t\^>lu J.*.J^ U- 
 
 r,- * --r--* 
 
 t.;:.^..,,.ii>y;'^j 
 
 THE 
 
 0K THE 
 SUNDAY 
 
 fi^ H-K 
 
 ^:;.:iil^!ii5Pi 
 
 i--- 
 
 :.\ .'V' /i^ ' '^?'ir> >•:■:; ;< 'v'^i 
 
BV 1515 .C6 1911 
 
 Cope, Henry Frederick, 1870- 
 
 1923. 
 The evolution of the Sunday 
 
 school — - — 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
APR 16 1918 
 
 Edited by CHARLES FOSTER KENT '" ""^ 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 BT ^ 
 
 HENRY FREDERICK COPE 
 
 General Secretary of The Religious 
 Education Association 
 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
Cajryright, 1911 
 By Henry Frederick Cope 
 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 BOSTON 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Two social institutions in our country have a 
 larger number of servants and expend more 
 money than any others; they are our schools 
 and our churches. Neither can show any ma- 
 terial, concrete products, such as we see coming 
 from factories and shops; yet both are absolutely 
 essential to modern social and material welfare. 
 There are many points at which these two insti- 
 tutions come together, but the Sunday-school 
 affords the point of closest contact. It is the 
 church school ; it is the expression by the churches 
 of their faith in the method of the schools, and, 
 in America at least, it is the expression by the 
 public of its confidence that the church will in 
 time meet the need for thorough religious educa- 
 tion. 
 
 The primary aim of this book is to study the 
 development of the Sunday-school with a view 
 to determining whether or not it will be able to 
 meet the serious and steadily increasing demands 
 of the present age. Its past development reveals 
 its capacity for progressive adaptation. We 
 look back that we may the better go forward. 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 We view the past that we may appreciate the 
 present. We see in the sacrifices that our fathers 
 have made for the progress of the school the call 
 to make its continued progress certain. Over a 
 century and a quarter of definite progress in the 
 Sunday-school demands that none of the effort 
 of the past shall be lost, that returns shall come 
 from all the life investment of the fathers and 
 old-time teachers, and to see to it that when the 
 story of this present transitional era shall be 
 written it may be worth the telling. 
 
 A review of Sunday-school history ought also 
 to give the oflBcers and teachers of that institu- 
 tion today valuable help. First, in enabling 
 them to understand the exact aims and character 
 of this institution, and so to come into intelligent 
 and effective relations to it. Second, in giving 
 them encouragement as to its present possibilities 
 and its future progress, by revealing how great 
 is the advance already made. Third, in sug- 
 gesting for their encouragement and perseverance 
 the tremendous vitality of this institution, show- 
 ing how it has surmounted obstacles, overcome 
 prejudice and opposition and won its own place 
 in the church, and is today rapidly winning its 
 proper place in our educational system. 
 
 The point of view in this brief study is that of 
 the layman rather than of the specialist. It 
 seeks to show how in a perfectly natural manner. 
 
PREFACE Vll 
 
 as the result of the outworking of an inner princi- 
 ple of education and not as a consequence of any 
 propaganda or any demands from without, an 
 institution of large influence and importance has 
 developed. It assumes that the history of the 
 Sunday-school is a subject of sufficient general 
 interest and importance to justify this discussion. 
 It is true that there are many persons to whom 
 the Sunday-school is either a matter of indiffer- 
 ence or of derision because of its many failures 
 and its general inefficiency. But this study of 
 its history should suggest that we cannot afford 
 to neglect so influential an institution and that 
 we should be patient with it, for it is still in 
 process of development. 
 
 The author disclaims any purpose of compre- 
 hending the whole field of religious education 
 in the story of its development. He has, how- 
 ever, endeavored to prepare an original study, 
 depending on reliable and, as far as possible, on 
 primary sources for the facts given. 
 
 Chicago, 1911. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I The Genesis of the Sunday-School .... 3 
 
 II In the Early Christian Church 14 
 
 III Lights in the Gloom 29 
 
 IV Robert Raikes 47 
 
 V Early Schools in North America 59 
 
 VI The Adoption of the School by the Church . 68 
 
 VII Development through Organizations .... 80 
 
 VIII The International Sunday School Association . 91 
 
 IX The Story of the Lesson System 101 
 
 • X The Period of Intensive Development. . . . 128 
 
 XI Causes and Factors in Recent Development, . 136 
 
 XII The Evolution op the Teacher 151 
 
 XIII The School for Adults 174 
 
 XIV The Sunday-School and Bible Study . . ... 182 
 XV The Sunday-School and Libraries 193 
 
 XVI The Religious Education Association .... 201 
 
 XVII Parallel Lines of Progress 212 
 
 Questions for Review 220 
 
 A List of Helpful Books for Further Study . 231 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE 
 SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
-^ 
 
THE GENESIS OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 The Sunday-school of the twentieth century 
 is distinctly a modern educational institution. 
 Yet it is not a recent invention. It is 
 tial Spirit of one of the most interesting examples 
 schoor"^^^' o^ ^^^ gradual elaboration and per- 
 fection of a type of organization to 
 meet certain needs. It has developed because 
 religion has developed. The school is the answer 
 of the church to the fundamental demand for 
 religious education. If our religion means enter- 
 ing into a larger, finer life and the realization of 
 a better social order, we are bound not only to 
 seek education but also to make education pos- 
 sible to all others. We cannot have the King- 
 dom until men learn the life of the Kingdom; 
 it can come only as they are trained in its ways 
 and inspired with its ideals. The supreme mes- 
 sage of Christianity is that man is the child of 
 God, born of a divine family, intended to grow 
 into the fulness of divine relationship and like- 
 ness. The sublime hope and essential meaning 
 
 3 
 
4 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 of the religious life is that personality may 
 develop into a fulness which we cannot yet 
 measure. The great religious purpose of life 
 is personal and social development. Hence the 
 aim of every religious institution should be the 
 development of character to fulness and efficiency 
 under the best social conditions. 
 
 The Sunday-school is rooted in this essential 
 conception of religion as a life of developing 
 The First personality. The first chapter of Sun- 
 Chapter day-school history began when man 
 turned his face to this larger life and sought 
 meaning in a world greater than that which he 
 could see and touch. In its simplest form the 
 essential principle embodied in the Sunday- 
 school can therefore be traced even in the earliest 
 records of the history of religion. The savage 
 gave personality to all objects. The trees, 
 grasses, wind, all in his thoughts w^ere possessed 
 of mind or spirit. He believed in a great 
 world outside himself and his fellows, the world 
 of beings who caused the trees to shake in the 
 wind and the rivers to flow. His w^ise men were 
 those who held the secret of this world of 
 spirits. Beyond such training as the home or 
 the clan might give to the youth in the use of 
 tools and the implements of the chase the really 
 important, practically the only subjects of his 
 instruction, were those that related to that great. 
 
GENESIS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 5 
 
 shadowy, and usually dreadful world of spirits. 
 Such instruction was more formal than his every- 
 day training in the family and the chase, and so 
 those who instructed him in his religion were his 
 first recognized teachers. 
 
 The earliest development of a great religion 
 and a great civilization took place in the Nile 
 In Egypt valley. The people who worked out 
 a calendar of 365 days as far back as 
 4000 B.C., who erected the great tombs, temples, 
 and pyramids, and who wrote many books, did 
 not neglect education. We have today the re- 
 corded wisdom of their teachers. During Egypt's 
 greatest splendor the priestly class was domi- 
 nant and education was largely religious in charac- 
 ter. The priests were the teachers and the temple 
 schools were open to any who could pay even a 
 small sum. 
 
 Babylonia, Assyria, Phoenicia, Persia, and India 
 developed religious institutions and systems of 
 Assyria, thought. Inscriptions on the rocks, 
 
 India, and tablets, monuments, and codes of law 
 Cnina 
 
 recently discovered tell of teachers 
 
 and schools and even suggest the subjects of 
 
 study. Their religious life gave birth to and 
 
 maintained their educational endeavors. Chinese 
 
 history also reveals the early development of 
 
 religious ideas. Their tradition tells of schools 
 
 as early as 2400 B.C., but there is no reliable 
 
6 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 evidence of a systematic educational movement 
 before Confucius (550-458 B.C.). The system of 
 ethics known by his name was gathered from 
 the ancient reHgious teachings. It became the 
 official code of all Chinese life. The extensive 
 imperial educational scheme of China sought to 
 make pupils familiar with this code. In recent 
 years China has introduced the Bible into the 
 literary studies required of all who seek official 
 rank. She is also seeking to work out an edu- 
 cational plan under the direction of Christian 
 experts. 
 
 With the Spartans religion was to live for 
 the state. All the education of the youth was 
 
 in hardihood and courage. In early 
 \j recce 
 
 Athens the songs of the poets dealing 
 with legends of origins and with the deeds of 
 ancient heroes furnished the material for moral 
 and religious instruction. When the simple, old 
 nature-religion no longer sufficed, philosophical 
 interest developed. Great teachers arose. Socra- 
 tes and Plato enunciated the educational ideals 
 recorded in The Republic. Their teachings and 
 those of Aristotle were principally concerned with 
 the questions of morals, with the right rela- 
 tions between men. Their works reveal the large 
 place which practical rigliteousness had in Greek 
 education. 
 
 The early Roman carried his faith in gods and 
 
GENESIS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 7 
 
 spirits into all his life. Every act had a sacred 
 significance, whether sowing the wheat 
 or lighting the fire in the home. Hence 
 every act was a part of his religious education. 
 But loyalty, patriotism, citizenship, were also relig- 
 ious duties, and the Roman youth was specifi- 
 cally taught these duties. Cato wrote a pamphlet 
 on How to Educate Children. Schools were estab- 
 lished in Rome about the end of the third 
 century before Christ. The ideals of Roman 
 education, and especially of moral training, are 
 perhaps seen at their best in the writings of 
 Quintilian (a.d. 35-95). Plutarch in his Morals 
 gives many passages on the quickening of con- 
 science and on moral education. 
 
 In an important sense all Hebrew religious life 
 must be regarded as educational in intent and* 
 Among character. An educational purpose is 
 the Early revealed in the explanation which the 
 writer gives in the sixth chapter of 
 Deuteronomy to the imaginary question: To 
 what end are all these signs, ordinances, sacrifices, 
 and feasts.? (Read Deut. 6:7-9, 19-25.) Such 
 observances, and particularly such direct teaching 
 at parent's knee and through household and 
 social customs, constitute the finest and most 
 effective kind of religious education. Through- 
 out the history of this people religious education 
 began for the Hebrew child where it ought to 
 
8 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 begin for all children — that is, in the home. 
 This continued to be the case even when formal 
 institutions of learning were well established. 
 That the educational process was not wholly 
 one of verbal instruction is evident from such 
 side-lights as Deuteronomy 8:5 and from refer- 
 ences in Proverbs to careful discipline and to 
 household services and duties. 
 
 Popular education took its rise in the endeavor 
 to make the law the guiding force in national and 
 
 social life. The religious traditions and 
 Education literature of the Jews became the great 
 among the object of study in homes and public 
 
 gatherings. The literary revival which 
 followed the exile was like a new lease of life, and 
 from it can be traced almost all the later vigorous 
 educational activity of Israel. The scribe, the 
 educator and interpreter of the law, was the 
 teacher of the people. Along with the scribe 
 the synagogue must be recognized as one of the 
 Old Testament forerunners of the Sunday -schooL 
 It is of importance for our study because it was 
 not only the place at which the writings were 
 read and expounded on the Sabbath and at other 
 stated occasions, but because it became the 
 local center of the educational life of the people, 
 and, in time, literally the public schoolhouse. 
 The regular synagogue service itself was almost 
 an exact prototype of the early Sunday-school. 
 
GENESIS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 9 
 
 The service consisted of the public recitation of 
 passages calling on the people to remember the 
 Law and the words of Jehovah, the reading of 
 parts of the Law and parts of the Prophets, the 
 offering of prayer, and the giving of a formal 
 benediction. The Scriptures were read in the 
 ancient tongue, and a translation into the popular 
 dialect given, followed by a popular exposition. It 
 is said that teachers were first regularly employed 
 in Jerusalem about 80 B.C., by Simon Ben She- 
 tach, called the father of systematic education in 
 Judea. But many doubts surround the account 
 of his work. The high priest Joshua Ben Gamla 
 is also credited with a similar service. At the 
 end of the Roman period the first clear evidence 
 appears of a fairly well organized, comprehensive 
 system of Jewish education in operation, one 
 teacher being provided for each twenty-five 
 boys in a village and an assistant whenever the 
 number of boys reached forty. 
 
 In all these schools the material of instruc- 
 tion was almost exclusively religious. Josephus 
 r» ,. • boasted of the training which Jewish 
 
 Religious , ° 
 
 Nature of youth received in the Law (Contra 
 the studies ^p.^^^ 1:12, 11:18-25). He also de- 
 scribed the regular meetings for hearing and 
 learning the law and gave specific examples of 
 incredible verbal accuracy in repeating the law. 
 Leipziger states that the work of memorizing the 
 
10 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Scriptures was seriously begun with each child 
 at the age of three; but the emphasis, in think- 
 ing of this period, should be not on the specific 
 examples of formal instruction but on the great 
 fact that the whole life of the people was so 
 infused with the spirit of religion that they were 
 impelled to teach it to their children. To them 
 religion was not a part or a division or aspect of 
 life; it was so truly the whole of life that education 
 could not possibly be considered apart from it. 
 
 The teaching of religion in regular institutions 
 was fairly well established by the time of Christ. 
 The Jewish As a matter of course, he both learned 
 School Ijj ii^Q synagogue schools and himself 
 
 taught in them. Three kinds of religious schools 
 were probably in existence at this time; the 
 elementary village schools, the synagogue schools, 
 and the classes or groups for higher instruction 
 meeting under the direction of such teachers as 
 Hillel and Shammai. The subjects of study had 
 not changed greatly from those in the later Old 
 Testament, at least in the elementary and syna- 
 gogue schools. The pupils were still drilled in 
 the Law, the Mishna or interpretations, and the 
 traditions of the law. If we may believe the 
 rabbinical authorities the curriculum of the schools 
 was fairly definitely fixed: from the age of five 
 to ten, the Law, without comment, beginning 
 with Leviticus and taking the historical portions 
 
GENESIS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 11 
 
 later; from ten to fifteen, the unwritten tradi- 
 tions, the Mishna, the endless elucidations of 
 the Law by the rabbis, the comments of their 
 followers, the comments of those who commented 
 on earlier commentators, the expositions of ex- 
 positions, in many cases the darkening of words 
 without knowledge. At fifteen years of age, the 
 pupil was free to dispute with the doctors and to 
 attend the higher schools. 
 
 Conditions were far from being ideal, as they 
 are sometimes pictured. The groups of bo^^s 
 sat on the beaten dirt floor. Only boys were 
 present; no girls were permitted to receive relig- 
 ious instruction outside the home. The teach- 
 ing was, in at least the greater number of instances, 
 by rote, largely mechanical, a process of memo- 
 rizing. 
 
 The ministry of Jesus was preeminently a 
 teaching ministry. While John the Baptist is 
 Jesus the always spoken of as a preacher, Jesus 
 Teacher jg g^jj ^^ have preached and taught. 
 There are many more examples of his work as 
 a teacher than as a preacher. The parables 
 reveal his supreme skill as a pedagogue. He 
 laid emphasis on teaching the young and on 
 personal, practical instruction. He sent into the 
 work a body of indomitable teachers. Jesus 
 adapted his method to the conditions in which 
 he found himself; he accepted the institutions 
 
12 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 and means nearest at hand, as the synagogue, 
 
 the street group, and the working group. If the 
 
 modern Sunday-school teacher would follow Jesus 
 
 here he will often be found walking in the fields 
 
 with his class; he will lead to thoughts of God 
 
 by way of his flowers and his folk. The school 
 
 that follows this teacher will not be content with 
 
 weekly meetings for formal instruction, but play 
 
 and social life, and even business and toil will be 
 
 used as pathways to higher life. 
 
 This brief survey of the beginnings in religious 
 
 education suggests three conclusions: First, that 
 
 , . the imperative need of training the 
 Conclusions . , . 
 
 youth for useful living and for the right 
 kind of living in relation to others — either gods 
 or men — compelled all early peoples to make 
 some provision for education. Second, that all 
 early education was largely religious because 
 religion was not a separate subject of study but 
 permeated all life. Where religion was national 
 and where nations were homogeneous, religious 
 education was a national duty, and those ques- 
 tions which perplex us as to the separation of 
 public and religious education simply did not 
 arise. Third, that the modern conception of 
 education as a social duty, an obligation which 
 we owe to all, came to full development under 
 Christianity. Christianity is essentially a religion 
 of education, it gives hope for a larger, better 
 
GENESIS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 13 
 
 life here; it bids man become a nobler being; it 
 awakens in him the sense of his godlike possi- 
 bilities, and it lays on every man the duty of lead- 
 ing his fellows into self-realization. It makes me 
 my brother's keeper and therefore responsible for 
 his complete development. With its grand social 
 conceptions of a right world where peace reigns, 
 where good-will rules, where one great family 
 lives with the divine Father over all, it lays on 
 us the imperative command to touch and to train 
 every life, to lead all to know the laws of the 
 divine order, and to acquire by training and 
 education, the habits of the heavenly family 
 here on earth. 
 
II 
 
 IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 Christianity began and spread by teaching. 
 A missionary religion must teach. The method 
 Church of the apostles was essentially the 
 Leaders method of the Great Teacher. Paul 
 in his hired house at Rome spent the greater part 
 of his time instructing groups of inquirers and 
 individuals who came to him. He conducted 
 a school of the new faith which met every day 
 and at all hours. Other passages give very clear 
 pictures of the early Christians meeting frequently, 
 usually in the house of one of their number, and 
 spending the time in talking over the new faith 
 and in worship. It is easy to see that such meet- 
 ings were really schools, and that, either in them 
 or by other means, the youth were gathered in 
 groups for definite instruction. The early leaders 
 of the churches quickly recognized the importance 
 of training the young in religious knowledge. The 
 Church Fathers, both Greek and Latin, have 
 much to say regarding the teaching of children. 
 The absence of descriptions of special institutions 
 
 U 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 15 
 
 for this work occasions no surprise, for this was 
 tiie period when the new hfe had not yet formed 
 for itself institutional channels; it was adapting 
 itself also to great political changes and to a new 
 world order. 
 
 It would be futile to attempt to prove that the 
 early Christians had formal institutions, under 
 Three Lines the care of the churches, which corre- 
 of Descent sponded to our Sunday-schools. The 
 pedigree of the Sunday-school is to be traced in 
 principles rather than in institutions. It is seen 
 in the practical expression of the principle of the 
 religious instruction of the young. Early Chris- 
 tianity made provision for this instruction in 
 at least three ways: (1) in^ the home, (2) in the 
 synagogue schools, and (3) in the catechetical 
 schoolsTTJ'one of the plans was new. Each was 
 the continuance and natural development of 
 methods which had been used among the Jews. 
 Gentiles would find them at first not greatly 
 different from customs with which they were 
 familiar. 
 
 The New Testament gives glimpses of the 
 religious life in the home. Timothy was by no 
 In Jewish means the only youth instructed in, 
 Homes ^-j^^ Scriptures from early childhood.! 
 In Jewish homes the obligation to repeat the I 
 words of the law was still recognized. All the 
 ancient lore, the hero stories, and the literary 
 
16 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 and historical instruction of the child by father 
 and by mother were religious in character and 
 subject. Despite the development of tradition- 
 alism among the professional religious leaders, 
 the life of the people was for the most part 
 genuinely religious. Besides direct teaching in 
 the home the domestic religious customs and 
 observances were of great pedagogic value. In 
 homes that remained Jewish in faith the fasts 
 and the feasts were observed and diligent efforts 
 were made to instruct the children regarding their 
 meaning. Such homes kept alive the ardor of 
 the old faith and made the glorious past real to 
 youth. In families that became Christian there 
 -was no immediate break with old customs. Even 
 when the observances ceased it was necessary to 
 explain their ancient meaning. The reading or 
 at least the repetition and memorizing of the 
 Old Testament passages continued in both kinds 
 of homes. The Jewish heritage was the heritage 
 of all and they gloried in it. 
 
 In the Jewish-Christian home the child received 
 instruction in Christian facts and ideals in the 
 , most effective manner. The wonder of 
 Christian the new faith made it the all-absorb- 
 Homes .^^ subject of conversation. All life 
 centered about it. They learned to know Chris- 
 tian history and teaching as children in American 
 homes in the years 1860-1806 learned to know the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 17 
 
 history of the Civil War. This was equally true 
 in Gentile Christian homes, for they were equally 
 near to and interested in the events. 
 
 Religious teaching was not neglected in the 
 pagan home. The Greeks and the Romans 
 Gentile loved their children. We must not 
 Homes judge hastily from a few shocking ex- 
 amples; not all Roman fathers exposed their 
 children to die or even desired to do so. In the 
 later period of the Roman Empire corruption and 
 luxury undermined the homes of the upper classes 
 and prepared the way for the fall of the empire. 
 At the end of the first century the wealthy left 
 the instruction of children to nurses and slaves. 
 But such homes were no more typical than are 
 similar ones in this country today. Quintilian, 
 who lived 35 to 95 a.d., pleads for the early 
 instruction of the child. He emphasizes the 
 duty of moral training. He says that instruction 
 should begin in the cradle, "as soon as a son is 
 born." "Let us not lose even the earliest period 
 of life." He reminds us of Plato and Socrates: 
 "Beginning is the chief est part, especially in a 
 young and tender thing." The special teachings 
 of Jesus on the value of the little child and his 
 place in the kingdom led the Gentile Christians 
 to set a new value on elementary education. 
 
 The life of the home flowed into the early 
 Christian meetings. Frequently the converts 
 
18 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 gathered in homes. Congregations were designated 
 by the home at which they usually met. Agree- 
 The Family able to Jewish custom, it was expected 
 at Meeting ^^^^^ ^j^^ whole household would follow 
 
 the parents in alle^k^nce to the new faith. There 
 was definite consciousness of family relation to 
 that faith. The children went often with their 
 parents to the gatherings. Little groups of 
 families wended their way to their m.eeting- 
 places. They came at first openly and later 
 secretly for fear of persecution. Meeting in 
 houses, barns, deserted quarries, under the stars, 
 in the catacombs, at any place where in the zeal 
 of this new faith men and women might con- 
 gregate, the hymn of praise arose, copies of the 
 letters of the apostle were read again and again, 
 and one and another asked questions or told of 
 his experience or hope. How eagerly the little 
 children, standing by their parents, listened to 
 all that was said, and with what interest they 
 inquired further concerning those wonderful 
 stories ! 
 
 The early meetings were informal in character. 
 They corresponded more closely to a large mixed 
 Church Sunday-school class than to a modern 
 Service 5 church service. The utmost freedom 
 of action prevailed. Questions were both asked 
 and answered by the audience. The preacher 
 was really the leader of the class. One writer 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 19 
 
 on early Christian preaching, Paniel, designates 
 these services as "a mode of instruction which 
 arose from the familiar interplay of inquiry 
 among the members of the congregation." ^ He 
 goes on to describe the preacher as depending on 
 the questions and answers of the congregation for 
 guidance in his words. This was indeed a peda - 
 gogical method; the teacher discovered the con- 
 tent^f the pupils' minds before attempting to 
 teach. There are in existence "homilies," as 
 they were called, free transcripts of the remarks 
 made on both sides in these interlocutory services. 
 The narratives and accounts of the addresses 
 made by Paul and others show that this method 
 was common with them. The congregation 
 regarded itself somewhat as a class; they were 
 not listening to a formal lecture, still less to a 
 sermon; they were at liberty to ask questions, to 
 assent and even dissent from what was being 
 said. It is interesting to note that the church, 
 even in its public services, once gathered more 
 as a class than as an audience, and that those 
 early meetings were efficient educationally for 
 both young and old. 
 
 It is important to keep in mind the fact of the 
 close connection between the old and the new in 
 
 1 Paniel, Karl F. W., in Pragmaiische Geschichte der Christlichen 
 Beredsamkeit (Leipsic, 1839), quoted by Trumbull, in Yale Lec- 
 tures on Sunday-Scfiools, p. 53. 
 
20 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 the beginnings of Christian history. There was 
 no sudden break. In the early days a family 
 N Ne d converted to Christianity from Judaism 
 of New would make few changes in its customs. 
 They would go to the synagogue 
 and the children went to the synagogue school. 
 In fact, Christian teachers taught in the syna- 
 gogues in many places. There were no new 
 formal organizations for school purposes. The 
 customs already in use met all needs. The early 
 Christian church consisted so largely of Jews, 
 who continued the instruction of their children 
 by reading and study of the Old Testament, 
 and also of those who were largely influenced 
 by such Jewish customs, that it is not strange 
 that nothing is heard of special institutions for 
 Christian instruction. The old ways sufficed 
 for both Jews and Christians until persecution 
 drove the latter from the synagogues. 
 
 The synagogue schools were to be found al- 
 most everywhere through the Roman world. 
 Synagogue Borne along by their recently awakened 
 Schools commercial spirit the Jews had gone 
 everywhere, and in all places had established 
 their meeting houses. Wherever Jews lived they 
 maintained their daily schools for the religious 
 instruction of the young. Jewish Christians 
 sent their children to these schools. All the 
 early letters assume the familiarity of the people 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 21 
 
 with the facts of Hebrew history. In the first 
 
 century for the greater number of Christians 
 
 the Sunday-school met every day of the 
 
 week. 
 
 By the end of the first century the Christians 
 
 were recognizing the need for special institutions 
 
 T> . . for the instruction of their children, 
 liegmning 
 
 of New The growing hostility of the Jews, 
 
 Schools 1 • I ■ .• 1 xi 
 
 bitter persecution, and the conscious- 
 ness that the new faith was wholly separate from 
 any other emphasized the necessity of distinct 
 Christian schools. They developed under at 
 least two influences: (1) the usage of the syna- 
 gogue schools and (2) the fact that some of the 
 new leaders in the life of the church were scholas- 
 tics, trained in the Greek schools. The early 
 Fathers did not repudiate learning. They ac- 
 knowledged their indebtedness to the higher 
 schools of the pagan world. They sought all 
 the essential advantages of that culture for those 
 who were to do responsible work in the churches. ^ 
 Perhaps the schools for children grew up around 
 the groups of men gathered for higher education 
 under Christian auspices or being trained for 
 religious services. It is possible that parents 
 demanded of these teachers that they should 
 continue for their children the work of the masters 
 in the synagogue schools. 
 
 ^ See Primitive Christian Education, G. Hodgson. 
 
22 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 The earliest regular school for Christian teach- 
 ing of which there is clear evidence was at Alex- 
 andria. That ancient city was in many 
 Alexandria ^ '^ 
 
 ways the natural center lor such a 
 beginning. It had a glorious intellectual past. 
 It was the home of a very large Christian 
 community, quite different in culture and think- 
 ing from those in Judea. Intellectually, the 
 Alexandrians were Greek Christians. They saw 
 Christianity in the light of Greek philosophy and 
 interpreted the one by the other. They were 
 prepared to recognize the advantage of new 
 schools and of definite forms of instruction. Alex- 
 andria had long been the home of scholars and a 
 city of schools. The origin of the Alexandrian 
 school is uncertain. We are indebted to Jerome 
 for almost all our information. At first it was a 
 school for adults, a theological seminary. Prob- 
 ably there were gatherings of Christian thinkers, 
 philosophers, and teachers in that city of learning 
 early in the second century. One hundred years 
 later, a.d. 203, we know that this school gave the 
 child his rightful place. At the age of eighteen, 
 Origen (a.d. 185-254), a student in this theo- 
 logical seminary, went out into the city of Alex- 
 andria and gathered the children from the many 
 churches. He organized them into groups for 
 instruction. Before long the bishop of Alex- 
 andria very properly appointed him head of 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 23 
 
 these schools for children. They were called 
 catechetical schools. The new work compelled 
 Origen to give up his secular teaching. He 
 refused pay for religious teaching and, in order 
 that he might not starve, 4ie sold his library for 
 an annuity of a little over ten cents a day. 
 
 The catechetical schools were for those who 
 were to be admitted to the church. The pupils 
 Catechetical were instructed with great care in the 
 Schools doctrines of the church and in the 
 
 history of their faith. All candidates received 
 the instruction, so that the schools included 
 adults as well as children. But Origen 's primary 
 interest was in the children. The name "cate- 
 chetical schools" must not mislead us into think- 
 ing of them as existing to teach some formal 
 catechism. It refers rather to the fact that the 
 instruction was exceedingly careful, systematic, 
 and graded according to the development of the 
 pupil and his progress toward full admission into 
 the church. 
 
 These early schools probably included a large -r 
 proportion of the Christians in their communities. ^ 
 
 -, , ,. The students were divided into at least 
 
 Gradation 
 
 four grades or stages of instruction. 
 The first grade was composed of those who were 
 simply inquirers, receiving instruction in small 
 classes. These included the younger children 
 as well as the new converts. The second grade 
 
24 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 was called that of the "hearers." They had no 
 part whatever in the services of worship in the 
 church except as listeners. They left the church 
 when the sermon and Scripture reading was ended. 
 It is probable that they then retired to classes 
 in the corridors or outside the church. The 
 third grade was that of the "worshipers," who 
 had a part in the prayers and ceremonies of the 
 church. The fourth division corresponded to 
 the graduate classes, the "electi," who were 
 ready for baptism. Unfortunately, many pre- 
 ferred to remain in this last class until death drew 
 near, so that baptism might confer on them the 
 supposed benefits of a final unction. 
 
 The young were instructed in this manner 
 not only in Alexandria but in the churches through- 
 The Church out Gentile Christendom. Christian 
 as a School tradition supports this statement. Chris- 
 tian art shows the children being prepared. Many 
 incidental allusions establish the fact that in the 
 churches outside of Judea there were always 
 classes for the training of the young in the relig- 
 ious life. If, as the testimony of the Fathers 
 shows, the method of question and answer was 
 used to train the heathen for church membership, 
 it is not likely that the church would fail to use 
 this method to bring all her children into that 
 relation. The architectural form of many ancient 
 churches indicates special provision for purposes 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 25 
 
 of instruction. Many edifices were arranged so 
 that it would be possible for the first two grades 
 to leave the congregation and quickly go to the 
 colonnades and there assemble in classes. 
 
 From all the allusions to these schools we can 
 
 gather: (1) that the students were principally 
 
 those who were preparing for admission 
 
 one usions ^^ ^^^^ church, although many others 
 
 who needed this instruction were included; (2) 
 that the course of study was roughly graded and 
 covered from two to four years; (3) that the 
 subjects included sacred history, Jewish customs, 
 memorizing the Scriptures, the great Christian 
 doctrines, and the teachings of Jesus; (4) that 
 the method of teaching was in classes, often by 
 laymen and women and by students; (5) that 
 the text-book material included the books of the 
 Old Testament, religious poems (possibly the 
 forerunners of some of the ancient hymns), and 
 in time some of the letters and other material 
 of the New Testament. If the churches had 
 continued to recognize the importance of train- 
 ing the young, had adopted suitable methods as 
 they arose, and had paid as much attention thereto 
 as the influential leaders did in the third and 
 fourth centuries we might have had a different 
 tale to tell today. 
 
 Side by side with the catechetical schools, an 
 extensive system of general education gradually 
 
26 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 grew up under the care of the churches. These 
 schools were not only religious in character but on 
 General a religious basis, with religious subjects 
 Education g^g ^i^q principal elements in the curricu- 
 lum. Such a remarkable development of early 
 education took place under the fostering care of 
 Christianity, that the Emperor Julian, at the 
 time of the pagan reaction against Christianity, 
 recognized its importance by issuing the famous 
 decree taking education out of the hands of the 
 Christians and the churches and placing it under 
 the direction of the Roman state. 
 
 The school at Alexandria is best known in its 
 wider sphere of general theological education. It 
 ^^^ has been called the fountain of theo- 
 
 Theological logical education, for here was gradually 
 developed an institution which trained 
 many distinguished men for religious services. 
 Clement (160-215 a.d.) was one of the pupils 
 at this seminary, and so was his disciple 
 Origen. We are indebted to Jerome for the 
 picture of Origen, the theological student of 
 eighteen years of age, going through Alexandria, 
 organizing children into classes and instructing 
 them. The theological seminary of that day 
 was using the laboratory method which the 
 seminary of this day is again beginning to adopt. 
 Origen was the forerunner of the young man or 
 woman training for Christian service who learns 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 27 
 
 by doing, who meets the real and practical prob- 
 lems of religious education while in preparation 
 for that work, and who puts into present practice 
 the instruction received in the class room. Clem- 
 ent left many interesting works. Perhaps the 
 most illuminating are his Pedagogue and his 
 Address to the Greeks. These show both the 
 system used in the Christian schools and the 
 content of the teaching. The Pedagogue states 
 that the teaching included not only the Scriptures 
 and theology, but such practical matters as 
 hygiene, dress, manners, and everyday morals. 
 Those early teachers regarded their work with 
 the young as broader than instruction in the 
 facts of biblical history. They sought to train 
 for the whole of the religious life. 
 
 The most notable large schools in Christendom, 
 besides Alexandria, were those at Jerusalem and 
 
 Antioch. These were more like theo- 
 Extension , . , . . i ^ xi u 
 
 logical seminaries, but they became 
 
 centers for the many elementary schools in con- 
 nection with the churches. For two or three 
 hundred years the school for the religious educa- 
 tion of youth continued to be a part of the church. 
 Through Asia Minor and Egypt there were many 
 such schools. When Gregory the Illuminator be- 
 gan to evangelize Armenia he established a system 
 of schools throughout all his field and required 
 attendance at them. 
 
28 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 The catechetical schools show that Christianity 
 was not merely the friend "but also the mother 
 . . of education in the modern sense, 
 an"^ lani y rpj^^^ prove that the Christian church 
 Education ^^^ ^^le school are inseparable in spirit 
 and essential the one to the other. They indicate 
 that the church early recognized the educational 
 method in the development of the religious life. 
 They are prophetic of the Sunday-school, which 
 has only recently been recognized as an essential 
 part of every modern church. They suggest 
 emphatically that when Christianity had all the 
 vigor and freshness of a new life in the world and 
 when it had to meet its most serious organized, 
 racial, and political opposition, its leaders de- 
 pended largely on educational processes, its ranks 
 were recruited, and its own people saved to 
 itself by Christian nurture. 
 
