tihtavy of Che theological ^^minavy 
 
 PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Don J. Hayes 
 
 BV 1518 .R34 H3 1900 
 Harris, J. Henry. 
 The story of Robert Raikes 
 for the young 
 
^.//^ 
 
ROBERT RAIKES 
 
 From an old portrait Engraved by Buttre 
 
 l^rontispiece 
 
^ JUL 1 
 
 ^oecALSt*i 
 
 THE STORY OF 
 
 ROBERT RAIKES 
 
 FOR THE YOUNG 
 
 BY 
 
 J. HENRY HARRIS 
 
 EDITOR OF "ROBERT RAIKES: THE MAN AND HIS WORK." 
 
 WITR A PREFATORY NOTE TO THE AUTHORIZED 
 AMERICAN EDITION 
 
 By EDWIN W. RICE, D.D. 
 
 " It is something to have the wish to be what we ought. A longing 
 look mav produce an exertion ; repeated efforts may gain some ground. 
 Let us not despond." 
 
 — Robert Raikes to the Rev. //'. Lewelyn 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. 
 
TO THE 
 
 RISING GENERATION 
 
 IN TWO 
 
 HEMISPHERES 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by American Sunday School Union, 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Prefatory Note to the American Edition 5 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 I. Tiie Beginning 13 
 
 II. The Eaikes Family 21 
 
 III. Robert Raikes 28 
 
 IV. The Prison Reformer 37 
 
 V. The Story of Sunday-Schools 46 
 
 VI. The Story of Raikes' s Sunday Lessons 57 
 
 VII. Studies in Child Life 68 
 
 VIII. A Friend of the Poor 80 
 
 IX. The Bible Student 90 
 
 X. Last Days 101 
 
 XI. After Thoughts 109 
 
PKEFATORY NOTE TO THE AMEEICAN 
 EDITION. 
 
 Tbe memory of Robert Raikes has been 
 more warmly cberisbed and probably more 
 hio-hlv^ honored in Amei'ica than in the city 
 of his birth. And the interest continues to 
 deepen with the growth of the modern Sunday- 
 school movement.* 
 
 *Wlien a statue of Raikes was placed upon the 
 Thames' Embankment, London, Eng., in 1880, to com- 
 memorate his remarkable work as the founder of 
 modern Sunday-schools, the only memorial of liim in 
 Gloucester, Eng., was a plain marble slab, which Mr. 
 John Briggs discovered " hidden away in the old church 
 of St. Mary de Crypt," in a corner so dark, and so near 
 the roof as to be difficult to decipher." It was " a plain 
 slab of marble, some twenty-four inches square, con- 
 taining a memorial of the death of Robert Raikes," 
 and " a bare mention that he was tlie founder of Sun- 
 day-schools," the rest of the inscription being the entire 
 passage in Job 29 : 11-13. "• It would be easier to ascribe 
 a character for general benevolence to the subject of the 
 Memorial." says the explorer, " than to trace [in these 
 words] anj^ special connection with Sunday-schools." 
 " Lower down there is a larger slab in memorv of the 
 
 5 
 
6 PREFA TOR Y NO TE. 
 
 The brief biographies of this great man, 
 which have heretofore appeared from time to 
 time in this country, are, for the most part, out 
 of print. Hap])ily the author has prepared 
 a delightful sketch for a new generation of 
 scholars who wish to learn anew the histor}^ 
 of the founder and the founding of this mighty 
 Christian organization. 
 
 The millions of Sunday-school workers in 
 America owe their best thanks to Mr. Harris 
 and his father for gathering a great mass of 
 hitherto unknown material throwing clearer 
 light upon the life, work and character of 
 Kobert Kaikes. 
 
 That material has been patiently examined, 
 arranged and Avisely digested, and out of it he 
 
 father of Robert Raikes," who was also a printer. On 
 the lower part of this slab, evidently not originally in- 
 tended to be used for an inscription, is a further memoir 
 in Latin, setting forth that Robert his eldest son first 
 founded Sunday-schools and by his zeal commended the 
 work to others." 
 
 The recollections of his work had died out, in Glou- 
 cester, even in 1862, except among the poor only. Of 
 these, there were some old men and women, who de- 
 lighted to honor the " friend of the poor." 
 
 In the centennary j^ear (1880) of Sunday-schools, 
 however, a Memorial Hall was built by subscriptions, 
 and Mr. Addison erected a memorial tower, to com- 
 memorate the simple and great character of Mr. Raikes, 
 in the city of Gloucester. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 7 
 
 has herein wrought what, it is safe to say, 
 readers will pronounce a graphic, forceful, and 
 satisfactory life of Raikes for the young. 
 
 The author has kindly transmitted advanced 
 proofs of his work to The American Sunday- 
 School Union, and arranged to have it issue 
 an " Authorized Edition " in America simul- 
 taneously with its appearance in Great Britain. 
 The title of the Avork there is "The Sunday 
 Scholars' Life of Robert Raikes," which has 
 been slightly changed here to suit American 
 readers. 
 
 I am sure that any Sunday-school worker 
 who takes up this racy sketch wall find it ex- 
 tremely difficult to lay it down, until it is com- 
 pleted, and then it will be with a profounder 
 conviction of the greatness of the founder and 
 of his work. 
 
 EDWm W. RICE. 
 
 Philadelphia, 
 January, 1900. 
 
IKTKODUCTIOK 
 
 TO MY YOUNU FKIENDS. 
 
 If I were to show you a watch, which for 
 one liimdred and twenty years had worked 
 without once stopping, and if I were to touch 
 a spring and you were to hear musical bells 
 chiming tlie liour and the quarters, many of 
 you would ask me to take it to ])ieces and tell 
 you all about the genius who designed it. I 
 would gladly show you the wheels, and the 
 jewels on which they run, and the musical 
 chimes, and the slender springs moving like 
 living things, and never growing tired, for it is 
 a good sign when young people wish to know 
 about what is useful and artistic. 
 
 But now I am going to tell you about some- 
 thing more wonderful still — something about 
 a living and a growing thing full of music ; 
 and you will be the more interested in it be- 
 cause you — all of you — are parts of it, and 
 are the chimes to which God listens. 
 
 I am going to tell you about the Sunday- 
 
 9 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 school, which, this very year [IDUOj, is one 
 hundred and twenty years old. All these 
 years it has never once stopped, never grown 
 tired ; and what at first may seem wonderful 
 is, tliat as it has grown older it has grown 
 younger, more beautiful, more full of powei', 
 more full of delicious music. What is more, 
 should it live for a thousand, or ten thousand 
 years, it will become younger and younger, more 
 lovely, more full of richer tones, and will never 
 cease this putting back the " shadow on the dial " 
 until every child, in every nation npon earth, 
 shall each Sabbath Day swell the chorus which 
 God loves to hear from the lips of little chil- 
 dren. 
 
 It is a very sim[)le story, sim])ler far than 
 that of the watch chiming the hours so that a 
 blind man may know the time, only it is more 
 wonderful, as you will say when you know of 
 what materials the Sunday-school was formed, 
 and hear about the man who found and shaped 
 them, put them together, and was able, by 
 God's blessing, to breathe into them "the 
 breath of lives,'' and endow them with the 
 magic charm of never growing old ! 
 
 Everything is contained in a nutshell : little 
 children, a ])()or woman, a good man. We shall 
 find for ours(^lves : First, the Motive — the 
 good man's desire to serve others ; then the 
 
INTRODUCTION. H 
 
 Teacher — the poor woman who taught chil- 
 dren poorer still ; and then the School — the 
 little children who were taught. These are 
 the elements, and out of these has grown the 
 Sunday-school, which you all love ; but you 
 should know how very different everything 
 was at first, or you will never rightly value 
 what has been done for you. 
 
 I only ask your patience for a little while, 
 and you will learn how much of care, and 
 thought, and unselfish love has been expended 
 upon you, your classes, your lessons, and every- 
 thing to your profit. Then when next you go 
 to school you will put joy into your teachers' 
 hearts by showing them that they do not Avork 
 in vain. 
 
THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEGINNING. 
 
 I HAVE told you that the modern Sunday- 
 school began one hundred and twenty years 
 ago, and the first thing you will want to know 
 is : AYhy did it begin ? 
 
 You must fancy that you were living in the 
 city of Gloucester, England, a very important 
 town in those days, because it had a cathedral 
 and was a market and seaport town, and well 
 known for the manufacture of pins, the making 
 of sacks, and the casting of church bells. Some 
 of the people were Aveavers, and made cloth 
 upon hand-looms. It Avas a very fine old city, 
 anciently surrounded by strong AA^alls entered 
 by four gates — North, South, East, and West. 
 Outside the Avails the country was beautiful 
 
14 THE STORY OF ROBERT R A IKES. 
 
 and very fertile, and there were iiiari}^ villages 
 and small towns round about, whose inhabit- 
 ants swarmed into the city on market-daj^s 
 and festivals and in times of trouble, and there 
 was seldom wanting an excuse to take tliem 
 there. Inside the walls were the Castle, the 
 Cathedral, the Bishop's Palace, and many 
 beautiful houses with quaint gables and finelv- 
 timbered fronts, some of which remain intact 
 to this very day. 
 
 There were so many churches that when the 
 bells were pealed anthems of devotion filled the 
 air, and there were so many charities for the 
 sick and poor, and widows and orphans, that 
 people said when certain of anything, " As 
 sure as God's in Gloucester." 
 
 I must, however, tell you that there were 
 prisons in the city as well as churches, and tliat 
 judges came eacli Assize and condemned so 
 many peo|)]e to deatii that you miglit su[)pose 
 the city was full of criminals. It was not 
 worse than other places ; indeed, not so bad 
 as some ; but the laws were very severe, and 
 a man who stole a sheep or a handkerchief 
 might be hanged ; and when a man slew his 
 fellow nothing worse could happen to liim. 
 For begging, and quarreling, and bad conduct 
 men and women were tied to carts'-tails and 
 whipped through tlie streets, so that, although 
 
THE BEGINNING. 15 
 
 this was a cathedral city and full of churches 
 and charities, the people became so accustomed 
 to these sights that cruelty to others did not 
 move them to pity. 
 
 In the eighteenth century — not so very long 
 ago — the city of Gloucester was full of con- 
 trasts — full of churches and full of crime, with 
 plenty of wealth and over-full of poverty ; full 
 of charities and full of suffering. There were 
 Charity Schools, Dame Schools, and Grammar 
 and Collegiate Schools. There were learned 
 men in the Cathedral close, and out of it ; but 
 the mass of the population were ignorant of 
 almost everything outside of their proper trade 
 or calling. The " vulgar " or " common " people 
 could not say their A, B, C, and even trades- 
 people kept accounts "in their heads," or by 
 means of chalk-marks upon boards called 
 " tallies,'' or " tally marks." Ignorant and 
 vicious parents brought up children in igno- 
 rance and vice ; and, as new generations in- 
 vented new vices, it realh^ is a wonder that the 
 masses of the people were not worse than they 
 were. 
 
 Air the streets, excepting the main streets 
 leading to and from the city gates, were 
 narrow — for the most part they were lanes or 
 alleys, and were called so; all were very filthy, 
 and at night dark. Respectable people ventur- 
 
16 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 ing out carried lanterns in their liands to avoid 
 the open gutters and lieaps of garbage before 
 tlieir doors. As this was the condition of 
 things under the eyes and noses of the well-to- 
 do, I must leave 3^ou to fancy how horrible 
 they were in the dens — I won't call tliein 
 houses — of the poor. Particulars are not want- 
 ing as to these dens and their inmates, but I 
 would not shock you by repeating them. 
 
 The well-to-do citizens of this important 
 Church and Industrial center were, of course, 
 very well dressed, and well fed according to 
 the notions of the day ; but their manners 
 were not nice, and their language, even in 
 friendly gossip, was very coarse, just as it was 
 in London and throughout the country. 
 
 So far as the masses of the people are con- 
 cerned, I cannot say with truth that they 
 were properly clotlied in any part of tliis 
 country in the eighteenth century. They wore 
 a "livery of rags and patches." If you could 
 see them without shoes or stockings, with cast- 
 oft* knee-breeches, with ragged shirts, or none, 
 under ragged '^ frocks," I think you would say 
 they were not " clothed," but partly covered. 
 In snow and frost men swathed their feet and 
 legs in straw, and threw pieces of ohl sacking 
 across their slioulders for warmth, and to keep 
 them dry in wet weather. Women and girls 
 
THE BEGINNING. 17 
 
 did the same work as the men, and were 
 dressed up in odds and ends of cast-off gar- 
 ments and sacking, just like the men ; and it 
 makes one's heart sore to look at them in old 
 pictures wherein the truth is told, and told 
 plainly. 
 
 I would not have you think that all were 
 like this. There were some thrifty laborers 
 Avhose sons and daughters went out to service 
 in good families, and were Aveli fed and decently 
 clothed ; but they were quite distinct from the 
 " masses," or, let us say, from four out of every 
 five of the people of this country during the 
 eighteenth centurj^, when, you must remember, 
 there were no State or National Schools, and 
 the great middle class of to-day did not exist. 
 
 One thing more I would refer to, namely, the 
 language of the " masses." I have said that 
 the well-to-do were very " coarse," even to one 
 another, so you will not be surprised to hear 
 that the talk of the common people was shock- 
 ing. It would not be intelligible to you now 
 if you were to hear it ; and, if it were trans- 
 lated, you would be horrified. You know that 
 your own parents and teachers and friends use 
 thousands of words in ordinary conversation, 
 and that words, conveying shades of meaning, 
 act on the ear like delicate tones of color on 
 the eye, filling the mind with beautiful thoughts, 
 
 2 
 
1$ TBE STORT of ttonEEt RAtKES. 
 
 and the fancy with choice imagery. If we lost 
 the power of speech how dull we should be ! 
 Well, the common people spoke to one another, 
 it is true, but their choice of words was very 
 small. In their trades and callings they used 
 words which we may call " technical," and be- 
 yond these they only knew enough to express 
 sensationsof pleasure and pain, anger and sor- 
 row, some common objects, changes in the 
 weather, sports and the like. Many of their 
 words expressing much love, or pain, or violent 
 emotion cannot be repeated now, and often con- 
 jured up degrading fancies. Infant lips, in all 
 innocency lisped words of infamy ; children at 
 their games shouted in curses. As they grew 
 their souls were stunted and never leaped in 
 gladness at the sound of words which give fresh 
 life and hope and strength, such as you hear 
 every hour of your lives. 
 
 It will be well to remember this, because the 
 foul language used by children in the streets 
 had a great deal to do with the starting of 
 Sunday-schools. 
 
 Now I know that some of 3^ou are wishful to 
 ask me. What were all the clergy and minis- 
 ters OF RELIGION AND GOOD PEOPLE DOING IN 
 THOSE DAYS ? 
 
 I tell you frankly that I cannot answer that 
 question briefly. Good and pious people there 
 
TBE BEaiNNlNQ. 19 
 
 were, full of courage, self-sacrifice, charity, 
 devotion, love. Those who choose to inquire 
 will find in almost every parish records of 
 saintly lives which may well make many of 
 us blush at our own shortcomings, and yet 
 the Christian Church had, seemingly, fallen 
 asleep when the whole country was ripe for 
 mission work. There are so many reasons 
 social, political, and moral, to be thought of 
 that I cannot answer the question now, and I 
 mention it so that you may see I had not for- 
 gotten it, or purposely passed it by. I need 
 notsay more now to enable you to see that in 
 the face of great and good men and women 
 and in spite of all they said and did, the 
 "common" people in this country were in a 
 pitiable plight — ignorant and unloveh\ 
 
 They were, however, ready for a change, and 
 when they heard voices charged with spiritual 
 magnetism crying, " Repent ye," the}^ an- 
 swered to it ; and it was when in the throes 
 of a moral awakening that the Sunday-school 
 was born. 
 
