El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-19

= a ORE than two thousand dele
M gates. representing 81 nations
and 50 denominations of the
Christian church, will meet In Wash
ington today for the Sixth worlds
Sunday School convention. The last
meeting of the convention was held in
Rome in 1907, and the meeting before
that was in Jerusalem. This is the
second worlds convention ever held in
America. the meeting at st. Louis in
1893 being the other.
The Sunday schools of the world
have 100000 regular members and
of this number 100000 are in the
United States and Canada. The Sun
day school was founded in England. it
has reached the highest degree of eff
cheney and Importance in English
speaking america and is prosperous
in other lands largely under the in
fluence of English speaking workers.
But the other nations OF the Christ
iaI world are taking up the Sunday
school work rapidly Next Sunday will
be devoted especially to the worlds
Sunday school movement and a uni
form program for Sunday school ser
vices to be held that day has been
translated into more than 200 language
es and will be carried out in more
than a quarter Of million Sunday
schools Of these schools $50, 200. or
d
the United States.
Four Classes of Delegates.
The convention which meets in
Washington today will be composed of
four classes of delegates. There will
be about 800 foreign missionaries.
mostly English speaking. who have
been engaged in carrying Christian
ity to heather nations Then will come
the delegates from the various Sunday
school -. associations and religious de-
nominations of foreign lands The
third and largest class will be made up
OF delegates from the United States
and Canada chosen according to q
fixed ratio Of appointment. The fourth
class will be composed of delegates
at large. representing broadly the con-
stituent religious bodies engaged in
Sunday school work. This Sunday
school convention is the only body
in the religious world in which repre-
sentatives of all the evangelical
Christian denominations meet on terms
of exact equality to discuss plans for
the evangelization of the whole world
The English speaking nations sup
port the International Sunday School
association which meets every three
years This association selects the In
ternational committee which prepares
the international lesson system, in use
IN nearly all of the Sunday schools Of
the world. This association met two
years ago in Louisville and appointed
a new committee which has just COM
pleted the work of preparing the les
sons for the six years beginning with
1912 and continuing through 1917. AT
that convention il was decided to adopt
a graded system of study for Sunday
schools. modelled on the system of the
graded schools OF the United States.
For Training Teachers.
The convention in Washington will
consider the new system and will take
steps looking toward an extraordinary
extension of teacher training work
preparatory to the Introduction OF the
graded system Of. 1912. The Sunday
schools of the United States and Can
ada. in city, county. district, province
and state organiza tons, hold more than
1900 conventions a year. in which
nearly 100000 Sunday school workers
participate This organized conven-
ton work has for its chief object the
The representatives of these numerous
organizations compose the worlds con-
vention. and ii will give most of its
time 70 the same business
The first Sunday school was founded
by Robert Raikes in Gloucester, Eng
land. in 1880 Raikes undertook his
work in order 70 do something for the
terry districts of his town. He organ
tied what were called Ragged
Schools" and paid the persons who IN
dertOok TO teach the children a shill-
ing a day for their services. The move
ment TO give any sort of education to
these poor people met with opposition
from all GLASSES of the so callel bette :
element.
All sorts of fun was made OF Bobby
Wild Goose and his Ragged Regiment"
Eve John Wesley looked upon the
movement with doubt and misgiving,
while the regular clergy actively OPP
posed it. Even after the Sunday school
had grown to such proportions that 1t
had a half million students, the arch
bishop of Canterbury called a conven-
ton of church dignitaries for the pur-
pose of suppressing the growth of the
Sunday school in the church Of course
such opposition long since has disap-
peared.
United states Leads.
In the United States the Sunday
school has succeeded more generally
than in other countries for variety