Ill 
 
 LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 
 
 The story of religious education during the 
 medieval period is quite inseparable from the 
 history of general education. All education was 
 conducted by religious agencies. The subjects 
 of study were naturally religious. The activities 
 of education centered in the cities about the 
 cathedrals and great churches and in other places 
 about the monasteries. There was no general, 
 comprehensive scheme of education for the peo- 
 ple. For a long time the church looked with 
 suspicion on attempts to extend learning beyond 
 the monks and the clergy. Many of the latter, 
 especially those engaged in parish duties, were 
 sadly ignorant. In the monasteries classic learn- 
 ing was preserved; in some instances the monks 
 took pains to teach some of the poor. 
 
 In 782 Charlemagne called Alcuin, a monk of 
 York, England, to direct the organization of 
 Charle- education in the Empire. He called 
 °^^sne attention to the ignorance of the clergy. 
 But he also established village schools, which were 
 taught by the priests and were open to all, 
 
 29 
 
30 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Alcuin came to the court of Charlemagne from 
 scenes of religious interest in education in Eng- 
 Education in land. There schools had already been 
 England established which were intended for 
 those outside the clergy. These, which were 
 the mothers of the great universities of our 
 day, were all religious schools. Canterbury was 
 originally a school attached to a monastery. In 
 the seventh century it was made famous by the 
 teaching of Theodore and later by that of the 
 abbot Hadrian. Then classical studies were 
 added to the theological and biblical. The 
 great school at York was founded on the same 
 basis in the next century. (See A History of the 
 Church of England, Patterson, p. 29.) The school 
 at Jarrow won fame through the work of "the 
 Venerable Bede," and his pupil Egbert, after- 
 wards Archbishop of York, founded the cele- 
 brated school in his own city. Alfred the Great 
 of England, lamenting the decline of religion in 
 his kingdom — saying there was not a single 
 priest in the country south of the Thames — 
 sought a remedy in education. He established 
 a school at his court for the sons of the nobility 
 and urged that all the freeborn youth of the land 
 be taught the rudiments of English and Latin. 
 He established additional monasteries with schools 
 and sent abroad for religious teachers for them 
 and for the schools at the older institutions. After 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 31 
 
 the invasion by the Danes many of the monastery 
 schools were restored by the Benedictine monks. 
 
 The rise of the great universities contributed 
 to important changes. These universities, quite 
 different from our modern institutions, were 
 really free associations of students grouping 
 themselves about great and attractive teachers. 
 The first was at Salerno, near Naples. 
 
 The University of Paris, the mother of modern 
 liberal culture, took its rise in the fact that such 
 The teachers as Roscellinus, Peter Abelard / 
 
 Universities ^^^ William of Champeaux lectured 
 and reasoned in Paris and drew about them 
 inquiring minds from all over Europe. Large 
 numbers of young men, anxious to pursue the 
 studies they had begun independently in religion 
 and philosophy, came to these teachers. They 
 met in open spaces, in hired rooms, or wherever 
 they could. They paid their instructors just as, 
 for example, the Jewish seekers after knowledge 
 paid Hillel. Emerton says: "It is in these early 
 efforts of the human mind to work out, in what 
 seemed a scientific fashion, the great problems of 
 faith and thought, that we find the beginnings of 
 modern, systematic, higher education." ^ 
 
 While men hungry for religious and philosoph- 
 ical truth were flocking to the university cities, , 
 to Paris, Cologne, Bologna, and Florence, how 
 
 ^ Einerton, Mediaeval Europe, p. 452. 
 
32 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 were the laymen, the common people, the parents 
 and children in the country and the villages faring 
 Among the for religious knowledge? They were 
 People j^Qj. wholly destitute of such knowledge, 
 and yet how was it circulated? The common 
 statement that the people lay in absolute ignorance 
 is unsatisfactory, for out of that mass of igno- 
 rance rose many fair and illuminating lives. The 
 saints of the church in that period are not to be 
 dismissed as humbugs or as weak and impossible 
 characters. Somehow they found food for the 
 higher life. Religion was taught even in the 
 darkest days. Although all regular church ser- 
 vices were conducted in Latin and all preaching 
 was in that tongue, there was much intercourse 
 between priest and people, while the monks and 
 traveling friars constantly conversed with the 
 village folk. Many records exist of story-telling 
 by these travelers and of popular paraphrasing 
 of the Gospel narratives, as well as of several 
 quaint attempts at the presentation of religious 
 truths by means of crude parables suited to the 
 uneducated mind. 
 
 One effective means of popularizing religious 
 knowledge was used by the class of men known 
 Wandering as "wandering scholars." Almost any 
 Scholars student at the university cities was 
 likely to be a wanderer, going from one famous 
 teacher in this city to another in that. Like 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 33 
 
 the Hindu story-tellers and learned men, they 
 often gathered the village folk about them and, 
 in return for hospitality, told in simple terms 
 what they had seen and heard. Their lives may 
 have been not ideal, but their teaching was still 
 on the subject of religion, for at this time "the 
 Christian religion had become the leading sub- 
 ject of men's thoughts, and divines had put forth 
 its claims to be — a Philosophy in the widest 
 sense in which the term is used." ^ 
 
 The wandering friars popularized religious 
 education in the thirteenth century. The Francis- ^' 
 The Wan- cans, Dominicans, and other orders were 
 denng Friars fj.^g to go anywhere, as "pilgrims and 
 
 strangers," on works of mercy. They mingled 
 
 freely with the people and taught them. Their 
 
 liberty permitted the development of a much 
 
 more liberal culture than was found in the monastic 
 
 orders. 
 
 One other influence must be mentioned briefly, 
 
 the reform of the monasteries under the leader- 
 
 ^ . ship of Bernard of Clairvaux and other "' 
 Monasteries ^ i mi ... 
 
 great souls. These institutions, once 
 repositories of learning and active in the religious 
 education of the young had, in many places, 
 become nests of vice and luxury. But Bernard 
 founded his great school and his associates, with 
 their intense devotion and mysticism, secured a 
 
 * Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences. 
 
/ 
 
 34 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 large measure of reform in the monasteries so that 
 many became efficient teaching agencies. 
 
 Gerard Groot (1340-1384) founded an order 
 of evangehsts of unusual religious zeal known as 
 T, ,, r the Brethren of the Common Life. 
 
 Brethren of 
 
 the Common They established houses of devotion in 
 
 which converts lived under monastic 
 conditions, but in a manner intended as a protest 
 against the laxities common in monasteries. 
 These devout and industrious lay communities 
 met w^ith the bitter opposition of the friars who 
 were living in luxury and sloth. The new houses 
 soon became teaching centers. Very early many 
 boys were attracted and received religious in- 
 struction. At some of the schools more than a 
 thousand boys were in attendance. Many of these 
 also went to other schools for secular learning. 
 Thomas a Kempis was one of their students. 
 These schools took rank with the best educational 
 institutions of the age, and this body of learned 
 and godly men, engaged in teaching religion to the 
 youth, played no small part in preparing the way 
 for the new day in Germany. 
 
 In the counter-reformation the schools of the 
 Brethren came under the control of the Jesuits; 
 but they had done their splendid work. (See the 
 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. II, 
 and also lives of Groot and Florentius.) 
 
 In England, during the latter medieval period. 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 35 
 
 the education of youth passed very largely from 
 the monasteries. But it did not pass from 
 Parish under religious auspices; the church 
 Schools ^^g g|-iii ^]^Q great educational agency. 
 
 The parish priests conducted various kinds of 
 elementary schools. Some were parochial schools 
 of considerable dignity; others were simply little 
 gatherings of children to gain such learning as the 
 priest might be able to impart. The instruction 
 was almost wholly religious, or at least biblical 
 and doctrinal. Even the study of languages 
 centered about the religious writings. 
 
 The schools of more advanced grade, as "gram- 
 mar schools," were usually attached to the abbeys," 
 Grammar to cathedrals, or to churches. The 
 Schools great schools were at Winchester and 
 Eton. The former was founded by William of 
 Wykeham in 1378 for the education of youth for 
 religious service. Like the other great English 
 schools, it was intended for the "commoners" 
 and for poor boys as well as for the nobility who, 
 in later years, practically usurped the privileges 
 of the other classes. Eton was founded by Henry 
 VI in the next century. 
 
 Erasmus, born in Rotterdam in 1467, was one 
 of the finest scholars of his time and one of the 
 
 educational beacon lights of the new 
 Erasmus , , , 
 
 age. He wrote a great deal on educa- 
 tion. He held that religious nurture was of first 
 
36 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 importance. He was wise enough to see that the 
 most important consideration of all was not the 
 amount of information regarding religious history 
 or literature which the child might receive, but 
 the impressions, ideals, and examples which were 
 given to him. 
 
 The great German reformer, Luther, stood for 
 the open way to God, the way made free from 
 stumbling blocks set up by ecclesias- 
 ticism. But men must be taught the 
 way. In the year 1524, the year in which he 
 published his First German Hymn Book, he 
 prepared his first catechism for children. Some- 
 where about this time he began to call attention 
 to the need for the religious instruction of 
 children. He saw that the young must learn 
 the Scriptures, if ever religious truth was to be 
 a common possession of the people. Accordingly, 
 as D'Aubigne says, he made this one of the objects 
 of his life. Under their civic conditions students 
 could be taught the Scriptures in the day schools. 
 Therefore he began to stimulate public opinion 
 to appreciate the advantages of general elemen- 
 tary education. He sent an address to the 
 councilors of the German cities: "Dear sirs; we 
 annually spend so much on arquebuses, roads, 
 and dikes, why should we not spend a little to 
 give one or two schoolmasters to our poor chil- 
 dren. Forget not the poor youth. The strength 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 37 
 
 of a city does not consist in the number of its 
 towers and buildings, but in counting a great 
 number of learned, serious, and well-educated 
 citizens." Again, "For the church's sake Chris- 
 tian schools must be established and maintained." 
 "Is it not reasonable," he asks, "that every 
 Christian should know the Gospels at the age of 
 nine or ten?" "In schools of all kinds the chief 
 and most common lessons should be the Scrip- 
 tures." The Reformer's recommendation for scrip- 
 tural teaching in all schools would be feasible 
 then in Germany, as it would not be today in 
 America. Luther also did tremendous service 
 for religious education in translating the Bible 
 into his own tongue. Even in that day a half 
 million copies went into circulation in a very 
 short time. Some of the other educational ideals 
 of Luther included domestic religious training, 
 vocational training, particularly in home duties 
 and in trades, free libraries, and teacher training. 
 (See D'Aubigne, and Painter's History of Educa- 
 tion; also Graves, A History of Education, Vol. 
 11.) 
 
 Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the disciple of 
 Ignatius Loyola, is known for his splendid mis- 
 ^^ . sionary zeal; but he also corrected one 
 
 error of the Jesuit schools, their neglect 
 of children. He is credited with the saying, " Give 
 me the children until they are seven and I care 
 
38 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 not who has them after." He went through the 
 streets of the cities of India ringing a bell and 
 calling on the people to send all the little children 
 to him for instruction in religion. 
 
 Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, has 
 become a familiar name, though still an indefinite 
 figure, in Sunday-school history. He 
 was the nephew of Pope Pius IV, a 
 man of unusually high character and wisdom. 
 In 1579 he organized the Collegium Helveticum, 
 for the free education of Swiss young men for 
 the priesthood. At the same time he was deeply 
 interested in the religious education of the young. 
 Agreeable to the mandates of church councils, 
 he gathered the children at the cathedral and at 
 its chapels. He also ordered that the same plans 
 should be followed in all the churches under his 
 care. He caused the children to be gathered in 
 ' separate small classes, the girls and the boys being 
 divided for religious instruction. Over each class 
 was a minister or teacher. They met every 
 Sunday for study and recitation in the catechisms. 
 Beside the priests in charge of the classes there 
 were other lay assistants, while for the girls 
 matrons were provided. It is said that at the 
 Archbishop's death there were 3040 teachers 
 and 40,098 scholars in his schools. 
 
 Archbishop Bellarmine of Capua (1542-1 6*21), 
 whom Hallam calls "the most renowned and 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 39 
 
 formidable champion" of the Roman church, 
 
 prepared a catechisni for the use of children. 
 
 He traveled through all his parishes, 
 Bellarmine . i -i i i i i 
 
 gathermg the children at the churches 
 
 and arranging for their systematic instruction. 
 
 Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian revivalist,^ 
 not only preached to children, but he inaugurated 
 a system of bands, or classes of young 
 converts. They met once or twice a 
 week regularly in little groups of about five to 
 sing and pray and discuss religious subjects under 
 the direction of a leader. Wesley acknowledges 
 this as the origin of the class-meeting plan, but 
 it is interesting and significant, also, as one 
 attempt to train the young in religion. 
 
 Zwingli published in 1524 a little text-book 
 
 entitled, How to Educate the Young in Good 
 
 Manners and Christian Discipline, He 
 
 also outlined a plan of a systematic 
 
 course of biblical study. 
 
 In the Netherlands at the period of the Renais- 
 sance there was a closer approach to general 
 John elementary education than anywhere 
 
 of Nassau ^jg^ jj^ Europe. The schools in many 
 towns and villages were probably the results or 
 survivals of those founded by the Brethren of 
 the Common Life. In 1574 the Council of Dort 
 asked the state to see that there was a school and 
 a schoolmaster of the reformed faith in every 
 
40 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 community. About the close of the century 
 John of Nassau wrote a remarkable letter urging 
 education for all classes. He pleaded that the 
 States-General should establish free schools where 
 all classes of children "could be well and chris- 
 tianly educated and brought up — Soldiers and 
 patriots thus educated, with a knowledge of God 
 and a Christian consciousness, item, churches 
 and schools, good libraries, books and printing 
 presses are better than all armies, arsenals, 
 armories, munitions, alliances and treaties." 
 The land that made such ideals practical was 
 the home of the settlers of Plymouth and the 
 Massachusetts Bay Colony. (See Campbell, The 
 Puritan in Holland, England and America.) 
 
 Wliat checked the tremendous sweep of the 
 reformation on the continent of Europe in a very 
 Jesuit few years and restored the ancient 
 
 Schools church to a large measure of power.'* 
 Certainly two facts account in large measure for 
 this: (1) that the church of Rome began to reform 
 from within; and (2) that this reform consisted 
 in taking one leaf out of Luther's book and doing 
 that which he proposed much better than any 
 reform organization had done it. Certain leaders 
 in the Roman church seriously undertook the 
 task of teaching the doctrines of the church to 
 the young. Ignatius Loyola, in 1534, founded the 
 Jesuit order of priests to combat the reformation. 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 41 
 
 The principal means employed was the establish- 
 ment and control of schools of all grades, except 
 the very elementary. He inaugurated a system 
 of religious education according to the conception 
 of his church. The society sought especially to 
 influence young men and youths. It planned a 
 course of study and regimen that embraced every 
 act and every hour of the student's life. Early 
 in the eighteenth century the order had six hun- 
 dred and twelve colleges, one hundred and fifty- 
 seven normal schools, twenty-four universities, 
 and many missions with schools. The colleges 
 were often very large, their students being youths 
 usually from the better classes of society. In 
 addition they had elaborate arrangements for 
 personal instruction of choice youth. 
 
 The educational activity of the Jesuits accom- 
 plished much for their church and seemed to check 
 Jesuit's ^^^ development of organized Protes- 
 Neglect of tantism for a time. But it failed in real- 
 oung .^y ^^ educate the people religiously or 
 to win them to the church because it neglected 
 the training of the very young and even sought to 
 keep the lower classes in complete ignorance. 
 
 August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) started 
 
 a school for the poor in his own house in Glanca 
 
 in 1695. Later he organized other 
 
 schools, both elementary and advanced. 
 
 He urged that the chief aim in education was 
 
 (J 
 
42 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 religious knowledge and life.^ But he protested 
 against mere memory "chattering." His schools 
 remain to this day. They profoundly influenced 
 German popular education. 
 
 The conflict between Protestantism and Roman- 
 ism in Europe brought about an unprecedented 
 Protestant interest in theology. The scholars gave 
 Day Schools ^j^^jj, strength almost wholly to this 
 subject. The literature of the age is almost 
 -exclusively religious or theological. The current 
 thought of the period took form under this in- 
 fluence. The dominance of theology led to the 
 attempt to reduce all knowledge to the narrow 
 conceptions of the theologians and to reduce 
 religious thinking to an infallible, logical, un- 
 changeable system of formal statements. But 
 it also had the effect of quickening popular edu- 
 cation and giving religion the first place in classes 
 and schools for children and youth. Every 
 church became a school during the week. True, 
 the instruction was often in the hands of the 
 sexton or of a priest or preacher little better 
 fitted for the work, but the effort awakened 
 general interest and foreshadowed the beginnings 
 of genuine public education. 
 
 The Protestant schools of Germany deserve 
 larger attention than is possible here. They 
 included schools for girls as well as for boys. 
 
 ^ See his Kurzer und einjdlligcr Unterricht. 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 43 
 
 Both provided that reading, writing, Luther's 
 
 catechism, hymns, and the Bible should be taught. 
 
 ^ The pupils were required to read the 
 
 German ^ ^ ^ . . . 
 
 Protestant Bible at home and repeat its stories in 
 
 ^ °° ^ the class. The principals of the girls' 
 
 schools were to be women who "loved the Word 
 
 of God." 
 
 In 1773, a village pastor named Kindermaun 
 
 established a school which met at his church on 
 
 _. , Sundays. His plan becoming known 
 
 Kindermaun . " 
 
 it was adopted by many other parishes 
 
 through Bohemia, and the Empress Maria 
 
 Theresa rewarded Kindermaun, so Frieselander 
 
 says, for his services. 
 
 In 1769 Miss Hannah Ball, of High Wycombe, 
 
 about thirty-five miles from London, gathered a 
 
 , „ „ number of children on each Sunday 
 
 Hannah Ball • i p .i i s? • j 
 
 morning beiore the hour oi service and 
 
 taught them to read the Bible, to repeat the 
 
 catechism and the church collect for the day. 
 
 The corner in the church where she gathered her 
 
 class is still pointed out to visitors. It may well 
 
 be regarded as the birthplace of the English 
 
 Sunday-schools. 
 
 John Frederic Oberlin was pastor at Waldbach, 
 
 in the Bandela Roche. In 17G7 he became both 
 
 ^^ ,. pastor and schoolmaster and established 
 Qberlm , . . 
 
 -^ in his parish, out of his own slender 
 
 resources, four new schools. He erected houses 
 
 y^ 
 
44 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 for them and began there the first infant schools 
 ever held. Since the children of these schools 
 were obliged to attend services on Sunday and to 
 meet for the special purposes of singing their 
 hymns and reciting their religious lessons, his 
 work belongs in the lineage of the Sunday-school. 
 In England at this time certain great schools, 
 such as Whitefriars, were founded by private 
 Public funds and designed for the education 
 
 Schools Qf needy youths whose parents could 
 not afford to send them to other schools. The 
 pupils were fed and clothed either free or at very 
 small charges. But it was not long before the 
 "Bluecoat" boys and the pupils at such schools 
 were the sons of rich men, of the families of army 
 and navy officers and churchmen. The rights 
 of the poor were stolen from them and at the close 
 of the seventeenth century there was practically 
 no provision for the education of the children of 
 the lower classes in England. No wonder there 
 was need for a Robert Raikes, since these children 
 not only had no training but changing industrial 
 conditions compelled them to work at least six 
 days a week. However, even these endowed 
 "public schools" were distinctly religious schools: 
 they were founded with a religious purpose; they 
 were conducted by the religious authorities of 
 the realm; and they gave large place in their 
 curricula to religious instruction. The youth 
 
LIGHTS IN THE GLOOM 45 
 
 of those public schools had little need for the 
 Sunday-school. No demand for such an institu- 
 tion was likely to arise from the English middle 
 and upper classes. 
 
 It was not until Robert Raikes ^ had been for 
 twenty years at his work in England that there 
 Beginnings ^as any general awakening to the 
 of Public recognition of the rights of the children 
 
 uca ion ^j ^^^ p^^^ ^^ educational advantages. 
 
 In 1811 what was known as the National Society 
 was founded. Its purpose was to give the chil- 
 dren of the poor both religious and secular in- 
 struction. The religious teaching was to be given 
 by the established Church, the Episcopal, and 
 the subject matter was to be in accordance with 
 her teachings. These schools were, until 1833, 
 purely voluntary; in that year the government 
 made its first grant of money to them. Out of 
 that grant rose the great educational controversy 
 in England which has been carried on into the 
 twentieth century. The schools first founded 
 by the National Society became known as National 
 Schools. These are recognized by the govern- 
 ment and in them religious teaching is given by 
 teachers of the state church (1910). 
 
 The British and Foreign School Society shortly 
 
 1 "The Sunday-schools established by Mr. Raikes . . . were the 
 beginnings of popular education." Green, Short History of the 
 English People. Vol. II, p. 359, 
 
46 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 afterwards began to establish schools in which, 
 as they expressed it, an ''undenominational re- 
 British ligion" should be taught. Both these 
 School types of schools, however, grew out of 
 
 Society religious interest. Popular education 
 in England has a distinctly religious foundation 
 and, down to this day, a great deal of attention 
 is devoted in by far the larger number of schools 
 to direct religious instruction. However, that 
 instruction has been a constant source of diffi- 
 culty and division, and an increasing number of 
 persons in Great Britain insist that all religious 
 instruction must be left wholly to voluntary 
 agencies, such as church schools, Sunday-schools, 
 and similar associations and institutions. 
 
IV 
 
 ROBERT RAIKES 
 
 In early Sunday-school history no other figure 
 stands out in relief like Robert Raikes. Not 
 many years ago, in 1880, the Protestant world 
 celebrated the centenary of the Sunday-school, 
 one hundred years since Raikes founded his first 
 schools in Gloucester, England. 
 
 Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, Septem- 
 ber 14, 1736. His childhood was spent in fairly 
 The Man comfortable circumstances. That his 
 Raikes education was not neglected is evident; 
 his occupation as editor of The Gloucester 
 Journal and his manifest literary ability prove 
 this. It is said that he was for a time at Cam- 
 bridge. In early manhood he became interested 
 in the inmates of the county jail and by visitation 
 and by writing he endeavored to alleviate their 
 appalling condition. 
 
 In The Gloucester Journal of November 3, 1783, 
 Raikes gives the first published mention of his 
 ^ . . interest in the schools for the poor on 
 
 Beginnings t ^ u x 
 
 bunday. Later he wrote a more com- 
 plete account of the origin and working of his 
 
 47 
 
48 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 plan. He told how he became impressed with 
 the depravity of the children of the working class, 
 how he thought of gathering them on Sundays, 
 and how he employed four women to instruct 
 them "in reading and the Church catechism," 
 paying them one shilling a day (easily equiv- 
 alent to five shillings — $1.25 — at this day). 
 He then called his printing press to his aid in 
 preparing a pamphlet on the needs of the chil- 
 dren. By the aid of friends he bought Bibles 
 and books for the pupils. Then others saw the 
 possibilities of these schools and soon a number 
 were started. In 1786 when John Wesley visited 
 Bolton, Lancashire, he found Sunday-schools 
 established there, and the next year over eight 
 hundred pupils were enrolled, "taught by eighty 
 masters, who receive no pay but what they are 
 to receive from their great Master." There is 
 also abundant evidence that strong schools were 
 established at Bradford, Chester, and at Stockton, 
 the latter being the school now in existence, famous 
 as the largest in the world. 
 
 In cooperation with William Fox, who at about 
 the same time had worked out similar plans 
 General for the religious training of the young. 
 Organization "The Society for Promoting Sunday 
 Schools Throughout the British Dominions" 
 was organized in 1785. Some of the rules framed 
 by this society are interesting: "Be diligent in 
 
ROBERTRAIKES 49 
 
 teaching the children to read well. . . . Neither 
 writing nor arithmetic is to be taught on Sunday 
 . . . Range your scholars in classes, according 
 to their age and ability . . . Avoid as much as 
 possible Corporal Punishments." ^ Several dis- 
 tinguished names appear in connection with 
 Raikes' work. Hannah More wrote to William 
 Wilberforce in 1789, seeking to obtain books for 
 her schools in Cheddar. Mr. Raikes urged the 
 schools with both high and low and succeeded 
 in stimulating national interest in his movement. 
 But his health began to fail and on April 5, 1811, 
 he died in his own city of Gloucester, having 
 succeeded in stirring all England to the needs of 
 the neglected and destitute children of the large 
 cities. 
 
 Some really surprising facts appear when one 
 looks under the surface of the history of the 
 Type of Sunday-school: (1) that it is customary 
 Schools |-Q speak of Robert Raikes as the "father 
 of this great movement"; (2) that there were 
 Sunday-schools flourishing in several places, 
 centuries before Raikes, and that long before his 
 birth there were several in his own country; (3) 
 that the Sunday-schools of our day, in which we 
 often honor Raikes, are in scarcely any particular 
 like the ones which he founded. Our modern 
 
 * Quoted from Robert Raikes, 20th Century S. S. Series. Ameri- 
 can Baptist PubUcation Society. • 
 
50 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Sunday-schools are not "ragged schools" — except 
 as many of them, unfortunately, might deserve 
 so to be called because of the character of their 
 organization and management. Our schools do 
 not attempt, except in very rare instances, to 
 teach reading and writing, while those of Glouces- 
 ter attempted little else. His schools were in- 
 dependent institutions, either unrelated to or 
 ^opposed by the churches. These differences are, 
 of course in part, but not altogether, accounted 
 for by natural processes of development. New 
 conceptions have entered in; some of the functions 
 of Raikes' schools have been taken over and 
 developed by other agencies. The public schools 
 now do his work of general teaching and the relief 
 and aid societies care for destitute children. But 
 if all that Raikes did was to gather destitute 
 children and to begin a system of general educa- 
 tion, in what way can he properly be credited with 
 the parentage of the present-day Sunday-school? 
 It surely cannot be because his schools met 
 on Sunday and our schools in the churches do 
 likewise. 
 
 This is not an attempt to despoil Raikes of 
 his crown. It is an attempt, in view of the three 
 Why Robert facts mentioned above, to show the 
 Raikes? precise significance of Raikes in the 
 Sunday-school movement and history. Raikes 
 is the father of the Sunday-school, not as its 
 
ROBERTRAIKES 51 
 
 inventor, still less as its maker or perfector, but 
 as its prophet. He did not foresee the graded, 
 organized, pedagogical school of the twentieth 
 century; he did have love and faith enough to 
 look forward in the direction of that school and to 
 compel many others, his contemporaries and 
 successors, to take the forward look. His motives 
 compelled the steps that have gradually brought 
 us where we now are. 
 
 It is important to account for some of the facts 
 mentioned. First, why did the schools founded 
 A Pi e ^^ Raikes find permanent rootage while 
 those that preceded him were but 
 te^ilpDrary? Wliy did the great system of Cardi- 
 al Borromeo and the splendid plans of Arch- 
 bishop Bellarmine, in the early seventeenth 
 century, the familiar school of Nicholas Ferrar 
 and the much disputed school of Joseph Alleine 
 in Bath, all end in themselves, while the schools 
 founded by Raikes succeeded in giving birth to 
 new ideals and taking such hold on the minds 
 and sympathies of men as to secure their con- 
 tinuity and their unbroken development .^^ 
 
 First of all, Raikes was dominated by a motive 
 that seems to be stronger, deeper, and more nearly 
 Secret of universal than that which gave birth 
 Raikes |.q ^^le schools before him. He was 
 swayed with passion for the children. He pitied 
 and loved them. To him the child was the 
 
52 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 reason for the school. That is precisely the point 
 of view taken today: the child is the cause of 
 the school; modern pedagogy insists that in the 
 child we must find all the principles of the school. 
 Robert Raikes did not call his schools Bible 
 schools; he called them schools for ragged chil- 
 dren. They were children's schools, and especially 
 for destitute children. He did not organize them 
 under the splendid ideal of all children being 
 familiar with the Bible; he organized them to 
 give those children a real chance at better living. 
 As they were, those children were a menace to 
 the city, a menace to themselves. The problem 
 was to free them somehow from ignorance and 
 evil habits. If you gather children that they 
 may know your Scriptures, that they may think 
 of religion as you think of it, even though your 
 purpose may be excellent, it is only a literary 
 or a philosophical aim. To accomplish the best 
 results another motive must dominate; the child 
 must be set before the curriculum. That was 
 the saving mark of the schools founded by the 
 Gloucester philanthropist; they were organized 
 for the sake of the child, not for any sectarian, 
 doctrinal, literary, or institutional aim. They 
 made themselves one with our modern schools 
 in their basic passion for the child. 
 
 Many schools, possessed of great advantages, 
 have failed because their primary aims have not 
 
ROBERTRAIKES 53 
 
 been to meet the needs of the child; they have 
 existed for the Bible, or for the denomination. 
 The Saving OF for the Creed. A child ought to 
 Motive know the Bible; it ought to be the most , 
 attractive book in the world to him; it may 
 easily become the most familiar; and a child 
 ought to come into life-relationship with his 
 church. But to sit down and say, "Come, let 
 us build a Sunday-school so that the Bible may 
 be taught and so that the church may be strength- 
 ened," is to build a school and arrange its curric- 
 ulum on the basis of the Bible or on that of the 
 church instead of on the needs of the child. That 
 is to work toward the object of a system of 
 knowledge instead of toward the aim of a child 
 growing up into the fulness of ideal and divine 
 life. But having the child as purpose and object, 
 the Bible, the whole curriculum, the creed and 
 the church, become the tools and means to serve 
 this high purpose. That was the vision Raikes 
 saw when he looked on the unkempt, ragged, and 
 blasphemous little scamps of the alleys. Through 
 dirt and rags, through the stamp of bestial homes 
 and vicious environment, he looked and saw the 
 possible Christ-child. He had faith in even these 
 dregs of humanity. His was a human passion; 
 the methods for its realization worked themselves 
 out later. 
 
 Another great saving impulse was operative 
 
54 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 in the Raikes schools: that was the founder's 
 conception of pubhc education. The develop- 
 Educational ment of his scheme may be traced in 
 ^^^ the letters which he wrote. Doubtless 
 
 he would have scouted the idea that learning 
 of any kind or degree would be sufficient of itself 
 to secure right living and holy character. But 
 certain convictions on the dangers of ignorance 
 and on education as a pathway of growing light 
 and life glowed in his mind. Remember that 
 he was first of all a lover of his kind, a true philan- 
 thropist. Our earliest accounts show him con- 
 cerned over the conditions in the city jails, over 
 the large number of prisoners, their besotted 
 ignorance, and their hopeless indifference to 
 degraded conditions. Then he is concerned over 
 the conditions of industry; why are so many 
 homes wretchedly poor, fairly destitute of even 
 the barest decencies, when parents and all the 
 children work long hours in the pin shops .^ As 
 a man with a craft, the somewhat rare and quite 
 respectable trade of a printer, he is above this mass 
 of poverty; but he loves his kind whether they 
 are of the clean stock of the English gentleman 
 or of the seething mass at the bottom. Long 
 brooding over their needs convinces him that the 
 people at the bottom might become as good as 
 those at the top, if they had the chance. They 
 - were sinning because they had no knowledge. 
 
ROBERTRAIKES 55 
 
 Lying, thieving, vice, and every form of evil 
 would seem perfectly normal to children brought 
 up in hovels without instruction of any kind. 
 The Gloucester philanthropist printer discovered 
 for himself the great principles of common edu- 
 cation which still uphold this system today. He 
 recognized that all persons have a right to that 
 common fund of knowledge regarding the essential 
 facts of life, and to the wider vision of life in order 
 that they may see life as a whole, that they may 
 learn the art of right living with one another, 
 that they may come to the fulness of their own 
 powers, that they may become possessors of their 
 splendid heritage of ideals, and that they may be 
 able to render their full and efficient service to 
 their day. Raikes was a prophet of the mod- 
 ern system of public education and the school 
 on Sundays was his first expression of his 
 vision. 
 
 Of course Raikes was not the first prophet of 
 public education. But, by using the one spare 
 Free day of the week, he gave a practical 
 
 Education demonstration of that public education 
 which was no more than a dream in the minds 
 of a few leaders in England. Several have lately 
 suggested that in the United States the system 
 of elementary public education has become so 
 much the object of blind enthusiasm as to be 
 almost a popular fetich. But underlying all 
 
 y 
 
5Q EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 popular enthusiasm for these schools is a deep 
 conviction of their absolute necessity to popular 
 freedom and especially to freedom for personal 
 character development. In a free nation the 
 school is the chance to express a great altruistic 
 motive, a chance to give freely in order that 
 others may receive. Even the man who has no 
 children would be the object of public scorn if, 
 on that account, he should seriously object to 
 supporting public schools. In fact, the feeling 
 is growing that those who have none to be educated 
 should pay the larger share toward the education 
 of others. 
 
 Now this altruistic spirit of public education 
 is also the spirit that underlies the Sunday-school. 
 Essential '^^^^ Sunday-school might well claim 
 
 Spirit of the public school as one of its children. 
 Altruism ^tm ^ i m i 
 
 I he attempt to educate children on 
 
 Sunday preceded any attempt at general free 
 
 public education in English-speaking countries. 
 
 **The act of 1642 in Massachusetts neither made 
 
 schooling free nor imposed a penalty for its 
 
 neglect." ' It was "not until thirty years after 
 
 the war of 1776 that a regular system of schools 
 
 at the public expense was established." ^ 
 
 The religious characteristics of Raikes must 
 
 not be overlooked. Doubtless of deep spiritual 
 
 ^ Boone, Education in the United States. 
 ^ Rhine, Early Free Schools in America. 
 
ROBERTRAIKES 57 
 
 conviction, holding to a high faith, and conscious 
 of the presence of his Father at all times, he 
 Raikes' sccms to have been what one would 
 Religious call a practical-minded Christian.*^ He 
 
 expressed his faith in his works. Even 
 in his letters he spent little time in elaborating 
 theological theses; in this he was unlike most 
 of his literary contemporaries. Even though he 
 had that exceedingly tempting opportunity of 
 a printing press right at hand, he used it only for 
 practical purposes. Instead of printing tracts 
 to prove certain doctrines, he printed them to 
 promote certain practical plans. In many re- 
 spects Raikes would have been much at home in 
 the twentieth century, which is the era of the man 
 of affairs in religion. Some of his friends de- 
 scribe him as very much a man of business, 
 "steady, methodical, and very tenacious of pur- 
 pose." Perhaps in some measure the permanency 
 of the essential parts of his idea is due to the fact 
 that they were expressed by a man with a practi- 
 cal eye. He sought the realization of his ideal 
 of the heavenly city, the city where "there shall 
 be children playing in the streets thereof." 
 