 Note. — The student of the condition and morals of 
 the masses in England during the eighteenth and well 
 into the nineteenth century is, first, indignant, then 
 incredulous, and then sad. Unhappily, authority is not 
 needed insupj)ort of the statement that the masses 
 were heathen. When Whitefield and Wesley preached 
 of God, prayer, and Jesus they used words producing an 
 
20 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 impression of novelty and strangeness equal to that 
 produced amongst tribes which had never before seen 
 civilized men. Mr. Raikes tells the following stor}^ : A 
 man on tlie scaffold was recommended to pra}^ before 
 he was hanged. He said, " Pray ! I was never taught to 
 do so. I don't know what it means ; and if you hang 
 me now I shall go to hell, clothes and all." Mrs. 
 Hannah More found one Bible in the Cheddar district, 
 and that was used for propping up a flower-pot. In 
 North Bucks a poor woman was asked (about the year 
 1820) " if she knew Jesus Christ ? " After a little hes- 
 itation she replied, "that she had not heard of such a 
 gentleman.^' The annals of the poor in all our parishes 
 are full of testimony against those who betrayed 
 their trust, but for true pathos this poor woman's 
 reply is seldom equaled. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 THE KAIKES FAMILY. 
 
 You will like to know something about the 
 family from which the Founder of Modern 
 Sunday-schools descended, who they were, 
 what brought his father to Gloucester, and why 
 he settled there. You will also like to know 
 something about his father who was also called 
 Robert, but whom we Avill here call the elder — 
 Robert the elder — so that there may be no con- 
 fusion. 
 
 The Founder of Sunday-schools, was born 
 in the city of Gloucester, England, nearly one 
 hundred and sixty-four years ago. He came 
 of an old Yorkshire family, whose history has 
 been traced as far back as 1507. The name is 
 not a common one in England, and when we 
 first hear of the family they were husbandmen, 
 living at Stillingfleet, near York. How long 
 they had been settled there I do not know; 
 and it is thought that they originally came from 
 Denmark.^ The name is spelled in different 
 
 * For more information about the Raikes family see 
 Robert Raikes : The Man and His Works, chap. xvii. 
 
 21 
 
22 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 Avays, such as Eaks, Rakys, and Eackes, but 
 from about the year 1600 it has been spelled 
 Raikes. 
 
 The famil}^, you see, were of the people, and 
 workers. They Avere an energetic and inde- 
 pendent race, cautious and thrifty, for we find 
 by their wills and other deeds, that each gen- 
 eration was more wealthy than the one before 
 it. By and by they gave up farming for com- 
 merce, and settled in Kingston-upon-Hull, an 
 important town in those days. Here they 
 pushed to the front, and owned ships, were 
 wardens of the Trinity House, and took part in 
 municipal affairs. Thomas Raikes was twice 
 Mayor, and held office when King Charles I. 
 laid siege to the town, whose inhabitants had 
 closed their gates against him and his army. 
 This Thomas Raikes showed much prudence 
 and courage in days when men lost their wealth 
 and heads with very little warning, and the 
 confidence of the people in him was unbounded. 
 He was of the people and for the people, and 
 did his duty without flinching; and no man 
 can do more. 
 
 The elder brother of Thomas, the Mayor, 
 was named Richard, also a merchant. He had 
 a son named after himself, who became the 
 Ticar of Hessle, in Yorkshire, whose son Tim- 
 othy also took holy orders and succeeded his 
 
THE R A IKES FAMILY. 23 
 
 father as Yicar of Hessle, and whose daugh- 
 ter, Hester, married William Wilberforce, and 
 became the great-grandmother of William 
 Wilberforce, the philanthropist. The family 
 were farmers and merchants and clergymen, 
 and did not belong to the great landed class 
 which was then the only aristocracy in the 
 country. 
 
 Timothy Raikes's eldest son was named Rob- 
 ert, who served his apprenticeship as a printer, 
 probably at York. For some time he worked 
 as a journeyman, and at last found his way into 
 Gloucester. He went into partnership with 
 a Mr. Dicey, and they started the Gloucester 
 Journal newspaper, now one of the oldest in 
 England. The partnership did not last long ; 
 and this Robert Raikes remained in the city of 
 Gloucester and carried on a printing and news- 
 paper business — by no means a common one in 
 those days. 
 
 It was a love affair, I think, which brought 
 Robert Raikes the elder into Gloucester, for 
 only two months before the Journal was start- 
 ed, in 1722, he married Sarah Kiblett, of Fair- 
 ford. She dying soon, he married Ann Mond, 
 and after her death he married Mary, the 
 daughter of the Rev. Richard Drew, of I^ails- 
 worth. This was probably about the year 
 1734-5. Our Robert was the eldest son of 
 
24 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 this third marriage, and he was born in the 
 parish of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester, on 
 September 14th, 1736, and was baptized on the 
 24th of the same month, as may be seen in the 
 Parish Register. 
 
 There is not much to tell you about Robert 
 Raikes the elder, but the little that is known is 
 valuable, because of its influence on the life and 
 character of his son. He was a practical man 
 of business, and lived next to the Swan Inn, 
 Pye Corner, in the Southgate, where his print- 
 ing presses were. He had "push '' and energy, 
 and constantly altered the appearance of his 
 newspaper, which he edited in so independent 
 a way as to be summoned twice to the bar of 
 the House of Commons. He only appeared 
 once, and then he had to go down upon his 
 knees and be reprimanded by " Mr. Speaker " 
 for printing certain votes in Parliament ! This 
 was a bold and dangerous thing to do in those 
 days, and it was noised abroad that he had 
 committed some sort of treason against the 
 Government — '^ a false and scandalous asper- 
 sion" which he warmly resented. 
 
 He was a kindly-natured man, and in times 
 of distress inserted the advertisements of char- 
 itable committees free of charge in his Journal. 
 He Avas a humane man, and wrote against the 
 fashionable sport of cock-fighting, and made 
 
THE B AIRES FAMILY. 25 
 
 frequent appeals for the relief of poor debtors 
 in prison. He was a temperance man, and set 
 his face against excessive drinking in ale- 
 houses, and wrote boldly against the destruc- 
 tion of grain to make spirits which drove 
 people mad and ruined them body and soul. 
 He was an overseer of the poor for his parish, 
 and died in the house in which he had always 
 lived, in the year 1757, and in the 68th year 
 of his age. He left behind him a widow, who 
 survived him for twenty-two years, one daugh- 
 ter and five sons, of whom, as I have already 
 said, Robert was the eldest. 
 
 Of Robert Raikes's mother we know very 
 little, but we must not pass her by, for a good 
 mother is as a hymn of ghidness in the hearts 
 of her children. Mary Raikes must have had 
 the domestic virtues well developed within her, 
 and so she made home beautiful. She was 
 twenty-five years younger than her husband, 
 and so greatly did he confide in her judgment 
 and motherly love that he left her a free hand 
 in the management of his family and affairs, 
 and no man can show more loyal regard for 
 his wife than this. The Raikes family appear 
 to have been very fortunate in their wives. 
 Their rule seems to have been to choose their 
 wives, like Mrs. Primrose chose her weddino- 
 gown, for qualities which would ''wear well"; 
 
26 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 and when they died they left them free to do 
 as they chose with their families and estates. 
 
 The death of Kobert Eaikes the elder did 
 not break up the home, for he had been a 
 prosperous and thrifty man, and possessed lands 
 and houses besides the printing business. His 
 son Eobert was just over twenty-one years of 
 age, and stepped into his shoes. The appear- 
 ance of the newspaper was improved, but things 
 Avent on as usual, only the eldest son had upon 
 his shoulders the support of his mother, and 
 the education and maintenance of his brothers 
 and sisters. He lived in the old home wath his 
 mother, of w^hose character Ave shall get some 
 insight when Ave see Avhat became of her chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Eobert Avas twenty-one, and carried on the 
 business. 
 
 Eichard Avas fourteen, Avas sent to St. John's 
 College, Cambridge, Avhere he made his mark, 
 took his degree, and entered holy orders. 
 
 William and Thomas became merchants in 
 the " Eussia " trade, and Thomas so distin- 
 guished himself as to become Governor of the 
 Bank of England. In the city of London his 
 name ranked high for moral Avorth, and he 
 was well known throughout Europe for his be- 
 nevolence. 
 
 Charles married a rich cousin, and lived 
 
THE R AIRES FAMILY. 27 
 
 the life of a private gentleman in Cambridge- 
 shire. 
 
 There was only one daughter, Mary, named 
 after her dear mother, and she married Francis 
 Kewberry, a gentleman, of Heatherford Park, 
 Sussex. 
 
 For the widow of a printer to bring up her 
 children in those days so that all of them 
 should be well educated and settled in life, and 
 become known for their sterling qualities and 
 charities, speaks volumes. I take it to be a 
 good sign that the children were in no haste 
 to leave home and the soft caresses of a mother's 
 lips. Robert never left her, but lived with her 
 in the old house ^' against the ' Swan Inn,' " 
 and in the new house in Southgate Street until 
 she died, and was once more, after a separation 
 of twenty-two years, laid by the side of her 
 husband in the family vault. 
 
 More than this I cannot tell you of the 
 mother of Robert Raikes, but I think all of 
 you will say that it is a good sign when men 
 of high character cherish their oAvn parents 
 until death. When we find a young man like 
 Robert Raikes living at home with his widowed 
 mother, and acting as a father towards his 
 little brothers and sisters, then I think we may 
 also say tliat the home influence of that family 
 has been blessed. 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 KOBERT EAIKES. 
 
 I WISH I could tell you more than I am able 
 about the childhood and youth of him Avho 
 has had so much to do in making the lives of 
 little children beautiful. He would, 1 fancy, 
 come nearer to your hearts, and we should all 
 know him better if we could only see him at 
 play, for he was the sort of boy to play well. 
 He was a handsome lad, Avitli light brown 
 curly hair, and fair skin, and blue, sympathetic 
 eyes ; and if you put a flat cloth cap upon his 
 head, and button his long coat up to the chin, 
 and give him thick, worsted-knitted stockings, 
 and ])ut shoes on his feet, you will have a 
 picture of him during his school-days, for this 
 was how the son of a well-to-do citizen was 
 dressed in Gloucester one hundred and fifty 
 years ago. 
 
 The St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School 
 
 was only a good stone's-throw from his father's 
 
 house, and at this old school, founded in 1528, 
 
 some of the most promising youths of Glou- 
 
 28 
 
ROBERT R AIRES. 29 
 
 cester were educated. George Whitefield, the 
 soul-stirring Evangelist, and John Moore, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury in 1783, were St. Mary 
 de Crypt Grammar School boys. Young 
 Raikes is said to have gone there for a time 
 but left when about fourteen to go to the 
 Cathedral College School,"^ which stood high 
 in the county and turned out many good 
 scholars. School began at six o'clock every 
 morning with Psalms and prayers. There was 
 a religious atmosphere about this school where- 
 in the choir boys were trained to the glory of 
 God and the good of the commonwealth. 
 Young Robert left school to be apprenticed to 
 his father. The rules with regard to apprentice- 
 ship were pretty strictly observed in those 
 days ; his father was proud of his calling, and 
 the word " typographer " is engraved on his 
 tomb. He never styled himself " Editor," but 
 always " Printer " of his Jowmal, and young 
 
 * Robert Raikes's name appears on the school register 
 in the year 1750. The headmaster was the Rev. William 
 Alexander, M. A., who was required by the ancient 
 statutes to be "skilful in Greek and Latin, of good 
 fame and a godly life, well qualified for teaching, who 
 may train up in piety and good learning those children 
 who may resort to our school to learn grammar." Henry 
 Phillpotts, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, was an " old 
 boy " when Robert Raikes acted as one of the dinner 
 stewards in 1795.— Memoirs of the College School, GloU' 
 cester, by Frederic Hannam Clark. 
 
so THE STORY OF ROBERT RAtKES. 
 
 Eobert was destined from the first to succeed 
 him in a profession not wanting in peril. The 
 young man learned his trade, and if we could 
 see him in the " composing-room " Ave should 
 see him standing at his " case " with an apron 
 before him, and a brown paper cap upon his 
 head, like other craftsmen of his day. He was 
 never " above his work," and long after he 
 became famous he set up type in his office, 
 and his " composing-stick " is preserved in the 
 Gloucester Museum. 
 
 The education which he received included 
 the classics. His father's was the only print- 
 ing-office in several counties in England and 
 Wales ; and authors in those days were much 
 given to make a display oE learning in Latin 
 and Greek quotations. The newspapers and 
 magazines were generally full of classical 
 allusions, so that it was a matter of necessity 
 for a printer of books and the editor of a news- 
 paper, if he was to succeed, to have a fair 
 knowledge of the classics. In this instance 
 there is more than guess work to guide us, for 
 in a letter to a friend Robert Raikes says, " I 
 have just finished a Latin author, which I am 
 printing." Moreover, he was his own " proof " 
 reader. When he succeeded to the business 
 the Raikes Press had a good reputation from 
 Gloucester to Hereford, and he increased it on 
 
it OBER T R AIRES. 31 
 
 account of the quality of his work. As I have 
 seen some of his trade accounts for work done, 
 I should say that he was well-grounded in 
 book-keeping ; so we may fairly conclude that 
 his school education was commercial and 
 classical. 
 
 I think we shall be right in believing that 
 young Kobert's studies were continued after 
 leaving the St. Mary de Crypt Grammar 
 School, because he " wrote French fluently, 
 and was a first-rate geographer." * 
 
 You remember that Gloucester, England, was 
 a cathedral city, full of clergy, some of whom 
 eked out their incomes as tutors in private 
 families ; and it is probable that young Robert 
 was privately tutored, since he did not go to a 
 university. 
 
 It would not be right to imagine Eobert 
 Raikes as a " great scholar " ; he was simply a 
 well-educated man, very superior to ordinary 
 citizens engaged in trade, and able to hold his 
 own when in the company of " men of letters " 
 and " men of the world,'- which was of very 
 great advantage to him when he came forward 
 with his plans for popular education and the 
 institution of Sunday-schools. 
 
 ]S"ow, perhaps, you would like to know 
 
 * See Mrs. Weller-Ladbroke's Letter in Robert Raikes. 
 The Man and His Work, p. 209. 
 
32 THE STORY OF ROBERT BAIKES. 
 
 something about bis marriage. Well, he mar- 
 ried Anne Trigge, the daughter of Thomas 
 Trigge, of Newenham, in the county of Glou- 
 cester. The bride was residing with her 
 mother (then Mrs. Napier on her second mar- 
 riage) in Great Pulteney Street, Piccadillj^, at 
 the time of her marriage. The young lady 
 was in " society," and one of her brothers be- 
 came General Sir Thomas Trigge, k.c.b., and 
 another an admiral. We may therefore take 
 it for granted that when Mr. Raikes went to 
 Is"ewenham as the accepted suitor of his bride, 
 or visited her in London, he had the manners 
 and appearance of a gentleman of the period. 
 He was thirty-one years of age when he mar- 
 ried, and if you look at his portrait you will 
 see what a handsome and intelligent face he 
 had, how it beamed when he smiled, and what 
 well-shaped lips he had for a smile to dwell 
 upon. 
 
 In the eighteenth century dress was much 
 more important than now, and marked a man's 
 rank in life in the eyes of the people more 
 readily than his pedigree. To be well dressed 
 then a man needed ample means. When a 
 gentleman was read}^ to step into a sedan chair 
 to make a polite visit his costume Avould cost 
 not less than $2,500, unless he wore sham 
 diamonds in his shoe buckles and imitation 
 
ROBERT RAIKES. 33 
 
 lace on his coat. Yery great dandies — they 
 were called " Bucks " and " Beaux " — wore 
 little fortunes on their backs and fingers, 
 and carried gold snuff-boxes sparkling with 
 gems. 
 
