family life, and the Church
and the Bible were held In q respect and fear
which would now be looked upon as superstition.
The master was sworn to bring up his ap-
prentice in @the of God ." but he was not
bound to teach him to read and write. Hence,
reading and writlng-the things they had not
came to be looked upon as the sovereign remedy
for all vices of tie dangerous classes; and
indeed they are still so regarded by the majority
of GOOD people who are anxiOus' TO raise their
unfortunate brethren below them nearer to
their own level. Raikes paid his old women to
teach these things not religion and the Sun
day-schools first established in this country and
in Europe were on tho same plan. 1t was not
until 1910 that the churches took hold of them
and the training became markedly religious.
And as secular teaching became more
common and at last gratutlOus, the
Sunday schools abandoned the system OF
paid teachers, jealous Christians re-
cognizing as their privilege thus to preach the
gospel. The system lnaugurated blythe shrewd
editor and pnntec has been found good and
adopted by the most radical and most cOnserv-
ative branches Of the Christian Church. In
stead Of four old danes working for their
weekly stipend, the teachers are numbered
literally by the million.
If Raikes were alive now, and kept abreast of
the wants Of his time as he did century ago,
we suspect he would give practical hint or
two to his disciples in London. In the first
place, his keen eye would discover that it is
moral teaching only, and that Of the purest
kind, which the sunken EOlasses want from the
Church. Education is free as water to them on
weekdays, and no thoughtful observer Of the
statistics Of crime can join in the popular error
that education is q remedy for vice, or even
a bar to Ii, unless supplemented BY religious or
at least moral training. AS secular schools
have increased In England the proportion Of