 We are justified, then, in regarding Raikes as 
 The Man's ^^ important figure in the history of the 
 Accomplish- development of the Sunday-school and 
 
 as a man marking one great stage of 
 progress in the history of religious education. 
 

 58 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 This is not because, as some would seem to claim, 
 he planned the present-day Sunday-school, but 
 because (1) he had the courage to apply great, 
 fundamental principles and motives to the edu- 
 cation of the young; (2) he had the tenacity to 
 continue his work in face of all opposition, even 
 that of those who ought most cordially to have 
 cooperated with him, and (3) he had the wisdom 
 to begin his work with those who most needed 
 it and in the place where he could do it best. 
 
 7 
 
 •>; .. 
 
EARLY SCHOOLS IN NORTH AMERICA 
 
 To the early settlers in New England separate 
 institutions for religious education would have 
 seemed as superfluous as separate schools for 
 instruction in civic liberty. Religion was their, 
 daily mental and spiritual bread. It was at 
 least one of the great causes of their being where 
 they were and seemed to them the dominating 
 factor in all they did. When they came to 
 establish schools, as they did very early, at least 
 in the development of the Massachusetts Bay 
 Colony,^ religious subjects took a large place in 
 the curriculum. Five years after the Massa- 
 chusetts Bay Colony was settled the Boston 
 Latin School was established. The next year, 
 1636, Harvard College was founded to train 
 young men for the ministry and, as expressed in 
 1650, for "the education of the English and 
 Indian youth of this country in knowledge and 
 
 ^ The interest of the Virginia Colony seems to have centered in 
 instruction in the "liberal arts," after the ideal of EngUsh univef- 
 sitiea. 
 
 59 
 
60 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 godliness." In 1642 the Massachusetts General 
 Court ordered, "That all masters of families do, 
 once a week at least, catechise their children and 
 servants in the grounds and principles of religion, 
 and if any be unable to do so much, that then, 
 at the least, they procure such children or appren- 
 tices to learn some short orthodox catechism, 
 without book, that they may be able to answer 
 the questions that shall be propounded to them 
 out of such catechism." 
 
 Five years after this order came the celebrated 
 "charter of free education," the 1647 enactment 
 
 ^^ , .of the General Court of Massachusetts. 
 Charterof , , . , <« .i . i 
 
 Free This provided that, m order that learn- 
 
 Education .^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^.j^j j^ ^^e grave of 
 
 our fathers, in Church and Commonwealth, the 
 Lord assisting our endeavors, it is therefore 
 ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, 
 after the Lord hath increased them to the number 
 of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint 
 one within their town to teach all such children 
 as shall resort to him to read and write." It 
 further provided for the payment of such masters 
 by the parents and the householders. We today 
 cannot easily conceive the extent to which these 
 schools were religious schools. The text-books 
 were religious in tone and subject; biblical ma- 
 terial was freely used; scriptural knowledge was 
 an essential part of the course. This was true 
 
EARLY SCHOOLS IN AMERICA 61 
 
 of New England and Eastern schools for many 
 decades. The text-books were written to teach 
 religion. The books officially provided later 
 for pupils' libraries were not only religious, they 
 were dogmatic, fiercely assailing all "false doc- 
 trine" and often calculated to intensify religious 
 prejudices and partizanship. A recent writer ^ 
 quotes the interesting statement of one who 
 attended those early schools, who says that the 
 teacher "continually prayed with us every day 
 and catechised us every week." 
 
 Remember the pious character of all instruction 
 and the pious customs of these early settlers. 
 
 „ . . Call to mind the many pictures of the 
 
 Beginnings , . , 
 
 in New Saturday afternoon catechism lessons 
 
 England -^ ^^^ homes and, in other cases, the 
 gathering of the young for the same purpose and 
 at the same period in the meeting houses. It is 
 not strange that the institution of separate Sun- 
 day-schools would appear to be superfluous; 
 and so the colonists seem to have regarded the 
 situation for a few years. Yet, with the recognized 
 necessity for weekly religious instruction and 
 with the activity of the ministry toward this 
 end, it was only natural that the short period 
 between the two preaching services on Sunday 
 should seem appropriate for gathering children 
 
 * Marianna C. Brown in Sunday School Movements in America, 
 p. 19. 
 
62 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 in classes. Since the children had nothing else 
 to do, and must remain usually from one service 
 to the other, what more natural than to fill up 
 even that short period with pious instruction? 
 Doubtless there were many instances of which 
 we have no record in which this was done. In 
 other cases zealous pastors would retain the chil- 
 dren after the afternoon service for catechetical 
 instruction. The Reverend J. S. Reed mentions 
 such a service of instruction for children as being 
 conducted in the Congregational Church at 
 Roxbury, Massachusetts, as early as 1674. There 
 is also an account of such a school at Norwich, 
 Connecticut, in 1676. In 1669, still earlier, 
 mention is made of a similar school at Plymouth, 
 Massachusetts.^ In 1680 there is a clear record 
 of a vote passed by the Plymouth church, "That 
 the deacons be requested to assist the minister 
 in teaching the children during the intermission 
 on the Sabbath." The intermission was between 
 the two preaching services. That sort of a reso- 
 lution might well be adopted by a good many 
 
 * It is evident, however, that there was no widespread or general 
 movement for schoools for the religious instruction of the young on 
 Sunday at this tijne, for the only other instances that seem to be 
 at all authentic up to the American Revolution are the following: 
 At Newton, L. I., N. Y., said to have been organized by the Rev- 
 erend Morgan Jones in 1683; at Ephrata, Penn., a Dunker school 
 organized by Ludwig Stucker in 1740; at Bethlehem, Conn., 
 conducted b^ the Reverend Joseph Ballamy in 1740. 
 
EARLY SCHOOLS IN AMERICA 63 
 
 Sunday-schools today, to the stimulation of both 
 deacons and pastors. 
 
 This brings us in the United States almost to 
 the period of the foundation of Sunday-schools 
 , by Robert Raikes in England. In a 
 Plan in few years the plan which he conceived 
 ^^®"*^^ was carried over to North America. 
 Conditions, however, were so different on the 
 western shores of the Atlantic that the schools 
 which resulted from the importation of his plan 
 were quite unlike those organized in English cities. 
 First, the appalling conditions of destitution and 
 neglect which so profoundly moved the heart of 
 the Gloucester philanthropist were not found in 
 the American villages. In the second place, the 
 Sunday-schools were introduced under the patron- 
 age of the churches and not, as at first in England, I 
 with their opposition. 
 
 Despite many differences, there was keen need 
 for such schools. Following the Revolutionary 
 New War there was a breaking up of old 
 
 Conditions habits. Certain types of sceptical and 
 atheistic thinking had become the vogue in the 
 colleges and a tide of material development 
 seemed to sweep before it many of the old domestic 
 customs and pious observances. It was the 
 incoming of new life and the breaking of the old 
 bottles. Just at that time sectarian differences 
 and disputes became unhappily pronounced. 
 
64 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Between the two tendencies, to irreligion and to 
 sectarianism, religious instruction in the schools 
 fell into disuse and even on Sundays churches 
 were often too busy holding their own, one against 
 another, to have much regard for the religious 
 nurture of the young. Such tendencies are 
 clearly marked in the literature of the period. 
 They account in large measure for the failure of 
 the Sunday-school idea — evidently planted in 
 colonial soil before the time of Raikes — to 
 germinate and develop rapidly in North America. 
 
 There is a suggestion of the early recognition 
 of the insufficiency or unsuitability of the public 
 j^ , g schools for religious instruction, and 
 in Public therefore of the need of Sunday-schools 
 
 ucation ^^ ^j^^ history of public education in the 
 
 state of New York. The present public-school 
 system of that state started in 1805 in the move- 
 ment to establish free schools for the children 
 of indigent persons. The founders of these 
 schools saw that it would be wise to avoid the 
 teaching of any religious doctrines in them. Of 
 course, many were ready at once to label such 
 schools as "godless" and to insist upon the in- 
 sufficiency of public education under such limi- 
 tations. In order to meet the wishes of such 
 critics it was arranged that the regular studies 
 should be suspended on one afternoon in each 
 week. Upon this being done, a committee of 
 
EARLY SCHOOLS IN AMERICA 65 
 
 ladies in New York undertook to meet on that 
 day and examine the children in their reHgious 
 catechisms — a scheme similar to that in vogue 
 in France for some time and recently proposed 
 again in New York. 
 
 One other important early development of 
 Sunday-school interest occurred in the United 
 The First- States as a direct result of the work 
 Day Society of Robert Raikes. This was the or- 
 ganization in 1791, at Philadelphia, of "The 
 First-Day or Sunday School Society." This 
 body still maintains its official existence (1911). 
 The gentlemen who organized this society were 
 moved to do so by the ignorant condition 
 of large numbers of the youth of the city. 
 Although Pennsylvania had very early projected 
 a most praiseworthy system of public education, 
 there is little evidence that it had reached down 
 through all strata of society. A Public Grammar 
 School was established in 1689, but it seems to 
 have been modeled after the English Charity 
 Schools, so as to be of benefit only to the chil- 
 dren of persons of means. Franklin's well-known 
 educational endeavors were directed to an Acad- 
 emy, the forerunner of the University of Penn- 
 sylvania. But in the city of Philadelphia there 
 were children as destitute and as ignorant as 
 those whose condition so profoundly moved the 
 heart of Raikes. 
 
66 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Three men conferred over the state of the 
 youth of the city; they were — happy augury of 
 future interdenominational cooperation 
 in Organi- — Bishop White, Episcopanan; Mat- 
 zation thew Carey, Roman CathoHc; and Dr. 
 
 Benjamin Rush, Universalist. A pubhc meeting 
 wag called for December 19, 1790, at which 
 the plan of organizing Sunday-schools was ex- 
 plained. A week later a constitution and the 
 name of the society were adopted. The plan of 
 operation distinctly stated that instruction should 
 consist in learning to read and write from, the 
 Bible and other moral and religious books. While 
 the society had been animated by the same 
 motives as Raikes and proposed the same general 
 plan it evidently had in mind a distinctly religious 
 purpose. The preamble of the constitution is 
 highly interesting. 
 
 "Whereas, the good education of youth is of 
 the first importance to society, and numbers of 
 children, the offspring of indigent parents, have 
 not proper opportunities of instruction previous to 
 their being apprenticed to trades; and whereas, 
 among the youth of every large city, various 
 instances occur of the first day of the week, 
 called Sunday — a day which ought to be 
 devoted to religious improvements — being em- 
 ployed to the worst of purposes, the depravity 
 of morals and manners: It is therefore the 
 
EARLY SCHOOLS IN AMERICA 67 
 
 opinion of sundry persons, that the estabhsh- 
 ment of Sunday-schools in this city would be 
 of essential advantage to the rising generations; 
 and for effecting that benevolent purpose they 
 have formed themselves into a society." 
 
 As in the case of the society for promoting 
 Sunday-schools in the British Dominions, in 
 1785, so with the Philadelphia First-Day Society, 
 the organization was possible and imperative on 
 account of the great tide of missionary enthusiasm 
 that swept over the Christian world about the 
 close of the eighteenth century. 
 
VI 
 
 THE ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL BY 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 In Great Britain the serious opposition to Sun- 
 day-schools, as estabHshed by Raikes, came from 
 the churches; in the United States the churches 
 fostered the schools. The striking difference 
 between the Sunday-schools in the two countries 
 is largely due to this fact. 
 
 \ The first Sunday-schools in England were 
 established and conducted by private enterprise. 
 
 Originally their religious value was 
 The School . , . . , , i , i • 
 at the Door Simply mcidental; their purpose was 
 
 of the moral and educational. Raikes had 
 
 Church 
 
 little success in enlisting the support 
 of the English clergy. As the movement spread 
 and some of the schools sought to meet in 
 chapels and church rooms they attracted the 
 attention of the clergy. Many regarded the use 
 of the sacred edifice, even the chapel or vestry 
 room, for the religious instruction of children as 
 an act of desecration. It was also feared that 
 thus to popularize education would lead to dis- 
 
 68 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL 60 
 
 content and lawlessness. John Wesley heartily 
 
 supported the movement, while the Bishop of 
 
 Rochester denounced it in no measured terms. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury called a conference 
 
 of bishops to decide on plans to arrest the progress 
 
 of these schools. 
 
 Hannah More met with bitter and cruel 
 
 opposition to her schools. She was accused of 
 
 ^ .^. sedition and treason. She was charged 
 Opposition . . . . 
 
 with being an accomplice in plans to 
 
 ' assassinate her opponents, the clergy. Teachers 
 
 and school workers were subjected to many petty 
 
 persecutions, for they were regarded as usurpers 
 
 of the neglected privileges of the clergy. 
 
 The press joined with the clergy in expressing 
 its terror lest these new schools should undermine 
 The Press the existing order. Even The Gentle- 
 Opposes mans Magazine, which has become 
 known to thousands only through its advocacy 
 of Raikes' plans, published a communication 
 bitterly assailing the Sunday-school as "sub- 
 versive of that order, that industry, that peace 
 and tranquillity which constitute the happiness 
 of society; and that so far from deserving en- 
 couragement and applause it merits our contempt." 
 It is easy to imagine that country gentlemen and 
 other stockholders who believed it to be the 
 divine will that little children should work in 
 pin factories and other child-labor institutions 
 
70 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 objected to any educational agency which might 
 make them discontented with slavery. 
 
 The school was opposed as desecrating the day 
 of rest and it was therefore urged that "Sunday- 
 The School schools should be held on week days." 
 a"Desecra- The opposition came from nonconform- 
 ing ministers, as well as from clergy- 
 men of the State Church. Even in the United 
 States there were ministers who denounced the 
 schools. One pastor succeeded in driving teacher 
 and class from the church to the schoolhouse and 
 from the schoolhouse to the open, shaking his 
 cane at the class and crying, "You imps of Satan, 
 doing the devil's work ! " In 1787 George Daugha- 
 day, a Methodist preacher, was ducked in a cistern 
 for presuming to gather a class of negro children 
 and instruct them in the Bible. But in the end 
 the school won its right to do its work. 
 
 Concerning the Edinburgh Gratis Sunday School 
 Society one of the workers wrote to a friend: "At 
 Popular the first formation of the society — 
 Feeling several of the more liberal of the clergy 
 attended, but they have almost all deserted us 
 now, and are beginning to look upon us with a 
 jealous eye. One of them said the other day 
 that we were striking a blow at the very vitals 
 of the Establishment by means of these schools." 
 Describing conditions in 1798 in England one 
 writes: "The opposition which Mr. Cranfield 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL 71 
 
 and his friends encountered in this district was 
 dreadful. Every species of insult was heaped 
 ufM)^ them; they were pelted with filth of all 
 dAcii^tions, and dirty water was frequently 
 thrown ^jkt of windows on their heads." ^ Of 
 course fi^Bdl^uch acts should be credited to the 
 oppositic^n iP^fche church. 
 
 Conditions , would have been very different, 
 however, had the organized religious agencies 
 understood the possibilities of this school 
 and welcomed their greatest recruiting, 
 conserving agency. But the schools were suffered 
 to go on as independent activities, as "ragged 
 schools." Meeting with coldness and active 
 opposition, many ceased to exist. Raikes' school 
 was closed in 1811. The sagacious leader, John 
 Wesley, was one of the first to recognize the need 
 for the Sunday-school and its proper place in the 
 work of the church. In the First Discipline, in 
 1784, it is ordered that, "Where there are ten 
 children whose parents are in the society, meet 
 them at least one hour every week." In 1785 
 Wesley published an account of the schools, 
 speaking of them in terms of commendation. 
 In The American Magazine he wrote the striking 
 words, "Perhaps God may have a deeper end 
 thereto than men are aware of. Who knows but 
 
 ^ Quoted by C. G. Trumbull in The Development of the Sunday 
 School, p, 9. -. - . 
 
72 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 what some of these schools may become nurseries 
 for Christians?" Wesley's foresight in regard 
 to these schools had, doubtless, a good deal to do 
 with the fact that the Methodist churches in the 
 United States were amongst the first formally 
 to adopt the Sunday-school as a regular part of 
 church work. 
 
 In Wales a certain Charles, of Bala, brought 
 the school into relation to the church before 
 Charles, the end of the eighteenth century. He 
 of Bala conducted a public campaign which 
 called attention to the need for such schools and 
 organized them in the churches. He enlisted the 
 attendance of adults as well as children and, 
 significant fact, he made the Bible the principal 
 subject of all their study. 
 5 In the United States a slight, sporadic opposi- 
 tion to the Sunday-schools was based, not on the 
 
 .. ground of the menace of the religious 
 
 United education of the lowly, but on that of 
 States i^g being a departure from established 
 church usage. This indicates how closely these 
 schools were already identified with the churches. 
 In the United States Sunday-schools were in ex- 
 istence before Raikes began his "ragged schools" 
 at Gloucester. A number of well-authenticated 
 instances of such schools meeting under church 
 auspices are on record. The religious instruction 
 of children was ordained by the councils and 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL 73 
 
 authoritative bodies of the various denominations. 
 So that it was not at all a strange thing to find 
 Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist Church, adapting 
 the Raikes plan to conditions in North America 
 and organizing a Sunday-school at the home of 
 Mr. Thomas Crenshaw, in Hanover County, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1786. This was really a school in a church 
 for this home was one of the Bishop's preaching 
 stations. Practically all the early American 
 Sunday-schools were organized by churches and j 
 conducted in churches. 
 
 In 1790 the Methodist Conference at Charles- / 
 ton. South Carolina, formally placed the Sunday- 
 school in the care of the church. It ordered that 
 there should be established "Sunday schools in or 
 near the place of worship. Let persons be ap- 
 pointed by the Bishops, Deacons, or Preachers, to 
 teach gratis all who will attend and have capacity 
 to learn, from six o'clock in the morning till ten, 
 and from two o'clock in the afternoon till six, when 
 it does not interfere with public worship." ^ Truly 
 this was taking the school seriously! -^ 
 
 The last ten years of the eighteenth century/ 
 witnessed the formation of many Sunday-schools 
 City in the cities of the United States, nearly 
 
 Schools ^11 organized in churches. Doubtless 
 the number was much greater than we are able 
 
 ^ Quoted by M. C. Brown in Sunday School Movements in America, 
 p. 23. 
 
74 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 to show precisely at this time. Dr. Reed gives 
 1790 as the year of the organization of the first 
 Universahst Sunday-school, at Philadelphia, the 
 first amongst the Friends in the same city in 1791, 
 and amongst the Baptists at Pawtucket, Rhode 
 Island in 1791. The first Baptist Sunday-school 
 in the South was organized in the First Baptist 
 Church of Baltimore in 1804. The first Sunday- 
 school for negroes was established in St. Louis 
 in 1818. 
 
 Schools in the United States on the same 
 general plan as the Raikes schools stand out as 
 Private entirely different institutions from the 
 Schools church schools. A notable instance is 
 that of the schools started by Mr. Charles Slater, 
 an Englishman, who had come to New England 
 to set up spinning frames. He established a 
 Sunday-school for his employees at Pawtucket. 
 There was also a school for the employees of 
 spinning mills at Paterson, New Jersey. 
 ^ The adoption of the Sunday-school by the 
 church and the recognition of this school as an, 
 Church agency or department of the church 
 Schools fQj. ^jjg religious training of the young 
 
 was the most important step in the development 
 ir of the Sunday-school. 
 
 Such a conception of the function of the school 
 was almost peculiar to America. It may well be 
 called the American Sunday-School Idea. It 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL 75 
 
 meant that this school became, not a temporary 
 expedient to rescue poor and ignorant children, 
 j^^ but a permanent institution, discharg- 
 
 American ing a definite function in the life of the 
 ^^^^ church. It involved the adoption of 
 
 the plan of voluntary, unpaid teachers and the 
 principle of voluntary, state-free support for its 
 work. The church gave the school the soil in 
 which it might grow to usefulness. The school 
 met a real need in the life of the church, the need 
 of a specific agency or form of organization for 
 the nurture of the young in the religious life. It 
 also became a definite department of the church, 
 suited to the life and needs of the child. It 
 became an institution in which the child might 
 find normal relationship with the church and 
 might receive the direction, stimulus, and instruc- 
 tion it needed. 
 
 During the nineteenth century the Sunday- 
 schools of Great Britain became more religious 
 In Great in character, the Bible came to have the 
 Britain principal, and at length generally, the 
 only place in the curriculum. Under those 
 circumstances it was only natural that the school 
 should gravitate toward the church. By the end 
 of the century nearly all met in buildings attached 
 to churches. There are still, however, a number 
 of Sunday-schools remaining, especially in the 
 Black Country, the northern manufacturing dis- 
 
76 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 trict of England, which meet in pubhc halls or 
 
 in other hired rooms. Some of them are attended 
 
 by hundreds of youths and men. The elements 
 
 of an ordinary education are given by paid 
 
 teachers. Frequently there are also moral and 
 
 religious lessons, sometimes a general lecture or 
 
 address on a religious subject. They constitute 
 
 the only educational opportunities for large 
 
 numbers. 
 
 The schools that meet in churches in Great 
 
 Britain seldom can be regarded as integral parts 
 
 of the churches. Their expenses are 
 
 Schools not included in church budgets. Their 
 
 ^^ , officers are not elected by the church 
 Churches *^ . 
 
 boards or by the congregations. The 
 pastors seldom attend, save by invitation to make 
 the closing address in the afternoon. They are 
 not guided or aided by denominational societies 
 or officers. With some rare exceptions they are 
 church schools only to the degree that they meet 
 in church buildings. 
 
 The Sunday-school has never been the same kind 
 of institution in England as in America. The 
 
 differences are due to several facts, 
 and^ The English school was organically 
 
 American connected with the work of Robert 
 Schools . 1 1 \ 
 
 Raikes. It was born outside the ^ 
 
 churches and continued to exist largely inde- 
 pendently of them. It was organized for philan- 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL 77 
 
 thropic purposes, particularly to teach the rudi- v 
 ments of an education. The American school was ' 
 born in the church. It began when the church 
 was obliged to take up the special task of the 
 religious education of the young. The English-- t- 
 people did not feel at any time during the nine- 
 teenth century or prior to that the deep need for 
 separate schools of religion. Religious subjects 
 were taught daily in all schools. The great 
 public schools for the upper classes were on 
 religious foundations. In America the principles 
 of religious freedom forbade the teaching of 
 religion in state institutions. The duty of the 
 religious education of the young was thrust on 
 every church. Besides this, in England the con-'^ 
 ception of free universal elementary education 
 developed much later than in America. In the 
 latter country the Sunday-school has developed 
 under the stimulus of popular educational ideals. 
 The American school is in part the result of the 
 apparent disadvantages and the real limitations 
 of our system of free public education. The 
 school has here attained a place of large religious 
 and social importance because, under religious 
 freedom in the state, the teaching of religion must 
 be left to voluntary institutions. 
 
 The adoption of the school by the church in 
 North America is easily traced: (1) in the case 
 of schools organized by churches before 1780 and 
 
 ^ 
 
78 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 about that time; (2) in the fact that when the 
 influence of the Raikes movement crossed the 
 Adopting Atlantic the schools were organized in 
 t e c 00 ciiurches; (3) in the special depart- 
 ments and oflScers provided by the denominations 
 to care for these schools; and (4) in the distinct 
 differences between the Sunday-schools of England 
 and those of North America. 
 
 The adoption of the Sunday-school by the 
 church marked a new era in religious history. 
 A Period of It came through the convergence of 
 New Life three streams: (1) the growing recog- 
 nition on the part of the churches of their 
 duty to instruct the child and to train youth in 
 the religious life; (2) the organization by Robert 
 Raikes of special institutions for the instruction 
 of children on Sunday; and (3) the recognition 
 by Christian people of the deplorable spiritual 
 destitution of their times. 
 
 Besides the Sunday-school two other highly 
 important results came from these converging 
 Important influences: (1) the new institutions 
 By-products £qj, ^j^^ instruction of the young ad- 
 mitted the services of lay workers and thus set 
 free the pent-up powers of lay service and zeal; 
 (2) the recognition of deep and widespread 
 religious need led, at the end of the eighteenth 
 century, to a remarkable outburst of missionary 
 ^eal, expressing itself in the organization of the 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCHOOL 79 
 
 great Foreign Missionary Societies (Baptist, 1792; 
 London, 1796; Scottish, 1796; Church of Eng- 
 land, 1799) The British and Foreign Bible Society, 
 1804; The American Bible Society, 1816; and The 
 Religious Tract Society, 1799, 
 
VII 
 
 DEVELOPMENT THROUGH 
 ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 The eighteenth century closed in the glow of 
 a splendid ardor for the extension of the Kingdom 
 of Christ. It expressed itself in a number of 
 great organizations for missionary work. The 
 Sunday-school had its share in the benefits arising 
 from the general awakening. This new agency 
 for religious education was speedily fostered by 
 special organizations. The first was The Society 
 for Promoting Sunday Schools Through the 
 British Dominions, created to extend the Raikes 
 type of schools. Its useful work continued and 
 prospered, so that when the founder died in 1811 
 the number of pupils through the British Domin- 
 ions and in the United States was estimated at 
 two hundred and fifty thousand. 
 
 The organization of the First-Day or Sunday 
 School Society in Philadelphia in 1791 has already 
 been described. Its operations have always been 
 quite local in extent. For many years it was 
 occupied with securing funds to compensate 
 
 80 
 
DEVELOPMENT 81 
 
 teachers, and when the system of paid teaching 
 fell into disuse it turned its attention to pur- 
 chasing books for schools in Philadelphia and 
 suburbs. 
 
 In Great Britain Sunday-school interests have 
 been steadily fostered by what is now known as 
 
 The British Sunday School Union. 
 Sunday- The union was organized in 1803 as 
 School ^ result of the suggestion of one teacher 
 
 to another that it would be a good thing 
 to get together and compare methods of work. 
 It began with the holding of quarterly meetings 
 for teachers. Later it was extended to a cam- 
 paign for the establishment of a school in con- 
 nection with every church. Then followed the 
 publication of certain handbooks on Sunday- 
 schools and their work. Ten years after the 
 organization of the union it began to publish a 
 periodical for teachers and two years later a 
 monthly paper for pupils. These publications 
 were not lesson helps, but papers intended for 
 general reading. In 1840 the first schemes of 
 lessons for the Sundays of that year were sent 
 out, two series being arranged, one for the morn- 
 ing sessions of the schools and another for the 
 afternoon. The English schools early adopted 
 the custom, to which the greater number of 
 schools still cling, of having two lessons and two 
 sessions of the school. When the International 
 
82 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Uniform Lesson plan was adopted, this lesson was 
 generally accepted for the afternoon schools. The 
 British schools still have another series for the 
 morning sessions. During recent years the British 
 Sunday School Union has given its principal 
 attention to the creation of literature suitable 
 for the use of schools. It has fostered the organ- 
 ization of new schools and the training of teachers, 
 especially in wider biblical knowledge, by lectures, 
 institutes, and special courses with examinations. 
 It extends its work through Sunday-school mis- 
 sions in foreign lands. It supports the work of 
 organized Young People's Societies and Bands 
 of Hope or temperance societies. It gave birth 
 to the International Bible Readers' Association, 
 now enrolling over three-quarters of a million 
 members. The union possesses a valuable plant 
 and maintains, beside its splendid building in 
 London, hospitals and a sanitarium for children, 
 and a Home of Rest for women teachers in the 
 Sunday-schools. 
 
 The American Sunday School Union is another 
 by-product of the missionary awakening at the 
 
 end of the eighteenth century. The 
 Sunday- Reverend Robert May, a missionary 
 School ^f ^j^g London Missionary Society, on 
 
 his way to India in 1811, stopped at 
 Philadelphia and awakened much interest by 
 his accounts of Sunday-school organizations in 
 
DEVELOPMENT 83 
 
 England. As a result of that visit a number of 
 organizations sprang up in this country. In 
 1817 nearly all these were brought together in 
 what was called "The Sunday and Adult School 
 Union." Other unions came into existence in 
 other cities. In 1820 the New York Union pro- 
 posed a general organization for the United States. 
 The matter was considered in two large meetings 
 of delegates from several unions. Some came 
 from the Pittsburg Union, organized in 1809 and, 
 although then in the far West, the largest in the 
 country. At the second meeting, on May 25, 
 1824, the American Sunday School Union was 
 organized. It was a union in fact, for it repre- 
 sented the affiliation of a number of existing or- 
 ganizations and was created by representatives of 
 a number of denominations. It gave its atten- 
 tion to three lines of endeavor: (1) the publica- 
 tion of suitable literature for Sunday-schools; 
 (2) the selection of scriptural lessons and the 
 preparation of lesson materials; and (3) the 
 organization and maintenance of schools in 
 needy places. It is still active and successful 
 in the first and the last of these purposes. It 
 reports having organized over one hundred thou- 
 sand schools and having published books and 
 papers to a value of over nine million dollars. 
 
 Some of the chapters in the history of the 
 missionary work of the Sunday School Union 
 
84 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 deserve a more elaborate recital than can be 
 given here. The work and adventures of men 
 
 like Stephen Paxson, in the Mississippi 
 in the Valley, belong to the romance of mod- 
 
 Mississippi gpn missions. Suffice to say that in 1829 
 Valley 
 
 the Union began its work in what was 
 
 then the far West. It established headquarters 
 in the village of Cincinnati and in 1830 began a 
 systematic campaign for the establishment of 
 schools through the Mississippi Valley. Large 
 sums of money were raised for the enterprise and 
 missionaries went out, receiving the princely 
 remuneration of one dollar for every day of actual 
 work. At the end of two years seventy-eight 
 missionaries had organized two thousand eight 
 hundred and sixty-seven schools in the region 
 which was the object of this special endeavor. To- 
 day where flourishing cities and prosperous villages 
 dot those smiling prairies and rolling lands look 
 up toward the mountains, the schools organized 
 in rude huts, log cabins, and sod houses have 
 become substantial churches. They are centers 
 of wide influence and agencies for yet further 
 missionary work. The missionaries of the Union 
 are still founding and fostering new schools in 
 the frontier sections, as in Montana, Nevada, 
 New Mexico, and also in states where there are 
 unsettled portions as in Kansas and Oklahoma. 
 The Union works principally in the smaller 
 
DEVELOPMENT 85 
 
 villages and the rural districts. It is said to be 
 organizing schools at the rate of three a day. 
 Those who travel through the sparsely settled 
 portions of the Southern and Western states and 
 who know the conditions of living there know, 
 too, how welcome are those who will establish 
 any kind of religious agency in the lonely little 
 schoolhouses on the plains and amongst the 
 mountains. The history of many a strong church 
 is just beginning today in some remote mining 
 camp where a little Sunday-school is being or- 
 ganized. Often the work begins in the public 
 schoolhouse; sometimes, as the writer knows, 
 in a barn or even a saloon. In a few months the 
 residents send for a preacher to come occasionally 
 from the near-by city. In a few years the school 
 will be a church with its own school and its 
 outlying stations in other mining camps. 
 
 As soon as the Sunday-school was recognized 
 in America as the child of the church, the de- 
 nominations began to foster its develop- 
 tionai ' ment. At first the school received no 
 i^h^To special or separate emphasis, being 
 ganizations regarded as a regular part of the whole 
 work of the church. Suitable resolu- 
 tions would be passed concerning it at the con- 
 ventions and conferences of the denominations. 
 It was treated as, for example, the service of 
 worship is now, as so much a part of the work 
 
86 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 of the church as to require no special organiza- 
 tion for itself. In time it became evident that 
 the school needed those who would devote them- 
 selves entirely to its work. Men saw that, if 
 Sunday-schools were to be really efficient, they 
 must be no longer either accidents or incidents in 
 the work of the church; they must be especially 
 organized for specific purposes and must receive 
 the undivided attention of capable persons. 
 
 The recognition of the need of special organiza- 
 tions for the promotion of Sunday-school work 
 Specializa- and for the development of the school 
 tion |3y ii^Q denominations was an important 
 
 step toward the modern Sunday-school. It led 
 to the conception, now generally accepted, of the 
 school as a special agency in the church, an edu- 
 cational institution requiring a type of work 
 unlike that in any other department of the church. 
 
 The denominational Sunday-school organiza- 
 tions developed slowly. They grew out of the 
 Denomina- ^^^^^ organizations fostered by the 
 tional American Sunday School Union. A 
 
 Beginnings ^^^^ example is that of the Congrega- 
 tional Society organized out of the Massachu- 
 setts Sunday School Union in 1832. At first the 
 denominations carried on their Sunday-school 
 work under their boards of publication. Later 
 the tendency was to commit the work of the 
 Sunday-school to special boards organized for 
 
DEVELOPMENT 87 
 
 purposes of religious education. The Sunday 
 School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 is a good example of the later form. 
 
 Doubtless we must give to the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church the credit for the earliest 
 Methodist general denominational recognition of 
 Episcopal ^j^g importance of the Sunday-school. 
 This denomination was the first to make ofiicial 
 provision by its local ccnferences for such schools. 
 Church leaders, such as Bishop Asbury, gave 
 hearty support to their organizations. In 1824 
 the General Conference of the Church passed 
 three resolutions providing: (1) that the itinerant 
 preachers should establish schools; (2) catechisms 
 should be taught in them; and (3) other suitable 
 books should be provided. Three years later, 
 Jii_ Apxil, 1827, the Sunday School Union of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church was organized with 
 its headquarters in New York City. The new 
 organization had a somewhat insecure tenure on 
 life, however, and it was not until its reorganiza- 
 tion in 1840 that it began its career of valuable 
 efficiency. Since then its usefulness has steadily 
 grown and in recent years, under the leadership 
 of Dr. McFarland, it has led in the campaign for 
 the effective gradation of Sunday-school material 
 and for all that has made for the thorough adop- 
 tion of educational methods in the schools. 
 
 The Unitarians organized their Sunday School 
 
88 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Society in the same year and month as the Metho- 
 dists (April, 1827). While this society has stead- 
 ily fostered the organization of schools 
 in the churches, its most notable service 
 has been in the direction of the preparation and 
 publication of a great variety of graded lessons. 
 No other house approaches this one in the number 
 of series of lessons for the Sunday-school, and the 
 others have only recently attempted to adapt 
 their lessons to the different grades of pupils. 
 For pioneer work on graded lessons the honor 
 surely belongs to the Unitarian Society. 
 
 As long as the Lutheran Church maintained a 
 system of parochial schools with religious instruc- 
 tion on week-days the need for Sunday-schools 
 was not felt as keenly as by other de- 
 nominations of Protestants. Neverthe- 
 less, the Lutheran General Council organized a 
 Sunday School Union as early as 1830. A re- 
 markable wave of renewed interest in the Sunday- 
 school has swept over this church in the first 
 years of the twentieth century. 
 