 In his native city Eobert Kaikes was counted 
 amongst the dandies of the day. As he mixed 
 in fashionable society, no doubt he dressed 
 well, and as he had a natural swagger with 
 him when he walked through the streets, he 
 was called a " Buck," and his manners " buck- 
 ish " ; and his appearance and manners became 
 in after years a tradition. Some people said 
 he was " vain " and " conceited," and Avhen, 
 in the years to come, his name was trumpeted 
 everywhere for his good deeds, his little van- 
 ities were remembered against him. 
 
 The marriage took place by special license 
 in St. James's Church, Piccadilly, on Decem- 
 ber 3rd, 1767. The bride was given away by 
 her brother Thomas, in the presence of her 
 mother, and both their names appear in the 
 Church Register. The marriage may be found 
 chronicled amongst the fashionable news of 
 the society papers of the day. The bride was 
 twenty-three years of age, and had a " delicate 
 air " with her, which never forsook her. She 
 had also the manners of a society lady of 
 her day, and kept those beneath her at their 
 3 
 
34 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 " proper distance." The people of Gloucester, 
 when they knew her, called her " Madam." 
 There were many striking contrasts in the 
 dispositions of husband and wife, but one thing 
 they had in common, namely, an abounding 
 sympathy at the sight of suffering and distress. 
 The young wife never took any active part 
 in her husband's philanthropic work, but then 
 she put no obstacles in his way ; or, if she did, 
 he overcame her prejudices, and we know noth- 
 ing of them. 
 
 Within a year after his father's death Robert 
 Raikes removed from the premises " against 
 the Swan " to a fine old house in Southgate 
 Street, with open timbered front, wherein a 
 celebrated judge once lived. His dear mother 
 was living with him then, and there he took 
 his young wife. In all, nine children were 
 born to him. Nearly the whole of his public 
 life was passed there, and there he worked out 
 his problems for social reform. In the Sun- 
 day-school world this tine old house will pos- 
 sess a special attraction, because it was whilst 
 there that Mr. Raikes conceived the idea of 
 " botanizing " in the child-life of the city. 
 Every one who makes a pilgrimage to Glou- 
 cester looks at the well-preserved and pictur- 
 esque old house with a sense of reverence, as 
 though the spirit of the man still hovered 
 
BOBERT RAIKES. 35 
 
 about it : and I do not doubt that some have 
 caught the contagion of doing good by only 
 looking at it. 
 
 There was not a shop in the premises in 
 those days. Robert Raikes did not keep a shop 
 like his father had done. He once wrote to a 
 customer, " T keep no shop, and have no con- 
 cern in the bookselling line." His printing- 
 office was separated from the house by Bolt 
 Lane, and a man was employed by him to 
 sweep a pathway across the Lane for his use, 
 so that his shoes should not be dirtied, and bis 
 stockings splashed by filth. In the printing- 
 office he had a little room, which he called 
 " my den," which opened into the composing- 
 room where the printers were at work. A 
 window opened into Bolt Lane, and underneath 
 this window the neglected children of the city 
 played "chuck," and quarreled and fought, 
 and used language too horrible to repeat. 
 
 These children caused him very much an- 
 noyance when he Avas engaged in reading 
 " proofs," or writing for his Journal / and the 
 parish beadles, even if they had the power, 
 did not choose to interfere with the wild 
 liberty of ragged children to play and curse, 
 if they wished to. 
 
 It was here, in this workroom, that during 
 many years the painful and unnatural degrad- 
 
36 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 ation of child-life was brought before him 
 vividly — all the more painful and vivid, per- 
 haps, because but a few yards away were his 
 own little ones, clean and neat, loving and 
 loved, and lisping words winged with joy, 
 which go to tlie heart. Here, in this " den," 
 he often worked at the great problems of 
 life, as we know from his editorial notes ; and 
 here he probably worked out the first principles 
 on which Sunday-schools were founded. 
 
 The old office in Bolt Lane has long since 
 disappeared, but the dwelling-house in the 
 Southgate Street remains. 
 
 I would now enter upon the formation of 
 Sunday-schools, only I would have you first 
 know about the work in which Robert Raikes 
 had been for years and years engaged before 
 attempting to deal with children. I shall not 
 delay you long, but we must follow him by 
 steps and watch his ideas unfold, or we shall 
 never know the real man, and be certain to 
 lose the grand lesson of his life. 
 
CHAPTEK lY, 
 
 THE PRISON REFORMER. 
 
 Egbert Raikes inherited the democratic in- 
 stincts of his family, and from the time that 
 he began to edit the Gloucester [B?ig.] Jotbvyial 
 we find him always on the side of the masses. 
 His aim was twofold : to elevate the people, 
 and repress those wlio directly or indirectly 
 degraded them. Week by week, month by 
 month, the paper contained paragraphs draw- 
 ing attention to the need of bettering the con- 
 dition of the common people, and of training 
 them in the habits of industry and thrift; the 
 paper also breathed protests against those who 
 profited by the degradation of the masses, and 
 against the false policy of the State in neglect- 
 ing people until they became criminal, and then 
 punishing them without mercy or chance of 
 redemption. 
 
 I can fancy that some of you are thinking 
 that I am speaking of another man, and not of 
 the handsome young dandy who swaggered 
 down the streets with the air of a " man of 
 
 37 
 
38 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 quality," until people called him " Buck Kaikes." 
 No, there is no mistake or confusion. I am 
 speaking of the same man, only of another side 
 of him. Some men have many sides. Robert 
 Raikes is one of them, as you will find before 
 we finish ; and we can only know the complete 
 man, so that his example may help us, after 
 studying his strength and his weakness, his 
 foibles and his virtues. Then when we put 
 him together, as a whole, we shall see it the 
 bad controls the good, or if the good controls 
 the bad, and praise or blame accordingly. This 
 is only fair, and surely Ave should be fair to the 
 dead who yet have another life — the historical 
 life — to live in this world. 
 
 The city of Gloucester had two prisons : 
 the county prison at the Castle, and the Bride- 
 well. Both were horrible. There was this 
 distinction. If a woman used her tongue too 
 freely, or a vagrant was awaiting a sound 
 whipping at the cart's-tail, or a man had been 
 drunk and brawling, they were sent to the 
 Bridewell. Persons arrested for debt, or com- 
 mitted for trial at the next assizes, were sent 
 to the Castle. The Bridewell and Castle were, 
 for the prisoners, the nearest approaches to 
 hells upon earth conceivable, if Ave except pris- 
 ons in other parts of the country Avhich were 
 reported to be in yet worse conditions. 
 
THE PRISON REFORMER. 39 
 
 The Bridewell and the Castle jail were 
 shunned as pest-houses by every person in the 
 city, because "jail fever " was so rife and viru- 
 lent, that people used to lead clean and whole- 
 some lives caught it and died. The clergy 
 stood aloof, the laity stood on one side ; there 
 were no sisterhoods or brotherhoods of mercy. 
 The chaplain was paid his salary, but seldom 
 went to the jail, and contented himself with 
 reading prayers over batches of poor wretches 
 sentenced to be hanged for petty thefts or 
 murder. The public demanded the pr'esence 
 of the chaplain on the scaffold as a part of the 
 show. They had "pet" names for chaplains 
 of prisons, which showed how familiar they 
 were with the terrible sight of gibbets. If the 
 chaplain could find a good excuse, and did not 
 attend, the prisoners were hanged all the same, 
 only without a word of sjanpathy or prayer. 
 
 It is only a century which separates us from 
 this state of things, audit is only within a very 
 few years that a healthy public opinion has 
 asked for and obtained a complete change in 
 the idea of the aim and object of punishment. 
 You all know that if you are not the better for 
 being punished there has been a waste of energy 
 — in fact, it is w^orse than that because you be- 
 come hardened. Repeated punishment without 
 reform will, in the end, destroy the moral sense. 
 
40 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 Robert Raikes was one of the first persons 
 in this country to note this, and act upon his 
 observation. 
 
 I think he must have commenced visiting 
 the prisons in his father's lifetime, because the 
 old files of the Gloucester Journal show no 
 break in the flow of appeals for prisoners, and 
 editorial paragraphs showing up the terrible 
 state of society which needed such measures. 
 I think he must have been greatl}^ indebted to 
 his father for the working-out of results on 
 subjects not attractive to ordinary young men, 
 very dainty in their habits, and careful about 
 the cut and color of their waistcoats. 
 
 The visiting of prisons had this effect on the 
 young man. It widened his sympathies, deep- 
 ened his charity, and set him thinking. He 
 arrived early at the conclusion that vice is pre- 
 ventihle. If we follow him closely, we shall 
 find him obstinately clinging to this idea 
 throuo'h numerous failures, and we shall also note 
 that he was a slow thinker, and more sound 
 than brilliant. When he once arrived at a con- 
 clusion it remained with him. We can trace his 
 thoughts on this subject, and they are, briefly — 
 
 Yice is preventible. 
 
 Idleness is the parent of vice. 
 
 Ignorance is the cause of idleness amongst 
 the masses. 
 
THE PRISON REFORMER. 41 
 
 He set himself to cure ignorance, and he 
 commenced with prisoners in the Bridewell 
 and the Castle jail. He read to the men and 
 women, and when he found a prisoner could 
 read he employed him to read to the others. 
 "When prisoners were liberated he found em- 
 ployment for them, but, to his dismay, the 
 jail-bird often returned to his nest Avorse, 
 much worse, than when set free. 
 
 For nearly thirty years he labored on these 
 lines, but Avith very little encouragement, 
 though he must have seen some good results, 
 or, I think, his stout heart must have failed 
 him. When he attacked the prison system he 
 Avas sincere, and preferred to suffer loss in 
 silence than punish the offender. 
 
 I will tell you a story. The woman 
 Avho washed his linen stole some of his 
 shirts and paAvned them. Had he sent her to 
 prison she might have been sentenced to death, 
 and most assuredly she would have been trans- 
 ported. In any case, she would have come 
 out of prison (if she liA^ed long enough) broken 
 in health, and Avith a soul scorched but not 
 purified. What do you think he did ? 
 
 He foro^ave her on her showino^ sio-ns of sor- 
 row for her bad conduct, and on her promising 
 amendment. He took the shirts out of pawn, 
 and said no more about it. 
 
42 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 Here you see the true man — true to his con- 
 victions — suffering wrong rather than break a 
 guiding principle of his life. You see also the 
 generous-tempered man, who redeemed his 
 stolen shirts and said nothing. May you all, 
 my young friends, live to know the rich, mel- 
 low tone of the generosity which dwells in 
 silence. 
 
 Mr. Kaikes did not keep a diary, nor did he 
 leave any papers or correspondence behind 
 him, with marginal notes, all in apple-pie order, 
 and all read^^ for publication ; and what is 
 strange is that very few of the letters which 
 he must have written to various people have 
 been preserved. All the stranger this, because 
 he was a nimble penman, and very seldom al- 
 tered a single word in any of the letters which 
 I have seen. As editor of the Gloucester Joiir- 
 nil we sometimes catch him thinhing^ and 
 when we are trying to piece together the char- 
 acter of a man out of shreds and patches these 
 thoughts are priceless. Here is an instance. 
 After some poor wretches had been hanged for 
 petty thefts he wrote : " How deplorable that 
 society cannot be secured without so great a 
 sacrifice ! " He may have been thinking of his 
 own stolen shirts then, and so tried to secure 
 society in another way, namely, by getting the 
 poor woman to repent, and then forgiving her 
 
THE PRISON REFORMER. 43 
 
 and keeping silence. This story would never 
 have been known but the woman told it years 
 afterwards to a maidservant in the household 
 of Mr. Kaikes's son, then the Yicar of Longhope, 
 and so we may hope that forgiveness for sin 
 bore good fruit. 
 
 Now I may tell you that Mr. Raikes was 
 not " popular " amongst certain of his fellow- 
 citizens. His affable manners and fine clothes 
 and well-to-do air did not save him from ridi- 
 cule. His acts and words were reproaches to 
 those who knew all he knew, and yet did 
 nothing. People in the Castle jail stole from 
 •each other, and some went naked ; were 
 covered with " prison mould," and were starved 
 to death. At night they were chained together, 
 and mastiffs, fed at the public expense, were 
 let loose to hunt down any one who escaped. 
 Infants were sometimes born in the prison, 
 and no man knows what relief Mr. Raikes af- 
 forded out of his own purse, or out of subscrip- 
 tions which he begged, week by week, in his 
 Joiiinial. His appeals would melt a heart of 
 stone. 
 
 You know that if such things took place to- 
 day your good clergymen and ministers and 
 district visitors would cry " shame," and work 
 without ceasing to Avipe away the disgrace. In 
 those days it was not so. People had been so 
 
44 THE STORY OF ROBERT R A IKES. 
 
 long accustomed to see the " masses " neglected 
 and ill-treated that they came to think hang- 
 ing was a good thing, and that whipping, and 
 coarse food, and ignorance were necessary to 
 keep the " vulgar in their proper places." So 
 when Mr. Kaikes interfered he was thought to 
 be impertinent by those whose dut]/ it was to 
 visit the sick in prison, and heal moral ulcers. 
 He was also said to be an enemy to society for 
 attempting to make men discontented with 
 their lot. He was set down as a '' faddist," 
 and his fellow-citizens spoke contemptuously of 
 " Bobby Reekes's " notions for prison reform, 
 and the treatment of prisoners as though they 
 Avere really human and could feel. 
 
 For many years there was only one man who 
 Avorked with him in prison matters, through 
 good and ill repute, and that was Sir George 
 Onesiphorus Paul — name of happy omen — the 
 Governor of the jail. Then Howard, the great 
 prison philanthropist, came on the scene, and, 
 after years of incessant labor, reforms com- 
 menced. There is no official record of Mr. 
 Raikes's unselfish devotion — so unselfish that 
 every time he entered the prisons he ran great 
 risk of fatal prison contagion. He never men- 
 tioned this, but Howard did, when speaking of 
 himself, and so we know. 
 
 l!^ow, where did Mr. Eaikes find inspiration 
 
THE PRISON REFORMER. 45 
 
 during these years of hard work, self-sacrifice, 
 and discouragement? I think I can tell you 
 in. his own words. He was a Bible student, 
 and tried to realize what his Master would do. 
 He wrote : 
 
 " It is that part of our Saviour's character I 
 try to imitate ; he went about doing good." 
 
 Where was the sustaining power ? In the 
 Psalms. He wrote : 
 
 " I am never in so proper a frame of mind as 
 when I am reading or repeating passages from 
 that heavenly composition. They are my chief 
 comfort and consolation when any distress ap- 
 proaches ; they furnish the language of thanks- 
 giving when the heart rejoices." 
 
 You have here the key to a character at first 
 difficult to understand. You see the desire to 
 imitate Christ in doing good, was far stronger 
 in him than personal vanity and pride in dress, 
 and the dainty ways which went to make a 
 " buck " of the period. Then you also see he 
 had simple faith in God's promises, and the 
 Psalms of David were as the songs of angels to 
 his soul in all its moods. 
 
CHAPTEK y. 
 
 THE STORY OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 
 
 Robert Raikes was forty-four years of age 
 when he began a new " experiment." He was 
 already okl in effort, having for nearly a quar- 
 ter of a century studied life in the prisons and 
 the streets, with the view of creating what he 
 termed " a new race." He commenced with 
 adults, and failed ; and then he changed his 
 method. The principle rooted in his mind 
 remained unaltered. He began with the idea 
 that vice is preventible^ and he ended with tlie 
 same idea. Having failed with the adult he 
 tried the child. He began to study child life 
 at close quarters, and he very soon found that 
 he was on the right track. As you have seen, 
 he patiently tested his plans for reforming 
 criminals, and I would not have you forget this, 
 because it sliows how thorough he was, and 
 how slow his mind was to move out of old 
 grooves. He was a man Avho hammered a 
 thought out well, and when he acted he wac in 
 earnest. 
 
