SUNDAY SCHOOL CENTENARY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 158, 3 July 1880, Page 2

SUNDAY SCHOOL CENTENARY.

RORERT RAIKES OF GLOUCESTER, FOUNDEK OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN FNGLAND

The present woek being specially set apart for the centenary festival of Sunday schools, whicb Lihvo been so strikingly beneficial in their religious influence upon many thousands in all lands, a short account of the benevolent founder will not be out of place. We take the facta from a biography of Raikes, written by Mr R. H. Drew :—

" Robert Raikes, the founder of Sunday schools, called also the Gloucester Philanthropist, was born in Gloucester iuihsyeir 1735, and died in 181 L The father of this noble man was a printer and publisher of the Gloucester Journal, a paper of note iv that day. In due time Robert Raikes became very useful in that establishment, and manifested, at an early age, an aptitude fpr compiling striking incidents cal-

culated to extend the sale of the journal. At nn early age we fiad that he was a bright light. His self-denying labours were often mentioned by the Wesleys, Whitfield, and Rowland Hill. Robert Raikes. confined his zealous efforts to his own oity of Gloucester aud the tne country for some time. All around he saw vice and misery. He saw that literature was poisoned at tbe fount. The Press worked with little regard to principle, often selling itself to the highest bidder. The industrial classes were so besotted and sunken that gaols and Bridewells were filled with men and women, young and old, herded together and imprisoned for acts of violence aud crime, showing that vice was rampant. These were the days when the gibbet aud gallows stood thick throughout the land. Robert Raikes struck out for himself a new sphere of usefulness, and formed his first class of Sunday scholars of the inmates of the cOonty Bridewell in the city of Gloucester. Robert Raikes, beiag endowed with a good share of prescience, saw the best m.thod of winning the class he sought to help. He had now become proprietor of the Gloucester Journal, and he wielded his pen to great advantage; he drew public attention to the changed oondition of bis Bridewell students, aod it soon- became known tbat that place had become a model prison. His self-denying efforts to reclaim the outcas., his generous and ever-active mind, drew around bim the admiration of all who sought the good of the masses throughout the couutry; he saw that ignorance, young and old, was the cause of so much crime, as in that day very few could read or write, and, in many cases, knew but little even of the first principles of religion. The country fair, with pothouse songs, revels, aod other scenes, he knew was not calculated to raise the people. His large heart was much moved as be looked around the city, for he saw there crowds of children half-fed, badly clothed, and shoeless, training for the hulks, the prison, and gallows, and as he journeyed through village and town aronnd the oity like scenes presented themselves. Undaunted heset to work, and by pen and personal effort soon wrought a change. Iv his time the Sibbath was a day of riot.

The difficulties experienced by Raikes in pursuance of his plan are graphically told by the biographer. Raikes' first plan was as foilows :-— The children to gather at 10 o'olosk in the morning and be instructed by eaoh teacher singly und collectively till 12 o'clock, then go quietly homo aid return at 1, and after reading a leason they wore conducted to ohurc^. After church they were to be employed in repenting the catechism till half-past five, and then dismissed, with an injunction to go home without making a noise, and by no means to play in tbe streets. This was the general outline of the regulations iv that dark day amongst a class of such depraved children. We hear the good man say, «* My first Sunday gathering exceeded my most sanguine expec tations." We find also that during tbe week he was untiring in his visits to the parents of the children, daily remonstrating with them and pointing out to them the melancholy conse-

quences tbat must ensus from the neglect of their children's morals. He was often met by the pareuts with the retort that their poverty prevented them from clothing their children suitably to appear in church or school on Sunday. This he met by saying if they were clad as tbey were when they run in lhe streets they would be welcome to the sohool, for it was opeu to the most neglected and poorest. "All," he eaid, " I require, is clean faces and bands and their hair straightened; in every other respect they may come as circumstances will admit.'' After many hours of unwearied labour, at the age of 72 be is found to have" superintended the education of more than 3000 children. Never forsaking his prison visitations he sedulously watched to see if any or how many of his Sun-day-school children might be brought in bb prisoners, aod rejoiced was he, when appealed to by tbe authorities, to thankfully answer, " Nonel" Mr Raikes lived to the ripe age of 76, honoured and beloved, and surrounded by the fruits of his philanthropic labours."