 The Congregational Sunday School and Pub- 
 lishing Society dates back at least to 1832, when 
 Congrega- the members of the churches of that 
 tional denomination separated, by mutual 
 
 agreement, from their union with the Baptists in 
 Sunday-school work in Massachusetts. Since 
 that time the Congregational agencies for the 
 
DEVELOPMENT 89 
 
 development of the Sunday-school have been 
 increasingly active and efficient. Some of their 
 best early work was done in the organization of 
 new schools in the Western states. In later years 
 they have given especial attention to the publi- 
 cation of high-grade lesson material and to co- 
 operation in all movements for the increase of 
 Sunday-school efficiency along educational lines. 
 
 It would be impossible to show in detail how 
 the work of the Baptists has developed, both in 
 their Northern and in their Southern 
 Conventions. As early as 1840 Sun- 
 day-school work was distinctly recognized as 
 part of the business of their Publication Society. 
 They have also accomplished a good work in 
 promoting teacher-training. They were the pio- 
 neers in the preparation of advanced texts for 
 teachers and in utilizing the Young People's 
 Society for religious education. The Southern 
 Baptist Publication Society was organized in 
 1847. It promoted Sunday-schools until, in 
 1857, the Southern Baptist Sunday School Union 
 was organized. 
 
 The Presbyterian Board of Publication has 
 always fostered Sunday-school work. In 1909 
 Presby- it took an advance step toward greater 
 terian usefulness in the employment of an 
 
 Educational Secretary for Sunday-schools. 
 
 Enough has been said to show that the great de- 
 
90 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 nominations of Protestantism in the United States 
 
 early regarded the Sunday-school as distinctly 
 
 ^ , . a part of the work of the churches. 
 Conclusions ^. 
 
 In mcreasmg measure they have come 
 to see that these schools require special organiza- 
 tions for their promotion and specially trained 
 workers for their development. They acknowl- 
 edge them as worthy of large investments of the 
 time and money of the church. The denomina- 
 tions hold themselves responsible for the efficiency 
 of the schools. One result is that more and more 
 the Sunday-school work of the churches is being 
 committed to men* who are educational experts; 
 it is recognized that here adequate special training 
 is required. 
 
 It is a sign of great encouragement, both for 
 the future of the Sunday-school and for the speedy 
 union of the whole family of God, that the many 
 denominations with their Sunday-school boards 
 have been able, despite many serious difficulties, 
 despite sometimes apparent conflict of interests, 
 to work in remarkable harmony with one another 
 and with the many plans of the International 
 Sunday School Association. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
 w The history of the International Sunday School 
 Association from 1832 to 1887 is written wholly in 
 a series of conventions. From 1887 on the record 
 includes many other activities. This broadening 
 of functions is indicated in the change of name 
 in 1906 from International Sunday School Con- 
 vention to International Sunday School Asso- 
 ciation. Yet those first ten conventions, even to 
 the very first of them all, clearly foreshadowed 
 the field in which the Association would work and 
 the large demand for its existence. The Associa- 
 tion was born in the desire for such cooperation of 
 all workers and agencies as would make for the 
 largest eflSciency of all, while maintaining the 
 autonomy of each. It has proceeded steadily 
 along those lines. In increasing degree and 
 clearness it has seen its field defined and enlarged. 
 It has grown from a single general meeting to 
 an organization holding thousands of conferences 
 annually, with a triennial budget of about $70,000 
 
 91 
 
92 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 and with a large force of paid workers. Operat- 
 ing in closest affiliation with it are organizations, 
 with paid secretaries, in nearly every state in the 
 Union. For the promotion of Sunday-school 
 work the International Association has become 
 in a large measure the clearing house of all the 
 churches, the agency through which they are 
 unitedly doing many things which separately 
 would involve the duplication of activities. The 
 field of the Association today is largely that of 
 promotion, inspiration, and of securing general 
 cooperation. 
 
 The Convention out of which this Association 
 gradually grew was called by the officers of the 
 
 „ . . American Sunday School Union in a 
 Beginnings . ,,,.., r^^ 
 
 meetmg held April 10, 1832. They 
 
 appointed May 23 of that year as the date for a 
 general gathering of all persons actually engaged 
 in the Sunday-schools as superintendents, teachers, 
 or other officers. This gathering was to be pre- 
 liminary to a convention which was proposed for 
 the following year. 
 
 At the preliminary meeting held in Philadelphia 
 on the date set it was determined, by the ninety 
 Preliminary accredited delegates from thirteen of 
 Gathering j-j^^ then twenty-four states, that a con- 
 vention should be held in New York on October 3 
 of that year. Plans were made so that the 
 delegates at that convention should be repre- 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 93 
 
 sentatives of Sunday-school associations and 
 unions, rather than of schools or churches 
 directly. Another important preparatory step 
 was the appointment of a Committee on Interrog- 
 atories, to prepare and circulate a list of over 
 seventy questions on Sunday-school problems and 
 methods. 
 
 When the First Convention met in the Chat- 
 ham Street Chapel, New York, on October 3, 
 Firsf 1832, out of the twenty -five thousand 
 
 Convention interrogatories sent out replies were in 
 hand from one hundred and thirty-eight persons. 
 There were present two hundred and twenty 
 delegates and these received reports, compiled 
 from the answers received to the questionaires. 
 One of the important matters debated at that 
 first convention was in regard to the widening 
 scope of the Sunday-school. Evidently some 
 thought it might well continue to be, like the 
 Raikes schools, principally for destitute children. 
 But a resolution, "That the Sunday-school should 
 embrace all classes of the community," was passed. 
 This is the first official recognition of the school 
 in its new and larger significance as the school 
 of religion for all. 
 
 The Second Convention, held on the authority 
 Second of the First, met about eight months 
 Convention i^^^^j. [^ jy^ay, 1833, at Philadelphia. 
 
 The convention was not a great success though 
 
94 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 it served to call attention to certain important 
 matters, the need for a general effort to enroll 
 children in the schools, the possibilities of school 
 in jails and similar institutions, the duties of 
 parents in the religious education of their chil- 
 dren, and the possibilities of Bible-study groups 
 meeting in homes. 
 
 The twenty-six years that elapsed before another 
 national convention was held were not all lean 
 A Peri d ^^ barren years. Perhaps the time had 
 
 of Smaller not yet come for great national gather- 
 Conventions • l_.J.l .X Jil 1 1 
 
 mgs; but the states and the local 
 associations or unions were going on with their 
 work. The splendid work of the American Sun- 
 day School Union was finding rich fruitage during 
 these years, particularly in the Middle West. 
 Several states held large and important Sunday- 
 school conventions, as in Brooklyn in 1856, in 
 Boston a little later, and in Albany the following 
 year. Many trace the first county convention 
 to this period, when Stephen Paxson called a 
 number of schools together for a two days' con- 
 ference at Winchester, Illinois, in 1840. 
 
 The Third National Convention, held in 
 Philadelphia, February 22 to 24, 1859, seems 
 Third almost unrelated to the other conven- 
 
 National tions. First impressions suggest that. 
 Convention » . . • i . 
 
 so tar as contmuous, organized, country- 
 wide work was concerned all these conventions 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 95 
 
 were failures; but they were not. They were 
 preparing the way and molding the opinion of 
 the religious world. Moreover, they brought 
 together and doubtless contributed greatly to 
 the development of future Sunday-school leaders. 
 Such men as Henry Clay Trumbull, John H. ' 
 Vincent, and B. F. Jacobs came to the front in ' 
 these gatherings and they left a permanent impress 
 on the history of the Sunday-school. Trumbull 
 was the secretary of this convention, preparing 
 for his work as the founder of Sunday-school 
 journalism of the modern type. John H. Vincent, 
 father of the Normal Institute, Summer Assembly, 
 and Teacher-training Movement, and B. F. Jacobs 
 sponsor for the Uniform Lesson and marshal of 
 Sunday-school forces through the Middle West 
 are each the builders of mile-stones in the early 
 Sunday-school progress. 
 
 Then came the time of the trying of men's souls 
 in the bitter days of the Civil War. The Sunday- 
 Fourth school leaders were with the armies. 
 Convention serving in the hospitals, and in the 
 ranks. When the war was over, at a meeting of 
 the Young Men's Christian Association at Detroit 
 in June, 1868, the Sunday-school workers gath- 
 ered under the leadership of that true educator, 
 Edward Eggleston. Arrangements were then en- 
 thusiastically made for a general convention the 
 next year. The Fourth National Convention, 
 
96 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 April 28 to 30, 1869, met in Newark, New Jersey, 
 and began the system of triennial conventions 
 which has since been continued without inter- 
 ruption. Delegates from twenty-eight states and 
 practically all the English-speaking world struck 
 the note of universal cooperation which was to 
 find unusual form in the next convention. 
 
 The Fifth National Convention held in Indian- 
 apolis, April 16 to 19, 1872, marks an epoch 
 Fifth in Sunday-school history, since it for- 
 
 Convention jy^ally and enthusiastically adopted the 
 system of uniform lessons. One other step in 
 advance was the appointment of a national 
 statistical secretary, foreshadowing the employ- 
 ment of several secretaries in later years. 
 
 Each succeeding convention has made some 
 contribution to Sunday-school progress and has 
 First Inter-3 marked the progress which many schools 
 national ^^^^ j^^^^^ making. The next triennial 
 
 meeting, held in Baltimore in 1875, was also 
 called the First International Convention, because 
 this was the first time delegates from Canada 
 received ofiicial recognition. The Convention 
 of 1878, held in Atlanta, Georgia, marked the 
 establishment of Sunday-school bonds between 
 North and South. That of 1881, at Toronto, 
 saw the beginning of interdenominational work 
 and the promotion of home classes. The Con- 
 vention of 1884 made possible British coopera- 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 97 
 
 tion with the Lesson Committee and also witnessed 
 the organization of a Primary Teacher's Institute. 
 The speciaHzation of Primary work in the school 
 led to the organization of other departments and 
 the preparation of special lessons and forms of 
 work for them. 
 
 The Fifth International (Tenth National) Con- 
 vention was held in Chicago in 1887. It formally 
 Home recognized the Home Department. This 
 
 Department ^^g g^^j^ j-q ]jq ^^ important method 
 
 of extending the Sunday-school into homes and 
 of reaching those who were prevented from attend- 
 ing the regular sessions. It made possible 
 classes and private study of the lessons by shut- 
 ins, men employed on Sunday, and those, as in 
 mining-camps, far distant from the schools. While 
 many claim the credit of originating the Home 
 Department, the first man to promote its organiza- 
 tion was Dr. W. A. Duncan, a Methodist minister, 
 who began his work in that direction in 1881. 
 In a few years home classes sprang up in many 
 parts of the country until schools were obliged 
 to make special provision for these correspond- 
 ence pupils. 
 
 The Fifth International Convention marks 
 also one other important advance step, for it 
 Employed provided for the employment of a 
 Officers special officer to care for its work in 
 the interim between conventions and to act as 
 
98 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 field superintendent and organizer. William Rey- 
 nolds, of Illinois, was appointed to this office 
 after the Chicago meeting and held this position 
 until 1897. He was succeeded, in 1899, at the 
 next convention, by Mr. Marion Lawrance, now 
 (1911) the General Secretary. At this ninth 
 convention held in Atlanta in 1899 other secre- 
 taries were also appointed, including a field 
 secretary and two secretaries for work in the 
 South amongst the negroes. 
 
 In an important sense the appointment of these 
 general officers inaugurated the era of greatest 
 development in the work of the International 
 Convention. The activities which they were 
 able to promote made necessary the organization 
 of an Association which would steadily work, 
 not only for great conventions, but for the promo- 
 tion of Sunday-school interests throughout all 
 the year and all over the country. 
 
 Meanwhile there had sprung up, under the 
 fostering care of the many state associations, a 
 ^ ^ .,. larcre number of organizations of Sun- 
 
 Subsidiary , i i 
 
 Organiza- day-school workers, and soon there 
 *^^^^ were enough missionaries and secretaries 
 
 employed by the state associations to organize 
 themselves into Field Workers' Conferences. The 
 field workers conducted institutes and conferences, 
 taught teachers' classes, delivered public ad- 
 dresses, and organized departments of Sunday- 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 99 
 
 school work in their fields, whether cities, counties, 
 or states. These state associations and unions 
 were affihated with the International Association. 
 They raised money for its support and formed sub- 
 sidiary bodies which sent the delegates from their 
 conventions to the International Convention. ^ 
 
 The most important recent developments in 
 the history of the organized International move- 
 ment have been: (1) the thorough organization 
 of a standing Executive Committee, nominated 
 by the states and divisions of territory and elected 
 by the convention, to carry out the policies of 
 the convention and to direct the activities of all 
 the Association's workers. (2) The Lesson Com- 
 mittee, nominated by a special committee and 
 elected by the convention, consisting of represent- 
 atives of the great denominations on both con- 
 tinents, to select the Scripture portions for the 
 uniform lessons and to outline the subjects of 
 study and the lesson material for the graded 
 lessons (see the chapter on "Lessons"). (3) 
 Departmental Organization; Primary, Home, 
 Field Workers, Education, Adult, Missionary, 
 each having its special secretary or secretaries. 
 The six field workers attend institutes, confer- 
 ences, and state conventions and keep in close 
 touch with all the field. The Educational Secre- 
 tary has special charge of the promotion of 
 Teacher-training. (4) The General Secretary has 
 
100 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 charge of all the field-work, oversees the execution 
 
 of all plans of work, is the coordinating, personal 
 
 head of all the varied activities. 
 
 The International Sunday School Association 
 
 has played a highly important part in the develop- 
 
 o . ment of the Sunday-school. It is the 
 
 Service . . "^ 
 
 of the organized expression of the great force 
 
 Association poj ii ±.i^ ' i*u 
 
 oi bunday-school enthusiasm, which 
 
 might otherwise, without its power of converging 
 and coordinating, remain separated so that its 
 energies in time would be dissipated. It has a 
 focusing function, gathering up the light rays 
 of all its parts. Therefore, it often must wait 
 for their action. As an organization it is naturally 
 conservative, expressing the will not of a few 
 leaders but of the great bulk of the workers. 
 Yet it has shown possibilities of leadership. 
 Under the direction of the chairman of its Execu- 
 tive Committee, Mr. W. N. Hartshorn, steps of 
 signal importance and progress have been taken, 
 with a view to educating workers and so to secure 
 permanent progress. It has shown elasticity of 
 response, remarkable for so large a movement, 
 to the stimulus of other movements which have 
 sought speedy advance. It has, under such stim- 
 ulus, adopted the principle of graded lessons, recog- 
 nized the validity of educational principles in 
 Sunday-school work, and promoted the technical 
 training of ministers for their work in the school. 
 
IX 
 
 THE STORY OF THE LESSON SYSTEM 
 
 'A SCHOOL implies lessons. The story of the 
 development of courses of lessons for the Sunday- 
 school is one of the most extraordinary in all the 
 history of education. This is so principally on 
 account of the uniformity with which these lessons, 
 up to the beginning of the twentieth century, were 
 confined to the Bible and also because of the 
 means by which improvement in the use of that 
 material has been secured. 
 
 In the schools founded by Raikes the lessons 
 were in the rudiments of secular education. 
 Random reading, writing, and arithmetic. About 
 Memori- 1785 Raikes prepared a little text-book 
 called " Redinmadesy " (Reading Made 
 Easy). The first step in advance came a few 
 years later from the schools in the churches in the 
 United States. They adopted the system of mem- 
 orizing passages of the Scriptures and selections 
 from the various catechisms. A large number of 
 verses were memorized either by pupils at home 
 or by classes repeating them in concert. It is 
 
 101 
 
102 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 said that as many as three hundred passages 
 were sometimes included in one exercise. Prizes 
 were offered to the pupils whose minds most 
 easily acquired facility in this practice. 
 
 In 1810 Dr. James Gall, of Edinburgh, pre- 
 pared a series of lessons on what was called the 
 Lessons method of '* Nature's Normal School." 
 Assigned j^ consisted of short Bible stories with 
 explanations, questions, and answers. The plan 
 was not introduced into the United States until 
 about 1825. At that time the American Sunday 
 School Union called attention to this plan and 
 to various other improvements which had been 
 made in Sunday-school lessons. Dr. Gall's scheme 
 was formally approved by the New York Sunday 
 School Union. The plan involved the selection 
 of specific passages or stories for lessons so that, 
 instead of the teacher or pupil studying verses 
 of the Bible at random without regard to context 
 or continuity, a definite lesson was assigned. 
 This was the second step in advance, the recog- 
 nition of an assigned lesson. 
 
 In 1827 the Reverend Albert Judson issued a 
 series of questions on biblical lessons, announcing 
 Connected his book as the first of a series of annual 
 Lessons lesson courses. His plan was to present 
 the principal facts of the Bible in a series of 
 lessons covering five years and providing forty 
 lessons to each year. In the same year the Sun- 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 103 
 
 day School Union began to publish its notable 
 series of Union Question Books. The Union had 
 already adopted the working principle of one 
 lesson for the whole school. It urged on all 
 schools cooperating with it that they should for- 
 sake the loose memoriter system and follow the 
 courses of lessons published in the Sunday School 
 Journal. The Question Books were somewhat 
 more than the name would imply, for they con- 
 tained notes, explanations, and aids for teachers. 
 Judson's plan and that of the Union constituted 
 the next step forward which was the recognition 
 of the possibility of a connected sequence of 
 lessons. 
 
 During the next forty years a multitude of 
 lesson schemes and text-books were introduced. 
 "Babel" So many and so diverse were they that 
 P^^^°^ this has been called the ''Babel" period 
 of Sunday-school lessons. The denominations 
 followed the lead of enterprising private individuals 
 and each one issued its own series of lessons. By 
 1852 the Unitarians had eight graded manuals 
 in use. In this period of ferment each school 
 worked at its problem in pretty much its own 
 way. Many experiments were tried and, uncon- 
 sciously, preparations were made for a better day. 
 
 After the Civil War certain great leaders ap- 
 peared who gave their energies to the improvement 
 of lesson schemes. One of these was Edward 
 
 L^ 
 
104 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Eggleston, editor of the National Sunday School 
 Teacher, published in Chicago. His splendid 
 Leaders genius made his paper and particularly 
 in the '60s ]^jg lessons known through the length and 
 breadth of the country. His broad and vigorous 
 work paved the way for the Uniform Lesson plan 
 conceived by his friend, B. F. Jacobs. Yet 
 Eggleston was a vigorous opponent of the plan of 
 uniformity, believing it pedagogically unsound. 
 John H. Vincent, another Sunday-school giant 
 of Chicago, in 1866 began the publication of a 
 paper called the Sunday School Teacher. In this 
 he issued a series of lessons entitled "Two Years 
 with Jesus." In 1868 Mr. B. F. Jacobs began in 
 the Standard, a Baptist weekly paper, the publi- 
 cation of notes on the Eggleston lessons. The 
 Standard was the first paper to print notes on the 
 lessons. Jacobs labored and argued for one 
 lesson for all the classes in each school, one lesson 
 for all schools, and the publication of notes on the 
 lessons in every possible magazine and paper. 
 The enlistment of the periodical press in publish- ^ 
 ing the courses of study constituted yet another 
 step forward. 
 
 When the Fourth National Sunday-school Con- 
 vention met in 1869 several important steps in 
 Steps of the development of the lesson had been 
 Progress taken. It was recognized: (1) that the 
 task of the school was to teach, and that it must 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 105 
 
 not be confined to the gathering of groups of 
 children for the memorizing of the Bible or for 
 catechetical work; (2) that definite, assigned, 
 selected lessons should be followed in schools; 
 
 (3) that these lessons should be arranged in series 
 so that there could be some semblance of progress 
 at least through the books that were being studied ; 
 
 (4) that large numbers of schools could very well 
 study the same lesson, instead of allowing each 
 school to spend its energy in preparing its own 
 lessons and working up the materials for them; 
 
 (5) that the aid of the press might be enlisted for 
 the purpose of popularizing these lessons and 
 placing the material for general preparation where 
 it would be of easy access to almost all students 
 and teachers; and (6) the scheme had been con- 
 ceived of the single lesson for all schools and all 
 students. 
 
 r~ The credit for strenuous advocacy of the single 
 
 [ lesson belongs to both B. F. Jacobs and John H. 
 
 pjj.g^ Vincent. No one can decide to whom 
 
 Committee belongs the priority, for each worked 
 
 on Lessons . , . xr* a t_ j ii. 
 
 m his own way. Vmcent had the 
 
 scholar's vision and the enthusiasm of the bibli- 
 cal student; Jacobs had the vigor of the business 
 man and the ardor of a promoter. As a result 
 of their labors the convention of 1869, through 
 its department of superintendents, endorsed the 
 Uniform Lesson plan and appointed a committee 
 
106 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 to prepare further plans. Henry Clay Trumbull 
 was the chairman of that committee. A con- 
 ference of representatives of Sunday-school pub- 
 lications was called by this committee and met in 
 New York in August, 1871. By a vote of twenty- 
 six to three they decided in favor of the uniform 
 lesson scheme and began to plan courses for the 
 next year. A committee consisting of Jacobs, 
 Vincent, Eggleston, Newton, and McCook took 
 charge of this work. After discussing several 
 proposed bases for the lessons, such as doctrines, 
 duties, and the Church Year, it was decided to 
 make the Bible the basis. This meant that the 
 selection of the lessons should be with the view 
 of securing the orderly, systematic study of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 At the meeting of the National Convention in 
 
 Indianapolis in 1872 it was voted to appoint a 
 
 committee of five clergymen and five 
 
 Regular laymen to select a series of lessons for 
 
 Lesson ^ period not exceeding seven years. It 
 Committee '■ i i 
 
 was also decided by the same resolu- 
 tion, despite the vigorous opposition of the 
 trained pedagogue, Eggleston, that the adoption 
 of these lessons be recommended to all the schools 
 of the country. The Lesson Committee was 
 duly appointed and at certain intervals the life 
 of this committee has been continued by the 
 acts of the national convention. From the begin- 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 107 
 
 ning certain members have been appointed to 
 represent the British schools, and since 1884 there 
 has been a cooperating section of the committee 
 known as the British section. For thirty years 
 the uniform lesson was generally in use in nearly 
 all Sunday-schools through the world. 
 
 Whatever we may think today of the educa- 
 tional merits of the plan of Uniform Lessons, it 
 Service of remains true that such a plan was almost 
 Uniform inevitable at some time and that it 
 served a highly important and useful 
 purpose in the development of the lessons for the 
 schools. It made possible the cooperation of all t^ 
 denominational and private enterprises for pub- 
 lication and circulation toward one end, that 
 these lessons should be within the financial and 
 intellectual reach of every pupil in every school. 
 It made possible the concentration of all the*^ 
 energies of all the schools upon a single lesson 
 plan, so that the conception of the school as a 
 definite teaching agency became fixed beyond any 
 doubt or question. It secured the concentration^ 
 of Sunday-school leadership and to some extent 
 of biblical scholarship on the selection of the 
 material for the lessons and, more particularly, 
 on the preparation of comments and other aids 
 for teachers. It revealed gradually the pedagogi- ^ 
 cal necessities of the Sunday-school teacher. It 
 enabled us to see, in a clear light, free from the 
 
108 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 confusion of many lessons, precisely what were 
 the conditions of teaching in each school and 
 what were the requirements of the pupils. At 
 length it brought into clear relief, so sharp that 
 we could not blind ourselves to it, the necessity 
 for a plan of lessons based on the developing 
 natures and needs of those who were being 
 instructed. 
 
 Yet no student of the history of the Sunday- 
 school can regard without regret the long period 
 ^jjg of the dominance of the uniform lesson 
 
 Delusion of plan, from 1870 to 1908. Only infatua- 
 ni ormi y ^.^^ ^^^ business uniformity blinded the 
 
 leaders to the wisdom of the simple plans of 
 adaptation suggested by the teacher Eggleston. 
 The scheme of a common lesson was captivating; 
 it would have been sublime if it had gone one 
 step farther and planned a uniform series suited 
 to all ages. The insistent confining of the teach- 
 ing work of the school to the rigid lines of mechan- 
 ical, business uniformity seriously retarded its 
 educational development. A school has never 
 been successfully conducted on the plan of a 
 factory. Those forty years were not wholly lost 
 in the desert, but they were largely years of 
 educational wandering or rather standing still 
 when the school ought to have gone forward. 
 
 An examination of the biblical material actually 
 used during thirty-three years in the uniform 
 
 1/ 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 109 
 
 lessons series reveals some startling facts. It 
 shows, first, that the scheme did not fulfil one of 
 The Bible its most important promises, to guide 
 Not Studied ^yery student through a comprehensive 
 study of the Bible in a period of seven years. 
 Although nearly five such periods elapsed, the 
 lessons were chosen so much at random that large 
 portions of the Bible never were studied at all. 
 For instance, during the thirty-three years only 
 thirty-one out of the fifty chapters in Genesis 
 were studied. Valuable material was strangely 
 slighted in all the books. Only seventeen Psalms 
 were used, and only two chapters in I Chronicles. 
 In the New Testament there were equally striking 
 omissions, so that students remained in ignorance 
 of events essential to an understanding of the 
 history involved. It is not strange that there 
 was much popular ignorance of the Bible when 
 the Sunday-school thus officially cut the book to 
 pieces. Neither is it strange that many who 
 received their biblical instruction under this 
 system think of the Scriptures as a patchwork of 
 unrelated texts. 
 
 The system of uniform lessons broke down also 
 by an utter disregard of relative values in the 
 Values biblical material. This is suggested 
 Disregarded Ijj the following comparisons, drawn 
 from the list of lessons for thirty-three years; 
 five lessons on the Beatitudes compared with 
 
110 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 twenty-one lessons on the tabernacle and its 
 ceremonies; the "Golden Rule" was used in 
 three lessons, the story of Cain and Abel in four. 
 The beautiful Ruth story was never treated in 
 its entirety but was touched on five times, while 
 there were fourteen lessons from Leviticus and 
 six from Romans xiii. There are forty lessons 
 from the bloody book of Joshua and thirty-one 
 from the book of Isaiah. In thirty-three years 
 there were five lessons from Amos and one each 
 from Joel, Micah, and Nahum. As an attempt 
 to get the best and the most out of the Bible the 
 system could hardly be called a success. Such 
 facts as the foregoing, though seldom expressed 
 in this form, account for much of the grow- 
 ing dissatisfaction with the uniform lesson 
 system. 
 
 The third and most serious failure in the uni- 
 form lesson scheme was inherent in the very 
 The Child principle of uniformity; it was impossi- 
 Ignored {^j^ ^q select lessons which met equally 
 well the needs of children of five, youths of fifteen, 
 and men of thirty-five. 
 
 No study of the Sunday-school, however, would 
 be adequate in any sense which failed to note that 
 Benefits the uniform lesson plan was a wide- 
 Received spread, long-continued campaign for 
 the popular study of biblical literature. Unfor- 
 tunately the perplexing problems of an adequate 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 111 
 
 and graded curriculum were persistently ignored. 
 
 But there are advantages in the fact that they 
 
 were deferred to a period which, by virtue of 
 
 the experience gained, was better prepared to 
 
 deal with them. 
 
 At no time has the principle of uniformity in 
 
 Sunday-school lessons been universally adopted. 
 
 Many schools in Great Britain con- 
 Departures ,.1,1. « , 
 from the tmued their own courses ot lessons. 
 
 Uniform ^^j^j g^jj ^^^ schools there maintained a 
 
 Plan 
 
 separate scheme of lessons for the 
 second school session. The common practice 
 has been, to follow the uniform lesson in the 
 afternoon schools, while the morning schools 
 followed lessons in that Testament which was not 
 being studied in the uniform series. 
 
 The Unitarian schools in the United States 
 hardly ever adopted the uniform lessons. Their 
 Sunday-school society worked steadily to develop 
 a scheme of lessons which should include all the 
 Unitarian range of religious knowledge and which 
 Courses would be adapted in some degree to the 
 needs of the pupils. The lesson courses included 
 material outside the Bible, such as Ethics, Church 
 history. Heroes of History, the study of the 
 great hymns, and the fundamental doctrines of 
 their churches. 
 
 In 1874 the Joint Diocesan Commission of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church was appointed to 
 
112 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 prepare suitable lessons for the schools of that 
 church. The general plan was somewhat like 
 that of the International Lesson Committee, 
 Episcopal but it has worked with greater flexibil- 
 Courses j^y gQ ^j^g^^ j^ time the Episcopal Church 
 
 has built up an elaborate series of lessons and 
 studies with suitable handbooks on almost every 
 department of Christian knowledge. Under the 
 leadership of some who have given special atten- 
 tion to the needs of the Sunday-school, such as 
 the Reverend Lester Bradner and the Reverend 
 Pascal Harrower, a highly valuable contribution 
 has been made to the development of the curric- 
 ulum of the Sunday-school and sound principles 
 in pedagogy have been followed as far as circum- 
 stances permitted. The New York Diocesan 
 Commission led the way with a graded curriculum. 
 The spread of diocesan Sunday-school commis- 
 sions and organizations went on rapidly in the 
 Joint Episcopal Church. At one time it 
 
 Diocesan seemed quite likely that many of these 
 
 Commission . • i i . <> . i • i 
 
 commissions would put forth indepen- 
 dent curricula and so contribute to the general 
 confusion. But the Joint Commission reporting 
 to the church convention of 1907 laid down cer- 
 tain principles which have been closely followed 
 by the various commissions since that day. 
 Later the official curriculum of the Sunday School 
 Federation was adopted by a majority of the 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 113 
 
 diocesan organizations.^ The General Board of 
 Religious Education appointed by the General 
 Convention of the church in October, 1910, are 
 now vested with full authority and are working 
 for further uniformity. 
 
 The Friends, or Quakers, particularly those 
 of the Hicksite branch, have developed indepen- 
 Other dent lesson systems. These include a 
 
 Courses broad range of subjects, notably lessons 
 on organized charity, social duties, and ethics. 
 The Lutheran schools, while often adopting the 
 International lessons, have also prepared lessons 
 of their own, particularly those on the catechisms 
 of their church. Naturally the Hebrew schools 
 and those of the Roman Catholic Church have 
 their own plans of lessons. 
 
 The divergent lesson schemes mentioned above, 
 however, were usually the result of aims or 
 Q, . ,. methods of organization peculiar to 
 and these denominations. But it was not 
 
 n icism j^^^ after the general adoption of the 
 uniform lesson plan that criticism began to arise. 
 Heard only occasionally at first it gradually grew 
 in volume and significance. It is not possible 
 to review the various objections here; ^ suflSce it 
 
 * For an account of the plan and curriculum of the Joint Com- 
 mission see article by Pascal Harrow er in Religious Education for 
 June, 1910. 
 
 ^ See for a full and authoritative presentation of these reasons 
 
114 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 to say that the most serious objection, the one 
 that at last led to the abandonment of the ideal 
 of absolute uniformity, was that it was educa- 
 tionally unsound in that it disregarded absolutely 
 the varying needs of the pupils; it compelled the 
 little child to study the same lesson material as 
 the mature and experienced adult; it meant 
 either meat for both men and babes or milk for 
 both. The gradual recognition of the educational 
 function of the Sunday-school and the consequent 
 necessary adoption of educational principles of 
 operation and of selection and preparation of 
 lesson material compelled all serious-minded per- 
 sons to reconsider the merits of the ideal of one 
 lesson for all schools and for all students. 
 
 One other objection to the uniform lesson led 
 to several interesting experiments in Sunday- 
 school curricula. It was urged that 
 — Sup^e^ ^ the single lesson, conducting all students 
 mental once in everv seven years in a rather 
 
 random fashion through certain parts 
 of the Bible, necessarily left unstudied much 
 valuable biblical material, not adapted to all 
 classes. By its insistence on the Scripture-sec- 
 tion plan it prevented the consideration of almost 
 every aspect of the Bible except its expository 
 use, and it altogether excluded the study of such 
 
 the volume in this series by Meyer, The Graded Sunday School in 
 Principle and Prax;tice, pp. 96-101. 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 115 
 
 subjects as later church history, missions, church 
 organization, and modern ethical problems. To 
 meet the need thus suggested the plan of Supple- 
 mentary Lessons was introduced and at first 
 met with quite general favor. Short lessons on a 
 wide variety of subjects, such as biblical geog- 
 raphy, the making of the Bible, church history 
 and doctrine were prepared. The plan was to 
 present these short lessons in a ten-minute period 
 before or after the regular lesson period. This 
 plan, though pushed with much vigor, served 
 only to emphasize the need of a greatly enriched 
 curriculum and to inspire many writers to pre- 
 pare more adequate text materials on subjects 
 which had been hitherto much neglected by the 
 schools. 
 
 Two other interesting steps in the development 
 
 of the curriculum of the Sunday-school must be 
 
 noted: The introduction of temperance 
 
 periments Icssons and the provision for the study 
 
 ItZlns''''^ of missions. The interest of the school 
 
 ■ w^ in temperance was only an indication 
 
 of its recognition of responsibility for more than 
 the student's biblical knowledge. Bands of Hope 
 and children's total abstinence societies were the 
 first manifestations of this enlarged sense of 
 responsibility. At the convention held at Pitts- 
 burg in 18 90 th e agitation for the teaching of 
 temperance m the schools was so strong that it 
 
116 EVOLUTION OF SUNDA Y-S C H O O L 
 
 was determined to set aside one Sunday in each 
 quarter of the year as Temperance Sunday. 
 jOn this day a lesson on this subject was to be 
 /taught. Many fruitless attempts have since 
 been made to rescind this action or to avoid the 
 breach in the continuity of teaching which it 
 caused. However, as graded systems came into 
 use it was found possible to work out logically 
 the germinal principle of temperance teaching and 
 to give regular, systematic instruction in hygiene 
 from the Christian point of view. Then such 
 studies were incorporated in the curricula of a 
 number of schools. 
 
 In the British Sunday-schools the interest in 
 Foreign Missions was maintained by the custom 
 Mission of devoting all the offerings in the 
 Studies classes to the missionary societies. Sun- 
 day-school leaders in the United States early 
 advocated the stimulation of missionary interest, 
 but they were slow to perceive that the knowledge 
 of the extension of the Kingdom was part of a 
 child's religious birthright and quite essential 
 to his usefulness in Christian service. The 
 Young People's Missionary Movement called a 
 conference of Sunday-school workers at Silver 
 Bay, New York, in July, 190G, at which plans for 
 missionary instruction were agreed upon. It was 
 provided that, in addition to the designating of 
 those lessons which had explicit missionary inci- 
 
STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 117 
 
 dents or interest as such, the endeavor should be 
 made to relate all lessons to this subject. This 
 unpedagogical arrangement failed to content 
 schools with an educational conscience, but it 
 served to quicken the preparation of special 
 courses in missions. In later years the need for 
 missionary study was met by (1) the organiza- 
 tion of special classes, often meeting in the week; 
 (2) the creation of a department on missions in 
 the school, and (3) by special courses in the 
 graded curriculum. 
 