 Some of you are ready to ask : how is it if 
 46 
 
THE STORY OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 47 
 
 Mr. Raikes was a Bible student, he did not re- 
 member two texts : — 
 
 " Train up a child in the way he should go," 
 and " Suffer little children to come unto me " ? 
 
 These texts had not the same meaning for 
 him at first as they had afterwards, and as 
 they have for us. If they had, he would have 
 known earlier what to have done. You will 
 excuse him when you think that all the rest of 
 the world had very hazy ideas of what was 
 meant by these simple words, and that to-day 
 good men all over the world are studying child 
 life, as though it were a new science, in order 
 to fathom the meaning of and give effect to 
 these simple precepts. 
 
 The condition of the children of the working 
 classes in 1780 was a problem which required 
 courage to face. Listen to what a poor woman 
 said to Mr. Raikes about the state of things on 
 Sundays : — 
 
 " The street is filled with multitudes of these 
 wretches, Avho, released on that day from em- 
 ployment, 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." 
 
 This was no news to Mr. Raikes, because the 
 same thing went on under the Avindow of his 
 
48 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 office, and disturbed him when reading 
 "proofs" and writing for his newspaper. His 
 old prison experiences came to his aid. He 
 knew the parents of these children, and the 
 habits of their class, and he said both of 
 parents and children that neither they nor 
 their ancestors had ever entered the house of 
 God for the purpose of worship ! It was no 
 good for him to appeal to such parents. George 
 Whitefield had also tried his hand on the 
 masses in Gloucester and failed. The Wesleys 
 and Howel Harris, and such men, were stirring 
 the souls of men everywhere, but here was a 
 new field for Robert Raikes — begin wdth the 
 child. 
 
 Vice is prevent ihle. Begin with the child. 
 
 Nothing simpler since the days of the Apos- 
 tles ever crossed the mind of man. 
 
 What Was the Condition of These Children ? 
 
 The poor woman, a gardener's wife it is said, 
 who stopped him one day and called his atten- 
 tion to them, called them " Avretches." Cer- 
 tainly to all outward seeming they Avere 
 wretched. They were in groups — bright-ej^ed 
 and intelligent ; full of fun and frolic and mis- 
 chief; uncombed, unwashed, ragged, and dis- 
 gusting. Of such was the new generation on 
 
THE S TOR Y OF S UN DA Y-SCHOOLS. 49 
 
 which England must depend for her greatness 
 and supremacy, for the throb of the steam- 
 engine had been felt, and some men, like 
 Adam Smith, had already seen that tliis child 
 " waste" contained the vital reserve of national 
 supremacy. This " waste," which society 
 treated as though only fit for hanging, con- 
 tained invention, art, science, poetry, language, 
 enterprise — everything which marks the high- 
 est civilization. All it wanted was develop- 
 ment. Robert Raikes had seen this " waste " 
 for years, and looked on it with despair. He 
 knew that all this precious, budding talent 
 shown in impish ingenuity was worse than 
 wasted, because by and by native wit and in- 
 vention would be put to bad uses. And then ? 
 Then these children, grown up, would recruit 
 the sad, sad army of immorality and crime. 
 This was their future, unless 
 
 Whilst he was thinking over these things, 
 the simple word " try " came into his mind ; 
 and the word came into the mind of the right 
 man. Just think how wonderful a thing it is 
 that the right word comes to the right man, 
 and at the right moment ! " Try ! " 
 
 He had been during all his manhood, trying 
 in the face of opposition and ridicule, and 
 made but little progress. Some men would 
 have given up, but not so Robert Raikes. You 
 
 22 
 
50 THE 8 TOR Y OF ROBERT RA IKES. 
 
 remember the stock he came from — old York- 
 shire farmers, and seamen, and merchants, 
 shreAvd and progressive men, with democratic 
 instincts. To elevate the people ! Here was 
 a mission ! Here was a chance for the close 
 imitation of Christ ! 
 
 At the right moment, whilst these ideas 
 were taking shape, he met the right man to 
 help him. The Rev. Thomas Stock, Vicar of 
 St. John the Baptist, and Headmaster of the 
 Cathedral School, *' chanced " to be walking 
 in the same street. They talked the matter 
 over. What they said we may never know, 
 but the result we know — they agreed to do 
 something, and they did it. They found some 
 poor, but respectable, women who woukl teach 
 children on Sundays, and then they visited 
 some parents in the city slums, and induced 
 them to send their children to these good 
 women instead of turning them into the streets 
 to riot and play at " chuckfarthing." 
 
 Mr. Raikes's first idea of a Sunday-school 
 was what we now know as a Ragged School, 
 kept on Sundays by women paid one shilling 
 per week, and extra for coals in winter ; and 
 I don't suppose that it entered his mind, or 
 the mind of the Rev. Thomas Stock who acted 
 with him, that at that moment were laid the 
 foundations of an Institution which would be- 
 
THE STORY OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 51 
 
 come national and Avorld-wide. Ycry many 
 good people had gathered children together, 
 and taught them their catechism and prayers 
 long before Mr, Rdikes was born, and when 
 they grew tired, or okl, or died, tliere was an 
 end of effort, and the worUl seemed little 
 better than before. We shall soon seethe real 
 difference between the Gloucester movement 
 and all which had gone before. 
 
 I would like to say a word about Mr. Stock, 
 for he was Mr. Kaikes's friend and true helper 
 when the first children were collected and 
 taught. He plays no important part in the 
 development and organization of the Sunday- 
 school system, but all honor is due to him for 
 his help and moral support before the idea was 
 published to the world. He was a scholar 
 and a Christian, and when he died the church 
 lost an ornament, and poor humanity a friend. 
 As it will tire you to divide 3^our attention I 
 shall confine myself to the school which Mr. 
 Raikes founded, wherein he collected raga- 
 muffins as wild as asses' colts and tamed them, 
 and humanized them, until they became to him 
 children who brought him much joy. 
 
 The first school which Mr. Eaikes started 
 was in Sooty Alley, and here he commenced 
 his studies in child life, which he afterwards 
 called " botanizino: in human nature." The 
 
52 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKE8, 
 
 mistress over this school was Mrs. Meredith, 
 Avho kept a Dame, or " Mam " School, to use 
 the local word. This school was kept in the 
 kitchen, and Mrs. Meredith's spinning-wheel 
 was in one corner. On Sundays the children 
 sat on forms or stools, but learnt little, and 
 poor Mrs. Meredith's patience was soon worn 
 out with trying to keep them in order. 
 
 One of her pupils was Charles Cox, five 
 years old, and when he was a hale old man of 
 eighty-seven, he said he did not learn much 
 "except perhaps to sit still, which the older 
 boys found it very hard to learn." * He also 
 said the boys were " terrible bad," which, in 
 Gloucester, meant as bad as they could be 
 made. Poor Mrs. Meredith had a very hard 
 time of it, and gave up her post after a few 
 months' trial. 
 
 Mr. Raikes found a woman better fitted for 
 his purpose in Mrs. Mary Critchley, and she 
 took Mrs. Meredith's pupils into her house in 
 the Southgate Street. It was a house with 
 two frontages— one in the Southgate Street 
 and the other in Grey Fryars, facing the south 
 porch of St. Mary de Crypt Church, and so near 
 to Mr. Raikes's house that persons standing in 
 the doorways could almost speak to one an- 
 other. 
 * Robert Raikes : The Man and His Work, pp. 24 and 45. 
 

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THE STORY OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 53 
 
 The nearness of Mr. Eaikes Avas a great 
 moral support to the teacher, for some of the 
 boys continued to be " terrible bad." Girls 
 were not at first admitted, and so that you may 
 fancy what sort of boys they were, I can tell 
 you that some of them were marched from 
 their houses with logs of wood and weights tied 
 to their legs to prevent their running away. 
 And a story is told of a boy named '' Winkin' 
 Jim," who brought a young badger under his 
 rags, and " let it fly " in school, so as to make 
 " old Mother Critchley jump " ! 
 
 You can very well guess from these examples 
 what kind of boys Mr. Raikes picked up to ex- 
 periment upon, and when I tell you that he 
 sometimes birched them with his own hands, 
 and sometimes marched them home and insisted 
 on their parents " leathering " them, stopping 
 to see it done, and then marching them back 
 to school again, you will see that he Avas very 
 much in earnest, and " botanized " under diffi- 
 culties. You will also see that before those 
 poor children could be taught anything they 
 had to be disciplined, and this made the first 
 step more tedious and diflicult. 
 
 This is no fancy picture, but it is a little 
 softer in outline and color than the original, 
 and I am sure we may all say that Mrs. Critch- 
 ley was a brave Avoman, deserving of all honor 
 
54 THE STORY OF BOBERT RAIKES. 
 
 for trying to teach such children their letters 
 and to humanize them.* 
 
 Now we see pretty well with what kind of 
 materials Mr. Raikes worked, and very un- 
 promising they were. When you look around 
 your bright and beautiful class-rooms, adorned 
 Avith maps and pictures, and remember your 
 blackboard lessons, your " expositions," and 
 call up the sweetly sympathetic faces of your 
 teachers, and then think of the light, and music, 
 and singing in which your Sunday hours have 
 been spent, your minds will be filled with 
 wonder that the beginning of it all was so 
 squalid and repulsive. 
 
 Mr. Raikes gave the experiment a three years 
 trial, from 1780 to 1783, before he ventured to 
 let the Avorld know anything about it. He was 
 not a man in a hurry, and he was so astonished 
 at the results that, I fancy, he could hardly 
 believe they were real. When he first took 
 the children to church they did not know how 
 to behave, and he taught them to bow, as a 
 sign of reverence, on entering a holy place. 
 When he found that they stuck pins into one 
 another, and fought, and swore, and were 
 
 * Mrs. Critchley died at her post and was followed by 
 her daughter (Mrs. Sarah Packer), who was succeeded 
 by her daughter (Mrs. Caroline Watkins). The office 
 was hereditary down to 1863. 
 
THE STORY OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 55 
 
 turned out by the parish " beadle," then he sat 
 very close to them, and, in time, got them un- 
 der control. Some persons thought the dandy 
 and rich Mr. Kaikes — the poor people always 
 referred to him as a rich man— very soft and 
 very foolish, and a little " cracked " over his 
 new fad about dirty children, and they called 
 him, playfully, or by way of derision, "Bobby 
 WildGJose'M 
 
 During these three years (1780-3) seven or 
 eight Sunday-schools were opened in the city 
 by Mr. Raikes, the Rev. Thomas Stock, and 
 the Yicar of St. JSTicholas, with an average of 
 thirty scholars in each. The names of some 
 of the first teachers were Mrs. Meredith, Mrs. 
 Critchley, Mr. and Mrs. James King, Mrs. 
 James Bretherton, and Mrs. Lea. 
 
 I cannot tell you when girls were first taken 
 in hand, but they certainly were admitted dur- 
 ing these three years of experiment. Some of 
 you may be surprised to hear that, bad as the 
 bo\^s were, the girls were worse ! I suppose 
 they were more difficult to manage. The treat- 
 ment of women in those days Avill, perhaps, 
 account for this. They were, for small offenses, 
 publicly whipped through the streets, and for 
 using their tongues too freely were often half 
 drowned in horse-ponds. The ducking-stool 
 was common, and even scholars and gentlemen 
 
56 THE SrOEY OF BOBEBT B AIRES. 
 
 said and wrote that ducking was a very proper 
 punishment for scolding and unruly women ! 
 
 Although Mr. Raikes birched the boys, he 
 probably did not think such strong measures 
 the right thing for little gh^ls. At first he left 
 them alone, and then, I believe, when they 
 saw what nice boys their brothers were becom- 
 ing, with their clean faces and hair combed, 
 and that shoes and clothes were given to them, 
 they thought it would be a nice thing to go 
 to school also. A little curiosity, and a little 
 vanity, brought the girls, and they were not 
 refussd admission. So soon as possible the 
 sexes were separated. By means of the chil- 
 dren a new atmosphere was brought into the 
 squalid homes of these little ragamuffins, who 
 even began to reform their own parents ! 
 
 'No wonder such results astonished those who 
 produced them. The rule on which mankind 
 had acted for ages was reversed. This new 
 rule was : the child first ! The pyramid stood 
 on its apex and did not topple over, and those 
 who watched, marveled. 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE STORY OF KAIKEs's SUNDxVY LESSONS. 
 
 At the end of three 3^ears Robert Raikes 
 was ready to show the world what could be 
 done towards the creation of a new race out 
 of social " waste." 
 
 He looked upon himself as a nurseryman 
 " botanizing in human nature," and these 
 schools were his botanical gardens. There is 
 always something natural in the relation of 
 children to flowers, and when we cannot say 
 of a child that it is beautiful, we know there is 
 something wrong, somewhere. 
 
 The " seminary " — to use Mr. Raikes's pet 
 word — especially his, Avas opposite St. Mary 
 de Crypt Church, under the care of Mrs. 
 Critchley. If we think of this seminary as a 
 garden plot, in which he had planted sprigs of 
 wild briar, and passion flower, and bulbs, and 
 then watered, and watched until they bloomed, 
 full of color and perfume, we may fancy with 
 what secret pride he showed his seed plot to 
 the world. 
 
 The day on which he made known some 
 
 57 
 
58 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 results of his efforts was doubly blessed, for on 
 it his eldest son was born. The 3rd of N^ovem- 
 ber, 1783, showed him as twice a parent — the 
 parent of the Sunday-school in which a " new 
 race " was born, and of a son who, in a letter, 
 he called ''lovely." Doesn't this word tell us 
 a good deal about the man's tender spots, and 
 dreams, and leanings towards the helpless, and 
 habit of artless confession to his friends ? I 
 fancy that on that 3rd of l^ovember there was 
 not a happier man in the King's dominion than 
 Eobert Eaikes.* 
 
 The success of the " scheme " was immediate. 
 Sympathy, like an electric current, ran through 
 the good and pious men and women in every 
 town and village, wishing for a new life to be 
 breathed into the masses, but not knowing 
 what to do. This was the very thing. All 
 that they had to do was to write to Mr. Raikes 
 for information. He was the mainspring of 
 the movement. Colonel Townley wrote from 
 Sheffield, and Mr. Raikes's reply was pub- 
 lished in the Gentleman^ s Magazine^ and copied 
 everj^where. Mrs. Hannah More wrote, and 
 then acted, like the good, energetic woman 
 
 * " My eldest boy was born on the very day that I 
 made public to the world the scheme of Sunday-schools 
 in my paper of Nov. 3, 1783." — Raikes to Mrs. Harris of 
 Chelsea, 
 
THE STOBT OF R AIRES' S SUNDAY LESSONS, 59 
 
 she was, and she was encouraged afterwards 
 by the good William Wilberforce to take in 
 hand the savages of Cheddar. John Wesley, 
 who knew Robert Raikes and stayed at his 
 house, caught fire, and wherever there was a 
 Methodist Society there he would have, if pos- 
 sible, a Sunday-school. His own immediate 
 mission was to perishing men and women — 
 brands to be plucked from the burning ; but 
 he saw clearly that the child was the heir, and 
 that to possess the child was to build a church. 
 Sunday-school boards were formed. The pul- 
 pits rang with th6 praises of the institution, 
 and within a year the benevolent and respect- 
 able Mr. Raikes was the most lauded man in 
 the kingdom. 
 
 When strangers came to Gloucester what 
 had he to show them ? 
 
