St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1891-05-30
The State Sunday School Con-
venfiop

| At the State Sunday school convention,
which met in New Orleans May g. the
| following part al report of Sunday school
work was read by the secretary, Mr.. A. A.
Parker. He stated that the work was
represented by the Presbyterian Church
by Al schools. 500 teachers and 416o
scholars; in the Episcopal Church by 343
teachers, snd 1921 scholars; in tha Metho-
dist Episcopal Church by 16 schools, 81
teachers and 922 scholars; in the Methodist
! Episcopal Church South by 265 schools.
| Sunday school by 697 schools, 1861 teach
ers and "a 26O scholars; the Union Gospel
Union at keller's Market by 5 teachers
and 80 scholars Total, 1856 schools,
| 6O27 teachers and 81, scholars
Tho first Presbyterian Church of this
city has kept two Missionaries in the field
| for four years st an expense of $l4OO per
| annum. They have established 1913 schoola
with 1858 teachers and 1895 SCHOLARS
There are altogether 1900 schools, 6027
| officers aud "a All Scholars gain of 20, =
| coo in ten years. There are also Is, OO0
Catholic children in the parochial schools.
about 1145 Lutheran children and 500
! German protestant children. There are
| in the State $50, 314 white educabe
| children, so that there ale nearly so, 600
| white children who do not receive the
word of God.
During he exercises Mr.. VIM. Reynolds,
the eloquent Sunday school advocate from
| Peoria, H.. was called to the platform and
| delivered an address On The Object and
Aims of the State Association. Fifty
wears ago Stephen Caxton, an igunran.
backwoodsman from North Carolina
came to Illinois, and after being converted
in log school house at the crossroads, he
determined to make it lis life labor to
spread the Sunday schools.
He worked in Illinois and Missouri and
founded 1900 Sunday SCHOOL, and con
verified 70 900 children. He did more for
Sunday school work than any man living
or dead, and his great principle was
organization He wanted to found distrcs
and county and State districts. and then
hold conventions in order
TO "swAP IDEAS"
as he called it, on the best manner of con
Quoting the work.
H Ideas have gradually been realized
so that at the last national convention
there was DELEGATE from every State in
The Union with the exception of New
NJ xico, from every province in Canada
and from many of the foreign countries
In 1893 a worlds convention will be held
in st. Louis at which delegates from
almost every natiOn will attend.
The great good that can be derived from
these sub-organiZ stions is the statistics
which are Invaluable. A denomination
can tell what the members of its own
ranks are but it cannot tell what percent
age of the Whole they ara unless they use
outside figures. To get these accurately
the convention must be unsectarian.
Your secretary told you this evening
thst there are 100. coo white children in
The State who do not attend Sabbath
schools Where in the name Of God are
they snd what do they GO? The only way
to better the condition is by holding these
conventions Things are getting to such
a pCint that we cannot even carry on bust
ness without them.
In Peoria even the saloon keepers held
a meeting some time ago to devise some
means by which more
SOULS COULD BE DAMNED,
more families broken and more lives lost.
They did not say that in their resolutions
but 1t meant the same thing, and a few
days after even the undertakers held a
convention, fit aftsrpiece of the formor,
to see how their victims should be buried.
The conventions are to introduce better
meth DIS. Some time ego Horace Mann
raised his voice in the Massachusetts
House of Representatives against the
work done in the public schools. Every
one admitted that the system was bad,
but they asked him how he intended TO
better it. Well he said, we must edu-
cate the teachers up to their work. and
from that speech came the normal school
system, which has spread to every State
and has been productive of so much good.