 The formal commitment of the International 
 Sunday School Association to the plan of a com- 
 Beginners* pletely graded course of study came 
 Lessons about at the general convention of the 
 Association held in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908. 
 The steps of progress leading up to the adoption 
 of that plan covered many years and were known 
 publicly from about 1900. As early as 1894 the 
 International Primary Union made its appeal for 
 a course of lessons especially adapted to the chil- 
 dren under six. The course prepared, however, 
 met with little favor. The New Jersey Sunday 
 School Association then issued a two-years' course 
 known as Bible Lessons for Little Beginners. This 
 was widely adopted. Following the path marked 
 out by these lessons the Lesson Committee pre- 
 pared in 1901 a new course for one year and at the 
 time of the Denver Convention, 1902, a course for 
 
118 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 two years was authorized. Within a short time 
 it was reported that twenty-five per cent of the 
 schools had adopted this course for their primary 
 pupils. This applied only to the United States 
 and Canada, for the British members of the 
 Lesson Committee did not commit themselves 
 to the plan. 
 
 While the Denver Convention met the wishes 
 of the workers in the primary departments of 
 Adult the Sunday-schools it disappointed the 
 
 Studies wishes of those who advocated other 
 and more suitable lessons for the adult members 
 in the schools. The Lesson Committee prepared 
 a course covering two years in response to the 
 demands of many adult classes desiring some plan 
 of study better adapted to their needs than that 
 furnished in the Uniform Lessons. But the 
 delegates at the convention rejected this part of 
 the report of the Lesson Committee and denied 
 the advanced schools the privilege of an officially 
 planned and recognized course. At the next 
 convention, in Toronto, in 1905, permission was 
 given the Lesson Committee to plan advanced 
 courses suitable for adult classes, and this it pro- 
 ceeded to do after not a little experimentation. 
 The first course to be definitely offered was on 
 The Ethical Teachings of Jesus. 
 
 The years from 1903 to 1908 constitute one of 
 the most critical periods in the history of the 
 
THE STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 119 
 
 American Sunday-school. They witnessed the 
 rapid adoption of the practice of grading the 
 A Critical schools and the intense agitation of edu- 
 Period cational leaders for a properly graded 
 curriculum. The schools were free to grade as 
 seemed wise to them. They were at serious 
 disadvantage as to graded materials of study so 
 long as the uniform lessons alone had the endorse- 
 ment of the Sunday School Association. Criti- 
 cism of the lessons gathered strength from several 
 sources: (1) from the general appreciation of 
 popular ignorance of the Bible; (2) from the dis- 
 satisfaction of teachers who met the practical 
 difficulties involved in teaching these lessons; 
 (3) from the attention which trained educators 
 were giving to the school; and (4) from recognition 
 of the superiority of the several series of graded 
 lessons prepared by independent publishers. 
 
 Reform was effected by the courage and per- 
 sistence of a few who had seen the established 
 educational principles underlying the 
 work of the school. They faced derision 
 and steady opposition. At first they found 
 opportunity to express themselves only in meetings 
 of those who were protesting and through a few 
 journals. Their proposals for graded lessons met 
 the conservatism natural to large institutions such 
 as in the International Association. They met 
 also the objections of denominational publishers 
 
120 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 who had made large investments in the machin- 
 ery for handhng the uniform lessons. But though 
 often misunderstood the agitators also persisted. 
 They came to a consciousness of their strength 
 when the Religious Education Association was 
 organized. Its conventions gave opportunity for 
 careful discussion and its publications secured a 
 wide hearing for their arguments and plans. It 
 was not long before the leaders in several of 
 the larger denominations were convinced. The 
 Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union spoke 
 emphatically through its corresponding secretary, 
 Reverend John T. McFarland, D.D. He de- 
 clared unequivocally for a graded lesson scheme. 
 He secured the services of accomplished writers 
 and biblical students for the preparation of lessons. 
 Before the convention of the International 
 Association met at Louisville in 1908, the officers 
 seriously faced the problem of fully 
 for Graded graded lessons. Several conferences 
 Lessons ^^^^^ j^^jj ^-^j^ editorial writers, pub- 
 lishers, and educators. The first was held in 
 London, England, October 31 to November 1, 
 1906. The second in the same city, June, 1907, 
 witnessed a complete change in the British com- 
 mittee. Several English educators had been 
 added to that body and they stood for progress. 
 The next important conference was held in Boston 
 in January, 1908, when fifty-four persons con- 
 
THE STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 121 
 
 sidered the question, "The International Lesson 
 System — How may it be Improved?" The 
 result of the dehberations was agreement on a 
 broad poHcy, which was summarized somewhat as 
 follows: (1) That the system of a general lesson for 
 the whole school, which has been in successful use 
 for thirty-five years, is still the most practicable 
 and effective system for the great majority of the 
 Sunday-schools of North America. Because of its 
 past accomplishments, its present usefulness, and 
 its future possibilities, we recommend its contin- 
 uance and its fullest development. (2) That the 
 need for a graded system of lessons is expressed 
 by so many Sunday-schools and workers, that it 
 should be adequately met by the International 
 Sunday School Association, and that the lesson 
 committee should be instructed by the next inter- 
 national convention to continue the preparation 
 of a thoroughly graded course covering the entire 
 range of the Sunday-school. 
 
 Results followed the reaction at Toronto and 
 the succeeding conferences and agitation. Wlien 
 Results of ^^^ International Association met at 
 Graded Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908, it voted 
 unanimously, "That this Convention 
 authorize its Lesson Committee also to continue 
 the preparation of a thoroughly graded course of 
 lessons, which may be used by any Sunday-school 
 which desires it, whether in whole or in part." 
 
122 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Meanwhile the pubhshers of lesson material 
 had been making careful preparation for such 
 action and there was then ready for presentation 
 to the Lesson Committee a carefully prepared 
 system of lessons for the years from seven to 
 thirteen inclusive. The American section of the 
 Lesson Committee adopted these lessons and 
 they were ready for the teachers and classes in 
 the school with the beginning of the year's work 
 in the fall of 1909. The demand for the outlines 
 of these lessons and for the quarterlies and text 
 books containing the material was a surprise to 
 all publishers. They were overwhelmed with 
 orders. There was immediate popular apprecia- 
 tion of the step taken. The general recognition 
 of the need for graded lessons was much greater 
 than had been realized. 
 
 While the International Sunday School Asso- 
 ciation, with the deliberation characteristic of 
 Individual any large and popular movement, had 
 Pioneers been coming to the adoption of the plan 
 of graded curricula, other persons and organiza- 
 tions had been working out graded lesson courses. 
 The Religious Education Association had per- 
 sistently urged the educational necessity for 
 graded lessons. Resolutions had been prepared 
 and offered from many denominational and similar 
 bodies and from groups of Sunday-school workers. 
 By various means the public mind had been 
 
THE STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 123 
 
 educated to the principle of the gradation of the 
 lesson material. Some of the schools which led 
 in the preparation of their own lesson courses 
 were the Church of the Disciples, Roxbury, 
 Massachusetts; The First Congregational Church, 
 Oakland, California; The Hyde Park Baptist 
 Church, Chicago, Illinois; The University Con- 
 gregational Church of the same city; the school 
 maintained at Teachers' College, Columbia Uni- 
 versity, New York; and the St. Agnes Chapel 
 Sunday-school of Trinity Parish, New York. 
 
 One of the factors contributing to the develop- 
 ment of Sunday-school lesson material has been 
 r»^«««,;„o the organization, in different denomina- 
 
 Denonuna- ° ' 
 
 tional tions, of Special groups to study the 
 
 needs of graded Bible schools. One of 
 
 the best illustrations of this method is found in 
 
 the work of a Congregational committee, "On a 
 
 course of study for graded Bible schools." This 
 
 committee has been in existence and has rendered 
 
 annual reports since May 21, 1901. It is appointed 
 
 by the association of Congregational churches for 
 
 Illinois. Seven of their reports are in print. 
 
 They give annually the progress in the adoption 
 
 of ideals of gradation in the schools of Illinois, 
 
 the definite plans of work used by schools, and 
 
 book-lists of text material divided into grades for 
 
 the schools. 
 
 Other denominations have rendered at different 
 
r- 
 
 124 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 times like service. The Northern Baptist Con- 
 vention at its meeting in Portland, Oregon, 
 rpjjg in May, 1909, appointed a commission 
 
 Church on the "Coordination of the educa- 
 tional agencies of the local church." 
 This commission consisted of nine members, held 
 a number of meetings in 1909 and 1910, and pre- 
 sented a significant report at the convention of 
 its denomination held at Chicago in May, 1910. 
 This report, amongst other things, defined relig- 
 ious education as "The development of religious 
 life in fulness and eflaciency." It went on to 
 suggest that all the educational work of the 
 church should be under the direction of an organ- 
 ization to be known as "The school of the church" 
 and that the "school of the church . . . should 
 include not only the work done in the Sunday 
 school but the educational activities of the church, 
 ... so conducted as to contribute in due pro- 
 portion in each period of life to the increase of 
 knowledge, the education of the emotions, and the 
 development of activity." The commission also 
 published a table indicating the sources and types 
 of material then available for a graded curriculum 
 to cover all the activities of the church and the 
 needs of a developing religious life. 
 
 Manifestly it would be impossible to make 
 mention of every serious attempt to meet the 
 need for graded lesson material for the school, 
 
THE STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 125 
 
 but several enterprises deserve more than the 
 brief description possible here. The most notable 
 Notable is that known as The Constructive Bible 
 Series Studies, published by the University of 
 
 Chicago Press. This is probably the most com- 
 plete series of carefully prepared text-books for 
 the school. All are written by authors of repute 
 and scholarship. It includes text-books, usually 
 with lessons outlined for a year's work, for all 
 the grades of a school. Studies are so suited to 
 each grade that the whole field of biblical knowl- 
 edge is properly covered. Other subjects such 
 as Christian ethics and history are treated in 
 their proper places. The Pilgrim Press also pre- 
 pared some particularly useful books to meet the 
 need of adult classes. These rendered valuable 
 service especially during the period of agitation 
 for lesson material suited to adults. The Graded 
 Manuals of the Unitarian Sunday School Society 
 were prepared during a long period of time, from 
 1850 on. They cover a wider range of subjects 
 than any other up to 1910, and are worthy of 
 note, both for their comprehensiveness and for 
 the amount of extra-biblical material. In 1910 
 an entirely new series of graded texts was pro- 
 jected by this society. 
 
 One of the most serious attempts to meet the 
 need of a graded curriculum for the Sunday-school 
 was the work of the Bible Study Union. This 
 
126 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 organization, by agitation and by the production 
 of suitable graded material, created standards and 
 The Bible largely stimulated the unrest which led 
 Study to the general adoption of the graded 
 
 Union 'IT 1 
 
 curricula. It was the result of the 
 personal experience of the Reverend Erastus 
 Blakeslee as pastor of a Congregational church 
 in Spencer, Massachusetts. In 1888 he planned 
 lessons for his young people's Bible class which 
 met in the week. The experiment proved so 
 successful that Mr. Blakeslee conceived the plan 
 of similar lessons for the Sunday-school. His 
 general idea was to give first a broad study of 
 the Bible as a whole and to follow this in later 
 years with a more particular and careful study 
 of its parts. In 1890 Mr. Blakeslee published a 
 series of lessons on the Life of Christ. The next 
 year the Bible Study Publishing Company was 
 organized in Boston. In 1894 publications were 
 issued for the departments or broad gradations 
 of the school. Later, further divisions were made 
 and a closer gradation was adopted. The plan 
 was under the direction of the Bible Study Union, 
 an organization which included some of the lead- 
 ing religious educators. They employed, for the 
 preparation of lessons, some of the best biblical 
 experts of that time. This was the first attempt 
 on any large scale to prepare for all Sunday-schools 
 Jessons which might be regarded as covering the 
 
THE STORY OF LESSON SYSTEM 127 
 
 field of Bible study in a comprehensive manner, 
 and guided by the general principle of variety 
 of treatment suited to the needs of the different 
 grades. A large number of schools adopted these 
 studies. The courses of lessons were improved 
 from year to year and in 1910 the organization 
 began the publication of a completely graded 
 series embracing six separate courses with special 
 text-books and treatment for practically every 
 year of Sunday-school life. 
 
 So through many decades the curricula and 
 lesson materials of the school have been develop- 
 ing. Beginning with the ardent efforts of those 
 who were zealous for the word of God this insti- 
 tution has increasingly won the attention and 
 the expert services of educational leaders. The 
 multiplicity of text-books at the beginning of 
 this new period of thorough gradation tends, not 
 to confusion, but to more careful adaptation. 
 The tendency to the presentation of lesson material 
 in text-book form gives promise of value and 
 permanency. It points to the day when it will 
 be as easy to select material precisely suitable for 
 any class as it now is to do the same in any other 
 school. 
 
X 
 
 THE PERIOD OF INTENSIVE 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 During the greater part of the nineteenth 
 century the Sunday-school was in the process of 
 coming to recognition as an educational agency. 
 The emphasis, generally speaking, was upon its 
 extension rather than upon its internal develop- 
 ment and improvement. It was the period of 
 the organization of new schools, the extension of 
 existing schools into new fields, and of efforts to 
 include all the persons in their parishes. The 
 school grew from a small and somewhat unimpor- 
 tant venture in behalf of destitute and ignorant 
 children into a real and important special depart- 
 ment of church life. In the end of the century 
 it developed from a somewhat indefinite organiza- 
 tion into an organization for a clearly recognized 
 specific purpose. ^ 
 
 If about 1850 one had asked a pastor or a 
 Sunday-school officer what these schools were. 
 Changing he would have answered: "They are 
 Emphasis ^.j^g nurseries of the church." That was 
 one of the stock phrases for the school. They 
 
 1^8 
 
INTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT 129 
 
 were the means by which the church sought to 
 
 minister to the children and to hold them for 
 
 herself. The same question forty years later 
 
 would have ehcited a different answer: "They 
 
 are the Bible schools of the churches." That 
 
 is to say, the church had committed to these 
 
 institutions the special task of teaching the Bible 
 
 to all her people. Still later, at the beginning 
 
 of the twentieth century, the answer, if it came 
 
 from those who watched and measured progress, 
 
 would probably be: "These are the schools of 
 
 the church; they exist especially for the training 
 
 and development of the people of the church in 
 
 Christian character and in Christian service." 
 
 In other words, the beginning of the twentieth 
 
 century saw the general recognition of the special 
 
 function of this institution. It was 
 Becomes , . , 
 
 the School seen as the particular agency or organ- 
 
 Ctach ization which was seeking to realize 
 the great purposes of the church by 
 the educational method. In the various names 
 given to this organization the emphasis has 
 gradually shifted something like this: Sunday- 
 school, Bible school. Church school. This change 
 can be readily traced in several ways. 
 
 First, in the topics of inquiry amongst Sunday- 
 school workers, as seen in programs of institutes 
 and conventions. All persons of mature years 
 can remember when the great, popular ques- 
 
130 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 tions were: "How can we increase attendance?" 
 "How get all the people in the school?" "One 
 Changes in ^^ ^^^ schools on Sunday?" "Morn- 
 Topics of inff vs . Afternoon schools . " " The or ff an- 
 Interest . . 
 
 ization of new schools." One finds 
 
 in these programs occasional recognition of the 
 problem of education, especially as to matters 
 of discipline. Usually, however, the conception 
 was the mechanical one which accompanied the 
 vision of the school only from the point of view of 
 organization and numbers. Later there emerged 
 a large number of questions on Bible study. The 
 uniform lessons came to the front. Excitement 
 rose high on methods of securing the interest of 
 the whole world in Bible study. That was a 
 motive by no means to be despised or minimized. 
 The focusing of the attention of so mariy on Bible 
 study probably brought larger results to the church 
 then we shall ever accurately estimate. Pro- 
 grams were crowded with problems of teaching the 
 Bible to persons of all ages. Lectures and insti- 
 tutes for Bible study arose. The very concen- 
 tration on this subject of study, the custom of 
 regarding this as a school especially for the Bible, 
 just as another institution may be a school of 
 music, quickly brought the realization of the 
 necessity of making it a school indeed. The 
 subject of study was evidently so large and im- 
 portant that only the best educational methods 
 
INTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT 131 
 
 could be adequate for it. Then when it was 
 settled that the Bible was the principal text-book 
 ' in the Sunday school, the questions of method 
 arose. Programs began to look very much like 
 those used for teachers' institutes in public-school 
 work. Today the school uses on its convention 
 and institute programs some of the foremost 
 specialists in education in the country. These 
 lines of emphasis were not contradictory; each 
 new one was in no sense destructive of the pre- 
 ceding. They were cumulative, complementary, 
 and progressive. Each emphasis made its con- 
 tribution. Progress is ever in this way, by series 
 of emphases which carry us forward so that at 
 each step we take into the new day some of the 
 riches of the old. 
 
 Development may be traced very easily also 
 in Sunday-school literature. A file of the Sunday- 
 j^ , school journals of any denomination is a 
 
 ment of good mirror of popular estimates of the 
 
 Literature i i /-^ xi i u £ 
 
 school. Compare the large number oi 
 
 articles on questions of organization, with special 
 
 reference to duties of ofl5cers and teachers, in the 
 
 journals of, say, 1880 and the type of article now 
 
 most common, such as studies in the fundamental 
 
 educational considerations, namely the nature 
 
 of the child, or the processes of learning, or the 
 
 laws of the development of character. At the 
 
 earlier period the authorities were those who had 
 
132 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 met with success in the business of recruiting and 
 handhng large numbers of children; in the latter 
 period our teachers on Sunday-school science are 
 those who speak with authority on the principles 
 of education with special reference to the develop- 
 ment of the spirit of religion in the life. 
 
 Development may be traced also in special 
 organizations designed to aid the school and its 
 
 -. - workers. In the case of the Inter na- 
 
 Deveiop- 
 
 mentin tional Sunday School Association its 
 Organization g^^^ general officer was a Field Secre- 
 tary who gave his attention, in the interim be- 
 tween conventions, to the extension of the school 
 as an institution. Mr. B. F. Jacobs was a Sun- 
 day-school man in the sense of seeking to bring 
 about the day when every church and mission 
 would have a school. His aim also was that each 
 school should enlist all its people. True these 
 officers did not organize schools; they stimulated 
 their organization. Today this Association has 
 a number of special secretaries whose duties are 
 those of developing the efficiency of the schools 
 as such. There are officers in charge of special 
 departments, such as the Primary, Intermediate, 
 and Adult, who are fully alive to the need for 
 specialization. Others are in charge of special 
 interests, such as Education (stimulating adequate 
 teacher-training), Missions, and Temperance. 
 ^ Development can be traced in other great 
 
INTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT 133 
 
 ■ d 
 
 Sunday-school organizations and movements. 
 One of the most important of all the organiza- 
 Primary "" tions seeking the greater efficiency of 
 Union ^^le school grew up within the organized 
 
 ranks. It was that which is now known as the 
 International Primary Union. At the Inter- 
 national Convention in 1887 Mr. and Mrs. W. 
 N. Hartshorn drew attention to the importance 
 of properly meeting the needs of very small 
 children. That was the first general recognition 
 of a movement then several years old. As early 
 as 1870 the teachers of primary classes in Newark, 
 New Jersey, met and organized a Primary Union. 
 Later teachers of primary groups created similar 
 organizations in New York, Philadelphia, and 
 Washington, D. C. These primary unions ex- 
 isted, not only to show teachers how to present 
 the lesson for the next Sunday, but to carry on 
 regular courses of study in child-nature, in peda- 
 gogy (especially for the primary and kindergarten), 
 and in methods. They became voluntary train- 
 ing schools. It is said that in one of these the 
 use of the blackboard was first suggested and 
 though, as Mrs. J. W. Barnes says, this was 
 "criticised as secularizing the Sunday-school," 
 it naturally won its way into use throughout the 
 school. As year after year new Unions were 
 formed, new courses were developed, and many 
 institutes were held. The primary department 
 
134 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 of the Sunday-school received a wonderful stimu- 
 lus toward intensive development. The organ- 
 . ization of primary workers blazed the way for the 
 organization of the whole school upon modern lines. 
 There is no chapter more important in the 
 history of the modern development of the Sunday- 
 school than that which relates to the 
 
 Leadership ^ rv , e jli • x* j i 
 
 by the early efforts for the organization and de- 
 
 Primary velopment of the primary department. 
 This is so, first, because they dealt with 
 the problems of the Sunday-school at the begin- 
 ning of its work with the child. The improve- 
 ments secured were felt all through the school 
 as the individual pupils advanced from grade to 
 grade. Second, and most important, the women 
 in the primary unions came very early under the 
 influence of certain great educators. They lis- 
 tened to loyal kindergarteners, and became 
 disciples of Pestalozzi and Froebel. As a result 
 they proceeded to organize the primary depart- 
 ment on the only sound and enduring basis, 
 upon the laws of the life of the child. They 
 became enthusiasts in child-study; that is essen- 
 tially the secret of all their success. Third, they 
 led the movement for graded lessons. This 
 movement grew naturally and inevitably out of 
 the study of the child. They learned the laws of 
 the child life, discovered his normal spiritual 
 needs, and properly demanded that he should 
 
INTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT 135 
 
 have suitable food. It is doubtful if the move- 
 ment for graded lessons would have achieved 
 success within the regular Sunday-school organiza- 
 tion but for the pioneer work of primary teachers. 
 Other causes contributed, but this one operated 
 powerfully in many of the most conservative 
 schools. Fourth, the primary unions led the way 
 in teacher-training; their work was principally 
 that of teacher-training. When they could point 
 to the striking development of the primary de- 
 partment in the schools, and when the churches be- 
 came proud of their primaries, it was evident that 
 this kind of work paid. The primary unions, with 
 their propaganda, which met with not a little scoff- 
 ing and coldness at times, became the demonstra- 
 tors of better things in Sunday-school methods. 
 
 Other organizations also played their part in 
 the development of the school as an educational 
 Other Or- agency. The school was deeply in- 
 ganizations Jebted to those who began to provide 
 better graded lesson courses; to the group pro- 
 moting what was called "supplemental study," 
 to superintendents, unions, and to such organiza- 
 tions as the Religious Education Association. 
 All were evidences of the fact that the church 
 was awakening to the value of the educational 
 method. All were indications of conscientious 
 efforts to do divine service according to the divine 
 laws of character development. 
 
XI 
 
 CAUSES AND FACTORS IN RECENT 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 The Sunday-school made greater progress in 
 the ten years following 1890 than in any like 
 period, perhaps than in any century of its history. 
 The immediate factors were: the grouping of 
 leaders into new organizations with timely ideals, 
 new Hfe in the International Sunday School 
 Association, the work of the Religious Education 
 Association, the endeavors of the great denomi- 
 national leaders, and the examples of individual 
 schools which worked out significant experi- 
 ments. But back of these factors great forces 
 were at work. The Sunday-school changed be- 
 cause the world's thought changed. This school 
 developed because education in general took great 
 strides forward. 
 
 One of the most serious questions for any student 
 The School ^^ ^^^ development of the Sunday- 
 and the Life school is whether this institution has 
 ° ^ ^^ kept pace with the development of other 
 educational institutions. This inquiry is only part 
 of another and more important tone, whether the 
 Sunday-school has kept pace with the develop- 
 
 136 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 137 
 
 ment of human thought. This is a question 
 manifestly of first importance to the school, for 
 if it is to be the chief minister of the church to 
 the religious development of the young it must 
 properly prepare the young for the life and the 
 thought of the world into which they are to go. 
 On the other hand it is important to know whether 
 the school has received whatever benefit might 
 be derivable from human progress. 
 
 At first it may seem as though the Sunday- 
 school has felt the current of the world's thought 
 Period of in only a slight degree and, to any 
 Change noticeable or valuable extent, only in 
 rare instances. No other period, unless it be 
 that of the reign of Elizabeth of England, can 
 compare with the last half of the nineteenth 
 century as to philosophical progress and certainly 
 no other of which we know can compare as to 
 scientific discovery. Indeed the value of the 
 philosophical development of this period lies in 
 the fact that it is based upon scientific discovery. 
 Men have come, by vast strides, nearer than ever 
 before to thinking the universe into unity. Modern 
 philosophy has given human importance to re- 
 ligion. It can no longer be regarded by any 
 thoughtful person as the concern of a few. It is 
 part of the common race inheritance and of the 
 great problem of human existence. All our later 
 philosophy tends to center about the religious 
 
138 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 problem. It follows that any institution which 
 exists to teach religion becomes of new importance. 
 
 The effect of modern philosophy is not seen so 
 much in the teaching in the school or in the sub- 
 Effect of jects taught as in the attention which 
 Philosophy leaders of thought, particularly in edu- 
 cation, have been giving to the institution itself 
 in the last two decades. Further, the most 
 superficial survey shows that the Sunday-school 
 in the last few years has come to popular religious 
 importance largely as a result of the general 
 movement for education. Now this is only to 
 say that the school had been feeling right along, 
 though somewhat remotely, the currents of world 
 thought, for the best expression of the develop- 
 ment of the modern world spirit is to be seen in / 
 our educational advance and interest. 
 
 The first few years even of the twentieth century 
 afford indubitable evidence of the influence of 
 Influence of modern scientific thought on the Sun- 
 Scientific day-school. The school is seen in these 
 
 °"^ years rapidly shifting its center from 
 
 the Bible to the child, coming to exist for the 
 latter rather than for the former, and to use the 
 former for the sake of the latter. Sunday-school 
 leaders began to insist that the school exists not 
 to teach the Bible but to educate children as 
 religious persons and to use the Bible together 
 with whatever may be best to this end. With 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 139 
 
 the child as the center it became evident that 
 curriculum, organization, and methods must all 
 be based on the child's needs, determined by his 
 characteristics and governed by the laws of his 
 life. This is an entire change of basis of which we 
 at this day are hardly conscious, so rapidly and 
 yet so steadily and assuredly has it come about. 
 The profound reason for the change is found in 
 the larger world of scientific thinking, particularly 
 in the rise of what is often called the "new psychol- 
 ogy." In the development of scientific thought 
 psychology has passed from merely empirical 
 study of the phenomena of the mind to a scientific 
 study of the laws of consciousness. It attempts 
 to discover in terms of a unified, harmonious life 
 the laws under which personality develops. The 
 advent of the inductive study of the higher life 
 has given a true, reliable, and scientific basis for 
 all the work of the Sunday-school. The modern 
 educational situation has also made it evident 
 that the work of this school is the development 
 of that higher life. The Sunday-school, awakened 
 to a realization of the fact that it is the institution 
 which has for its specific aim the development 
 of the religious life, should be the first to yield 
 implicit obedience to the laws of this life as they 
 are discovered. 
 
 By the recognition of the fundamental principles 
 of psychology the Sunday-school has also been 
 
140 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 swung into the currents of modern world thought. 
 Let one think long enough and he will be 
 , . inclined to say that few if any have 
 and the influenced this institution more than 
 Evoi^on''^ Charles Darwin, the biologist. A his- 
 tory is no place for prophecy; but at the 
 end of the first decade of the twentieth cen- 
 tury it is so evident that the schools are by 
 hundreds being reorganized in accord with the 
 principles of genetic psychology that this assertion 
 is not wholly prophetic. The new psychology 
 is the child of the doctrine of evolution, the former 
 unthinkable without the latter. The psychology 
 which the modern Sunday-school teacher learns 
 is distinguished by two great characteristics: (1) 
 it regards the human being in every aspect of his 
 life as a product of a long course of development 
 and it regards him as a unit, a complex personal- 
 ity, and not a bundle of faculties. Out of the first 
 conception grows our genetic psychology.^ The 
 child stands at the fulness of the ages; (2) it 
 insists that education is the development of the 
 whole life as a whole, not the conservation of a 
 special part called the soul, still less the training 
 of the faculties called the mind, but the develop- 
 ment of a whole and indivisible personality into 
 
 * For the credit due to Darwin see G. S. Hall in address at 
 Darwin Centenary, American Association for Advancement of 
 Science, January, 1909.. 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 141 
 
 the possession of all its powers, into reception 
 of all its inheritances, into adjustment to all life, 
 into efficiency in every phase of living and serving. 
 It would be fairly just to say that the Sunday- 
 school was regarded in the middle nineteenth 
 century as the training school for the soul, the 
 public school as for the mind, while the body 
 usually took its chances. The sweep of scientific 
 thinking has unified all educational agencies so 
 that all are recognized as dealing with the whole 
 of personality. The Sunday-school has to do with 
 bodies, brain and faith, sensation and emotion, 
 blood-flow and hope, respiration and aspiration, 
 muscles and habits. It has to do with the 
 whole of every life and so it becomes a real part 
 of the entire educational life of the people. 
 
 Such new thoughts — and not long ago they were 
 wonderfully new — profoundly influenced Sun- 
 The Child day-school practice. They first focussed 
 Central attention on the child and compelled 
 every one to study the child with scientific care 
 and sympathy. They remodeled the organiza- 
 tion of the school by the recognition of the princi- 
 ple of development in the life of the child and the 
 need of adaptation of material taught, type of 
 organization, and method of teaching to the 
 developing life. Hence the graded school. They 
 rearranged the curriculum and introduced new 
 elements, suiting the subjects to the developing 
 
142 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 life. They recognized that those periods in which 
 the interests of each individual are those of 
 savagery, barbarism, or early civilization, are in 
 part the survival of characteristics derived 
 from early racial experiences. The school con- 
 forms to the law that the curricula material must 
 be determined by these normal genetic interests. 
 Hence the graded lesson. 
 
 The latest period of Sunday-school history 
 witnesses the singular spectacle of a relatively 
 Present small number of persons intelligently 
 Situation reorganizing the Sunday-school in obedi- 
 ence to the laws of modern scientific thought. 
 A larger number, recognizing the need of re- 
 organization, are adopting the plans of the few 
 as though these plans were specious tricks and 
 devices promising success. The few are the 
 foremost men in education, those who have 
 studied the laws of life, who are trained in psychol- 
 ogy, and acquainted with world philosophy. Out 
 of their consciousness of the importance of the 
 Sunday-school and of their hope of its improve- 
 ment rose the Ex^ligious Education Association. 
 These men are giving to the school their best 
 trained thought. Through them it feels the 
 influence of modern progress, both scientific and 
 philosophical. The many follow, often uncon- 
 scious of the leadership, yet honestly and earnestly 
 desiring improvement. 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 143 
 
 The important thing to see clearly is that the 
 
 remarkable development of the Sunday-school 
 
 in the beginning of the twentieth cen- 
 
 Meaningsin tury, as indicated in organizations, 
 
 Religious discussions, literature, and individual 
 Education . . 
 
 effort for its improvement is due not 
 to any passing spasm of interest, and not to any 
 emotional regard for the child as such, and not 
 to the invention of numerous devices to make a 
 school more attractive and so beguile larger 
 numbers into it. On the contrary, this develop- 
 ment is due to the influence of scientific thought, 
 to the fact that practically all men, even those 
 who seem to be uneducated, now think in terms 
 of a new world, of a universe developing under 
 law. We have come to accept the principle that 
 man is developing as part of his universe, to 
 accept the new meaning of education as part of 
 our world process. Education is development. 
 We count on character by development. We 
 acknowledge the necessity of knowing all the 
 factors that enter into that development. The 
 Sunday-school leaders insist that this institution, 
 existing for the development of the child as a 
 religious being, shall become obedient to those 
 laws that "in Nature's infinite book of secrecy" 
 we can read. The scientific mind accounts for 
 the new Sunday-school. Great movements in 
 thought have found practical expression. The 
 
144 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 effect of changes in the world of science and in 
 the field of education has been manifest directly 
 in the work of the church and the Sunday-school. 
 Practical results have followed. 
 
 The first of these was the awakening of the 
 church to the importance of the Sunday-school. 
 . This was preceded by an awakening 
 
 Awakened to the importance of the child, due to 
 
 ^^^ the work of Pestalozzi and Froebel, 
 
 the leaders in natural training for the child. From 
 their work grew popular interest in kindergartens 
 and better schools for little children. Then came 
 scientific investigations into the life of the young 
 child and the quick recognition of the crucial 
 character of this period in its relation to character 
 development. The church, following the lead 
 of education, set the child in the midst and that 
 brought the school before her eyes. 
 
 Next came an awakening to the inadequacy 
 of the Sunday-school, as it was then organized. 
 Recognition to meet the task that confronted it. 
 of Needs This found expression in current Sun- 
 day-school literature most clearly about 1890. 
 Sermons and articles in many publications indi- 
 cated a clear recognition of the fact that the great 
 responsibility for direct religious instruction rested 
 on the church. Writers often took a pessimistic 
 attitude toward the fact that the school faced 
 this great opportunity with an untrained force 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 145 
 
 of workers. The church was inclined to join in 
 the chorus of ridicule and despair at the institu- 
 tion for which she had failed to make any sort of 
 serious provision. It became the fad to poke 
 fun at the school. But men of vision, just then, 
 in both church and school, men like William R. 
 Harper, Frank K. Sanders, George Albert Coe, 
 and others, devoted their time and attention to its 
 problems. 
 
 One of the most important factors in modern 
 progress was the creation of a new literature which 
 A New treated the school seriously and applied 
 Literature ^^ j^-g problems the results of recent 
 
 educational science and the services of trained 
 investigators. Following the work of practical 
 leaders like John H. Vincent and H. C. Trum- 
 bull, the new type of book came into the school. 
 One of the first was the result of a series of 
 lectures delivered in New York under the 
 auspices of the Diocesan Sunday-school Com- 
 mission for that city in 1899. ^ Published the 
 following year this book made a profound impres- 
 sion. It was followed shortly by several careful 
 works on the organization of the school, such as 
 Burton and Mathews' Principles and Ideals in the 
 Sunday School and Haslett's Pedagogical Sunday 
 School. Specialized literature followed on different 
 phases of the work of the school, notably books 
 
 ^ The Principles of Religious Education, Longmans, Green & Co. 
 