 First, he could take them into the streets 
 and lanes, and show them types of the orig- 
 inals, which he had transplanted and flushed 
 into bloom. There they were, happy in their 
 filth and rao;s, cursins: and fio^htino:, and 
 playing at " chuck." Then he could take 
 them into Mrs. Critchley's and show the boys, 
 clean and fairly clothed, in classes of fiYQ, the 
 elder and more advanced teachino^ the younofer 
 their letters. Then in another room there 
 were the girls, with little white tippets on their 
 
60 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 shoulders, the ends crossed over the breast and 
 tied behind, and white caps on their heads, 
 also separated into classes, with monitors over 
 them. The boys had been taught to bow, and 
 the girls to curtsey, when strangers entered. 
 When Mr. Fox, the philanthropist, and Mr. Jo- 
 nas Han way, the great traveler, and Mr. Wil- 
 liam Wilberforce visited the school and heard 
 the children repeat simple prayers and the 
 catechism, and answer Bible questions, and then 
 sing Dr. Watts's hymns, they were astonished. 
 They w^ere more astonished when Mr. Raikes 
 drove them to the village of Painswick, and 
 showed them exactly the same thing in similar 
 schools which a rich cloth weaver supported for 
 a time ; only I don't think that the little girls 
 wore white caps and tippets. This was Mr. 
 E-aikes's idea for his " own " children, so that 
 when they were in church every one knew 
 them by their good behavior and clean gar- 
 ments.^ I have alread}^ told you how very 
 particular Mr. Kaikes was about his clothes 
 and personal cleanliness, so you can easily be- 
 lieve that he would have those about him clean 
 also. 
 
 I have not been able to find that there was 
 any alteration in this system of setting moni- 
 tors over small classes in Mr. Raikes's schools, 
 
 * Robert Raikes: The Man and His WorJc, p. 17. 
 
THE STORT OF RAIKES' S SUNDAY LESSONS. 61 
 
 and these, in fact, were the first voluntary 
 teachers. The system was, in truth, founded 
 on and supported by voluntary effort ; paid 
 masters and mistresses were, at first, neces- 
 sary, but they gradually disappeared, and if 
 they had not, then I am afraid the Sunday- 
 school system must have died. 
 
 Mr. Raikes used to hold what he called 
 " conversations " with the children, and I think 
 that his appearance was looked for, probably 
 in the afternoons, as Sunday was a very busy 
 day for him. We may picture him in Mrs. 
 Critchley's large kitchen, on one occasion, Avith 
 a magnet in his hand, and the children, open- 
 eyed, crowding around him. This is the les- 
 son he was teaching and his manner of teach- 
 ing it : 
 
 SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSONS. 
 
 " I was," he says, " showing my scholars, a 
 little time ago, how possible it is for one invis- 
 ible power to exist in bodies which shall act 
 upon other bodies without our being able to 
 perceive in what manner they act. This I 
 proved to them by the powers of the magnet. 
 
 " They see the magnet draw the needle 
 without touching it. Thus, I tell them, I wish 
 to draw them to the paths of duty, and thus 
 lead them to heaven and happiness ; and as 
 they saw one needle, when it had touched the 
 
62 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 magnet, then capable of drawing another 
 needle, thus when they became good they 
 would be made the instruments in the hands 
 of God, very probably, of making other boys 
 good." 
 
 This, I suppose, is the first Sunday-school 
 lesson preserved in the world, and your teachers, 
 my young friends, can tell you better than I 
 what a grand teacher the man must have been 
 who coidd thus gently excite the imagination, 
 and then, in so few words, convey a meaning so 
 simple and so true."^ 
 
 Mr. Raikes was not a Sunday-school teacher 
 on Sundays only, but on all days whenever 
 children came about him. He used to attend 
 the Cathedral service at seven o'clock in the 
 morning, and children often met him there, 
 and their presence provoked him to teach some- 
 thing. In the Lady Chapel, or in the nave of 
 the grand Cathedral, Mr. Raikes would get one 
 of the boys to read, and then and there he 
 would teach something. He was a ready 
 teacher, his heart being in his work. 
 
 * Mr. Raikes allowed the children to think for them- 
 selves, and did not attempt to do everything for them, 
 as teachers, mistakenly kind, sometimes will. The 
 result of this little lesson was that the children went 
 about the city of their own accord, and, acting the 
 part of magnets, drew others to meet Mr. Raikes at the 
 Cathedral. 
 
THE STORY OF BAIKES' S SUNDAYLESSONS. 63 
 
 The Gospel for the day one morning was 
 Luke lY, and Mr. Eaikes tells us what hap- 
 pened. He says : — 
 
 " They were reading that verse in St. Luke 
 the other morning where the Saviour says, 
 ' The kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
 vation. . . . The kingdom of God is within 
 you.' 
 
 " ' Who can tell me,- says [sic] I, ' what we 
 are to understand by that expression, " the 
 kingdom of God is within you " ? ' 
 
 " They were all silent for some minutes. At 
 last the boy who was reading said, * I believe 
 it means when the Spirit of God is in our 
 hearts.' " 
 
 The joy that that answer gave to Mr. Raikes 
 was greater far than we can fancy ; but it was 
 very great, as you may know when you read 
 the next sentences. " Don't you think," he 
 asked his friend Mr. Lewelyn, " that this is 
 encouragement to cidtivate the lower orders of 
 the people? I could render to you numberless 
 incidents of this nature that occur to me to 
 render my scheme of botanizing in human 
 nature pleasant and agreeable." 
 
 Eobert Eaikes found pleasure in his work, 
 and so we are sure he did it well. Only it is 
 a subject for regret that many more of these 
 lessons and incidents have not been preserved. 
 
64 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 Now, I think, you have a very good idea of 
 Avhat tlie Sunday-school was at first, and the 
 good it did ; and I suppose you will be sur- 
 prised to hear that in a very short time a great 
 outcry was made against Mr. Raikes in his own 
 city. 
 
 SUNDAY TEACHING IS HOLY. 
 
 Those who were envious, and were tired of 
 hearing so much about the " benevolent " and 
 "good" Mr. Raikes, and those who felt re- 
 morse in secret for neglecting their duty 
 towards those committed to their charge, and 
 those who hated what was good and wished the 
 poor to remain so, and those who were narrow- 
 minded, though very good in their own way, 
 said that teaching children on the Sabbath was 
 a breach of the fourth commandment. This 
 is true, because Mr. Raikes replied to it, and 
 said his object in establishing Sunday-schools 
 was to render " the Lord's day subservient to 
 the ends of instruction." His owm opinion was 
 that the doing of God's work was holy and 
 that a holy day was honored by doing it. His 
 full vindication is contained in the following 
 lines : — 
 
 " The minds of men have taken great hold 
 on that prejudice that we are to do nothing on 
 the Sabbath Day which may be deemed labor, 
 
THE STOR Y OF RAIKES' S SUNDA T LESSONS. 65 
 
 and therefore we are to be excused from all 
 application of mind as well as body. 
 
 " The rooting out of this prejudice is the 
 point I aim at as my favorite object. Our 
 Saviour takes particular pains to manifest that 
 whatever tended to promote the health and 
 happiness of our fellow-creatures were sacrifices 
 peculiarly acceptable on that day." 
 
 Here you see the thinker and the Christian, 
 as well as the man capable of stating his con- 
 victions in calm language, when provoked. 
 And you know how right he was, because the 
 whole Christian Church has since confirmed 
 him ; and now every Sabbath more than two 
 millions of Christian men and women make 
 personal sacrifices in order to lead little chil- 
 dren to heaven. 
 
 Outside of Gloucester, and indeecl through- 
 out the whole country, prejudices against teach- 
 ing the children of the poor grew rapidly, and 
 at last became so strong that the great Mr. Pitt 
 seriously intended to make it a State question, 
 and introduce a Bill into Parliament for the 
 Supjyression of Sundaij -schools. The enemies 
 to education coupled Sunday-school teaching 
 with open-air preaching ; and the Pitt Ministry, 
 acting in what they supposed to be the interest 
 of the Established Church, wished to put down 
 both by law. Happily, better counsels pre- 
 5 
 
66 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 vailed, but not until after the Kev. Rowland 
 Hill, a lover of Sunday-schools from their 
 beginning, published his now forgotten, but at 
 one time famous, Ajyology for Sunday-schools. * 
 Many bitter and untrue things were said and 
 written against Eobert Raikes and Sunday- 
 schools ; but I pass them by, for they have 
 died away and left no trace, lilve all things will 
 which are rooted in bad motives and dishonor. 
 
 If God's blessing was ever showered abun- 
 dantly upon a movement, it was upon Sunday- 
 schools. Mr. Raikes lived to see what he 
 loved to call a " little grain of mustard seed " 
 covering many lands with its grateful sljadow ; 
 and we now know that it contains Avithin itself 
 those divine germs which spring into life in 
 every clime where Christianity gains a foot- 
 hold. It has developed, and developed, and de- 
 veloped, but its principle remains unaltered. 
 And this is the principle in Mr. Raikes's own 
 words : — 
 
 " To check the growth of vice at an early 
 period by . . . good habits of acting and think- 
 ing." 
 
 Those who treated Mr. Raikes as a " faddist " 
 and as one a little mad , did not understand the 
 meaning of those words. What he meant by 
 
 * Sermon preached at the Surrey Chapel, and printed 
 and published some time after in the year 1801. 
 
THE STOBYOF RAIKES'S SUNDAY LESSONS. 67 
 
 them, and what pains he took to understand 
 the delicate workings of children's minds as 
 they unfolded under this care, we shall next see. 
 
 'Note. — Mr. Raikes has another claim to distinction, 
 which some may tliink even more important than the 
 organization of Sunday -schools — he was the forerunner 
 of the movement for popular national education in 
 England. He established and spread and advocated in 
 his Journal Industrial Day Schools for the poor, in 
 which education was free, and very often subscriptions 
 were equally divided in parishes between the Sunday 
 and day schools. Even during the experimental period 
 — between 1780 and 1783— he paid Mrs. Critchley and 
 others extra for teaching children during meal times 
 and in the evenings. He introduced the system of 
 " monitors " in schools before either Lancaster or Bell 
 were heard of. Mr. Lancaster visited Mr. Raikes, per- 
 haps, about the year 1796, and probably borrowed this 
 excellent idea from the original thinker of Gloucester. 
 Mr. Bell hit on the idea in 1792 when at Madras, but that 
 was about ten years after Mr. Raikes divided his school 
 into small classes, putting the elder over the younger. 
 
CHAPTEK YII. 
 
 STUDIES IN CHILD LIFE. 
 
 The children which came into Mr. Kaikes's 
 botanical garden were the product — the sorry 
 product — of the century.* The mistake which 
 people then made was in treating them as 
 *' waste," incapable of improvement, and of 
 little use in the world except as parts of a ma- 
 chine for fighting at home or abroad, for work- 
 ing on farms and at looms, and doing house- 
 hold drudgery for their ''betters." Many 
 quite forgot that there was much difference in 
 sex. Women worked out of doors like men, 
 and used the language of men, which makes us 
 shudder only to think that children heard them. 
 The parents herded like cattle both in the city, 
 and in the country, and were sodden, or vicious 
 or both. 
 
 And those Avho knew better helped to keep 
 
 them so. There was an atmosphere for the 
 
 poor, and they were expected to live in it, and 
 
 take their color from what was about them. 
 
 * See Chapter I., " In the Beginning." 
 
 68 
 
STUDIES IN CHILD LIFE. 69 
 
 It was the fashion of the day to see in the 
 child only the vices of the parent. As father, 
 so son ; as mother, so daughter ; and there 
 were proverbs in counties which cut all heart 
 out of human beings trying to improve. Yery 
 good, and kind, and intelligent people believed 
 that if parents were vicious so must the child 
 be — virtue in a cottage was banished to the 
 realms of fiction ; honesty in rags was a dream. 
 
 Mr. Raikes shared these opinions of the 
 day ; we know he did because he was as- 
 tonished, and frankly confessed the fact, when 
 he found that children, if only caught early 
 enough, began life on independent lines. 
 
 He had reason to detest children for annoy- 
 ing liim when at work in his office and he 
 wanted to be quiet, and he had a real horror 
 of their filth and rags, and noise and foul 
 language. Like other well-to-do people of his 
 day he did not see the other side of all this, or 
 think even that the gutter-child is never igno- 
 rant, but has a mind full of knowledge of a 
 kind. Did you ever hear of little Gavroche, 
 the gutter-child of Paris, one of the finest 
 sketches of that great poet, Victor Hugo ? * 
 
 *" The gramm [gutter child] is a b?auty, antl at the 
 same time a disease of the nation— a disease tliat must 
 be cured. How? By light" [education]. Robert 
 Raikes expressed similar views eighty years before 
 
70 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 Mr. Eaikes had these little Gavroches all 
 around him, and when he found out what 
 could be made of them he was surprised. These 
 children were as sharp as the pins which they 
 pointed — full of device and wit, cunning and 
 mischief; but their native talents were wasted, 
 and minds on which beautiful pencilings might 
 have been traced were marked with villainous 
 etchings. 
 
 Mr. Raikes entered on the work of civilizing 
 children with misgiving, because he called it 
 an " experiment." This is not a hopeful word 
 when entering on a social problem which the 
 centuries have left unsolved. If he had not 
 been a " hopeful " man he would not have 
 touched it at all. The way in which respect- 
 able people spoke of these little ones was not 
 encouraging. They called them " wretches," 
 " profligates," " wolves and tigers" in temper 
 and disposition, and as " hardly differing from 
 the brute creation." No doubt they were 
 called other names even less polite. Mr. Raikes 
 
 Victor Hugo wrote. One thing Raikes and Hugo 
 had in common : tliey loved to see poor little children 
 clothed and happy. Raikes clothed them and fed them 
 on beef and plum pudding. Hugo said, " The livery of 
 rags touches my heart," and he clothed them ; once a 
 week he had forty children to dinner, and called this 
 treat " the festival of poor little children." See Robert 
 Raikes : The Man and His Work, pp. 183-4. 
 
STUDIES IN CHILD LIFE. 71 
 
 called them " wild asses' colts," but that was 
 after he had tamed some of them ; what he 
 said before was probably stronger, and no less 
 true. 
 
 When he entered on the work he worked 
 thoroughly. Some of you may fancy that he 
 gave up visiting the prisons when he began 
 to teach. He did nothing of the kind. He 
 worked as hard at prison reform as he did be- 
 fore, for he was not the man to give up until 
 right was done. He was an earnest man, and 
 a thorough. He said of his new experiment, 
 " I am botanizing in human nature " in order 
 to see " a new race " spring up, and he watered 
 the seeds himself and saw them sprout. The 
 soil on which he worked was truly virgin, ex- 
 cept for its weeds, for he said that neither the 
 children " nor their ancestors," had ever en- 
 tered a church for worship ; and that " curs- 
 ing and swearing, and other vile expressions," 
 formed " the sum of their conversation." 
 
 Now I will tell you, very nearly in his own 
 words, what he says he did, and what he ob- 
 served. 
 
 Those who came to school barefooted he 
 bought shoes for, and those who were very 
 " bare of apparel " he clothed. 
 
 He printed a little book for them out of 
 which they learned the alphabet, and then to 
 
72 THE STOEY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 read, beginning with words of one syllable. 
 The first two lines of the first reading lesson 
 were — 
 
 " God is one." 
 
 " God is love." 
 
 In a very short time he found tliat these 
 ragged outcasts liked to be clean, and wear 
 nice clothes, and come to school, and really 
 could learn and remember. That the children 
 of neglect should have brains startled him at 
 first, and he wrote : " I cannot express the 
 pleasure I often receive in discovering genius, 
 and innate good dispositions, among this little 
 multitude." He was no less surprised and 
 pleased to find that some had " extraordinary 
 memories," and could repeat the whole of Dr. 
 "Watts's hymns for children, and that some had 
 good voices and could sing. These were reve- 
 lations to him, and to the friends to whom he 
 wrote, and then he came to this conclusion : 
 '* If good seed be sown in the mind at an early 
 period . . . it may please God to cause it to 
 spring up, and to bring forth a plentiful har- 
 vest." 
 
