The Rhode Island Republican

SUNDAY SCHOOLS--We make the following interesting selection from the 1st No. vol. 3, of The American Sunday School Magazine, published monthly in Philadelphia. It will not only convey an idea of the origin of the numerous Sunday Schools already established in different parts of the world, but will also fully illustrate the salutary effects produced thereby. Mr Raikes, whose history is undoubtedly well known, more especially to those engaged in Theological pursuits, not merely as the founder of Sabbath Schools but as a man eminently distinguished for his strict moral and religious principles and active benevolence, was born in Gloucester, (Eng.) in 1736. The first Sunday School in England was established at Gloucester, in 1782, as will be seen, through his beneficent aid, a synopsis of the origin of which is contained in the annexed article

"The circumstances which led to the formation of the Sunday School System, may be reckoned amongst the many proofs which the history of the world furnishes, that Providence has frequently caused the most magnificent effects to spring from means the most simple, and by the steady persevering efforts of an individual, the most important ends have often been accomplished. With a sensation of delight, which none can conceive, but those who have drunk from the same perennial fountain, Mr. Raikes, when on the threshold of Eternity, related the interesting story of the origin of Sunday Schools. One day in the year 1782, he went into the suburbs of his native city to hire a gardener. The man was from home, and while Mr. Raikes awaited his return he was much disturbed by a group of noisy boys who infested the street. He asked the gardener's wife the cause of these children being so neglected and depraved. Her emphatic reply was,"Oh, Sir! if you were here on a Sunday you would pity them indeed, as we cannot read our Bible in peace for them." This answer operated with the force of electricity, and called forth all the energy of his benevolent soul. "Can nothing,"he asked, "be done for these poor children: Is there anybody near that will take them to school on a Sunday?" He was informed that there was a person in the neighborhood who would probably do it. "At this important moment (to use his own language) the word "try" was so powerfully impressed upon his mind as to decide him at once for action.--He immediately went and entered into a treaty with the school mistress to take charge of a certain number of destitute children on the Sabbath Day, and this proved the grain of mustard seed which has already produced a great tree, whose branches overshadow our land, and whose roots are extending to the most distant regions of the earth. May its growth advance with accelerated progress, till all the sons and daughters of ignorance and vice shall find a refuge under its fostering shade! Mr. Raikes agreed to give this poor woman one shilling for her day's employment, and he soon found three others who were willing to undertake a similar task. He now communicated his plan to the clergyman of the parish (the Rev. Thomas Stock who promised to co-operate with him by visiting the Schools on Sunday afternoons. Mr. Raikes printed a little book which he distributed among them, and the Society for the promotion of Christian Knowledge sent him a number of Bibles and Testaments for a similar purpose. The effects produced on the conduct of these hitherto wretched children in a short time, cannot be better told than in the language of a woman living in the neighborhood, who declared that 'the place was become quite a heaven upon Sundays in comparison to what it used to be.' At the end of three years the number of scholars increased to 300. Many of these, as well as their parents, had scarcely ever been seen within the precincts of a church, but now numbers of them began to attend with regularity, and as many as fifty were sometimes present so early as seven o'clock in the morning. Mr. Raikes not only possessed energy for bringing his benevolent system into action, but prudence for conducting it. In a letter to a friend, written about this period, he says, "I cannot express to you the pleasure I often receive, in discovering genius and innate good dispositions among this little multitude. It is botanizing in human nature. I have often too, the satisfaction of receiving thanks from parents, for the reformation they perceive in their children. Often have I given them kind admonitions, which I always do in the kindest and gentlest manner. " The going among them, doing them little kindnesses, distributing trifling rewards, and ingratiating myself with them, I hear, have given me an ascendancy, greater than I ever could have imagined; for I am told by their mistresses, that they are very much afraid of my displeasure." Besides attending to the instruction of the children in their religious and social duties, he was particular in inculcating habits of cleanliness; and however mean or ragged their clothing might be, he insisted that each child should come to school with clean hands and face, and combed hair : as he well knew that attention to these little decencies of life, have a wonderful tendency to advance civilization among the lower classes of society. During the first three years, the establishment of Sunday schools was chiefly limited to the vicinity of the city where they had originated, but when the plan had, in the opinion of Mr. Raikes, been fully tried, he conceived that it should be more widely disseminated. For this purpose, he inserted a paragraph on the subject in his own Journal, which was copied into several of the London, and provincial papers. The plan was adopted soon after in London, and the first name on the list of the first Sunday School Committee in the metropolis, appears to be that of the celebrated Jonas Hanway. The success of the first effort now called the dormant zeal of many into action, the establishment of Sunday schools proceeded throughout the nation with the rapidity of lightning, and before the close of his valuable life, which occurred in his native city on the 5th of April, 1811, he had the exhilarating satisfaction of seeing Sunday schools for Three Hundred Thousand Children established throughout the British Empire."