146 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 on child-study for the Sunday-school teacher. 
 The work of G. Stanley Hall was notable here, 
 and along with it, for practical value, that of 
 George A. Coe and Edwin D. Starbuck. Teachers 
 were by this time, after 1890, being taught to 
 read and use modern books in psychology. Read- 
 ing courses were arranged, including the work of 
 authors and investigators such as Baldwin, Sully, 
 and Oppenheim. Then came parallel develop- 
 ment in the art of teaching, the use of the best 
 that had been written on pedagogy. Sunday- 
 school teachers began to take their work so 
 seriously that experts from the normal colleges 
 were no longer ashamed to accept appointments 
 to lecture before groups of these teachers. The 
 extensive literature gathered and published by 
 the Religious Education Association, prepared 
 by educational authorities and popularized for 
 practical workers, contributed steadily in these 
 directions. 
 
 No single form of practical effort has produced 
 larger results for the development of the Sunday- 
 school than that of the publication of 
 Educational books, pamphlets, and special articles 
 Science dealing with its educational principles 
 and their practical application. Nowhere can 
 the progress and improvement of this institution 
 be more clearly traced than in the books of the 
 two decades from 1890 on. In 1910 the Relig- 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 147 
 
 ious Education Association had over twenty- 
 five hundred books in its Exhibit-Library. One 
 fourth of these books dealt with principles and 
 methods in religious education, and of these nearly 
 every one was written after 1900. The creation 
 of this new and highly valuable literature indicates 
 the most important of all factors in Sunday-school 
 progress; that educational leaders were recognizing 
 the possibilities of the school, were thinking of it 
 seriously, and were beginning to make the con- 
 tribution of their technical training and wide 
 experience to its improvement. If one were 
 asked to state in a single phrase what seemed 
 to be the single factor most adequately accounting 
 for the remarkable progress made by this institu- 
 tion in recent times, the answer would have to be : 
 the recognition of its place and possibilities as an 
 educational institution. 
 
 The new life in the school found expression, also, 
 in new boards and committees in the denomina- 
 
 T^ . tions and new tasks committed to old 
 
 Denomina- . . , 
 
 tional boards and denominational orgamza- 
 
 Commissions ^.^^^ j^ ^^^^^ expression in local 
 
 churches, as in the Methodist Church at Akron, 
 Ohio, where a new type of building for the school 
 was erected, and where Lewis Miller was given 
 liberty to work out his plans of gradation; in 
 Hyde Park, Chicago, where a building was de- 
 signed for the school (used also for the congrega- 
 
148 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 tlon for fourteen years) and where the president 
 of the University gave himself to the work of 
 organizing a Sunday-school on modern educational 
 
 principles. 
 
 The improvement in architecture deserves 
 especial notice because it was the recognition of the 
 
 sound educational principle of the im- 
 Architecture „ i • i v.* 
 
 portance oi proper physical conditions. 
 
 It was significant, also, as a form of improvement 
 
 which cost money, a sure test of deep-seated 
 
 earnestness. The first advance was the provision 
 
 of a separate room for the school. By 1880 
 
 leading churches saw the necessity of constructing 
 
 this room so that at least a large part of it was 
 
 easily divided into many small class rooms. This 
 
 was the plan of the Beltram school, in Philadelphia, 
 
 the Akron school, and many others erected about 
 
 this time. Later came the building divided into 
 
 at least two main parts, so that the elementary 
 
 and the advanced pupils met and studied entirely 
 
 separately. Next came the scheme of a separate 
 
 building — a plan which had been in operation 
 
 in many English schools for a long time. But 
 
 in America the educational purpose and the needs 
 
 of classes dominated the architecture of this 
 
 separate building. Examples of early special 
 
 buildings were the Central Church and the Brick 
 
 Church, of Rochester, New York; the Kimler 
 
 Memorial, New Jersey; and St. Lucas Church, 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 149 
 
 Evansville, Indiana. Two well-known architects 
 
 gave special attention at this time to schools 
 
 to suit modern needs; they were Clarence H. 
 
 Blackall, of Boston, and George W. Kramer, of 
 
 New York. In 1909 the Colorado and the South 
 
 Dakota Sunday School Associations offered prizes 
 
 for the best designs of modern buildings and the 
 
 former issued a valuable pamphlet showing useful 
 
 plans. This year the office of the Religious 
 
 Education Association received four times as 
 
 many inquiries for modern educational building 
 
 plans as in any year before. 
 
 Given a suitable building, something more was 
 
 needed — an educator to direct the work. Paid 
 
 Directors of teachers began with Robert Raikes; 
 
 Religious paid superintendents were rare but not 
 Education , ^ i i . . 
 
 unknown at the begmnmg of the 
 
 twentieth century. But the conception of the 
 school as a serious educational agency demanded 
 nothing less than a man who should be a specialist 
 in religious education. The first step in this 
 direction was taken by the New Haven Religious 
 Education Federation, which in 1907 engaged 
 the Reverend Harold Hunting to do for the 
 Sunday-schools the work that a superintendent 
 of education would do for all the public schools 
 of a city. The next year an important step was 
 taken by several churches which employed, ex- 
 clusively for their local work, Directors of Relig- 
 
150 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 ious Education. The most notable example was 
 the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, New 
 York, since it called to this position a man of 
 experience and one who had for years specialized 
 in religious education. Its Director, the Reverend 
 William H. Boocock, was entrusted with the task 
 of organizing all the educational work of the 
 church into effective unity. Other leading 
 churches followed this example and in a short 
 time the Congregational churches in Oakland, 
 California; Evanston, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; 
 and Boston. Baptist churches in St. Louis; 
 Providence, Rhode Island; Rochester, New York; 
 and other churches in Chicago, Philadelphia, 
 and New York were employing men for this 
 
 work. 
 
 The Directors of Religious Education are not 
 parish visitors or assistant pastors; their sole 
 Duties of business is with the educational work 
 Directors ^f ^i^^ church centering in the Sunday- 
 school. They must organize it, relate its parts 
 and activities, bring all the educational work of 
 the church into coordination under it, and set up 
 in the church a workable and effective system of 
 religious education. They are really educational 
 experts, specially trained and ordained to this 
 function in the church. This new office and new 
 ministry was made possible through the develop- 
 ing interest in religious education, and the courses 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 151 
 
 of training offered in Chicago, Yale, Union, and 
 the Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy. 
 
 One other interesting development took place 
 early in the twentieth century, the establishment 
 Day Kinder- of day kindergartens in numerous 
 gartens churches. They continued the indirect 
 
 religious education of the little child all through 
 the week. Their work led to the adoption of 
 improved kindergarten methods and the estab- 
 lishment of kindergarten departments in the 
 Sunday-schools. 
 
 Another notable factor in Sunday-school prog- 
 ress was the extent to which, particularly under 
 Source of the stimulus of the Religious Education 
 Specialists Association, distinguished specialists in 
 religious education began to give attention to this 
 institution. The work of the association had this 
 effect, that while it brought the severest criticism 
 to bear on the school it turned the energies of 
 competent critics from ridicule and derision to 
 serious and helpful cooperation. Leading psychol- 
 ogists like G. Stanley Hall, Edwin D. Starbuck, 
 and others, leading students of education like 
 Nicholas M. Butler, George A. Coe, WilHam 
 H. P. Faunce, and other authorities in pedagogy 
 began to study the child and the school and 
 to offer for the improvement of the latter the 
 best that the modern science of education could 
 give. 
 
152 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Some of these men worked steadily in Sunday- 
 schools; some gave their attention to working 
 Model out experiments in particular schools 
 Schools Qj. ^Q organizing model schools, as, for 
 example, the one organized at Teachers' College, 
 Columbia University, New York. This school 
 was transferred to Union Theological Seminary 
 in 1910. It meets in class rooms at the Seminary, 
 each room having special educational equip- 
 ment, trained teachers, and careful supervision. 
 The size of every class is limited and all the work 
 is graded on modern principles. The work is 
 conducted under the direction of members of 
 the staff of the Seminary. ! 
 
 AVhatever the future may hold, it is safe to say 
 that by the advent of the twentieth century the 
 The School Sunday-school had entered on a new 
 in the New era. The earnestness with which its 
 entury people had supported its work was re- 
 warded by its recognition as an educational agency. 
 That earnestness was carried forward into new 
 endeavors for efficiency. No longer neglected 
 by the church, no longer derided by the schools, 
 no longer the object of cheap criticism in the press, 
 no longer calmly and uniformly degraded to the 
 basement of the church, no longer compelled to 
 carry on a large work without financial support 
 from the church, but recognized as the great 
 opportunity of the church for childhood, as the 
 
CAUSES AND FACTORS 153 
 
 central and specific organization of the church 
 for religious education, supported by public 
 opinion, stimulated by great organizations, studied 
 and aided by experts and specialists, facing the 
 future with faith and open-mindedness, who can 
 tell what the coming days may mean to the 
 Sunday-school? 
 
XII 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 
 
 Our modern emphasis on the training of the 
 teacher may not be as modern as we sometimes 
 think. The scribes were trained men, able to 
 read the Word and to make its meaning plain 
 to the people. The teachers in the synagogues 
 were trained men. Jesus was a wonderful teacher 
 of teachers. As Bruce in his Training of the 
 Tivelve shows, he spent a large part of his ministry 
 in the work of teacher-training. The teachers 
 in the early churches were usually those who were 
 devoting their lives to religious work. 
 
 The development of the science of education 
 led to a new sense of the importance of thorough 
 professional training for the teacher in public 
 education. 
 
 Long ago such sagacious educators as the 
 
 Jesuits trained the teachers for their religious 
 
 schools with a course covering from 
 Pioneer i • i t 
 
 Teacher of fifteen to eighteen years and mcludmg 
 
 Teachers ^^^^^^^ practice work. Ratich, of Hol- 
 stein (born 1571), one of the little known but 
 
 154 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 155 
 
 most far-seeing of European educators, spent 
 his time in advocating to teachers the sound 
 principles of pedagogy. Comenius, of Moravia 
 (born 1592), spent years of his Kfe demonstrating 
 his theories in a model school especially for 
 teachers. Since 1837 ^ institutes for the training 
 of teachers have been held. In more recent times 
 the work of Horace Mann in the United States 
 gave valuable impulse to the ideal of the ade- 
 quately trained teacher. 
 
 The demand for the training of the teacher 
 came from within, rather than from without. It 
 T achers ^ame out of the teachers' consciousness 
 Seeking of need for more adequate preparation. 
 
 Preparation a , n i. *±. ' * ^^ j li? 
 
 At nrst it was principally a demand tor 
 preparation on the subjects to be taught. Nearly 
 all the early lesson books, the separate and inde- 
 pendent little texts, attempted to meet this need 
 by suggestions to the teacher or what were called 
 "teacher's aids." Wlien the lesson plans were 
 so systematized that all the teachers in a school 
 were teaching the same lesson, it was suggested 
 that these teachers should meet together weekly 
 for advance study of the lesson. The weekly 
 preparation classes, advocated in the Sunday- 
 school literature of the middle of the nineteenth 
 century, were doubtless the forerunners of later 
 organized teacher-training. 
 
 * Brown, Sunday School Movements, p. 92. 
 
156 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Alongside of the development of the familiar 
 
 weekly teachers' meeting for preparation of the 
 
 . - lesson another and more important 
 
 Special 1 1 1 T 1 -VT 
 
 Training for movement developed. In 1827 the JNew 
 
 Teac ing York State Sunday School Union recom- 
 mended the establishment of a school for the 
 training of Sunday-school teachers. In 1837 
 Dr. W. E. Channing advocated "An institution 
 for training men to train the young." He referred 
 to the ideals and practices of public educators. 
 Ten years later the Reverend D. P. Kidder, Corre- 
 sponding Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Sunday School Union, applied the argument to 
 the needs of religious educators and strongly 
 advocated the formation of "Normal Sunday 
 Schools." He asks, "Why should not Sunday- 
 school teachers have the same advantages as are 
 offered to other teachers in their institutes?"^ 
 
 Then arose the prophet of teacher-training, 
 John H. Vincent. He was the man who conceived 
 The Normal the normal class and who, by his steady 
 Class pleading and wise planning, did more 
 
 than any other in his century to advance Sunday- 
 school standards. He was then, in 1857, pastor 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Jolict, 
 Illinois. He organized a class for the training of 
 teachers in his own school and called it a Normal 
 Class. His plan was to give teachers a broad 
 
 1 See The Lesson System, by Simeon Gilbert, p. 19, 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 157 
 
 general preparation, of an elementary character, 
 in the facts of biblical history, geography, litera- 
 ture and teaching, church history and the Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 At the meeting of his church conference, in 
 Chicago, October, 1860, Mr. Vincent succeeded 
 First in securing the adoption of a resolution 
 
 Institutes calling for institutes for the training of 
 Sunday-school teachers. He urged the church 
 to give them the advantages received by public- 
 school teachers. A program for an institute was 
 prepared and carried out at the meeting of the 
 District Convention, in Galena, Illinois, April, 
 1861. This, probably the first Sunday-school 
 Institute for the special purpose of training 
 teachers, was followed by others in the neighbor- 
 hood. In the same year an institute was held in 
 Detroit. Then came local organizations for the 
 maintenance of such institutes. At the conven- 
 tion of the Cook County Sunday School Associa- 
 tion, held in Chicago, on November 17, 1864, 
 Mr. Vincent urged the organization of a ** Perma- 
 nent Sunday School Teachers' Institute for the 
 Northwest." One year later the "Northwestern 
 Sunday School Teachers' Institute" held its first 
 meeting in Chicago. Two years later "The 
 Training Class of the Chicago Sunday School 
 Union" was organized. Meanwhile other voices 
 had been heard. In 1864, just one week after 
 
158 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Mr. Vincent urged organization in the North- 
 west, down in the foothills of the Alleghanies, in 
 Steuben County, New York, two agents of the 
 Sunday School Union held their first regular 
 Institute. These men were Mr. Ralph Wells and 
 Mr. Pardee. For the few remaining years of Mr. 
 Pardee's life he devoted himself to the establish- 
 ment of a system of normal training for teachers 
 through local institutes. 
 
 In Buffalo, New York, Mr. J. E. Gilbert, a 
 public-school principal, established, in 1865, a 
 monthly paper containing training lesssons for 
 Sunday-school teachers.^ 
 
 This period, immediately following the Civil War 
 in the United States, was the period of awakened 
 j^^ interest in the work of the Sunday- 
 
 Teachers' school teacher. Ample evidence of this 
 
 Awakening . « i • .i i p ■• 
 
 IS lound m the number ot conventions, 
 
 conferences, and institutes which were held, the 
 
 articles written on the subject of the teacher's 
 
 responsibility, and the endeavors of some schools 
 
 to attain rising standards of work. One of the 
 
 most interesting efforts in this direction was the 
 
 establishment of what were called "Biblical 
 
 Museums." These were collections of original 
 
 objects, or reproductions of objects of interest in 
 
 Bible lands or Bible times, illustrarting manners, 
 
 * Mentioned by J. L. Hurlburt in address at convention of the 
 Religious Education Association, Boston, February, 1905, 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 159 
 
 customs, geography, dress, literature, and kindred 
 
 subjects. Such collections were often taken from 
 
 school to school. In Great Britain, traveling 
 
 exhibits were prepared by the London Sunday 
 
 School Union and sent out with competent 
 
 demonstrators or lecturers. They led to a 
 
 remarkable quickening of interest in biblical 
 
 study and to a keen realization of the actuality 
 
 of the lands and peoples and historic reality of 
 
 the incidents recorded in the Bible. 
 
 Those to whom the word Chautauqua is familiar 
 
 as a generic term for any summer assembly of 
 
 „, , recreation and amusement, with a smat- 
 
 Chautau- . i • i i 
 
 qua's Con- tering of mstruction, seldom tmnk that 
 
 tribution ^^^^^ great movement was born of the 
 Sunday-school. The parent of all Chautauquas, 
 Chautauqua, New York, was simply a place for 
 camp meetings until, in 1874, Dr. John H. 
 Vincent selected it for a Sunday-school Assembly. 
 The purpose of this Assembly was "To hold a 
 prolonged institute or normal class, occupying 
 from ten to fifteen days . . . that interest may 
 be awakened through the Church on the subject 
 of normal training for Sunday-school workers." 
 It was called the Sunday-school Teachers' Assem- 
 bly. It recognized the teacher-training acti\aty 
 of a number of the denominations and provided 
 so broad a basis for work that it has always been 
 regarded as wholly interdenominational in charac- 
 
160 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY- SCHOOL 
 
 ter. The work offered comprised lectures and 
 classes in the methods and principles of Sunday- 
 school work, in biblical history, literature, and 
 geography, with demonstrations of class work 
 and special meetings for departmental officers 
 and teachers. The Chautauqua movement soon 
 embraced many other general cultural interests 
 outside of Sunday-school methods and material. 
 But it resulted in the formation of an Assembly 
 Normal Union, and this later led to the appoint- 
 ment of the International Sunday School Normal 
 Committee, to the establishment of definite 
 courses of normal lessons, to the preparation of 
 many books, both those designed for the Chautau- 
 qua Circles and others, of high value directly to 
 the Sunday-school teacher and to the stimulation 
 of popular education. For thousands of persons 
 it meant the extension of the period of cultural 
 training beyond the school years and throughout 
 life. The movement ministered to the training 
 of teachers directly through its Institutes and its 
 Normal Courses, and indirectly by stimulating 
 large numbers of teachers to broad general culture. 
 In 1889 the Illinois Sunday School Association 
 began to organize classes for the training of 
 Organized teachers and to make teacher-training 
 Teacher- a definite part of its work. Later 
 raining ^^^ York, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, 
 and other states and territories took similar 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 161 
 
 action. As a result a large number of institutes 
 were held by field workers and others and many 
 classes were organized. But every man worked 
 in his own way and, although there was wide- 
 spread interest and much enthusiasm, there was 
 no attempt at unity of action nor any effort to 
 secure economy through cooperation. However, 
 when the Sunday-school workers began to take 
 the function of teaching seriously and to provide 
 for better teaching, the churches came quickly 
 to their aid. Pastors organized classes, the 
 denominational press gave attention to the 
 teacher-training movement, and leading men pre- 
 pared text-books for these classes. A very large 
 service was rendered by the Reverend Jesse L. 
 Hurlburt, who prepared one of the early Normal 
 Courses for the Chautauqua series. His book 
 blazed the way for elementary studies for Sunday- 
 school teachers. Others prepared many little 
 manuals. When such little text-books are seen 
 in the light of later material for teachers, it must 
 not be forgotten that they were prepared for 
 teachers who had had no special biblical training 
 and who were in a large number of instances 
 without any generous educational advantages. 
 Dr. John H. Vincent wrote a more elaborate 
 treatise on The Modern Sunday School which was 
 one of the earliest books on Sunday-school 
 methods. 
 
162 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Following the action of the states already 
 mentioned the matter of more comprehensive 
 Nation- Wide P^^^^ ^^^ teacher-training came before 
 Teacher- the International Convention meeting 
 raining ^^ Atlanta, Georgia, in 1899. Again 
 the organized Sunday-school movement was in- 
 debted to the workers in the primary depart- 
 ments; for the recognition of the importance of 
 teacher-training at this convention was due to 
 the work of Mrs. J. Woodbridge Barnes, chairman 
 of the Central Primary Committee. Mrs. Barnes 
 had prepared comprehensive courses for primary 
 teachers and the primary organizations had 
 established classes in the Primary Unions of 
 various cities. They had set up for primary 
 teachers standards and ideals which demanded 
 their thorough training. 
 
 Teacher-training was placed on a basis of 
 permanency and dignity when, in the summer of 
 Department 1903, a Department of Education was 
 of Education organized in the International Associa- 
 tion. Mr. W. C. Pearce was appointed the first 
 Teacher-training Secretary. The steps of prog- 
 ress taken since then have been: (1) the general 
 stimulation of the organization of classes; (2) 
 the standardization of the work and the require- 
 ments for elementary diplomas; (3) holding sev- 
 eral conferences of experts and leaders at which 
 the needs of teachers have been studied; (4) the 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 1G3 
 
 extension of training to the ministry through the 
 theological seminaries; (5) the better understand- 
 ing of requirements of interdenominational work; 
 and (6) training courses provided in the curricula 
 of certain colleges. 
 
 Important action was taken at a conference, 
 held in Philadelphia, January 7, 8, 1908, when 
 First Steps ^^^ following resolutions were unani- 
 in standard- mously adopted by representatives of 
 the denominations, Sunday-school sec- 
 retaries, and other educational leaders: 
 
 "It is the sense of this Conference in defining 
 the minimum requirements for the standardized 
 course for teacher-training that such minimum 
 should include: 
 
 "Fifty lesson periods, of which at least twenty 
 should be devoted to the study of the Bible, and 
 at least seven each to the study of the pupil, 
 the teacher, and the Sunday school. That two 
 years' time should be devoted to this course, and 
 in no case should a diploma be granted for its 
 completion in less than one year. 
 
 "That there should be an advanced course, 
 including not less than one hundred lesson periods, 
 with a minimum of forty lesson periods devoted 
 to the study of the Bible, and of not less than 
 ten each to the study of the pupil, the teacher, 
 the Sunday-school, church history, missions, or 
 kindred themes. That three years' time should 
 
164 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY- SCHOOL 
 
 be devoted to this course, and in no case should 
 a diploma be granted for its completion in less 
 than two years." Other resolutions provided 
 for cooperation with the denominational agencies 
 for promoting teacher-training in matters of 
 standards, credits, enrolment of pupils, and 
 issuance of diplomas. 
 
 At the convention in Louisville, in 1908, Mr. 
 W. C. Pearce gave figures for the enrolment of 
 Large a total of one hundred and seven thou- 
 
 Enrolments g^nd four hundred and seventy-seven 
 students in training classes, with over twelve 
 thousand graduates during the three years pre- 
 ceding. The state of Pennsylvania alone re- 
 ported over fourteen thousand students enrolled 
 in classes for teacher-training. At this conven- 
 tion Reverend Franklin McElfresh, Ph.D., was 
 appointed teacher-training Secretary and entered 
 on his work in October of that year. In the 
 year following nineteen hundred and seven new 
 classes were enrolled, with thirty-two thousand 
 six hundred and fifty-eight students. 
 
 In the two years and a half following the 
 Louisville Convention of 1908, one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand pupils were enrolled in 
 teacher-training classes officially recognized by 
 the International Sunday School Association, and 
 it is estimated that there were twenty-five thou- 
 sand in other classes. During the same period the 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 165 
 
 International Association issued over twenty-five 
 thousand elementary teacher training diplomas. 
 
 The committee on education of the Interna- 
 tional Sunday School Association rendered valu- 
 able service also in formally approving the courses 
 of teacher-training published by the denomina- 
 tions and by other persons. A special committee 
 of five passed on all courses and the same com- 
 mittee also approved text-books for the training 
 classes and text-books for the International Read- 
 ing Circle. The latter was organized to enlist 
 teachers and others in systematic reading of the 
 best books by a plan of a five years' course with 
 one book to each year. In 1910 there were 
 fifteen approved courses of study for the elemen- 
 tary training work, thirteen approved courses of 
 study for the advanced work. 
 
 The work of the International Association in 
 
 the promotion of teacher-training in the first 
 
 T. . decade of the twentieth century would 
 Denomina- "^ 
 
 tionai have been impossible without the cordial 
 
 Cooperation ^^operation of the Sunday-school de- 
 partments of the various denominations. The 
 Methodist church gave vigorous support to all 
 the plans and prepared normal courses, organized 
 classes, sent out special workers, and awarded 
 diplomas. The Baptists organized a National 
 Teacher Training Institute, published one of the 
 most complete series of studies, and placed their 
 
16G EVOLUTION OP SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 work in the charge of Reverend Henry T. Mussel- 
 man. The Congregationalists likewise under- 
 took seriously to promote the education of their 
 teachers, employing special officers and preparing 
 some material. In the Episcopal church various 
 boards were appointed for the same purpose, 
 notably in the Diocese of Massachusetts, where 
 the Board of Education, under the guidance of 
 the Educational Secretary, Reverend Carlton 
 P. Mills, arranged a comprehensive course of 
 study. 
 
 Another contribution was made to the training 
 of teachers in the preparation of libraries and the 
 Reading arrangement of courses of reading for 
 Classes teachers. While the libraries were pre- 
 pared by denominational or by private enter- 
 prise, they formed valuable aids to teachers in 
 training. The books were made available by 
 having them placed conveniently in the church 
 or in the Sunday-school room, or by circulating 
 them amongst the teachers. 
 
 About 1870 Edward Eggleston urged that the 
 
 theological seminaries should be aroused to the 
 
 importance of the Sunday-school and 
 Cooperation , , . i • ,^ , i p 
 
 from led to share m the task oi preparmg 
 
 Educational ]jqi\i pastors and teachers for its work. 
 Institutions ^ 
 
 Two years later Henry C. Trumbull 
 delivered his now familiar Lectures on the Sunday 
 School before Yale Divinity School. The Lam- 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 167 
 
 beth Conference, in 1888, said, "The instruction 
 of Sunday-school teachers ought to be regarded 
 as an indispensable part of the pastoral work 
 of the parish priest." In 1905 the Presbyterian 
 General Assembly adopted a minute calling on 
 theological seminaries to establish courses in the 
 principles and methods of the modern Sunday- 
 school. At the Toronto Convention of the Inter- 
 national Association in the same year seventeen 
 seminaries were reported as having either definite 
 courses or lectures on this subject. The Southern 
 Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky, had a professor in charge of Sunday-school 
 work. In affiliation with the Hartford Theo- 
 logical Seminary, in 1903, was established the 
 well known School of Religious Pedagogy. 
 
 Other institutions were by this time taking steps 
 toward full courses in Sunday-school science. An 
 Theological investigation undertaken by the Relig- 
 Seminaries JQ^g Education Association, in 1907, 
 showed that scarcely any of the one hundred and 
 ninety-six theological schools in the United States 
 were entirely neglecting the Sunday-school, and 
 that four offered courses in child-study; twenty- 
 four in educational psychology (nine requiring 
 the work for a degree); twenty offered religious 
 pedagogy; thirteen offered courses in the history 
 and organization of the Sunday-school; and 
 twenty-two had lecture courses by instructors 
 
168 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 from without. Thirteen institutions permitted 
 Sunday-school workers who had not matriculated 
 to enter the classes on Sunday-school subjects. 
 
 On February 13, 1908, the Religious Educa- 
 tion Association, in its convention at Washington, 
 
 D. C, passed this resolution: 
 Overtures tcx • ^ ^i • j * 
 
 for Pro- An view oi the pressmg need of 
 
 fessional leaders who can properly instruct Sun- 
 day-school teachers and others in the 
 principles and methods of religious education, we 
 urge the universities to provide in their depart- 
 ments of education for specific training with 
 reference to such leadership," 
 
 On February 21st of the same year, at the 
 invitation of Mr. W. N. Hartshorn, a company 
 ^ , of seventy-seven representatives of the 
 
 on the theological seminaries met at his home 
 
 Seminaries j^ Boston to discuss the present work 
 
 of the seminaries for the schools and to devise 
 plans for closer cooperation and further useful- 
 ness. One of the practical results of this con- 
 ference was the adoption of the plan of a traveling 
 lectureship for the seminaries in New England. 
 Another conference was held at the same place 
 on April 22, 1910, to discuss "The place of 
 religious pedagogy in the training of the minister 
 for the work of the Sunday-school." 
 
 A notable service in the enlistment of the 
 pastor in the work of the school and in preparing 
 
EVOLUTION OP THE TEACHER 169 
 
 him for that work was the publication of a book 
 
 by the President of Brown University, WilHam 
 
 A Notable H. P. Faunce, LL.D., entitled. The Edu- 
 
 ^°°^ cational Ideal in the Ministry. 
 
 By the end of the first decade of this century 
 
 it is safe to say that no seminary of any impor- 
 
 , . tance fails to have either definite courses 
 Conclusion a a ' a a u i 
 
 ottered m bunday-scnool science or, 
 
 better, in religious education, or to have careful 
 
 and comprehensive courses of lectures by experts 
 
 in these subjects. 
 
 In Great Britain the work of teacher-training 
 
 has not received quite the same attention as in the 
 
 United States. It has been conducted 
 
 T e £icli Gr~ 
 
 Training in by means of lecture courses principally, 
 
 Britain ^^^ ^^^^ recently have standards for 
 
 the teachers been created. 
 
 During this time the colleges of the United 
 
 States were not altogether indifferent to the impor- 
 
 In Colleges tance of the Sunday-school. Leading 
 
 and educators urged that, since the business 
 
 Universities 
 
 of the college was to train its people 
 
 for full social living, these institutions should 
 
 recognize the fact that many students would 
 
 find themselves after graduation in churches, and 
 
 that work in the Sunday-schools would be part 
 
 of their social and religious duty. They began 
 
 to answer the rather common criticism that the 
 
 college unfitted young people for active service 
 
170 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 in the church. Beginning with the opening term 
 of the fall of 1908, practical work in teacher-train- 
 ing was carried on by many institutions. The 
 University of Chicago established a department 
 of Religious Education, with a full professor in 
 charge, and offered courses in Sunday-school 
 history, methods, pedagogy, the psychology of 
 religion. They correlated the work offered in 
 the department of General Education to the 
 department of Religious Education. Columbia 
 University had many similar independent courses 
 which were later, by its plan of correlation with 
 Union Theological Seminary, organized into a 
 regular department of Religious Education. Both 
 of these offered the usual work in biblical litera- 
 ture which was open to all students. Yale Uni- 
 versity combined the work in biblical literature 
 with courses on the Sunday-school, its methods, 
 pedagogy, and principles. Here valuable labora- 
 tory work was conducted by students in these 
 courses in the city of New Haven. Northwestern 
 University had regular courses on Education in 
 Religion and Morals. Brown University cooper- 
 ated with the Providence Biblical Institute in 
 offering classes and courses of lectures for Sunday- 
 school teachers in the city. The State University 
 of North Dakota cooperated to the same ends 
 with affiliated denominational schools. The State 
 University of West Virginia conducted a summer 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 171 
 
 school for Sunday-school teachers. The State 
 Universities of Iowa and of Michigan organized 
 Schools of Rehgion, so that practical work in 
 religion and religious methods were available to 
 all students. The University of Minnesota has 
 two courses in Religious Education. Otterbein 
 University also has several courses in the Sunday- 
 school and Religious Education. Ripon College ^ 
 had a regular department of Religious Education. 
 Washburn College had a School of the Bible 
 which aimed especially to prepare for teaching 
 the Word, and in 1911 (Fall term) offers a regular 
 course designed to prepare for religious teaching. 
 Many normal colleges and teachers' colleges co- 
 operated with their local church workers in con- 
 ducting teacher-training classes and in giving 
 courses at Sunday-school institutes and the like.^ 
 This list is not exhaustive but simply indicative 
 of the awakening and profound interest of the 
 educational world in the teacher's work in the 
 Sunday-school. 
 
 An inquiry, early in 1910, extending to twenty- 
 six of the leading colleges in the United States, 
 showed that the presidents of nearly all these 
 institutions clearly and strongly believed that 
 the college should provide training with a view 
 
 * See particularly the plan of cooperation with credits, worked 
 out by the State Normal School of Colorado and described iu 
 Religious Education for April, 1911, 
 
172 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 to the student's later service in the Sunday- 
 school.^ 
 
 Summarizing progress in teacher-training, Dr. 
 McElfresh calls attention early in 1911 to the 
 following evidences of advance. Nearly twice 
 as many students officially enrolled as had any 
 preceding period; the increased emphasis on the 
 preparation of senior scholars by means of train- 
 ing courses; the recognition of the training class 
 as a permanent department of the school, under 
 a superintendent of education; increased use of 
 the special institute for advanced study; marked 
 advance in scholarly quality of the text-books 
 being published; increase in the number of courses 
 of religious pedagogy and psychology in theologi- 
 cal seminaries and denominational colleges, and 
 increased number of Schools of Method. 
 
 Another encouraging evidence of development 
 was seen in turning the teachers' attention from 
 books on method and management to the study 
 of the great principles of psychology and educa- 
 tion. Sunday-school libraries, and the libraries of 
 colleges and universities, found it necessary to 
 supply themselves with the principal text-books 
 on these subjects. 
 
 1 The detailed statement of the results of this inquiry will be 
 found in the paper on The Sunday-School and College Leadership 
 presented at the World's Sunday-School Convention, Washington, 
 D. C, May 23, 1910, and published in the proceedings of that con- 
 ventiorj, 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER 173 
 
 Educational interest so general and so high in 
 character, taken together with the remarkable 
 increase in important books on religious educa- 
 tion, indicated the new place into which the 
 Sunday-school and the Sunday-school teacher had 
 come. It was for the work of the teacher really 
 the beginning of the new era of dignity, based on 
 eflSciency. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE SCHOOL FOR ADULTS 
 
 About the middle of the last century a Quaker 
 in Birmingham, England, sought to do for adult 
 men what Robert Raikes had done for children. 
 He gathered the men who were idly standing at 
 the street corners of that city into special, separate 
 adult Sunday-schools. The schools of that type 
 continued in some parts of England as separate 
 schools and are to be found there to this day. 
 
 In the United States the movement for adult 
 classes developed in the Sunday-school. Many 
 Adult schools early had classes especially 
 
 Classes designated as Bible classes. They ordi- 
 narily consisted of a small number of elderly ladies 
 and gentlemen who took more interest in theories 
 as to the interpretation of Daniel and Revelation 
 than in anything else. They have no special 
 relation to the modern class movement. Toward 
 the end of the nineteenth century, however, a 
 few men in different places began to gather large 
 groups of young men for Bible study in the 
 Sunday-school. One of the earliest and most 
 
SCHOOL FOR ADULTS 175 
 
 successful of such classes was the Hubbell class, 
 in the Central Presbyterian Church, of Rochester, 
 New York. For a long while this class had over 
 one hundred members with an average attendance 
 of over one hundred. A yet larger class met in 
 the Immanuel Baptist Church, in Chicago, under 
 the superintendency of Mr. B. F. Jacobs. These 
 and other such classes attracted much attention 
 and pastors sought to introduce their methods to 
 their own schools. 
 
 In 1903 the teachers of several large adult 
 classes in Chicago met with the officers of the 
 Special Or- County Sunday School Association, 
 ganization They planned to organize a men's Bible 
 class union, but later determined to make the 
 adult class- work a regular department of the 
 activities of the county organization, to be known 
 as the adult department, and to include classes 
 for both men and women. At the County Con- 
 vention held in the same year these plans were 
 carried out. In the same year the organization 
 was carried up to the State Convention and the 
 state department of adult classes was organized. 
 Later the state of Illinois took the initiative in 
 the adoption of a distinctive button or badge for 
 the members of these classes. New York was 
 the next state to adopt the organized adult class. 
 Following this the International Association or- 
 ganized an adult class department at the Toronto 
 
176 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 convention in 1905. At the end of the year 1909 
 there were between eight and nine thousand 
 classes organized with an enrohnent of over two 
 hundred and forty thousand members, and early 
 in 1911 there were eighteen thousand two hundred 
 and fifty classes enrolled with the International 
 Sunday School Association. 
 