 This observation sounded new then, because 
 people — and very good people too — thought 
 that the capacity to learn from books was 
 limited to and belonged by right only to chil- 
 
STUDIES IN CHILD LIFE. 73 
 
 dren who were " genteely " born. Even great 
 men like Bacon and Milton did not think of 
 the " masses " when they wrote on education 
 — they are passed over as serfs in a free land. 
 
 Mr. Raikes very early learned the value of 
 home influence. At first he birched the boys, 
 and when he found it was wrong to punish 
 children for the faults of their parents he com- 
 menced home visiting. He wished to do justice 
 to children, and this is what he wrote : " I fre- 
 quently go round to their habitations to inquire 
 into their behavior at home, a7id into the con- 
 duct of the jparents^ to whom I give some little 
 hints now and then, as well as to the children." 
 
 He could visit and interfere without leaving 
 behind unpleasant memories, and the following 
 story will show you what sort of visitor he 
 made. The story is told by himself: — "I was 
 taking a woman to task one day, before her 
 husband, because the house was not so clean 
 as it ought. ' Troth, sir,' said the man, * I wish 
 you would come a little oftener ; we should be 
 all the better.' " 
 
 His influence grew both at school and at 
 home, for, " The people tell me," he wrote, 
 ''they keep their children in better order by 
 the threat of telling Mr. E. than tliey could 
 formerly by the most severe stripes." 
 
 AVhen we see Robert Raikes at Avork in 
 
74 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 jails, marching ragged boys to school, visit- 
 ing: slums, and lectorin2: untidy women, we lose 
 siofht of the dandv who would not dirty his 
 shoes, and "snuffed with elegance" out of a 
 gold snuff-box.* We are now on the earnest, 
 practical side of him, and see him learning his 
 lessons and noting down observations, for he 
 was, as he once said, " in a new country." He 
 made one note so early in his work that it 
 seems to have come to him by intuition, 
 namely, that the child's mind could be best 
 worked at a profit between the ages of six and 
 twelve. He commenced at five, and writing 
 generally, said : " A reformation in society 
 seems to me to be only practicable by estab- 
 lishing notions of duty and practical habits of 
 order and decorum at an early age." The full 
 meaning of this is better understood now that 
 the study of child life has been raised to the 
 rank of a " science." Yet we are only learning 
 that a child differs from the adult as a bud 
 differs from the full-blown flower. If we idly 
 pick a rosebud to pieces who Avould ever dream 
 (not already knowing) that, if allowed to 
 bloom, in a few hours it would become rich in 
 color, and full of perfume, and of glorious 
 shape ? The bud had its own shape, and 
 beauty, and tender markings, but it was not 
 * Robert Raikcs : The Man and His Work, p. 49. 
 
STUDIES IN CHILD LIFE. 75 
 
 what it was intended to be. It contained its 
 own mysteries. The child is no less mysteri- 
 ous. When it grows up it seems too late to 
 ask for its soul's secrets, before it grows up it 
 seems too early, so that this new "science" 
 which looks so simple is very, very deej), and 
 those only who have sympathy can ever hope 
 to master it. 
 
 I think that Mr. Raikes had this sympathy 
 in great measure. If he had not been a very 
 sympathetic man little children would never 
 have let him see into their souls so deeply, al- 
 most before they had got over their awe of his 
 fine clothes and masterful ways. He had a 
 caressing manner with children which attracted 
 them. He used to pat them on their heads, 
 and touch them under their chins, and say, 
 " You are a good boy " ; or put a glass to his 
 eye and say, " I can see what a bad boy you've 
 been." He was fond of talking to them and 
 asking them questions ; and even when he 
 talked seriously there was something vivid and 
 dramatic conjured up, which children so love 
 and remember afterwards. Here is one of his 
 stories, with a moral, which he afterwards com- 
 mitted to paper : — 
 
 " In my visit to my Sunday-school last Sun- 
 day I remarked some of my sheep had gone 
 astray. On my inquiry one of the boys told 
 
76 TBE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 rae that they were at play with a set of wicked 
 boys in a neighboring field. 
 
 " ' Alas ! ' said I, ' the wicked one w^as 
 afraid we should lead all the poor boys to 
 heaven ! He has therefore set up a Sunday- 
 school against us to lead some of them to his 
 place of torment ! 
 
 " ' Let those who now take pleasure in w^ick- 
 edness go to their master ; but I know all 
 who wish to call God their friend will come and 
 take part with me. But do you now mark the 
 end of these boys w4io have joined our adver- 
 sary ; and their fate, I am convinced, will con- 
 firm you in your duty.' " 
 
 The child would be too unnaturally dull for 
 the streets who could not understand this les- 
 son, and whose mind would not at once be 
 filled with images of combat — the good Mr. 
 Raikes fighting for God, their friend, and they 
 on the side of the good Mr. Raikes. The little 
 anditors were turned into actors in four simple 
 sentences, and their souls enlisted on the side 
 of the good. Bunyan never drew a situation 
 which called the spiritual forces of a child into 
 play more rapidly and with fewer strokes. 
 
 Fixing the attention of children by rapid 
 dramatization was his practise, for he w^rote : 
 " By this means I endeavor to avail myself of 
 the folly of the bad to strengthen the good." 
 
STUDIES IN CHILD LIFE. 77 
 
 Sometimes children thought he had come 
 from heaven, so skilfull}^ did he excite their 
 imaginations. Here is Mr. Eaikes's report of 
 his little critic's criticism : — 
 
 " I had some time ago been exerting my fee- 
 ble powers to convey some ideas to some poor 
 children at the opening of a Sunday-school at 
 a village in this neighborhood, [Gloucester] 
 where, till then, the poor had been entirely ne- 
 glected, and a little boy who had listened at- 
 tentively to my conversation ^vent home to his 
 mother ... and asked whether that gentleman 
 had not been at heaven." 
 
 Mr. Eaikes could tell a story very well, and 
 he was always watching for effect. His note 
 about this child is that "the simplicity of the 
 question show^ed that the boy's mind had been 
 strongly impressed." In this w^ay he worked 
 towards the inmost recesses of the children's 
 minds, and I have another story which shows 
 the mutual relations betw^een them. 
 
 " My children last Sunday told me," he wrote, 
 "that they w^ere sorry when the time came 
 that I w^as to leave them. The subject of my 
 conversation with them w^as the history of 
 Joseph. ... I brought it down to a level with 
 their conditions, representing Joseph as a poor 
 boy, like one of them." 
 
 He interested them, and observed effects at 
 
78 th:^ story of eobert haikes. 
 
 a moment when pathos was deep, and his note 
 is : "^ You would have been agreeably struck 
 with the fixed attention of their little minds. 
 I daresay many went home and told the story 
 to their parents." 
 
 Mr. Raikes was studying child's life then in 
 the spirit of an original investigator, so we 
 may be sure that there was very little helpful 
 knowledge to hand. Does it not seem strange 
 so to talk now about the children of a century 
 ago, as though some new species had then 
 sprung into being to be studied in the scientific 
 spirit ? Now we see that Mr. Raikes was a 
 student himself, and came to school to learn 
 as well as to teach. He did. not rely upon 
 sympathy only, though he did not forget it in 
 its proper time and place, as you may judge 
 when he says : — 
 
 " I have invited all my Sunday-school chil 
 dren to dine with me on New Year's Day 
 [1795] on beef and plum pudding. I wish you 
 could step in and see what clean and joyous 
 countenances we shall exhibit, and you would 
 not be disappointed to hear how well they sing 
 their Maker's praise." 
 
 We see how successful he was throughout 
 the piece. First he birched the boys, and then 
 they became fast friends ; then he studied 
 them, and thej clung to him until they were 
 
STUDIES IN CHtLD LIFE. 79 
 
 as one, and he could touch the secret springs 
 which set the soul's chimes playing. An old 
 man when sixty-five years of age said : " People 
 may say what they like, but Robert Raikes 
 seemed quite angelic as he walked through the 
 streets of Gloucester — there was no one like 
 him." Another, speaking of his memory, said : 
 " I love it ! " 
 
 The personal charm of Robert Raikes must 
 have been ver}^ great for those whom he most 
 sought to sway. 
 
CHAPTER yill. 
 
 A FRIEND OF THE POOK. 
 
 The " benevolent " Mr. Eaikes, popular 
 amongst the poor and those who had no 
 helper, was the most unpopular man of his day 
 amongst the well-to-do of his fellow-citizens. 
 He was sincerely loved ; he was most honestly 
 disliked. So genuine were both feelings that 
 you ma}^ trace them easily enough to-day in 
 the city of Gloucester, Eng., where the Raikes 
 tradition is weak amongst the descendants of 
 the educated and well-to-do of his own day. 
 There is no doubt that he was disliked — not 
 persecuted, but disliked, and isolated, and 
 laughed at, or pitied for his foibles. We have 
 his own word for the existence of the atmos- 
 phere of unkind ness about him. When we 
 look for reasons we can easily find them. His 
 grand offense was that he was the friend of 
 the poor ! 
 
 His acts, and writings, and example were 
 protests against the habits, and manners, and 
 
 public conduct of his fellows. He lived among 
 
 80 
 
A FRIEND OF THE POOR. 81 
 
 but was not of them. He was a prosperous 
 tradesman, but dressed as a gentleman at a 
 'time when tradesmen wore aprons, or some 
 mark of their calling. Outside of the clerg\^, 
 the " professional " class was ver^^ small, and 
 by no means rich. Socially, Mr. Raikes stood 
 very much alone, and could afford to be inde- 
 pendent. His personal friends resided out of 
 the city, and were either rich cloth manufac- 
 turers or persons of county rank. 
 
 His presence in the city was a source of 
 irritation. His personal cleanliness in the 
 streets — his having a pathway swept at his 
 own expense from his house to the printing- 
 office — was a silent protest against the filth 
 heaps in all the public thoroughfares of the 
 time. His townsmen called him "Bobby 
 Reekes " — the old Gloucester way of speaking 
 — and said he was too good for common folk ! 
 Then there were the clergv, and he offended 
 them. He visited the prisons, " made influ. 
 ence" Avith the judges to save some poor 
 wretches from hanging, pleaded the cause of 
 prisoners perishing from want of food and 
 neglect, which was considered a highly im- 
 proper thing for any one to do unless it was his 
 " business," and he was paid for doing it. 
 Then he began to educate, and feed, and 
 
 clothe poor little children ; and it was said that 
 6 
 
82 THt: StOttY 0^ ROBEUT liAlKES. 
 
 " Bobby Eeekes " was interfering with the de- 
 signs of Providence, and would, in time, set 
 the poor above their station in life and make 
 them discontented. He was Guardian of the 
 Poor for some years, encouraged men and wo- 
 men to be properly married, and was a frequent 
 witness to the marks in the register made by 
 the brideo:rooms and their brides who could 
 not write. Poor people living without God 
 did not trouble about the rites of the Church, 
 but Mr. Raikes encouraged some and paid their 
 fees. However, he took care to be present. 
 He held no municipal office, for he would have 
 been a thorn in the sides of those who sat 
 with arms folded, and did nothing but under 
 compulsion. 
 
 A few of Mr. Raikes' opinions about the 
 treatment he received, and the opinions and acts 
 of his fellow-citizens, have been preserved. 
 They are very few, and so are precious. Writ- 
 ing about himself and his phins for improving 
 the condition of the people he says : — 
 
 " I can prevail on no one to second me in my 
 little efforts to civilize the long despised and 
 neglected children of indigence. 
 
 " I walk alone. It seems as if I had dis- 
 covered a new country, where no other adven- 
 turer chooses to follow. 
 
 " It is some recompense for the scorn and 
 
A FRIEND OF THF POOR. 83 
 
 contempt of my neighbors that I am frequently 
 honored with visits from strangers . . . one 
 of whom tokl me tne other day that he woukl 
 rather have been the instrument of so much 
 good to the world than to be the possessor of a 
 million of gold. 
 
 " I wonder not that you are vilified. I am 
 equally so. Our Master Avasfar more than we. 
 
 •' I did not conceive that I held any degree 
 of esteem among my neighbors, and am there- 
 fore the more astonished at your having heard 
 anything praiseworthy of one that seems here 
 to be walking alone." 
 
 When he appeared in public with his little 
 "ragged robins," going to or returning from 
 early morning cathedral service, the children 
 ckistering around him as though he had '^ loaves 
 and fishes to distribute " — which he often had 
 — people said, jeeringiy : " There goes Bobby 
 Wild Goose and his ragged regiment." They 
 had no real harm to say of him, only that he 
 made a fool of himself over his fads ; and this 
 nickname ver}^ truly represented public opin- 
 ion. " Bobby Wild Goose ! " There is char- 
 acter about the name, when we think it over. 
 
 Whatever respect may have been paid to 
 Mr. Raikes as a printer of books and news- 
 papers, and as a man of property, he was 
 allowed to " walk alone " when doing good. 
 
84 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 "We may estimate the sincerity of his desire to 
 elevate the masses by his continued efforts in 
 the face of sneers and ridicule ; and in the 
 same way we may test the strong fiber beating 
 in his heart under the fine laced coat, and the 
 figured waistcoat, of the dandy of the period. 
 
 We may be sure he felt this isolation — boy- 
 cotting we should call it now — for trying to 
 do good, or he would not have stooped to com- 
 plaint, lie had, however, fixed opinions about 
 himself and his neighbors — about the clergy 
 and others in the city, whose work he was do- 
 ing out of pure love for God. He was an 
 Ev^angelical churchman, and wrote : " Calvin- 
 ists and Socinians abound here, but those 
 abound more who consider the world as the 
 only abiding-place, and therefore give them- 
 selves no concern about the preparation for an- 
 other.'' Then, respecting the clergy : " I fear 
 they are past feeling. . . . Their minds are 
 seared with the hot iron spoken of in the Scrip- 
 tures." 
 
 These were strong words, and no favor is 
 shown to his own ministers. Certainly he had 
 not received much sympathy from the clergy 
 in the Cathedral cit}^ When their help was 
 given it was given grudgingly. Hear him 
 again: "Within this month the minister of 
 my parish has at last condescended to give me 
 
A FRIEND OF THE POOR. 85 
 
 assistance in this laborious work which I have 
 carried on for six j^ears, with little or no sup- 
 port," in his own parish. 
 
 Abundant help and encouragement came 
 from outside and afar,' but only cold, mocking 
 glances met him at home. The Eev. Thomas 
 Stock, already mentioned, who died too soon, 
 and the Rev. Richard Raikes, Yicar of Maise- 
 more, will ever be gratefully remembered for 
 the help they gave when the budding shoots of 
 the Sunday-school institution were very tender. 
 Richard Raikes lived in the city, and was so 
 modest that he would never allow his brother 
 to mention his name ; but he also lived in the 
 hearts of the poor for his good deeds, and 
 there is no name in the city to-day more lov- 
 ingly remembered. The effort of these three 
 men was noble, and Mr. Raikes's language is 
 noble also. This is what he said : — 
 
 " I have two clergymen engaged with me in 
 an effort to raise np amoug the lowest of the 
 people a new race, taught at an early period 
 the happiness of thinking on that which is good, 
 and bringing those thoughts into action in the 
 several duties that Christianity enjoins. 
 
 " We consider it as an experiment how far 
 it be practicable to lead mankind by slow and 
 gentle steps to the comforts and peace that 
 good morals supply, and thereby render those 
 
86 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 a blessing Avbo have hitherto been a scandal 
 to the community." 
 
 These elevated words form the charter of the 
 Sunday-school. 
 
 Now, when you are trying to do good to 
 others, and find no one near to sympathize 
 with you, and smile approvingly, think of Eob- 
 ert Eaikes and his great Christian endeavor, 
 and struggle on. And when you see your 
 teachers folio wing in his steps, weary and down- 
 cast because they see no improvement in the 
 school, do you then think of Kobert Eaikes and 
 make their hearts glad, and lighten their work 
 by showing how much better you can be. 
 When teachers droop and are weary they want 
 your sympathy, and it is very precious to them. 
 Only a look gives new life sometimes. 
 
