National Republican., 1881-08-01
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
AN INTERESTING AssEMBLAoE.
Statistics as Presented Al Rev. Dr. Sunderlands
Church--The international Convention at
Toronto Last Month--Usefulness
Ofthe Sunday School.

! An interesting meeting was held last
evening in the Sunday school room Of the Four.
| half Street Presbyterian Church, under the
| auspices OF the Sunday School Union, which was
| attended by representatives of nearly all tho
schools In the District The object OF the meeting
was to hear what the delegates had to report ofthe
! international Sunday School Convention which
was held last month in Toronto. Amer prayer by
Rev. Dr. Sunderland, Mr.. F. II. Cobb, the president
of the Union. MS well os delegate, gave a very
racy account Of his reception at Toronto and
| his experience ut the convention. He said he
| found thnt the squares in Toronto were
from half mile to a mile in length,
ond when he was told that certain place
| was two or three squares away he found
from experience that II did not mean what II did
in Washington. There was great interest shown
in the convention, and the street.car conductors
| and shop keepers always asked those that they
supposed were delegates what the convention was
doing The delegates were arranged in the con-
vcnton by States, but on the first day he was the
only delegate from the District and he found somo
dlniculty In occupying all the seats reserved for
the District delegation and
DIVIDING HIMSELF UP
SO a' 70 MI the three places allotted to the District
on each committee. on the first day the conyen.
ton was addressed by the leaders of the two oppos
Ing factions In Parliament, but they exhibited no
animosity toward each other. Mr.. l. A. Cornish
confined hts remarks TO q resume of the papers read
In the convention upon the relations Of sunday
school 70 the church. The next speaker was Mr.
John y. Wight. lie called the attention OF the au
dicncC to q large chart. which he said was exact
copy Of the chart pfcpatcd by the statistical sccrc
tGry Of the convention. showing the growth ofSun-
day schools IN Canada and the United States. The
chart waSas follows The church sauHiliary In the
United stntoS-schoos, 3Si,TdO teachers, y32,2S3 I:
3nl,s a Z d -
schools, $50; teachers, 429i2 scholars, 3jG,330; ;
total, 3392l2 Total in the United States and Can.
ada s,l52,S60. Total number Of conversions in one
year, l27,Ts7. In the word-schools 97.S2i: teach.
crs, 1j5lIGS; scholars 129l972S; total, lI,i7l5i6
Mr.. Wight said that encouraging reports were re-
ccivcd from all the delegates, showing great prog
ress since the last convention. One Of the best
reports was that OF the District. Since the last
convention u Sunday. School Union had been
formed here, so that they were able to present
information about Sunday school work. They
knew that there were
TWENTY THOUSAND CHILDREN
In this city not connected with any school, and
the effort would be to bring these children in.
Here there is n great army OF fourteen millions.
The United States has no army because there is
no need Of one. But the church needs this army
TO help IL in It's warfare against Satan and sim II
does this by giving to the church last year l27S2
members. Then the sunday schools contribute
largely TO the home and foreign missions. II also
oducates children that would not otherwise re.
ceivc any education. Through the children the
parents nre brought into the church. In the con-
yention minister from New York said that his
mission in New York had compelled the Catholics
to start n Sunday school, in order to keep their
children, and the Jews, for the same reason, had
started n school on Sabbath mornings. Besides,
there are
ONE nU;;DRED THOUSAND CHURCHES
that owe their origin to Sunday schools. These
are some OF the things nccomplised by the Sunday
school. The reports showed that the United
States is ahead of all other countries in Sunday.
school work. As an evidence Of this there is one
teacher to every seven scholars In this country.
In England is one to nine; In Italy. one to if
teen, in Spain, one TO twenty-five, and in lIol.
land, one to thirty.two. Mr.. Wight's remarks were
Of n very interesting character Owing to the ab-
scnco OF the other three delegates Mr.. Cobb was
obliged 70 do double duty. as he had done on the
first day OF the convention, and spoke further OF
what he had seen and heard. The meeting was
then dismissed.