 While this general organization was being 
 developed many kinds of classes in the Sunday- 
 school were being organized to meet 
 the needs of men. In 1890 a class of 
 young men in Syracuse, New York, eighteen in 
 number, formed themselves into an organization 
 known as The Baraca Class. Similar classes were 
 quickly organized in other churches, and the 
 special movement known as The Baraca took its 
 rise. Eight years later organizations under the 
 name of Philathea were provided for young women. 
 
 Out of the adult class movement one important 
 development came for the Sunday-school and 
 Brother- church, namely, the organization of 
 hoods Brotherhoods. Wise leaders began to 
 
 organize the men for service which would extend 
 beyond the teaching periods of the school. 
 
 There have been two stages in the development 
 of the Brotherhoods. The older organizations. 
 Brotherhood as the Brotherhood of Andrew and 
 Beginnings Yh[\[^^ and the Brotherhood of Saint 
 Andrew, were formed about 1880. The Brother- 
 
SCHOOL FOR ADULTS 177 
 
 hood of Saint Andrew was at first only a federa- 
 tion of the young men in the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church for the two simple purposes of daily united 
 prayer and individual Christian service. Later 
 there were added junior chapters for boys. The 
 organization rapidly spread through Canada, 
 England, and the British Colonies. 
 
 The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, or- 
 ganized in 1888, included men in all the denomi- 
 Andrew nations, permitting each denomination 
 andPhihp ^^ have its own council and officers. 
 The scope of activities and interests was similar 
 to that of the first Brotherhood. The first 
 denominational organization of the brotherhood 
 type was formed in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church in 1896. 
 
 Later, leaders in the denominations saw the 
 wisdom of bringing together the existing groups 
 
 Denomi- ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ different churches into 
 
 national broad national orcranizations. The 
 Brotherhood xi i . • x> i i i 
 
 Presbyterian IJrotherhood was organ- 
 ized first and soon afterward the Baptist Brother- 
 hood, and then the Congregational Brotherhood. 
 The Presbyterian Brotherhood was organized in 
 1906. It is under the control of the general 
 assembly of that church. The Baptist Brother- 
 hood, organized in 1908, establishes local chapters 
 in the churches. The Congregational Brother- 
 hood was organized at Detroit, April, 1908. 
 
178 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 The activities undertaken by the Brotherhoods 
 
 were the stimulation of the men of the church 
 
 for the world-wide work of the Kingdom, 
 
 Activities 
 
 coordinating and directing the tremen- 
 dous powers of Christian manhood to the evangel- 
 ization of the world through the preaching of 
 the Gospel, the relief of distress, the institution 
 of personal and social justice, and the organiza- 
 tion of society for the realization of the Kingdom. 
 
 At first these adult organizations devoted their 
 attention to large inspirational gatherings, but 
 Ch h ^^^y ^^^ ^^^ directing their energies 
 Educating rather toward social and philanthropic 
 
 ^^ service. One of the great problems for 
 
 the Brotherhoods, as well as for the Sunday-school, 
 is the correlation of the activities of the Brother- 
 hood to the educational plan of the school. Leaders 
 in the Brotherhood movement, cooperating with 
 leaders in the Sunday-schools, in the years 1909 
 and 1910 particularly, sought to effect educational 
 coordination between the two. In the report of 
 one of the educational commissions of the Northern 
 Baptist Convention, presented at their Anniver- 
 saries, May, 1910, a significant recommendation 
 was adopted. It suggested that the work of the 
 Brotherhoods and the Sunday-schools should be 
 under the care of an educational commission or 
 board in each local church and that all their work 
 should be directly conducted by the "school of 
 
SCHOOL FOR ADULTS 179 
 
 the Church." This name was suggested as ade- 
 quate for the Sunday-school. 
 
 A highly interesting hterature was created by 
 the rise of the Adult Class and Brotherhood 
 Special movements. Nearly all the great de- 
 Literature nominations proceeded to publish quar- 
 terlies and magazines, especially for these classes, 
 and the religious press frequently contained articles 
 on the conduct of the classes and on the nature 
 of educational work for men in the churches. 
 There was soon a demand for special courses of 
 study. The first set of such special lessons was 
 issued in 1906 on The Ethical Teachings of Jesus. 
 Later these were followed by other special courses. 
 
 The most important aspect of the Adult Class 
 movement for the development of the Sunday- 
 school lies in its recognition as a school 
 that deals with the whole of the religious 
 life. It helped to complete, so far as the persons 
 to be educated are concerned, the circle of the 
 scope of the school. The Sunday-school has thus 
 developed from an institution for children and 
 youth until it has become the religious educational 
 agency of the church for all ages. One other 
 important factor was emphasized. The adult 
 demanded something more than an opportunity 
 for instruction; he sought a chance to serve. 
 Hence expressional activities were soon developed. 
 Men and women were initiated into religious 
 
 Significance 
 
180 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 educational experiences by being given definite 
 tasks in connection with their classes. Such 
 forms of educational endeavor spread downward 
 through the school. If the men's class could do 
 things throughout the week for the school and 
 as part of school life, so also could the boys' and 
 girls' classes. 
 
 Another important contribution from the adult 
 classes to the development of the Sunday-school 
 Practical has been the enriching of the material 
 Studies Qf study. These classes afforded splen- 
 did opportunities for teaching directly the prac- 
 tical duties of the Christian life. For example, 
 the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 
 in 1908, offered for its Adult Class a course in 
 The Social Mission of Christianity. Many other 
 classes had similar social studies. Writing in 
 The Standard of Chicago, in April, 1910, Professor 
 Edward P. St. John urged that the Sunday- 
 school should undertake as a definite part of its 
 work the training of its people for parenthood 
 by specific courses in child study. Such courses 
 had already been given in rare instances. . 
 
 The special organization of Adult Classes and 
 
 Brotherhoods and their adoption of 
 t^o'iui^day"'' courses of general, practical study in- 
 School dicate important developments in the 
 
 conception of the Sunday-school. They 
 mark the recognition of the school (1) as signifi- 
 
SCHOOL FOR ADULTS 181 
 
 cant to the lives of busy, practically minded men; 
 (2) as the educational agency of the church for all 
 her people; (3) as responsible for all matters per- 
 taining to the development of the religious life 
 of the church; (4) as having a sphere of action 
 extending beyond the teaching hour on Sunday, 
 and (5) as committed to the educational plan 
 of developing character through service. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND BIBLE STUDY 
 
 In the twentieth century it has become so 
 much the custom to criticise the Sunday-school 
 for inefficiency in teaching the Bible that it is 
 easy to lose sight of one significant fact, that no 
 agency has done more to promote the systematic, 
 scientific, and general study of the Bible than the 
 Sunday-school. Modern days are heavy debtors 
 in this respect to this often despised institution. 
 It is well to remember this when it sometimes 
 seems as though these schools were setting them- 
 selves in opposition to modern and scientific 
 methods of Bible study. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 the Bible was used in three ways: (1) for reading 
 More in the services of worship in the churches, 
 
 Students (^g) for texts for sermons and pulpit 
 expositions, and (3) for private or family reading. 
 One can hardly say that it was studied at all 
 by any other persons than the preacher. There 
 was no popular literature of biblical exposition, 
 
 182 
 
SCHOOL AND BIBLE STUDY 183 
 
 still less any guides in its historical study. The 
 popular religious literature of the times was con- 
 fined to a few volumes of sermons, devotional 
 essays, and to some strange and truly fearful works 
 of the pious imagination. Save for the few Sun- 
 day-schools, there were no groups of persons 
 engaged in the study of the Bible. Even these 
 schools were in the greater number of instances 
 occupied less with the Bible than with the rudi- 
 ments of learning. Today we have an immense 
 popular literature of biblical study, probably the 
 largest on any single subject of human interest. 
 We have not only our many thousands of Sunday- 
 schools engaged almost exclusively in Bible study, 
 but also thousands of classes and groups gathered 
 under all sorts of auspices. ^ Clubs, societies, 
 village groups, churches, schools, colleges, and, 
 in addition, hundreds of thousands enrolled as 
 individuals are following Hke studies. We have 
 also many organizations and institutions, such as 
 The American Institute of Sacred Literature, 
 The Bible Study Union, and the correspondence 
 departments of seminaries and training schools, 
 engaged in promoting the study of the Bible 
 according to modern educational ideals. 
 
 Most significant of all, this literature is often 
 of a grade as high as that found in any line 
 of other scholarly inquiry and the institutions 
 
 1 See C. A. Brand in Aims of Religious Education, p. 202. 
 
184 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 engaged in teaching the Bible are often of the 
 first educational rank. The modern world is 
 
 A Higher ^PP^yi^S ^^ ^^e study of the Bible the 
 Grade of earnestness and thoroughness which 
 mark all modern science and, at the 
 same time, is seeking to make the results of 
 such study available to all persons. 
 
 How have these changes come about .'^ Princi- 
 pally through the Sunday-school, for that institu- 
 The Bible tion has been the initiating power and 
 School |-|^g inspiration to this movement for 
 
 Bible study. It began with the gradual adoption 
 of the Bible as the source of material and the 
 common center of study in the school. Doubtless 
 the adoption of the Bible had its beginning in the 
 use of portions thereof in the reading primer or 
 even in the use of its ideas in the spelling book. 
 This is illustrated in the New England Primer, 
 which begins the alphabet: 
 
 A. In Adam's fall 
 We sinned all. 
 
 Although Robert Raikes was a religious man 
 and had a truly religious purpose in founding his 
 Adopting schools, he did not design them as Bible 
 the Bible Schools. But as they used parts of 
 the Bible in teaching ignorant children their 
 lessons in reading, the teachers naturally explained 
 some of the passages, while the pupils developed 
 
SCHOOL AND BIBLE STUDY 185 
 
 interest in the narratives and characters described. 
 In America, where the school was early adopted 
 by the churches, the process of magnifying the 
 Bible was much more simple and rapid. It soon 
 became the one text-book. But even here it is 
 to be noted that for a long time the schools con- 
 tinued to study the Bible in a manner suggested 
 by its use only as a text for reading. The book 
 was studied mechanically, section by section, each 
 separately, and attention was fixed apparently 
 on what it had to say regarding the things they 
 were taught to believe rather than on what 
 the book really is and on what its peculiar mes- 
 sage is. 
 
 Any kind of study, however, demanded help, 
 elucidation, further text-books. Teachers of the 
 Text-books Bible in the Sunday-school created the 
 and Helps demand for books which would help 
 them in Bible study. First came the material 
 for the pupil in the form of leaflets and pamphlets. 
 The American Sunday School Union circulated 
 printed lessons as early as 1827. Later these 
 were arranged into a course covering five years. 
 At the same time a number of question books, 
 really modified and simple form of catechisms, 
 were extensively used in the schools. The dif- 
 ferent denominations soon began to prepare 
 lessons and pupil material for their churches. 
 Perhaps the first were issued by the American 
 
186 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Baptist Publication Society in 1840. Then, as 
 this material developed in character, the teachers 
 discovered their need of assistance and handbooks 
 for their guidance were published. As early as 
 1829 the Unitarians had prepared manuals for 
 the use of their schools. In 1865 The Sunday 
 School Teacher, published in Chicago, offered four 
 separate courses of study and gave teaching hints 
 and other helps to the teacher. The next year 
 the Chicago Sunday School Union offered a course 
 entitled. Two Years With Jesus. These were the 
 immediate forerunners of the Uniform Lessons. 
 The Sunday School Union of Great Britain also 
 published a Teacher's Monthly with lesson notes 
 long before they ever thought of using separate 
 material for pupils. In the American schools the 
 simple comments a^d expository hints were 
 intended to be useful for the pupil's preparation, 
 as well as for the teacher. This dual aim necessi- 
 tated in time separate pupils' books, and so we 
 have the quarterly text-books on the Bible lessons 
 issued in cheap pamphlets four times a year. 
 These were the first popular guides to Bible study. 
 Compared with more recent works they seem poor 
 enough, but they were pioneers, and the pioneer's 
 log hut makes possible the city later. 
 
 With such beginnings, though the process of 
 development was slow, it was inevitable that a 
 constantly increasing number of persons should 
 
SCHOOL AND BIBLE STUDY 187 
 
 be stimulated to intelligent, studious interest in 
 the Bible. Popular commentaries and exposi- 
 Popular tions were written to meet their de- 
 Literature mands. Then followed elementary works 
 on biblical history, archeology, geography, man- 
 ners, and customs. All were written principally 
 to meet the special needs of Sunday-school 
 teachers for technical information. They stimu- 
 lated the general, popular appetite for the study 
 of the Bible. It is possible definitely to trace 
 the development of biblical study, parallel to the 
 development of the Sunday-school, in the chrono- 
 logical record of the publication of handbooks on 
 the Bible in England and America. The wave 
 of interest has been rapidly ascending since about 
 1900 and at this time the study of the Bible 
 by experts is on a par with other sciences, 
 while the material for popular study is at least 
 as rich and varied as in any other realm of 
 knowledge.^ 
 
 The Sunday-school developed institutions and 
 organizations for the study of the Bible by its 
 By Teacher- organized efforts in teacher-traitiing. 
 training Normal courses were projected by the 
 "department of instruction" of the Sunday 
 
 * For evidence of this see the Bibliography published (for free 
 circulation) by the Religious Education Association on graded text- 
 books on the Bible. This pamphlet gives twelve pages of titles of 
 text-books. 
 
188 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 School Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 in 1840. They were followed before long by 
 numerous other agencies. This teacher-training 
 work placed all its early emphasis on the study 
 of the Bible. The interest in methods, pedagogy, 
 and psychology arose much later. The text- 
 books, fortunately, did not expound the particular 
 lessons but offered courses in biblical geography, 
 history, archeology, and kindred subjects. Most 
 of the work was done in classes, but this was not 
 always possible, and so we find systems devised 
 for the study of the Bible by correspondence. 
 Teachers realized their ignorance of sacred litera- 
 ture and refused to be content with the meager 
 preparation afforded by lesson helps, designed 
 only to tide the teacher over the immediate needs 
 of each session. They sought the freedom and 
 power which broad, general knowledge of a sub- 
 ject alone can give. But they were working 
 people often and could not go to theological and 
 biblical schools. To meet their needs these 
 schools and other colleges prepared courses which 
 could be taken by correspondence. Special insti- 
 tutions were also created to meet this need, as 
 The American Institute of Sacred Literature at 
 Chicago. The necessities of the Sunday-school 
 teacher thus brought into existence one more 
 agency for the popularization of the study of the 
 Bible. 
 
SCHOOL AND BIBLE STUDY 189 
 
 The modern Sunday-school has also extended 
 the study of the Bible by institutes, summer 
 assemblies, and lecture courses. At 
 Chautauqua and the other older assem- 
 Jblies the distinctive feature, that which drew 
 large numbers year after year, was the work in 
 the Bible. Here great teachers like William R. 
 Harper lectured before immense audiences and 
 made the Bible a new book, a book of life to many. 
 
 These various agencies and activities growing 
 out of the life and needs of the modern Sunday- 
 school and operating outside its local organiza- 
 tion constitute a great and definite contribution 
 to Bible study. It has given rise to many text- 
 books, study-courses, lecture-courses, and much 
 current literature on the Bible. 
 
 The most significant development in Bible study 
 
 has taken place within the school itself. To a 
 
 T xj * degree far greater than has yet been 
 
 Influence of ° i- i i o. i 
 
 New View generally realized the Sunday-school 
 
 of Bible j^^g been influenced by the changing 
 conceptions of the Bible. The Bible has in- 
 creased in significance and value to men as our 
 views of it have changed. The change in view 
 came about through: (1) the acceptance of the 
 principle of the unity of the universe and the 
 reign of law therein; (2) the increased flood of 
 light in general and historical knowledge which 
 was thrown on the ancient records; (3) closer. 
 
190 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 more painstaking and skilled study of the Bible. 
 In the measure that the Sunday-school seriously 
 attempted educational work it felt the influence 
 of scientific thinking; almost unconsciously 
 teachers and pupils both applied their habitual 
 thought methods to the Bible and they discovered 
 a new book. The Sunday-school came into the 
 possession of a living literature, born of the lives 
 of men, containing records of their genuine experi- 
 ences, crowded with personal values, and therefore 
 invaluable to every life. 
 
 This change of view brought about important 
 changes in Sunday-school methods. The training 
 Effect on ^^ teachers in biblical knowledge became 
 Teacher- imperative. So long as all parts of 
 the Bible were regarded as of equal 
 value, of equal moral authority, and all as designed 
 expressly for teaching Sunday-school lessons and 
 preaching sermons, the teacher easily got all 
 necessary lesson preparation in a general weekly 
 meeting. But if the Scriptures can only be under- 
 stood as written by many kinds of men, in varying 
 ages of the world, and influenced by time, race, 
 and country, the teacher must know the times, 
 the races, and the countries. The historical 
 interpretation makes historical study and geo- 
 graphical study necessary; it leads into the fields 
 of literary history, of the development of moral 
 ideas, and of comparative religion. So teacher- 
 
SCHOOL AND BIBLE STUDY 191 
 
 training became something vastly more important 
 and interesting than acquiring facility in repeating 
 the names of the books of the Bible, the chronol- 
 ogies, and a few proof -texts. The teacher-train- 
 ing courses which provided for thorough study 
 of biblical history and literature, geography and 
 racial customs and ideas grew out of the new 
 demands made on teachers by the new view of the 
 Bible. 
 
 The new view of the Bible modified greatly 
 the curriculum of the Sunday-school. It became 
 Effect on evident that not all parts of the Bible 
 Curriculum ^^j.^ ^f equal value, that some parts 
 were of no value whatever to the life of a little 
 child and, also, that others were of greater value 
 to the child than to any other persons. Two 
 great conceptions came before the vision of Sun- 
 day-school workers at the same time. They 
 were: (1) that the Bible was the product of a long 
 historical development, and (2) that religious 
 character is the result of a process of develop- 
 ment. Sunday-school leaders sought to adapt 
 the material of a developing religious conscious- 
 ness in a great literature to the developing 
 religious life of youth. This, in large part, is 
 what the graded curriculum means. 
 
 The Sunday-schools that felt most directly the 
 changes in view as to the Bible have passed safely 
 through the crucial period of change. While 
 
192 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 admitting the uses of other materials of study 
 for the development of religious character the 
 A New Bible is still the one text-book. But it is 
 Bible j^Q longer a book studied for itself, as a 
 
 thing to be learned. It is the book which minis- 
 ters through life to life. The Bible has, in these 
 changes and through the popular work of the 
 Sunday-school, won a new place in the intellectual 
 life of the people. It takes its place with all 
 other subjects of study. It asserts its own 
 leadership in the religious life. It is no longer 
 regarded as too sacred to be studied with scientific 
 sincerity and earnestness. Neither can anyone 
 afford to neglect it. It is recognized as the richest 
 and finest of all our literature and as the very 
 bread of life to men. It has come to pass that 
 men no longer apologize for reading this book or 
 fear or are ashamed to give their best energies 
 to its careful study. 
 
XV 
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND LIBRARIES 
 
 It is said that in 1720 there was only one par- 
 ish hbrary in the commonwealth of Virginia and 
 
 Early that this one had in it three volumes. 
 
 Libraries ^^ ^^^ Q^\y ^|g|j ^^ knew what they 
 
 were. Henrico College had had a library but 
 it had probably been scattered by the Indians. 
 Franklin started his subscription libraries in 
 Philadelphia in 1731. There seem to have been 
 only two free libraries established in America 
 in that century, one at Newport and the other 
 at Philadelphia. Both were founded by private 
 gifts and it was not until about the middle of the 
 next century that there were any further steps 
 toward the creation of free libraries. Little 
 did men think, when they heard of the school 
 for destitute children being formed in England by 
 the printer Raikes, that there was a movement 
 which should do more for the popularization of 
 reading amongst all classes and for the institution 
 of public libraries than any other single agency. 
 The free public library owes more to the much 
 
 193 
 
194 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 despised Sunday-school library than we have been 
 accustomed to reckon. The Sunday-school library 
 trained the great middle classes to reading books, 
 and when the taste for reading grew beyond the 
 vision of the Sunday-school and its library seemed 
 a lamentable failure, the public library became an 
 imperative necessity. 
 
 Raikes gathered his pupils to teach them read- 
 ing. As they learned, he had to provide reading- 
 books and especially primers, for the 
 Popular Bible which he wished them to read 
 Reading ^^^ really too difficult for beginners. 
 
 Primers ^ ° 
 
 Then, when he had taught them to read, 
 he realized that it would be wise to have other 
 good books in their hands besides the Bible. Two 
 years after his schools were first organized, he 
 printed a little text-book for his classes. Three 
 years later there was published a small book called 
 The Sunday School Scholar's Companion. It was 
 a strange collection, from our point of view, of 
 selections from the Bible, the English Prayer 
 Book, the Catechism, and Watt's Hymns. Yet 
 that book, or one very like it, was used in many 
 schools well on toward the end of the nineteenth 
 century; the writer remembers some dry meals 
 thereon. 
 
 In 1790 Jonas Hanway prepared and published 
 A Potpourri for the Sunday School. It is difficult 
 to picture these little, crude, smuttily printed 
 
SCHOOL AND LIBRARIES 195 
 
 books, with rude woodcuts. But tliey were treas- 
 ured by those to whom a book was as great a 
 
 wonder as an aerodrome is to-day. Thev 
 Early , , , ., . "^ . / 
 
 Sunday- were taken home that parents might 
 
 School dehght in the attainments of their chil- 
 
 dren as they read aloud from the pages. 
 Then one book quickly led to another, until the 
 home found a little shelf for books quite necessary. 
 Fifty years ago, in Great Britain at any rate and 
 largely in the United States, there were few homes 
 of working people where more than one small shelf 
 was necessary. But the books in those earlier 
 days were quite likely to come from the Sunday- 
 school and were almost sure to be thoroughly 
 religious books. When the system of public 
 education was but in its beginning, the Sunday- 
 schools were sending good reading matter into 
 the homes of the people. 
 
 There might be a difference of opinion as to 
 the quality of the reading matter. At first the 
 Reading Sunday-school books were such as Goody- 
 Books Two-Shoes and Cock Robin; then came 
 Pilgrinis Progress and later Robinson Crusoe, 
 Martyrdom of John Rogers, and Poems for Children, 
 the latter by Charles Lamb. Just about one 
 hundred years ago, the first traces appear of that 
 dreadful milk-and-water type of Sunday-school 
 book, Ellen, or The Naughty Girl Reclaimed. Then 
 followed a flood of books about children too good 
 
196 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY- SCHOOL 
 
 to stay with mortals, books which made anemia a 
 sure sign of spiritual grace. But they were, after 
 all, better books than the people had had before. 
 
 Stranger still were the kinds of books to be 
 found in Sunday-school libraries in the next few 
 decades. A book published in the 
 sindiy-^ middle of the last century lies before 
 School ^Y^Q writer; in it one is urged to read 
 Edwards on The Affections, Alleine's 
 Alarm, Baxter's Sainfs Rest, Pike's Persuasiveness 
 to Early Piety, and for younger ones, Fletcher's 
 Lectures to Children, Pious Children, Withered 
 Branch Revived, Gallaudet's History of Jonah, 
 Scriptural Alphabet of Animals, Walker's Faith 
 Explained and Repentance Explained. An ex- 
 cellent example of combining tales of daring and 
 adventure with pious dissertations to youth is 
 found in Campbell's Juvenile Cabinet.^ The lugu- 
 brious death-bed pictures and the wood-cuts of 
 scriptural and heavenly scenes give one a striking 
 insight into the general aspects of the teaching 
 imparted to the youth of that day. 
 
 To Boston, Massachusetts, belongs the credit 
 for the establishment of the first Sunday-school 
 First library. This was in 1812. About this 
 
 Library ^[^^ American publishers first began the 
 manufacture of books especially for such libraries, 
 
 1 Published, London, 1825, and contains an interesting reference 
 to Sunday-schools. 
 
SCHOOL AND LIBRARIES 197 
 
 SO that by 1830 the American Sunday School 
 Union had its imprint on two hundred Sunday- 
 school library books. 
 
 The American Sunday School Union played an 
 important part in the development of this depart- 
 ment of the Sunday-school. Its Com- 
 Schooi Union mittee on Publications edited and issued 
 Libranes ^^^ earliest primers and catechisms, 
 selling them to schools at less than 
 cost. It also circulated, by means of the schools, 
 an immense number of tracts. These small pam- 
 phlets, often short sermons, essays on religious 
 subjects, stories, or arguments for articles of the 
 faith, were at one time a valuable part of the ma- 
 terial used in the Sunday-school. Packages were 
 sent to schools and visitors carried them regularly 
 to scattered readers. Before the days of the 
 huge newspapers — measured by avoirdupois — 
 and the large cheap magazines these tracts were 
 heartily welcomed and furnished a large part of 
 the reading of a great number of people. Their 
 circulation in the Sunday-school contributed to the 
 general educational advance of the country. The 
 Sunday School Union and the American Tract 
 Society in the United States, and the Religious 
 Tract Society, the Sunday School Union, and 
 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 
 in England, continued for many years — the 
 English societies to this day — the publication of 
 
198 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 large numbers of books suitable for youth, both 
 fiction and travel, history and biblical study. 
 
 Encouraged by the societies and the publishers, 
 
 libraries spread rapidly, until, by 1880, it was 
 
 difficult to find a Sunday-school in any 
 
 School" village or city in the United States 
 
 Libraries without its library. In England the 
 
 ana . , 
 
 Public Sunday-school library never attanied 
 
 Libranes ^^ anything approaching the same popu- 
 larity. Not many years later, however, it was 
 realized that the Sunday-school library, as an 
 agent for the dissemination of general religious 
 literature, had, speaking generally, completed 
 its work. The development and increase of 
 public libraries, instituted and maintained often 
 by public funds, provided a sufficient supply of 
 general literature. At the same time the growing 
 spirit of religious toleration made it possible for 
 these libraries to carry a large amount of religious 
 literature. It is now quite common to find the 
 progressive public library meeting all the needs 
 of Sunday-school teachers. Several issue special 
 bulletins giving lists of books available on special 
 subjects, as, for example, on some course of 
 lessons or on some department or interest in 
 teacher-training or in biblical research. The 
 large resources, ample facilities, and trained service 
 of the public library has rendered the general 
 Sunday-school library no longer a necessity in a 
 
SCHOOL AND LIBRARIES 199 
 
 great number of places. Largely on this account 
 schools are giving up their attempts to compete 
 with the public library. Perhaps the first large 
 school to acknowledge this order of things was 
 the Calvary Baptist Sunday School of New York. 
 In 1903 they discontinued their library on account 
 of the superior facilities of public libraries. 
 
 With the abandoning of the old general library, 
 there came a substitute of greater value, the 
 Special teachers' and workers' reference library. 
 Libraries -j^j^jg consisted of books of reference 
 on special subjects, such as child-study, peda- 
 gogy, biblical history, literature, and exegesis. 
 
 This brief survey of the library in the Sunday- 
 school would be incomplete without mention of 
 the development of the periodical lit- 
 erature for the school. The Friendly 
 Visitor was the first Sunday-school paper. It 
 was established in London in 1819. It was 
 really a penny tract, published monthly. In 
 later years it was fairly well printed and contained 
 some well-told stories. Four years later the first 
 illustrated Sunday-school paper appeared. The 
 Teacher s Offering. In America periodical lit- 
 erature at first took the form of lesson helps. The 
 earliest were printed on cards and these gradually 
 grew into the more ample series of lesson monthlies 
 and quarterlies. One of the most important 
 influences in the development of the Sunday- 
 
200 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 school has been the circulation of this literature. 
 Important service was rendered by the discussion 
 of Sunday-school principles and problems in the 
 columns of papers like the Sunday-school Journal 
 of the Methodist Episcopal churches and the 
 Sunday School Times which was founded in 1868. 
 The latter made history in many ways, especially 
 under the editorship of that prince of Sunday- 
 school leaders and prophets, Henry Clay Trum- 
 bull. 
 
XVI 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
 The Religious Education Association in its 
 inception and organization was simply the ex- 
 pression of the conviction of many at the end of 
 the nineteenth century that the time had come 
 to place the educational work of the church and 
 other religious agencies on a level of efficiency 
 with the forces of general education and also to 
 set above all the aim and ideal of the developing 
 religious character. Many persons felt the need 
 of a new organization to meet the situation. The 
 initial step was taken by a body known as the 
 Council of Seventy which was engaged in direct- 
 ing the American Institute of Sacred Literature 
 organized by William R. Harper, then President 
 of the University of Chicago. 
 
 The first steps toward organization were taken 
 at a meeting of the Senate of the Council, August 
 Organiza- 20, 1902. At a meeting of the same 
 ^^^ body, held in Chicago on October 13, 
 
 1902, a formal call was authorized for a national 
 
 201 
 
£02 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 convention to meet in Chicago in February or 
 March, 1903, to effect this organization. 
 
 This call read as follows: 
 
 "We, the undersigned, members and associate 
 members of the Council of Seventy, and others, 
 believing — 
 
 "1. That the religious and moral instruction 
 of the young is at present inadequate, and 
 imperfectly correlated with other instruction in 
 history, literature, and the sciences; and 
 
 "2. That the Sunday-school, as the primary 
 institution for the religious and moral education of 
 the young, should be conformed to a higher ideal, 
 and made efficient for its work by the gradation 
 of pupils, and by the adaptation of its material 
 and method of instruction to the several stages of 
 the mental, moral, and spiritual growth of the 
 individual; and 
 
 "3. That the home, the day school, and all 
 other agencies should be developed to assist in 
 the right education of the young in religion and 
 morals; and 
 
 "4. That this improvement in religious and 
 moral instruction can best be promoted by a 
 national organization devoted exclusively to this 
 purpose, 
 
 "Unite in calling a convention, under the aus- 
 pices of the Council of Seventy, to assemble in a 
 city to be designated (Chicago), in the month of 
 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 203 
 
 February or March, 1903, for the creation of such 
 a national organization, the convention to consist 
 of (a) members and associate members of the 
 Council of Seventy; (b) invited teachers, minis- 
 ters, and editors; (c) invited pastors of churches 
 and superintendents of Sunday-schools." 
 
 The signatures returned to this call from all 
 parts of the country and from persons in all 
 Public departments of religious education indi- 
 
 Interest cated spontaneous, earnest, and wide- 
 spread enthusiasm favoring such a plan. The 
 Council of Seventy immediately appointed a 
 number of committees to carry out the plans 
 for a national convention. Prof. George L. 
 Robinson of McCormick Theological Seminary 
 was chairman of the General Committee, with 
 President William R. Harper as chairman of the 
 Program Committee. 
 
 The convention was held in Chicago, February 
 10-12, 1903. Four hundred and seven signers 
 First of the call were present, representing 
 
 Convention twenty-three states of the Union and 
 the Dominion of Canada, and including forty 
 presidents of universities and colleges, many 
 deans and professors of theological seminaries, 
 and many Sunday-school and other religious 
 workers. The public meetings, held in the great 
 Auditorium theater which seats about six thou- 
 sand people, attracted wide-spread attention. The 
 
204 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 business meetings were held in churches, and the 
 one in which the organization was effected was 
 held at the University Congregational Church, 
 Hyde Park, Chicago. The first president was 
 Reverend Frank Knight Sanders, Ph.D., then 
 Dean of the Yale Divinity School. Nicholas 
 Murray Butler, LL.D., president of Columbia 
 University, was first vice-president, and William 
 R. Harper, LL.D., was chairman of the Executive 
 Board. 
 
 At the end of the first year there was held in 
 Philadelphia a convention lasting three days. 
 Second at which over one hundred addresses 
 Convention ^^re made by men of national reputa- 
 tion, on the general theme, "The Bible in Practi- 
 cal Life." At this convention the organization 
 began to correlate its activities; seventeen specific 
 departments were equipped with oflicers and 
 launched on missions of investigation and experi- 
 ment in their special problems and activities. 
 
 The fields of these departments are indicated 
 by their titles as follows: The Council (studying 
 Depart- the principles of religious education), 
 ments Universities and Colleges, Theological 
 
 Seminaries, Churches and Pastors, Sunday-schools 
 and Teacher Training, Secondary Schools, Ele- 
 mentary Public Schools, Fraternal and Social 
 Service, Home, Religious Art, Young People's 
 Societies, Christian Associations, 
 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 205 
 
 Meanwhile the Association had engaged Dr. 
 Ira Landrith as general secretary and he served 
 General in that office until about the end of that 
 Officers year. He was succeeded by Clifford 
 W. Barnes, formerly president of Illinois College. 
 After him Henry F. Cope took the office and 
 became the permanent general secretary early in 
 1906. 
 
 In February, 1905, a great inspirational con- 
 vention was held in Boston. One hundred and 
 Third thirty eminent thinkers and leaders 
 
 Convention presented papers on "The Aims of 
 Religious Education." One of the important 
 accomplishments of this convention was the formu- 
 lation of a careful statement of the purpose of the 
 organization. The opening paragraph of this 
 statement read as follows: *'The threefold pur- 
 pose of the Religious Education Association is: 
 to inspire the educational forces of our country 
 with the religious ideal; to inspire the religious 
 forces of our country with the educational ideal; 
 and to keep before the public mind the ideal of 
 religious education and the sense of its need and 
 value." 
 
 Sr^ce that time annual meetings have been held 
 in Cleveland (1906); Rochester (1907); Washing- 
 Pro ress ^^^ (1908); Chicago (1909); Nashville 
 rogress ^^^^^^ ^ ^^^ Providence (1911). It took 
 
 some time for the Association to find itself and 
 
206 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 to discover the best methods of accomphshlng 
 its purposes, but from the year of its effective 
 organization it has been able to render increas- 
 ingly valuable service to all kinds of religious 
 and educational institutions. Early in its history 
 the question arose as to whether it should seek 
 to carry out its own ideals as, for instance, in 
 the publication of improved lesson material or 
 in conducting courses of instruction in religion 
 or in the Bible. After mature consideration the 
 policy was adopted, which has since been ad- 
 hered to, of making the organization one for 
 inspiration, cooperation, assistance, advice, and 
 stimulation. The general secretary's report for 
 1908 said: "It is generally recognized that its 
 [the Association's] primary purpose is not so much 
 to do things as to cause things to be done. It 
 acts as a center, a forum, a clearing house, a 
 bureau of information and promotion in moral 
 and religious education, and therefore it has been 
 able this year to serve helpfully a larger number 
 than ever before, for it seeks only to serve, to 
 inspire, to aid, and never to supplant, destroy, or 
 disrupt. It has been able, therefore, directly to 
 aid many denominations, through their official 
 boards, institutions, and associations as well as 
 individuals." 
 