 I shall have given you a wrong idea of this 
 friend of the poor if you fancy he was not a 
 sociable man, either at home or abroad. He 
 was, in truth, a " society " man, and his name 
 often appeared in the society papers of the day. 
 We read that the " eminent," or " benevolent," 
 or " the highly -respectable Mr. Eaikes of Glou- 
 cester" did so and so, or that his daughter was 
 married to so and so, or that his son was pre- 
 sented to such and such a living, or had his 
 commission in the Guards. 
 
 He kept a good table, and must have been a 
 
A FRIEND OF THE POOR. 87 
 
 genial host, though he played neither cards, nor 
 dice, nor betted on horses, cock-fighting, bear- 
 baiting, or prize fights. He entertained the 
 " best " company when they came to the city. 
 Prince William of Gloucester dined with him, 
 and amongst his friends and visitors were the 
 Wesleys, William Wilberforce (a relation by 
 marriage), Howard, some members of the 
 French Academy, maids of honor of the Court 
 of George III., and distinguished young officers 
 who fought under N^elson. And so delightful 
 did these young heroes, who fought their way 
 to glory and rank in both services, find Mr. 
 Raikes's home, that they married his six daugh- 
 ters. The girls went off year by year, with the 
 regularity of clockwork, until none was left ; 
 so we may be sure it was not a gloomy house 
 or a gloomy family to visit. 
 
 When Mr. Raikes was pleased he showed it 
 like an overgrown boy. The celebrated Miss 
 Burney told him one day that she would speak 
 of him and his Sunday-school to the Queen, 
 and "• the joy with which he heard this was 
 little short of rapture," wrote the shrewd little 
 diarist. She kept her word, and Mr. Raikes 
 went to Windsor and saw the good Queen 
 Charlotte, who encouraged him, and became a 
 patron of Sunday-schools in the royal borough. 
 Mr, Raikes tried to get the ladies of England 
 
88 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIEES. 
 
 to follow the example of the good Queen, but 
 the time was not yet come. 
 
 If we only saw Robert Raikes, the dandy, 
 visiting royalty, entertaining princes, and fig- 
 uring in the society news of the day we might 
 find it hard to believe that he was the *' friend 
 of the poor," nicknamed and " vilified " by his 
 neighbors, and in very truth, a piece of that 
 " salt of the earth " without which the world 
 would be a sorr}^ waste. 
 
 It is all the greater pleasure to write this, 
 because you may be sure it is not true that 
 " the poor have no friends." They always 
 have had a friend. Follow the greatest names 
 in all the world from the beginning of moral 
 life down to Jesus, and from Jesus until now, 
 and you will find that the grandest have ever 
 been on the side of the poor. "Were it not so 
 the " Ascent of Man " would have been very, 
 very slow. 
 
 Note. — Mr. Raikes was honored with an audience of 
 King George III. and Queen Charlotte ; and it seems 
 probable that the Queen gave him a second audience, 
 so interested was she in the Sunday-school mission. 
 The following is from a letter in tlie possession of 
 the Grant family, written by Thomas Raikes, to his 
 friend Mr. Charles Grant of the Bengal Civil Service, 
 dated Eltham, July 4th, 1787 :— " My brother [Robeit] 
 was at Windsor about a fortnight ago, and botli tlie 
 King and Queen came to him after the chapel service 
 
A FRIEND OF THE POOR. 89 
 
 and spoke with him upon the subject ; expressing how 
 much his country was obliged to him for the scheme 
 and for his zealous exertions in the cause." — Writing 
 twelve months afterwards— June 27, 1788, to the Rev. 
 Bo wen Thickens of Ross, Robert Raikes said : " Tlie 
 Queen sent for me the other day to give her Majesty 
 an account of the effects observable on the manners of 
 tlie poor, and her Majesty most graciously said that she 
 envied those who had the power of doing good bj- thus 
 personally promoting the welfare of society in giving 
 instructions and niorality to the general mass of the 
 common people, a pleasure from which by her position 
 slie was debarred." — The Gentleman's Magazine said 
 that this interview with the Queen took place at the 
 Lodge and lasted more than an hour. The two accounts 
 point to two interviews with royalty within a year. 
 On one occasion King George III. visited the Sundaj^- 
 school at Brentford conducted by Mrs. Trimmer and 
 her daughters, and Queen Cliarlotte took a personal in- 
 terest in tlie Sunday-school started in the royal boroughs 
 of Windsor. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BIBLE STUDENT. 
 
 Some of you, my young friends, are ready to 
 ask me, Was Eobert Raikes a religious man ? 
 
 This is an important question for those to 
 ask who would shape their life upon the model 
 of a man who went about doing good. When 
 a good man does good, the good seems yet 
 more beautiful and holy because of its setting. 
 Now that we owe so much to Robert Raikes, 
 and continue his labors, enlarging year by year 
 the splendid inheritance committed to our 
 keeping, there should be no doubt about his 
 spiritual life. I would not escape answering 
 this important question, because, I would not 
 leave you in any doubt as to the Sunday-school 
 being founded by a man whose faith was sim- 
 ple and Bible-rooted. 
 
 Mr. Raikes, as you have seen, was a many- 
 sided man — prosperous but benevolent, a 
 prison-worker and a dandy ; a society man and 
 a founder of Sunday-schools; unpopular with 
 the rich and loved by the poor j nice in his 
 90 
 
THE BIBLE STUDENT. 91 
 
 sense of cleanliness, but mostly seen where 
 there was squalor and filth and misery. In- 
 tellectually we also meet with many striking 
 contrasts : he is impulsive, yet cautious ; slow 
 to take up a new thing, but obstinate in perse- 
 vering; to the end. Wherever we find him 
 there is no doubt about the man : swaggering 
 through the streets, at early morning cathe- 
 dral service, ministering in jail, teaching in 
 schools, giving away combs and clothes and 
 Bibles, celebrating the victory of the Kile with 
 " open house ; " wherever we see him there is 
 no doubt that he is Robert Raikes. He car- 
 ried his own atmosphere with him. 
 
 A man might be and do all this and yet not 
 be a religious man. 
 
 Was Robert Raikes, the founder and organ- 
 izer of Sunday-schools, a religious man ? Yes. 
 
 This is all the more an important answer 
 because, until quite recently, the world has 
 been obliged to take it upon trust that a man 
 who did so much good, without profit to him- 
 self, must have been a Christ-lover. I used to 
 think so, but now I am sure of it, because his 
 words have come to light, and the Avords and 
 acts confirm each other. 
 
 Mr. Raikes had a correspondence with the 
 Rev. William Lewelyn, a J^onconformist min- 
 ister, for whom he printed many religious 
 
92 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES, 
 
 works, including an Exposition of the Booh of 
 Revelation. The correspondence lasted about 
 six years, and at intervals Mr. Eaikes poured 
 forth his soul in sentences which read like 
 '' confessions of faith" in his moments of spir- 
 itual exaltation, or of loneliness because of the 
 feeling against him in his nativ^e city. If I 
 give 3^ou his own words without comment you 
 will like it the better, because they are soul- 
 secrets, such as men breathe in silent prayer, 
 and they were so intended by the writer, who, 
 on one occasion, wrote, " This is the language 
 which 1 speak only to you, and to my own 
 heart." 
 
 These passages, all too rare, may be classified 
 under several heads. 
 
 THE LOVE OF GOD. 
 
 " I rejoice," he wrote, " that I have some 
 kindred spirits . . . anxious to promote the 
 glory of him who is invisible, and who wish 
 to enlarge the kingdom of his Son. 
 
 " Your work is calculated only for minds 
 which have been strongly impressed with the 
 love of God. To those who are insensible to 
 this sublime impression, jowv Exposition would 
 appear as the Gospel did heretofore to the 
 Jews, a stumbling-block, to the Greeks, fool- 
 ishness." 
 
THE BIBLE STUDENT. 93 
 
 "You could not have gratified me more 
 highly than in the freedom with which you 
 say you write to me on the subject of the love 
 of God. 
 
 " Were all men by such communications to 
 provoke each other to good works, manifesting 
 their love to the Giver of all good by imitating 
 his beneficence in their conduct to their fellow- 
 creatures, what a happy world should we live 
 in ; how well adapted to prepare us for that 
 city whose builder is God ! " 
 
 THE BIBLE FIRST. 
 
 "Your words have in them something so 
 purely spiritual that I find no reading, except 
 the Scriptures, that operate so powerfully in 
 purifying the heart, and fitting it for an inter- 
 course with him that is invisible. . . . 
 
 " Your analogy of the great operations of 
 Nature, and the words of Grace, displayed in the 
 Life of our Blessed Redeemer, are very strik- 
 ing. You show the wonderful uniformity in 
 every part of the divine economy." ^ 
 
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 
 
 When sending some proof-sheets of the Mc- 
 position of the Revelation to ]Vfr. Lewelyn, 
 Mr. Raikes wrote : — 
 
 * These extracts refer to a volume entitled Christian- 
 ity : or the Science af Christ, printed by Raikes in 1795. 
 
^4 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 " You begin to open to my view the object 
 of this wonderful and mysterious book in a 
 manner more clear and satisfactory than I 
 have ever seen before. 
 
 *' There is some pleasure in printing works 
 that purif}^ and elevate the heart, and fit it for 
 an intercourse with the mansions of Eternity. 
 
 " Long may you enjoy health to extend your 
 exertions in the cause of purity and holiness, 
 without which no man shall see the Lord." 
 
 On another occasion he wrote : — 
 
 " I wish to ask you what you understand by 
 the Seven spirits, like the Seven lamps burning 
 before the throne. Do they mean any par- 
 ticular attributes of the Deity ? " 
 
 BELIEF IN A HAPPY IMMORTALITY. 
 
 Mr. Eaikes's admiration for the spiritual gifts 
 of his correspondent increased with time, and 
 he gave expression to secret feelings in language 
 which he said '' I speak only to you, and to my 
 own heart." Here are examples : — 
 
 " I wish my Spiritual Part was subtilized and 
 refined like yours. Heaven grant we may one 
 day meet, and pass a happy Eternity together 
 in that blessed society where the praise of God 
 is the only enjoyment." 
 
 " Perhaps we may not meet on this side the 
 
TttE bibLS student. ^5 
 
 grave, but I pray that we mav pass Eternity 
 together, and join in the delights of Adoration, 
 Thanksgivino', and Praise of Him that sitteth 
 upon the Throne, and of the Lamb and Holy 
 Spirit, for ever and ever.- ' 
 
 " I would not urge an exertion beyond your 
 ease ; but when you can write, indulge me 
 with a few of those heavenly ideas that are 
 preparing your faithful spirit for its glorified 
 state : that state in which you Avill be permitted 
 to see as you are seen." 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " I am almost inclined to ask you, if I dared, 
 whence drew you all the store of heavenly wis- 
 dom which enables you to open the mysteries 
 of this astonishing Kevelation ? I am filled with 
 astonishment at the disclosure of what I had 
 not till now any idea. You seem to draw back 
 the veil that conceals from mortals the hidden 
 things of God. 
 
 " How purifying that contemplation ! The 
 world and its grossness sinks into contempt 
 with these sublime and illuminating studies." 
 
 " There are two or three passages that strike 
 me very forcibly. They dart a degree of illu- 
 mination into the mind that comes very nearly 
 to what I have felt when jyerusing the ^en of 
 inspiratian. 
 
96 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 " You are greatly favored. Oh, that I could 
 enjoy the company and converse of a spirit so 
 illumed ! Oh, that I could catch a spark of that 
 sacred splendor ! 
 
 " 1 behold in my own heart the vilest of the 
 vile. 
 
 '"I the worst of sinners am, 
 But Jesus died for me.' " 
 
 *' It is the looking up to Jesus, the Author 
 and Finisher of our Faith through the medium 
 of Humility, and a due sense of our own vileness 
 and unvvorthiness, that appear to me the only 
 means of following him whither he is gone 
 before. 
 
 " It is in this sentiment that we so cordially 
 agree. This agreement binds us together in 
 unity of spirit and the bonds of peace. Upon 
 this rock let us build a temple to Friendship 
 which time shall not destroy." 
 
 FAITH. 
 
 " I see my own unworthiness. . . . With 
 this plea I go more boldly to the Throne of 
 Mercy, keeping in my eye the leper, the pub- 
 lican in the temple, the lame, the blind — all 
 those who came to Jesus brought by the con- 
 viction of their own misery, having faith and 
 confidence in his power to restore. 
 
 " Without this hope of relief the pressure of 
 
THE BIBLE STUDENT, 97 
 
 my sins Avould be a burden too heavy for me to 
 bear." 
 
 Whilst you are under the spell of Mr. Kaikes's 
 confessions of faith, and of love of God and his 
 Son, you will, I am sure, say you have no cause 
 for shame that your Sunday-school Institution 
 is founded on the exertions of such a man. 
 But I will not ask you for any opinion whilst 
 these words of childlike simplicity, though 
 often of much depth and power, are ringing in 
 your ears. All that I will ask of you is to 
 read them again when the spell upon you has 
 passed, and then ask yourselves^ 
 
 If Hobert Raikes was such a Bible student, 
 and such a firm believer in the divine love, and 
 mercy, and promises, is it not true that his was 
 a religious life ; and that the Sunday-school, 
 through him, is Bible-rooted ? 
 
 THE SAYINGS OF ROBERT. flAIKES. 
 
 I have been able to collect a few, and I am 
 sorry they are so few, short, pithy sentences 
 used by Mr. Raikes. They are detached 
 thoughts, and stand alone when separated 
 from their context. These are thoughts thrown 
 off without premeditation, and never after- 
 wards polished up and elaborated for publica- 
 tion, like the Thoughts of Pascal, and of men 
 whom we call " great thinkers." 
 
98 THE STORY OP ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 These sentences were quarried by a busy 
 man out of his own mind in moments of reflec- 
 tion. There may be others in existence, but 
 these are all I find at present : — 
 
 '' The wicked are the scourges of each other." 
 
 " The world conceives that notorious crimes 
 are all that it has to guard against." 
 
 " How earnestly ought prayer to be made 
 for power to imitate the heavenly pattern." 
 
 " As iron sharpeneth iron so doth the inter- 
 course of friends sharpen and exhilarate." 
 
 " If the glory of God be promoted in any 
 way, even the smallest degree, society must 
 reap some benefit." 
 
 " It is that part of the Saviour's character 
 which I aim at imitating : he went about do- 
 ing good." 
 
 " "What a delightful sensation springs up in 
 the mind when the faculties and powers are 
 engaged in promoting the glory of him that is 
 invisible." 
 
 " What a wide and extensive field of rational 
 enjoyment opens to our view, could we allow 
 the improvement of human nature to become 
 a source of pleasure." 
 
 " T find few pleasures equal to those which 
 arise from the conversation of men who are 
 endeavoring to promote the glory of the 
 Creator, and the good of their fellow-crea- 
 tures." 
 
THE BIBLE STUDENT. 99 
 
 " The vigorous and robust in body seldom 
 are seen to enjoy that refinement of Spirit 
 which looks, as it Avere, into the invisible 
 world." 
 
 " Such is the sympathy of minds in Avhich the 
 same Spirit dwells, that they never feel the 
 barrenness of drought complained of in that 
 desert to which the worldly-minded are driven 
 out to ramble to and fro, without knowing 
 where to find a resting-place." 
 
 " It is something to have the wish to be 
 what we ought. A longing look may produce 
 an exertion ; repeated efforts may gain some 
 ground. Let us not despond ! Let us call on 
 him to whom all things are possible. 'He 
 giveth power to the faint, and to them that 
 have no mio-ht he increaseth strenoth.' " 
 
 " Show wherein I may be useful, and com- 
 mand without reserve." 
 
 " I endeavor to avail myself of the folly of 
 the bad to strengthen the good." 
 
