The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-10-19
the SUNDAY SCHOOL cokVEN'
TioNs
Nineteenth Anniversary Of the Maine
state Association.
An Interesting Meeting Held Last
Evening,

Business meetings, preceded by devotional
services, will be held this forenoon and after
noon and tomorrow forenoon. This even
ing there will be meeting with addresses
The meeting last evening was attended by |
a large number, the church being filed.
Among those present were a number OF |
Portland clergymen, and many of the dele
gates from all parts of the State Upon the |
platform were Rev. DR.. J. L. Hurlbut OF |
New York, and Rev. DR.. Randolph of New
port, r. l., secretary of the International
Sunday School Lesson committee.
The services opened with singing. Prayer
was offered by Rev. DIR. Bashford, Rev. DR..
Small, pastor of the First Baptist church,
and Rev. DR.. Randolph. At the conclusion
of the services, Rev. DR.. Bashford delivered
the opening address, giving much valuable
information in an interesting manner. The
subject was 'Providential plan of the Sun
day School in America" An abstract of Dr.
Bashford's address follows:
DIR. DAsHFoRD's ADDRESS.
The speaker commenced by speaking of
the provisions made by the Puritans on land
ing in this country in 1920, for the education
of their children. Their public schools were
the germ of the United States common
school system, and the radical difference be-
tween the two consisted in the fact that the
system of the Puritans was religious and the
modern is secular. The old New England
Primer had six pages devoted to the alpha
bet and short words in spelling, and then
came the Lords Prayer Watts. hymns and
two more catechisms; rather piOus primer
Then came Dilworth's Speller, with its relig
ious eXhortati0ns freely interspersed
Psalter, Greed, New and Old Testaments
Six or seven years were spent on this course,
and the result, whenever the scholar began,
was religion straight in the day school, Peo-
pie have wondered how the Purltans got
along without Sunday school. What need
of one when the.pupils gave six or seven
hours day to religion six days in the week.
We may mock at the narrOwness and bigotry
of the Puritans and yet see at the time OF
| the Revolution how $50 years of this study
| resulted il clear thought, deep conviction
| and moral heroism that astonished Europe.
| Purtanism was the Old Testament theocracy
repeated in America. Another deep move
ment was going ON among the colonists. The
speaker referred to the religious prosecutions
| Of Roger Williams, the Salem witches, ETC.,
which had stirred up the people. With this
| deep, religious movement was Joined an in
tense desire for freedom, which eliminated
| political independence. But this secured,
| our forefathers looked to securing religious
| liberty. The constitution prohibited the
| passing of law for the establishment of a
| ndLlOQdl T6lgIOll OF bllt lIt6 tAcI-
| else thereof. The State constitutions follow
| ed suit. State and church were now separat-
| ed, and the result prevented in future the
! giving of religious instruction at the expense
| of the State. The century and half Purl-
tan course of instruction was reyOlutiOniZed
to correspond with the new conditions. TO
| get an idea of the revolution, compare text
| book of 1888, all religious, with one of 1883,
without single religious text.
While, the speaker said, no one would wish
10 Tho tot bod faff nj
Europe at the sacrifire of religious freedom,
he asked if that system of education Of a
child must not be fatally defective which,
while training his mental and physical pow
ers, neglected his moral and spiritual facul-
ties. Are not our republican institutions
threatened as much by evil men as
by the ignorant, and does not the
State need that children shall be
instructed morally as well as physically. In
this training the question is to be settled
fathers decided the republic must be found
ed on the intelligence and virtue of its citi
zens, and yet could not teach religion in thu
common schools--religion this foundation
The key to the solution of this problem is il
Divine Providence. History is truly writer
only from the standpoint of God, it is the un
folding to our eyes of the purposes of tht
Almighty. BY His plan we even. secure re
ligious freedom and religious instruction
and it is by this plan that the Sunday schoo
is revealed in free government as an OF
ganic part of its educational system.
The speaker then gave resume OF the va
rious Sunday school teachers over the world
| who about the same time, commencing will
| John Wesley in Georgia in 1875, gathered thu
| cnIIuren on sunday aud addressed them, tht
work of all eliminating in what is nov
known as Sunday schools established in 17S
by Robert Raikes. So successful were TIL
schools that in three years after Raikes
| schools were established there were 200, 00
Protestant scholars in England and America
and in 1885 we have 9,146,02S in the United
of the population. The philosophic histo
rian will characterize the movement that fit
7,000,OO0 children yearly for the duties of cit
izenship which the State cannot give, not a.
mere PROSECUTING appendage OF the church
but the very crown of our national educa
ton. Writers will presently see in the ris,
of the Sunday school traces of the Dlvin,
Providence which sent the Saviour of thu
world
Lastly. is the Sunday school doing he
providential work? We may answer no and
yes. We are not doing all we can for the
| moral and spiritual training of the children
and this is what calls us together fo
counsel. The secretary, Rev. 3. ?. Snow
furnishes us some statistics of our work
There are 214,000 children of school age il
Maine; of this number, 131 1872, according tc
the best estimates, are enrolled in our Sun
day schools. Certainly it is possible to en-
| large Tile u6 dfcIdSt dbt6uu
ance at the schools is three-ffths Of our en-
rollment. Here is large opportunity fol
| Improvement. This partial work can b,
supplemented by family Instruction. by bring
ing the children to church services, and by {
certain kind of moral teaching in the da,
schools A small text book of practica
morals teaching children their responsibility
to God, and that they are under moral ant
lspir1tual laws, and intoxicating those virtues
+ on which we are all agreed, is the great de
| c;d of,,p, If tho ninpfonDth oQDturV Max
ing all due attachments, the Sunday school il
| still grandly fulfilling its missiont While thu
figures show that 10000 scholars are enroll
ed today, these figures do not show that th'
two other proofs that the Sunday school il
fulfilling its mission seven-ninths of all oul
converts in the Methodist church
come from our Sunday schools; again
with State support, the churches at thu
time of the revolution numbered one
fifteenth of the population. With onl.
voluntary effort today, we enroll one-ffth O.
the population in our churches. May we mo-
| therefore Justly recognize our Sunday school
| as the proVidential means of preserving thai
virtue which is the foundation of our gov
eminent, but which the State does not itself
teach it's children.
At the conclusion of his address DR.. Bash
ford introduced Rev. DR.. Hurlbut, wht
spoke upon the Sunday School of to-day. He
spoke as follows:
DIR. HURLBUTs ADDRESS.
The Sunday School of to-day is ditferen
from the Sunday School of yesterday a:
Americans of to-day are different from the
Americans of yesterday. The first Sunday
School was for the children of the poor only
To-day, the Sunday School is for all. There
the rich and the poor meet in the same
classes. The Sunday School of to-day is also
designed for both the old and the young.
The Sunday School exercises are an import
ant evangelical influence. In the newly set
tied districts of the West this is more notice
able than in the East. Among the new settle
ments of the West, before there are people
enough to have church and minister we
find them uniting in the Sunday School
| Laymen can conduct the school and women
can act as its teachers. The American peo'
Die are a composite people. Every year
vast numbers from the countries of the Old
World seek our shores, many of the immi-
grants being ignorant and bringing with
them a contempt for our government One
encouraging thing among the many dis.
couraging features of this question, is that
the children of this foreign population grow
up Americans. Upon the street you see
them using the English language, aud they
can be reached through the Sunday School
| ac we'll as the MANY others who can not be