ON THE ORIGIN OF SABBATH SCHOOLS.

About the commencement of the year 1782, ROBErt Raikes, of the ancient city of Gloucester, in England, (the editor and printer of a newspaper called the Gloucester Journal, published weekly in that place,) having observed that a considerable number of poor and illiterate children were wandering about the streets and neighbourhood, without any superintendence or means of instruction, and that on the Lord's Day their numbers were greatly increased, formed a plan to remedy the evil, by providing instruction for them on that day; and immediately carried it into effect, in a manner described by himself with so much minuteness and simplicity, in a letter to a gentleman of Lancashire, who applied to him for information, that it would be injustice to Mr. Raikes to state the origin of the plan in any

other words :

"Some business leading me one morning into the suburbs of the city, where the lowest of the people (who are principally employed in the pin manufactory) reside, I was struck with concern at seeing a group of children, wretchedly ragged, at play in the street. I asked an inhabitant whether those children belonged to that part of the town, and lamented their misery and idleness. Ah! sir, said the woman to whom I was speaking, could you take a view of this part of the town on Sunday, you would be shocked indeed; for then the street is filled with multitudes of these wretches, who, released on that day from their employment, spend their time in noise and riot, playing at chuck,* and cursing and swearing in a manner so horrid, as to convey to any serious mind an idea of hell rather than any other place. We have a worthy clergyman, said she, minister of our parish, who has put some of them to school; but upon the sabbath they are all given up to follow their inclinations without restraint, as their parents, totally abandoned themselves, have no idea of instilling into the minds of their children principles to which they themselves are strangers.

"This conversation suggested to me, that it would at least be a harmless attempt, if it were productive of no good, should some little plan be formed to check this deplorable profanation of the Sabbath. I then inquired of the woman if there were any decent, well-disposed women in the neighbourhood, who kept schools for teaching to read. I was presently directed to four. To these I applied, and made an agreement with them, to receive as many children as I should send on the Sunday, whom they were to instruct in reading and the Church catechism. For this I engaged to pay them a shilling for their day's employment. The women seemed pleased with the proposal. I then waited on the clergyman before mentioned, and imparted to him my plan. He was so much satisfied with the idea, that he engaged to lend his assistance by going round to the schools on a Sunday afternoon, to examine the progress that was made, and to enforce order and decorum among such a set of little heathens.

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This, sir, is the commencement of the plan. It is now about three years since we began, and I could wish you were here to make inquiry into the effect. A woman who lives in a lane where I had fixed a school, told me some time ago, that the place was quite a heaven on Sundays, compared to what it used to be. The numbers who have learned to read and say their catechism are so great that I am astonished at it. Upon the Sunday afternoon the mistresses take their scholars to church, a place into which neither they nor their ancestors ever entered with a view to the glory of God. But what is yet more extraordinary, within this month, these little ragamuffins have in great numbers taken it into their heads to frequent the early morning prayers, which are held every morning at the cathedral at seven o'clock. I believe there were near fifty this morning. They assemble at the house of one of the mistresses, and walk before her to church, two and two, in as much order as a company of soldiers. I am generally at church, and after service they all come round me to make their bow; and if any animosities have arisen, to make their complaint. The great principle I inculcate is to be kind and good-natured to each other; not to provoke

one another; to be dutiful to their parents; not to offend God by cursing and swearing; and such little plain precepts as all may comprehend. As my profession is that of a printer, I have printed a little book, which I give amongst them; and some friends of mine, subscribers to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, sometimes make me a present of a parcel of bibles, testaments, &c. which I distribute as rewards to the deserving. The success that has attended this scheme has induced one or two of my friends to adopt the plan, and set up Sunday Schools in other parts of the city, and now a whole parish has taken up the object; so that I flatter myself in time the good effects will appear so conspicuous as to become generally adopted. The number of children at present thus engaged on the Sabbath are between two and three hundred, and they are increasing every week, as the benefit is universally seen. I have endeavoured to engage the clergy of my acquaintance that reside in their parishes. One has entered into the scheme with great fervour; and it was in order to excite others to follow the example, that I inserted in my paper the paragraph which I I cannot exsuppose you saw copied into the London papers. press 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 I have given them kind admonitions, which I always do in the mildest 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. If you ever pass through Gloucester, I shall be happy to pay my respects to you, and to show you the effects of this effort at civilization. If the glory of God be promoted in any, even the smallest degree, society must reap some benefit. If good seed be sown in the mind, at an early period of human life, though it shows itself not again for many

years, it may please God, at some fnture period, to cause it to spring up, and to bring forth a plenteous harvest."

Thus were the first four Sabbath Schools instituted little more than forty years ago; and the benevolent founder of them having engaged several of the clergy of his neighbourhood to cooperate with him in his pious efforts, had the satisfaction to see Sabbath Schools spread through the city and county in which he lived very extensively in the years 1782 and 1783; which encouraged him, about the latter end of the year 1783, to publish a statement of the fact in the newspaper of which he was the editor, and of which statement, the following is a copy.

"Gloucester Journal, Nov. 3, 1783. "Some of the clergy in different parts of this county, bent upon attempting a reform among the children of the lower class, are establishing Sunday Schools for rendering the Lord's day subservient to the ends of instruction, which has hitherto been prostituted to bad purposes. Farmers and other inhabitants of the towns and villages, complain that they receive more injury in their property on the Sabbath, than all the week besides : this in a great measure proceeds from the lawless state of the younger class, who are allowed to run wild on that day, free from every restraint. To remedy this evil, persons duly qualified are employed to instruct those that cannot read; and those that may have learnt to read, are taught the catechism and conducted to church. By thus keeping their minds engaged, the day passes profitably, and not disagreeably. In those parishes where this plan has been adopted, we are assured that the behaviour of the children is greatly civilized. The barbarous ignorance in which they had before lived, being in some degree dispelled, they begin to give proofs that those persons are mistaken, who consider the lower orders of mankind as incapable of improvement, and therefore think an attempt to reclaim them impracticable, or at least not worth the trouble."

Those who never saw the dense population of the manufacturing cities and towns of Great Britain, before Sabbath Schools were instituted, can form but an inadeqate conception of the

improvement in the habits of the people which these schools introduced in such places. The city of Gloucester, in which Mr. Raikes resided, has been long famous for its pin manufactories, in which a considerable number of children are employed; and on whom the demoralizing effect of manufactories operated in its full force, without any counteracting influence, until these schools were established. Their parents being generally uninstructed themselves, could not instruct them; nor was the time of cessation from labour during the week sufficient for any such purposes, if they had been able.

The Lord's day, therefore, was the only time in which their minds could be improved by education; but this day was generally spent in idleness, dissipation, and play. The streets were thronged with groups of children, annoying the peaceable inhabitants and passengers, by their noise and profligacy, and often disturbing, with riotous profaneness, the very sanctuaries of religion.

As soon as Sabbath Schools were introduced, these evils began to disappear; and order, decorum, and quiet, succeeded. The happy effect was observed by the inhabitants of the towns and villages around, and many of them followed the example of Gloucester. At length the outlines of the plan having been inserted in some of the magazines and newspapers of the country, a considerable attention to it was excited in the metropolis; and about the latter end of the year 1785, "a Society for the support and encouragement of Sunday Schools in the different counties of England," was established in London.

[To be continued.]

HINTS FOR THE FORMATION OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

It is hoped, that by the extensive circulation of this Number, the following hints will be read by many persons who, with benevolent dispositions, and within the reach of every material necessary to the formation of Sunday Schools, are desirous of accomplishing that object, yet have no opportunity of being