 " Happiness greatly depends on promoting 
 the happiness of others." 
 
 " If good seed be sown in the mind, as in 
 the natural world, a plentiful harvest may be 
 looked for, and in the same order." 
 
 "I have labored for the glory of God and 
 the good of my fellow-creatures. . . . The 
 pleasure cannot be taken from me." 
 
100 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 In these brief sentences we have rules for 
 living the Christian life, hoping on, hoping 
 ever for the seeds of good-doitig to sprout, and 
 grow, and bear fruit. In them we see Ilobert 
 Raikes, the hopeful man : " Let us not de- 
 spond ! " Prosperous man as he Avas, with a 
 paying business, well connected, living in the 
 style of a gentleman, fond of good society, 
 received by Queen Charlotte, interviewed by 
 French savants, invited to Eussia by the great 
 Catherine,'^ he was 7iot a self-sufficient man. 
 He read his Bible with a purpose and found 
 strength. How often must these words of the 
 prophet Isaiah •f have comforted him when 
 " walking alone," when ridiculed and vilified 
 by his fellow-citizens, and when the sounds of 
 furious opposition to his pet scheme for creat- 
 ing a new life amongst the neglected masses 
 reached him from afar ! 
 
 I have told you in Chapter YI. a little about 
 the battle which raged against Sunday-schools 
 for years, and the earnest student can find 
 what he wishes to know in my larger volume. 
 I will only now say the Institution passed 
 through the fire without the smell of burning 
 upon it. Nay, it was all the better for oppo- 
 sition, for it was of God. 
 
 * Robert Raikes : The Man and His Work, p. 130. 
 + Isaiah 40: 29. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 LAST DAYS. 
 
 There is not much more to tell you now 
 that is new. I find that in 179^, when only 
 fifty-eight years of age, Mr. Raikes refused to 
 increase his business, and even talked of limit- 
 ing it to the printing of books for a few valued 
 friends. In 1802, when sixty -six 3^ ears of age, 
 he transferred his business and newspaper, and 
 retired into private life. 
 
 He Avent to reside in a house in Bell Lane, 
 very near to where Whitefield was born, and 
 scarcely a hundred yards from the beautiful 
 old house in the Southgate Street. There was 
 another approach to the new house, namely, 
 through the Crypt passage which divided Mr. 
 Raikes's lawn from the church-yard of his 
 parish church. We may note how conserva- 
 tive both he and his father were in their 
 habits, and how their affections clung around 
 familiar places, for neither father nor son ever 
 moved out of the parish of St. Mary de Crypt. 
 There was hereditary stability in the blood. 
 
 101 
 
102 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 The old house in the Southgate Street will 
 always have the greatest interest for the Sun- 
 day-school world, because it was whilst living 
 there that Robert Raikes thought out and 
 planned his wonderful botanical gardens for 
 the culture of cliihl "waste." But the new 
 house had its interest — pathetic interest — too, 
 because it was liere he drew around him with 
 closer ties the chiklren whom he had educated, 
 and learned to love as the " new race," which, 
 as the " instrument under Providence," he had 
 called into existence. 
 
 Altogether, nine children were born to him, 
 and eight survived. Five of the six daughters 
 were married from the old house, so that Avhen 
 he removed to Bell Lane there was left one 
 daughter (engaged to be married), and two 
 sons at school. The eldest, Robert l^apier, 
 graduated at Oriel College, Cambridge, and 
 took holy orders, and his second son, William 
 Ilenly, entered the Coldstream Guards, and, in 
 time, held the rank of colonel. As Mr. Raikes 
 died in 1811, you will see that during his resi- 
 dence in the new house his family was very 
 small. 
 
 The Bell Lane residence Avas in fact a city 
 villa, and was, and still is, surrounded by a 
 lawn, and shrubs, and trees ; and so cut off 
 from the noise of traffic and the streets as to 
 
LAST DAYS, 103 
 
 be a beautiful retreat for a reflective man, fond 
 of books and writing, and given to thoughts of 
 heavenly things. His library was small, and 
 theology his study ; and we have seen how 
 prone he was to a dreamy and pious mys- 
 ticism. 
 
 Here is another contrast in a man full of 
 them — in body he was active ; in his soul he 
 was a dreamer over the hidden mysteries of 
 the Revelation. 
 
 His heart was weak, and, I think, he had 
 been for many years aware of it, so that he 
 was glad to get into this retreat and develop 
 his spiritual gifts without excitement. 
 
 He had lived to see his unselfish labors 
 crowned with success. The new prison reg- 
 ulations for which he had agitated, certainly 
 for thirty-five years, came at last. When lie 
 commenced botanizins^ in child life the averag-e 
 number of criminals to be tried at the assizes 
 varied from fifty to one hundred : but a dozen 
 years after the establishment of Sunday- 
 schools and the reforms consequent on the 
 missionary labors of AYhitefield and the Les- 
 leys, and many other good men, there was not 
 one single criminal to hold up his hand ! It 
 ^vas a " white kid glove assize " for judges Avho 
 were so tired of condemning poor wretches to 
 jails unnameable for their horrors, that they 
 
104 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 often remitted the sentences which they had 
 passed. 
 
 Is there any official record of Mr, Kaikes's 
 prison labors ? — Ko. 
 
 Did the city of Gloucester return him thanks 
 in a public address or service of phite ? — No. 
 
 Was he ever mentioned in Parliament as de- 
 serving of honor ? — No. 
 
 The man who teaches men to win victories 
 over themselves is not usually troubled with 
 titles or annuities, or public honors of any 
 sort. Mr. Raikes certainly was not. 
 
 After his retirement from business he re- 
 ceived the honorary " freedom " of the city of 
 Gloucester. Both he and the great Dr. Jenner 
 were elected Yice-Presidents of the '' Glouces- 
 tershire Society," but that was, at the time, a 
 philanthropic society for apprenticing county 
 boys to trades, and he was also elected an hon- 
 orary member of the Sunday-school Society, 
 established in 1785 ; but these two last cer- 
 tainly must not be considered in the light of 
 rewards for services to the State, the Church, 
 and humanity. 
 
 He never sought for eartlily, reward, and it 
 is certain he never received any. 
 
 He was left in peace to cultivate child life, 
 which he did until it became not only a pleas- 
 ure, but an absorbing passion. 
 
LAST DAYS. 105 
 
 At his new residence he had a room wherein he 
 sat with the children and talked with them, or 
 made them happy, in his own way, on the lawn. 
 
 He loved to hear them sing, and he made 
 them small presents of money and books, and 
 sometimes cakes. He knew how to make his 
 throstles sing cheerfully ! As time passed, 
 they became more and more to him " my chil- 
 dren " and " my flock," and he showed them 
 off to advantage to strangers. He was not 
 shamefaced about the good he did, or his man- 
 ner of doing it, or the materials he worked on. 
 Where Mr. Raikes was, there were his " chil- 
 dren " — they went with him to the Cathedral, 
 at church he was near them, and when he left 
 his pew they crowded around him, " as though 
 I had loaves and fishes to distribute," to use 
 his own words. 
 
 The girls wore pasteboard bonnets, covered 
 Avith Avhite " cauls," on Sundays, and when 
 they came to Mr. Haikes's house ; and the boys 
 were clean and decently clothed, for Mr. Raikes 
 was helped by his two wealthy brothers — Wil- 
 liam and Thomas — in London. When the 
 children grew up i^e found places for some of 
 them, and so had them in touch like a parent 
 who loved them. 
 
 When the end came, it came suddenly. He 
 was sitting in his " study " reading at his table. 
 
106 THE STORY OF ROBERT R A IKES. 
 
 His spectacles were lying on some open papers. 
 His heart beat feebly ; by and by it stopped, 
 and all ^yas peace ! 
 
 He was laid in the family vault, on the south 
 side of St. Mar}^ de Crypt Church, in the pres- 
 ence of members of his family and of the 
 scholars he called his " own." The rest of the 
 world took very little interest in the funeral. 
 One aged man, in 1863, remembered that 
 " there was a many and a respectable lot of 
 people at the funeral," and another that the 
 general feeling was '' that Gloucester had lost 
 a good man." It cannot be said with truth, 
 however, that the pulse of the citizens was 
 much stirred. 
 
 The children who followed the coffin sang, 
 " Preserv^e me, O God : for in thee do I put my 
 trust," and four other verses from Psalms 16 
 and 90. It was a sad moment for these little 
 ones ; but as Mr. Paikes would not have child- 
 hood saddened, they received each one shilling 
 and a cake, as he had wished. 
 
 Mr. Paikes died on the 5th and was buried 
 on the 13th of April, 1811. He was seventy- 
 five years of age. 
 
 In 1862-3, when Josiah Harris (my late 
 father) visited Gloucester, England, tljere were 
 living old men and women who had known 
 Kobert Paikes from their infancy, had gone to 
 
LAST DATS. 107 
 
 his Sunday-school, been taught by him, and 
 went to his funeral, and it was mainly from 
 these old people that he collected the materials 
 about the man and his work, and how and 
 when he did it, which have enabled me to 
 write this book. There were many other 
 sources from which information was obtained, 
 namely, from Mrs. Weller-Ladbroke, his young- 
 est and last surviving daughter, and from those 
 who had been in his employ in his printing- 
 office, and as domestic servants. 
 
 I went Avith my father to Gloucester and saw 
 these old people, and remember how their eyes 
 brightened, and how cheerfully they spoke, 
 when they were asked about Robert Raikes 
 and their Sunday-school days. Any little 
 thing they possessed — a Bible, a reading-book, 
 or anything which he had given them, a por- 
 trait of him on china, or on a printed card; 
 any little thing that he had touched, or that re- 
 minded them of him, was sacred to them, and 
 their eyes moistened when old memories were 
 played upon. Moreover, it was amongst the 
 poor, the poor only, of the city that the name 
 possessed this charm. 
 
 He was, indeed, the friend of the poor in life, 
 and left his name so deeply engraven upon the 
 tablets of their hearts that nothing but death 
 could efface it. 
 
108 THE STORY OF ROBERT R AIRES. 
 
 On the Thames Embankment, London, there 
 is a fine statue to the " Man of Gloucester," 
 erected in commemoration of the Sunday- 
 school Centenary, celebrated in 1880. In the 
 city of Gloucester a memorial tower was erected, 
 out of reverence for so simple but grand a char- 
 acter, by Mr. Addison in the Crypt Lane ; and 
 there is also a memorial hall, built by subscrip- 
 tions raised in the Centenary year. There are 
 mural tablets in the Church of St. Mary de 
 Crypt, but the real, living, enduring monument 
 to him is the twenty-six millions of children and 
 teachers throughout the w^orld, who every Sab- 
 bath learn of Jesus and how to walk in his steps. 
 
 You, my young friends, are a part of this 
 monument more durable than polished stone ; 
 but only think how small this grand living 
 monument is, compared with the colossal pile 
 composed of the hundreds of millions who have 
 passed through the Sunday-school in one hun- 
 dred and twenty years ! Then think hoAV 
 small, very small, even this is to the monument 
 of the future, for every Christian Church must 
 have its Sunday-school. The mind reels when 
 one tries to count the number of Sunday- 
 school-taught children during the next thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 All these will form the true monument to 
 KoBEKT Kaikes, " The Man OF Gloucestek." 
 
CHAPTEK XL 
 
 AFTER THOUGHTS. 
 
 T HAVE told you this story of a life in order 
 to set 3^ou thinking, ray young friends. A new 
 century opens, but we must look back if we 
 would see how far we have traveled in a hun- 
 dred years, and learn what has been done to 
 bring nearer the new heaven and the new 
 earth, and to help in making the former things 
 pass away. 
 
 It seems hardly possible that the things 
 which I have told you about the poor and their 
 ignorance were true even within the memory 
 of living men ; but they were, for reforms 
 came slowly, and old habits died hard. When 
 you hear men speak the language of despair 
 remember Robert Eaikes, the hopeful man, 
 who said, " Let us not despond ! " Only the' 
 coward will despond and disbelieve in progress 
 now that there is no such thing as human 
 " waste," and the life of the child has given 
 birth to the new science, which opens again the 
 gates of Eden to those Avho choose to enter 
 through the portals of the Sunday-school. 
 
 109 
 
no THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 Together we have taken Kobert Kaikes to 
 pieces, not sparing his little vanities, so that 
 we may see how very human he was ; and we 
 have tried to find the secret springs of heart 
 and soul, inspiring and directing, and sustain- 
 ing him. Together we have done with him 
 what we might have done with the imaginary 
 Avatch (which we first talked about) chiming 
 the hours : but we shall not be much the better 
 for this story of a life and of an endeavor un- 
 less we see what we can make of it, and then 
 assimilate some of it to our own profit. 
 
 We shall not all see with the same eyes, 
 which is a great advantage, but we shall all 
 admire the courage of the man who stood up 
 for the poor, and took little children by the 
 hand, and helped them to the higher life. We 
 all admire courage, my young friends; and 
 of all its forms snored cotirage to do good, in 
 the face of opposition, is the highest. So we 
 shall all admire Robert Raikes for fighting for 
 the o^ood till the dawn. 
 
 As we have pulled him to pieces, let us put 
 him together again, and then ask ourselves, 
 What do we see ix Robert Raikes ? 
 
 We see a gay and sprightly man, fond of 
 society, and fine clothes, and rational pleasure, 
 who disciplined himself to usefulness without 
 losing his joy in life and living. He found 
 
AFTER THOUGHTS. HI 
 
 pleasure in doing good, and his days were full 
 of enjoyment ; so he loved work for the pleas- 
 ure he found in it. 
 
 We see a man strongl}^ acted on b}" the pres- 
 ence of suffering and wrong ; one who stood 
 up for the helpless, but whose benevolence was 
 under the control of a will slow to act on new 
 lines until approved by reason. 
 
 We see a man in whom reason and will were 
 guided by faith — faith in God and his prom- 
 ises ; and what is worth noting is, that a 
 man with these qualities was born into the 
 world just when wanted, and in the very place 
 and rank in society wherein he could be the 
 most useful. For the Sunday-school it was 
 necessary that its founder should be sympa- 
 thetic in soul, and a printer by trade ; and 
 Robert Raikes was both. These little points 
 of time and place, opportunity and fitness, are 
 more than curious even for those who do not 
 see the designs of Providence in the moral 
 government of the world. 
 
 Then we see a man who was thorough in all 
 things. How clean, that he must have his 
 crossing swept ; how dainty, with his laced 
 coat and gold snuff-box ! Then, with regard 
 to his prison work and Sunday-school work, 
 no one in his right senses can doubt his thor- 
 ouo^hness. He risked his life when he visited 
 
 'n' 
 
112 THE STORY OF ROBERT RAIKES. 
 
 the jails, so vile were they ; and he was ridi- 
 culed and vilified when he tried to raise up a 
 new race for the glory of God ! Only a 
 thorough man would or could act thus. 
 
 He studied social questions, and learnt his 
 lessons slowly ; but when once he was sure he 
 was right, then he was so determined that 
 nothing stopped him — not even despair ; and 
 all thorough men are like this. 
 
 lie was far in advance of his time in many 
 things — the treatment of prisoners, and debt- 
 ors, and little children among them. When 
 he felt sure that there was no such thing as 
 human " Avaste " in God's sight, then he com- 
 menced to " botanize " in child life. Manj^ of 
 his methods were imperfect, but there was 
 little to guide him, and he had to make his 
 own paths as he traveled. 
 
 All who have joined the grand army of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor may learn much from Robert 
 Kaikes, who did not go far out of his way to do 
 good, but attacked the evils next to his door, and 
 asked for no reward. We may all do like this, 
 and be the better for our efforts, even if we fail. 
 
 1 think — don't you, my young friends ? — that 
 we may sum up the life of Robert Raikes in 
 these words : 
 
 He was Thorough in his Work, and in his 
 Love for Humanity a Christian. 
 

 
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