 The work of the Association is conducted in the 
 following manner: 
 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 207 
 
 The membership of the Association unites in 
 
 one comprehensive organization workers of all 
 
 ecclesiastical, evangelical, educational. 
 Organization . , , . , • .• i 
 
 cultural, and social organizations who 
 
 desire fellowship, mutual exchange of thought, 
 
 information and experience, and cooperation in 
 
 religious education. It promotes improvement 
 
 by the following means: 
 
 Public Agitation, by (1) General Conventions, 
 for the stimulation and education of public opinion 
 Conventions ^^^ ^^^ technical studies in numerous 
 and departmental meetings. (2) Confer- 
 
 ences in important cities, at summer 
 assemblies, and at educational institutions, for 
 more direct consideration of problems and local 
 needs. (Over two hundred were held in 1910.) 
 (3) Special addresses by its officers at other 
 gatherings, such as ecclesiastical and educational 
 assemblies. 
 
 Group Organizations. (1) Local guilds, conduct- 
 ing classes, lecture courses, investigations, confer- 
 Investiga- ences, and exhibits. (2) Departments, 
 tions ^}^g membership being grouped into 
 
 seventeen departments, organized for investiga- 
 tion and promotion in their special fields. 
 
 Publications. (1) Special volumes as follows: 
 _ , ,. The Improvement of Religious Education 
 
 Publications . ^ . _. -r» . 7 , • t^ .• ? x •/• 
 
 (422 pp.); The Bible in Practical Life 
 (G40 pp.); The Aims of Religious Education 
 
S08 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 {5^5 pp.); 'I'he Materials of Religious Education 
 (380 pp.); Education and National Character (318 
 pp.). (2) A magazine, Religious Education, issued 
 bi-monthly (about one hundred pages in each 
 number). (3) Pamphlets on special subjects. 
 Members receive all publications, as issued, free 
 of charge. 
 
 Executive Offices at Chicago, with (1) Perma- 
 nent exhibit of methods and materials of religious 
 Bureau of education; (2) Library of reference work. 
 Information text-books, and special material; (3) a 
 
 andExhibit -r» p-r» .• jti? x* 
 
 iiureau oi Promotion and Iniormation, 
 answering inquiries on practical problems, secur- 
 ing publicity, organizing meetings; and (4) a 
 secretarial staff, engaged in the direction and ex- 
 tension of the work of the Association, aiding col- 
 leges, churches, Sunday-schools, and institutions 
 or individuals in the solution of their problems 
 or the improvement of their methods of religious 
 education by correspondence and conference, and 
 enlisting the services of many leaders and 
 specialists. 
 
 While a large amount of work has been accom- 
 plished, particularly through conferences and 
 conventions, through the Bureau of 
 Information, which answers many hun- 
 dreds of inquiries during the year, and through 
 the publication of the principles and plans worked 
 out by leading educators, the most valuable 
 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 209 
 
 results are probably the indirect ones, such, for 
 example, as the phenomenal extension of teacher- 
 training classes; the development of the religious 
 educational work of Christian associations, both 
 in their own institutions and in colleges and uni- 
 versities; the larger educational work undertaken 
 by young people's societies; the increase in 
 number and improvement in quality of courses 
 of study offered for the Sunday-schools; and the 
 wide-spread and growing public interest and 
 appreciation of the importance of religious edu- 
 cation, as' seen in pulpit and platform utterances, 
 in the daily newspapers, and in religious and secu- 
 lar journals. Not the least valuable of the results 
 is to be found in the many books on the different 
 phases of religious education, books bearing such 
 names as Harper, Coe, Hall, King, Pease, Faunce, 
 and many other members of the Religious Edu- 
 cation Association. 
 
 Specifically, some of the problems attacked in 
 which the advance is already a matter of general 
 Problems popular knowledge are: the gradation 
 Attacked ^jf ^i^q Sunday-schools and their cur- 
 ricula, the larger and more adequate training of 
 teachers, the technical training of the minister 
 for his educational work in the church, the teach- 
 ing of hygiene, social living, and morality in the 
 schools, and the moral conditions of student life 
 in the colleges. 
 
210 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 This Association has served also to stimulate 
 public thinking by calling attention to the need 
 Forming ^^ moral and religious training. Few 
 Public will question the statement that there 
 
 was danger that educators would be- 
 come so absorbed with the intellectual and 
 informational ideals in popular education and with 
 the place of the laboratory and the specialist in 
 higher education that they would lose sight alto- 
 gether of the primacy of character development 
 through these agencies. 
 
 In 1910 the membership of the Association 
 numbered over twenty-seven hundred. At the 
 
 general convention at Nashville one 
 In 1910 7 1 1 
 
 hundred and ten addresses were de- 
 livered and over thirty different meetings w^ere 
 held. During the preceding year the Association 
 conducted over two hundred and fifty local con- 
 ferences and five state conventions besides the 
 general conventions. 
 
 This Association has worked in closest harmony 
 with all progressive movements for the improve- 
 Cooperation ^^^^^t of moral and religious training. Its 
 
 with Other field has been so wide that it has 
 A&[6ncies 
 
 brought to one platform for united work 
 
 many agencies which had hitherto been quite 
 separate, such as the universities and the Sunday- 
 schools, the public schools and the churches, the 
 press and the home. By securing their united 
 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 211 
 
 cooperation each has been made to minister in a 
 new and enlarged measure of effectiveness to 
 the other. The hterature of the Association 
 shows papers prepared and plans worked out by 
 educational specialists of world fame dealing with 
 the problems of the Sunday-school, and it has 
 brought to the improvement and progress of Sun- 
 day-school work the very best that modern edu- 
 cational science could offer. 
 
XVII 
 
 PARALLEL LINES OF PROGRESS 
 
 The parochial school in the Roman Catholic 
 church in the United States and the control of 
 P education by this church in certain 
 
 Catholic other countries have made the Sunday- 
 school less of a necessity to them than 
 to the Protestant churches. Their church schools 
 can give religious instruction all through the week. 
 Nevertheless the church of Rome has not been 
 slow to recognize the advantage of using Sunday 
 for religious instruction. In many places, the 
 pupils in the Roman Sunday-schools outnumber 
 those in the Protestant schools. The more 
 progressive Catholic churches give careful atten- 
 gion to their Sunday-schools. They regard them 
 essentially as schools for teaching Christian doc- 
 trine. The text-books are usually catechisms, 
 doctrinal manuals, and the lives of the saints. 
 
 Pope Pius IX called attention to the necessity 
 of Bible study on the part of Catholics, and Pius 
 X, in 1906, issued an encyclical urging the more 
 general and careful teaching of Christian doc- 
 
 212 
 
LINES OF PROGRESS 213 
 
 trine. These orders, accompanied by a recogni- 
 tion of the valuable results of other schools, led to 
 an awakening of interest in the Sunday- 
 Sunday- school and to the publication of some 
 fnterest ^^^^ helpful little books advocating mod- 
 ern methods in the school. Certain large 
 Catholic schools, such as that of the Paulists on 
 Fifty-ninth Street, New York, Holy Angels and 
 Holy Family, Chicago, and the Sacred Heart in 
 Worcester, Massachusetts, have very large en- 
 rolments. Those in Chicago are credited with 
 over three thousand. The pupils are arranged 
 in grades which correspond approximately with 
 the grades in the public schools. In addition 
 to the teaching of church doctrines some schools 
 give particular attention to the teaching of Chris- 
 tian conduct, morals, and temperance. 
 
 The Jews trace without difficulty a line of 
 schools for religious instruction, meeting either 
 Hebrew on their Sabbath or on Sunday, to a 
 Schools period long antedating the beginning 
 of the Christian era. Mention has already been 
 made of the synagogue schools. For many years 
 their form did not change greatly after the work 
 of Simon Ben Shetach. Wherever there were 
 synagogues there were classes, and for all practical 
 purposes these classes may be regarded as con- 
 stituting religious schools. The tides of perse- 
 cution and the long-continued political opposition 
 
214 EVOLUTION OF S U N D A Y- S C H O O L 
 
 and oppression did not prevent the Hebrews from 
 worshiping or from reading and studying their 
 sacred Hterature. In every orthodox family 
 through the long history of Judaism the children 
 were instructed in the traditions of their race. 
 Whenever the evening lamp was lit, whenever 
 there was a feast day or a fast day, even in the 
 act of entering and leaving the home, education 
 in the facts of their faith was given. The mass of 
 traditional literature grew and the zeal for the law 
 grew with it and helped to keep bright the light 
 of religious learning. The orthodox Jewish schools 
 of modern times differ from those of the time of 
 Christ only in the direction of elaboration of 
 curricula and greater formalism in work. 
 
 The reformed wing of Judaism early adopted 
 modern methods. In 1868 they organized the 
 Reformed Hebrew Sabbath School Union of 
 Judaism America. Since then special hymn- 
 books and services have been prepared, text- 
 books have been written, and all the organization 
 of a modern system of Sunday-schools has been 
 accomplished. Under the leadership of rabbis 
 like Philippson, Silverman, Wise, Gries, and Gross- 
 man a high degree of educational efficiency has 
 been reached. Their schools were amongst the 
 first to conceive the values of exhibits of objects 
 of interest in Jewish history. They were also 
 amongst the first to organize special committees 
 
LINES OF PROGRESS 215 
 
 on education in their congregations and to demand 
 of their pupils strict adherence to courses of study 
 and to standards of attainment. 
 
 In the United States the Sunday-school idea 
 has seen its most striking realization and, doubt- 
 
 The Sunday- ^^^^' ^^^ ^^^^ manifestations of its pur- 
 School pose and possibilities. This develop- 
 
 ^°^ ment is due in large measure to the ad- 
 
 vantages of freedom in religious belief and to the 
 restrictions imposed on public education by its 
 complete separation from the church. The result- 
 ant limitation of the opportunity of the public 
 school has thrown a much larger responsibility on 
 the Sunday-school. In fact, the development of 
 the latter has always been most marked wherever 
 there has been the greatest insistence on the 
 freedom of the public schools from doctrinal or 
 biblical instruction. 
 
 In 1907 there were in Protestant Sunday-schools 
 in the United Kingdom about seven and a half 
 Great million pupils and nearly seven hundred 
 
 Britain thousand teachers. The work of all was 
 
 united in that of the Sunday-school Union, with 
 offices in London. The special features of the 
 English Sunday schools at this time were: (1) 
 Newly awakened interest in the training of teach- 
 ers. The most important work is that done 
 through special institutions, as, for instance, the 
 college and university extension lecture courses 
 
216 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 (particularly at Manchester and Liverpool), the 
 training institute for Sunday-school workers at 
 Selby Oak near Birmingham, and the publication 
 of a special series of text-books for the use of 
 teachers. (2) The development of special related 
 organizations, such as Temperance Unions, Church 
 Lads' Brigade, Boy Scouts, and Girls' Friendly 
 Societies. (3) The special development of adult 
 schools for men and women, organized by the 
 Friends. In April, 1907, there were thirteen hun- 
 dred and seventy eight of these schools, with a 
 total membership of nearly one hundred thousand. 
 The schools usually met early on Sundays, had 
 Bible instruction, were self-governing, and fre- 
 quently conducted many forms of social work, 
 especially along cooperative lines. (4) The ex- 
 tensive work of the Sunday-school Union in 
 publishing general literature, conducting Rest 
 Homes, and in promoting teacher-training. 
 
 While the Sunday-school has developed in 
 Great Britain in a manner parallel in part to that 
 
 in the United States, there have been 
 Differences £ ^ -i - ra t* 
 
 between a number oi strikmg dmerences. lo a 
 
 Schools'in certain extent the need for religious 
 Great instruction has not been so keenly felt, 
 
 and the since, until about 1890, practically 
 United j^jj schools gave religious instruction, 
 setting aside certain periods for teaching 
 the Bible and also, usually, for teaching the cate- 
 
LINES OP PROGRESS 217 
 
 chism of the English Established Church. As late 
 as 1898 the London School Board set up a scheme 
 of Bible study for periods of one half hour of each 
 
 day. 
 
 The church schools in Great Britain have been 
 schools for children almost exclusively. Never- 
 theless, some of the largest schools in the world 
 are there, as that at Stockport (founded in the 
 lifetime of Raikes), with nearly five thousand 
 members enrolled. For many decades the British 
 schools have held two sessions, morning and after- 
 noon of each Sunday. The morning school con- 
 vened before church service, and the older pupils, 
 attended by their teachers, would usually be taken 
 to the service in classes. The Sunday-schools of 
 the Episcopal church have usually remained sep- 
 arate from all others, with their own courses of 
 study; in 1902 their schools had over two hundred 
 thousand teachers and half that number of district 
 visitors. In Scotland the teaching in the schools 
 has been much more largely catechetical than in 
 England. 
 
 In France no religious instruction is given in 
 the public schools, but in 1882 a law was passed 
 making the teaching of morals compul- 
 sory. All public-school pupils for many 
 years had the right to be absent one half day in 
 the week for religious instruction in their churches. 
 Until 1907 there were a large number of schools on 
 
£18 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 religious foundations which gave formal instruc- 
 tion in the Catholic doctrines. In 1856 Mr. 
 Albert Woodruff, of Brooklyn, founder of the 
 American Foreign Sunday-school Society, visited 
 Paris and persuaded the English-speaking resi- 
 dents to establish Sunday-schools. In 1878 the 
 London Sunday-School Union had eighty-eight 
 schools in that city. In 1893 it was estimated 
 that about sixty thousand children were enrolled 
 in Sunday-schools. 
 
 Luther insisted on the need for religious teach- 
 ing in the schools. In 1533 the Wittenberg 
 
 school provided, "One day, Wednes- 
 Germany . rx . i • i? t • 
 
 day or Saturday, is for religious in- 
 struction." Ever since then the schools of Ger- 
 many have had regular religious instruction in 
 both elementary and secondary schools. The De- 
 partment of Education spends a large amount of 
 money to support the " Religionsunterricht " ; 
 but there is a grave question as to its actual value 
 to the religious life of the German people. Mr. 
 Albert Woodruff in Germany, as in Paris, intro- 
 duced the American type of Sunday-school in 
 1856. Since then the number has grown steadily. 
 In 1874 there were over a thousand schools, and 
 in 1902 an enrolment of over eight hundred and 
 fifty thousand students in Sunday-schools. 
 
 Norway deserves to stand out by itself, not 
 because there are so many schools, but because 
 
LINES OF PROGRESS 219 
 
 there is a live interest in that country in the 
 improvement of religious education. They have 
 ^ ^ special societies for the development 
 of the Sunday-school and at least one 
 magazine devoted to its advance. 
 
 In other parts of Europe the schools have been 
 developed either by the efforts of the London 
 In Other Sunday-SchooI Union, of the American 
 Lands Foreign Sunday-School Society, or by 
 
 the direct work of missionaries on their fields. 
 On the whole the schools have followed the lines 
 laid down by conditions in the countries which 
 have been promoting them. The same is true 
 of the school in non-Christian lands, though the 
 interest manifest in special conventions and later 
 in institutes has been highly encouraging. Japan 
 has a Sunday-school Association with paid secre- 
 taries. In 1910 they had one thousand one hun- 
 dred and fifty-nine schools with eighty-seven 
 thousand pupils and teachers. Thus the Sunday- 
 school has encircled the world and is one of the 
 mighty modern forces binding all nations together 
 in united study, faith, and service. 
 
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 How far back may we trace the spiritual roots of the 
 Sunday-school? 
 
 What is the essential spirit which makes this school 
 necessary? 
 
 What would you call the distinguishing characteristic 
 in all education which appears at its best in the Sunday- 
 school? 
 
 What are the traces of religious educational interests 
 amongst primitive peoples? 
 
 Who were the earliest religious teachers? 
 
 What memorials have we of religious education in 
 Egypt? 
 
 What place did the great ethical code of China have 
 in the Chinese educational system? 
 
 Mention some of the great teachers of early Greece. 
 
 What were some of the religious elements in Roman 
 education? 
 
 What was the most important institution in the early 
 education of the Hebrew youth? 
 
 Why were separate religious schools unnecessary 
 amongst the Hebrews? 
 
 What is the importance of the Synagogue in later 
 Hebrew educational activity? 
 
 220 
 
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 221 
 
 In what way was the Synagogue service like a Sun- 
 day-school? 
 
 What were three kinds of religious schools in exist- 
 ence at the time of Jesus? 
 
 What was the curriculum of these schools? 
 
 Describe the conditions of study. 
 
 In what sense may Christianity be considered as a 
 teaching religion? 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Mention some characteristic of early Christian meet- 
 ings. 
 
 In what way did early Christianity provide for 
 religious instruction? 
 
 Would the early Christians cease to give instruction 
 in Old Testament customs and history? 
 
 Mention some of the evidences of Gentile interest 
 in early religious education. ' 
 
 Give some characteristics of the discourses in early 
 Christianity. 
 
 What was the relation of the Synagogue school to 
 the new faith? 
 
 What was the earliest regular school for Christian 
 teaching? 
 
 Tell what you can of general conditions in Alex- 
 andria. 
 
 Describe the Alexandrian school. 
 
 What was the purpose of the catechetical schools? 
 
 What were the general grades in these schools? 
 
222 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Did the early Christian schools have any influence 
 on general education? 
 
 Was the early theological seminary at Alexandria 
 practically related to the schools for children? 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Who was the monk called to organize the educational 
 system of Charlemagne? 
 
 From what activities in religious education did he 
 come? 
 
 What were the special causes leading to the develop- 
 ment of the early universities? 
 
 In the medieval period were the people wholly 
 ignorant of religion? 
 
 What service did the wandering scholars render? 
 
 What service did the wandering friars render? 
 
 In what way were the monasteries schools of religious 
 education? 
 
 Describe the work of the Brethren of the common 
 life. 
 
 What was Luther's first contribution to the literature 
 of religious education? 
 
 What did he seek to do for public education? 
 
 What do we know about Carlo Borromeo and his 
 work? 
 
 Describe the bands organized by Zinzendorf. 
 
 Describe conditions in the Netherlands at this 
 time. 
 
 What did the Jesuit schools attempt? 
 
 Tell wh3,t we know of the work of Hannah Ball. 
 
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 223 
 
 In what way were the great English public schools 
 religious? 
 
 What contribution did Raikes make to public edu- 
 cation in England? 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Give the date and place of the birth of Robert Raikes. 
 
 What were his circumstances and occupation? 
 
 With what class of persons did he first labor? 
 
 What did his schools seek to accomplish? 
 
 Were they the first religious Sunday-schools? 
 
 What are their differences as compared with our 
 Sunday-schools ? 
 
 In what sense is Raikes the father of the Sunday- 
 school? 
 
 What was the great underlying motive of Raikes? 
 
 What special contribution did he make to education? 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 What was the purpose of early general education in 
 New England? 
 
 What was the public education element of religious 
 instruction? 
 
 Were separate Sunday-schools necessary in early 
 New England? 
 
 How did special instruction for children on Sundays 
 begin ? 
 
 Mention some of the earliest instances. 
 
224 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Was the Raikes plan precisely suited to conditions 
 in North America? 
 
 Describe the organization of the First Day or Sun- 
 day-school Society. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 With what organization did the Sunday-school come 
 into closer relations in North America? 
 
 What was the attitude of the church to the school 
 in Great Britain? 
 
 What did Wesley think of the early Sunday-schools? 
 
 Give some of the instances of church oversight of 
 schools in the eighteenth century. 
 
 Wliat is the distinctive American idea of the Sunday- 
 school? 
 
 In what way have American Sunday-schools devel- 
 oped differently from the English? 
 
 What are some of the results of the adoption of the 
 school by the church? 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 When was the British Sunday-School Union or- 
 ganized? 
 
 What are some of its activities? 
 
 When was the American Sunday-School Union 
 organized? 
 
 What were the component elements? 
 
 What were its early activities? 
 
 Show the importance of the Mississippi Valley 
 enterprise. 
 
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 225 
 
 In what way did the denominations relate themselves 
 institutionally to the Sunday-school? 
 
 Describe the work of the Methodist church in pro- 
 moting the Sunday-school. 
 
 Describe the work of the Congregational churches. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 What was the earlier form of organization of the 
 International Sunday-School Association? 
 
 Mention some of the special activities of the organ- 
 ization. 
 
 What were the characteristics of conventions before 
 1869? 
 
 What was the special action of importance taken in 
 the Fifth Convention? 
 
 What of importance in the First International Con- 
 vention? 
 
 What new activities developed in the Fifth Inter- 
 national Convention? 
 
 Mention the principal employed officers of the 
 Association. 
 
 What is the work of some of the subsidiary organiza- 
 tions? 
 
 What service has the Association rendered? 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 What were the subjects of study in the early Raikes 
 schools? 
 
226 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 When were regular Bible stories and work first 
 
 introduced? 
 
 What was the beginning of connected lessons? 
 
 Who were the leaders in lesson improvement after 
 the "Babel" period? 
 
 Give the steps of early progress in lesson develop- 
 ment. 
 
 What was the special reason for uniform les- 
 sons? 
 
 When was the first lesson committee appointed? 
 
 What contribution have the uniform lessons 
 
 made? 
 
 Mention some of the defects of this system. 
 
 What were some early departures from the uniform 
 
 plan? 
 
 How were the early departures received? 
 
 What was the purpose of supplemental lessons? 
 
 Mention other extra lesson schemes. 
 
 What were the earliest graded lessons adopted by 
 the International Sunday-School Association? 
 
 What was the critical period of lesson development 
 in the American Sunday-school? 
 
 Describe the action taken at the Louisville Conven- 
 tion in 1908. 
 
 What is the scope of the present series of graded 
 
 lessons? 
 
 Who are some of the persons who led in the adoption 
 of graded lessons? 
 
 Mention some of the notable series of graded les- 
 sons. 
 
 What was the plan of the Bible Study Union? 
 
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 227 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Describe the change in the principal aim of the 
 Sunday-school during the last fifty years. 
 
 Show how the developing aim can be traced in the 
 literature of the school. i ' 
 
 What effect has the change in aim had upon the 
 form of organization? 
 
 What results have followed from the special develop- 
 ment of the primary department and from the organiza- 
 tion of primary unions.'^ 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 What is the period of greatest progress in the Sun- 
 day-school? 
 
 Has the Sunday-school any important relation to 
 world thought? 
 
 In what way has scientific thought influenced the 
 Sunday-school? 
 
 What relation does the new psychology hold to the 
 modern school? 
 
 In what new place do we set the child in the modern 
 school? 
 
 What new meanings are we finding in religious 
 education? 
 
 What ^special new needs does the modern school 
 seek to meet? 
 
 Mention some of the characteristics of the recent 
 literature created for the modern school. 
 
 What service is educational science rendering? 
 
228 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Describe some of the developments in special archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 Tell of the work of directors of religious education. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Tell of some of the forerunners of modern teacher- 
 training. 
 
 Who was the organizer of the earliest normal classes? 
 
 Describe the first institutes for teachers. 
 
 What contribution did Chautauqua make to teacher- 
 training? 
 
 Tell of the beginnings of organized teacher-training. 
 
 What part did the primary union play in the develop- 
 ment of teacher-training work? 
 
 What is the Department of Education in the Inter- 
 national Sunday-School Association? 
 
 What were some of the standards adopted in 1908? 
 
 How do the denominations cooperate in teacher- 
 training? 
 
 What contribution have theological seminaries made 
 in this direction? 
 
 How has teacher- training developed in Great Britain? 
 
 What contribution have the universities and colleges 
 made? 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Mention some of the earlier great adult classes. 
 When were special organizations of adult classes 
 formed? 
 
 What is the Baraca? 
 
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 229 
 
 What relation do the Brotherhoods hold to adult 
 classes? 
 
 What work do the Brotherhoods attempt? 
 
 What special benefits come from adult classes? 
 
 What is the significance of this movement in the life 
 of the church? - 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 What was the condition as to popular Bible study 
 a century ago? 
 
 Give some of the results of the activity of the Sun- 
 day-school in Bible study. 
 
 Show the contribution by way of text-books. 
 
 Has the Sunday-school influenced popular literature 
 on the Bible? 
 
 What is the relation of teacher- training to general 
 biblical study? 
 
 What changing conceptions have come about as to 
 the Bible? 
 
 What of the relation of the Sunday-school to Bible 
 study in the present day? 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 When were the first popular libraries started? 
 
 What did Raikes do for popular reading primers? 
 
 Describe some of the early Sunday-school books. 
 
 When was the first Sunday-school library estab- 
 lished? 
 
 What service did the Sunday School Union render 
 to libraries? 
 
230 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Describe the system of tracts. 
 
 What has the Sunday-school library done for public 
 libraries? 
 
 What is the modern system of a library for a Sunday- 
 school? 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 When was the Religious Education Association 
 organized? 
 
 What were the reasons for this organization? 
 
 What are some of the departments of its work? 
 
 What relation does it sustain to Sunday-school 
 organizations? 
 
 How does it carry on its w^ork? 
 
 What are some of its important publications? 
 
 What contribution has it made to Sunday-school 
 progress? 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Tell of recent developments in Roman Catholic 
 Sunday-schools. 
 
 How do the Hebrews care for the religious instruc- 
 tion of their young today? 
 
 What is the present condition of Sunday-schools in 
 Great Britain? 
 
 When did work begin in France? 
 
 Describe the conditions in Germany. 
 
SOME HELPFUL BOOKS FOR 
 FURTHER STUDY 
 
 THE GENESIS OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 I. Primitive People and Early Civilization 
 Burnouf , Emile. The Science of Religions. 
 Brinton. Religions of Primitive Peoples. 
 Crozier. History of Intellectual Development. 
 Graves. A History of Education: Before the Middle 
 
 Ages. Part I. 
 
 Deniker. Races of Men. 
 Freeman. The Schools of Hellas, 
 
 II. Among the Hebrews 
 
 Laurie. Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Article, Education, in Hastings' Dictionary of the 
 
 Bible. 
 
 Kent. Great Teachers of Judaism and Christianity. 
 
 Trumbull. Yale Lectures on The Sunday School. 
 
 Graves. A History of Education: Before the Middle 
 Ages. Part II. 
 
 Article, Education , in the Jewish Encyclopedia. 
 
 Solomon Ibn Gebirol. Improvement of the Moral 
 Qualities. Translated by S. S. Wise. 
 
 Lazarus. Ethics of Judaism. 
 
 231 
 
232 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 III. New Testament Times 
 
 Article, EducatioUy in Hastings' Dictionary of the 
 
 Bible. 
 
 Schiirer. History of Jewish People in Time of Jesus 
 
 Christ. 
 
 Edersheim. Life and Times of Jesus. 
 
 Mathews. History of New Testament Times in 
 Palestine. 
 
 Trumbull. Yale Lectures on The Sunday School. 
 
 Early Christian Church 
 
 Hodgson. Primitive Christian Education. 
 Quick. Educational Reformers. 
 Trumbull. Yale Lectures on the Sunday School. 
 Draper. Intellectual Development of Europe. 
 Dill. Roman Society in Last Century of Empire. 
 Book V. 
 
 Lights in the Gloom (Medieval) 
 
 Emerton. Medieval Europe, particularly pp. 437 ff. 
 
 Painter. History of Education, particularly pp. 116 ff. 
 
 Compayre. History of Pedagogy. 
 
 Graves. A History of Education. Vol. II. The 
 Mediaeval Period. 
 
 Guizot. Course 11. Lectures 14, 15. 
 
 Laurie. Rise and Early Institution of the Universi- 
 ties. 
 
 Magevney. Christian Education in the Dark Ages, 
 
 D'Aubigny. History of the Reformation. 
 
 (Students desiring to make a thorough investigation 
 should secure Professor James W. Thompson, Reference 
 
GENESIS OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 233 
 
 Studies in Mediceval History^ a very full bibliography 
 on this period — University of Chicago Press, 35 c.) 
 
 Robert Raikes 
 
 Harris. Story of Robert Raikes. 
 
 Reed. Evolution of the Sunday School (pamphlet). 
 
 Merrill, in Development of the Sunday School^ Official 
 Report of the Eleventh International Sunday School 
 Convention. 
 
 Early Schools in North America 
 
 Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. 
 Sunday Schools. 
 
 Brown. Sunday-School Movements in America. 
 
 Development of the Sunday School. International 
 Sunday School Association. 
 
 Annual Reports of Methodist Episcopal Sunday- 
 School Union, 1851. 
 
 Pamphlets of the American Sunday-School Union. 
 
 Michael. Sunday-Schools of the American Church. 
 
 Development through Organizations 
 
 Reports of the International Sunday-School Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 McCullagh. Sunday-School Man in the South. 
 
 Vincent. Modern Sunday School. 
 
 Myer. Graded Sunday School in Principle and 
 Practice. 
 
 The Period of Intensive Development 
 Proceedings of The Religious Education Association, 
 
234 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 5 Vols., particularly Annual Surveys of Sunday-School 
 Progress. 
 
 Coe. Education in Religion and Morals. 
 
 Vincent. Modern Sunday School. 
 
 Lawrence. How to Conduct Sunday School. 
 
 Cope. Modern Sunday School in Principle and 
 Practice. 
 
 Mead. Modern Methods in the Sunday School. 
 
 Reports of Conventions of International Sunday 
 School Association. 
 
 Religious Education (magazine), Vol. IV, pp. 228, 
 442; Vol. v., pp. 251 jff., 487 ff. 
 
 Lesson Systems 
 
 Gilbert. The Lesson System. 
 
 Rice. History of International Lesson System. 
 (American Sunday-School Union.) 
 
 Proceedings of The Religious Education Associa- 
 tion, 5 Vols.; particularly Vol. I, pp. 200 ff.; Vol. II, 
 pp. 221 ff., pp. 243 ff.; Vol. IV, pp. 115 ff. 
 
 Religious Education (magazine). Vol. II, pp. 170 f., 
 235; Vol. Ill, p. 306; Vol. IV, pp. 431 f., 437; Vol. V, 
 pp. 267, 487. 
 
 The Teacher 
 
 Brown. Sunday-School Movements in America, 
 Haslett. Pedagogical Bible School 
 Meyer. Graded Sunday- School. 
 
 International Sunday-School Association 
 Much valuable material in Development of The 
 
GENESIS OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 235 
 
 Sunday-School. Report of the Toronto Conven- 
 tion. 
 
 See also bibliography above, on The Lesson System. 
 
 School for Adults 
 
 Wood and Hall. Adult Bible Classes. 
 
 Cope. The Efficient Layman. 
 
 Pamphlets of the Illinois State Sunday-School Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Pamphlets of the Cook County Sunday-School 
 Association. 
 
 Pamphlets of the International Sunday-School Asso- 
 ciation, Adult Department. 
 
 Pamphlets of organized classes in churches. 
 
 Sunday-School and Bible Study 
 
 Brand In Aiins of Religious Education, p. 202 ff. 
 Willett. Proceedings first Convention, Religious Edu- 
 cation Association^ p. 93. 
 
 F. T. Lee. Bible Study Popularized. 
 Selleck. New Application of the Bible. 
 
 Parallel Lines of Progress 
 
 Sloan. The Sunday School Teacher's Guide to Success 
 (Roman Catholic). 
 
 Sloan. The Sunday School Director's Guide. 
 Roberts. The Church and the Next Generation. 
 Sheldon. An Ethical Sunday School. 
 The Jewish Encyclopedia^ 
 
236 EVOLUTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
 
 Causes and Factors in Recent Development 
 
 Starbuck. Psychology of Religion. 
 
 Coe. Education in Religion and Morals. 
 
 Butler et al. Principles of Religious Education. 
 
 Publications of The Religious Education Association. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adult lessons, 118 
 
 Adults, school for, 174 
 
 Alcuin of York, 29 
 
 Alexandria, church and schools 
 in, 22 
 
 American idea, 75 
 
 American Sunday School Union, 
 82 
 
 American Sunday School Union 
 libraries, 197 
 
 Architecture of the Sunday- 
 school, 148 
 
 Assyria, religious education in, 5 
 
 B 
 
 Ball, Miss Hannah, 43 
 
 Baptist schools, 89 
 
 Baraca organization, 176 
 
 Beginners' lessons, 117 
 
 Beginning of Sunday-school his- 
 tory, 4 
 
 Bellarmine of Capua, 38 
 
 Bible, new view of, 191 
 
 Bible study and the Sunday- 
 school, 182 
 
 Bible-study institutes, 189 
 
 Bible-study text-books, 185 
 
 Bible Study Union, 126 
 
 Borromeo, Carlo, 38 
 
 British Sunday School Union, 
 
 81 
 Brotherhoods, 176 
 
 Catechetical schools, 23 
 Charlestown, S. C, conference, 
 
 73 
 Chautauqua's contribution, 159 
 Child fundamental to the 
 
 school, 141 
 China, religious education in, 
 
 5 
 Christian, early, church, 14 
 Christianity and education, 28 
 Christianity, early schools in, 21 
 Church adopting the school, 68 
 Church as a school, 24, 129 
 Church, early meetings for in- 
 struction, 18 
 Church school, 124 
 Common Life, Brethren of the, 
 
 34 
 Congregational schools, 88 
 Constructive Bible Studies, 125 
 Conventions, early, 93 
 Curriculum, problem of the, 102 
 
 D 
 
 Directors of religious education, 
 149 
 
 237 
 
238 
 
 INDEX 
 
 E 
 
 Early schools in the United 
 
 States, 74 
 
 Education, department of, in 
 
 International Association, 162 
 
 Educational aim of Raikes, 54 
 
 Educational science and the 
 
 school, 146 
 Eggleston, Edward, 95, 103 
 Egypt, religious education in, 5 
 England, early education in, 30 
 English and American schools, 
 
 76 
 English public schools, 35 
 English schools, 215 
 English schools, modern, 76 
 Episcopal joint diocesan com- 
 mission, 111 
 Erasmus, 35 
 
 F 
 
 Field workers' organization, 98 
 "First-Day or Sunday School 
 
 Society," 65 
 France, schools in, 217 
 Francke, Hermann, 41 
 Friends' lesson courses, 113 
 
 G 
 
 Gall, Dr. James, 102 
 
 Genesis of the Sunday-school, 3 
 
 Germany, Protestant schools of, 
 
 42 
 Germany, schools in, 218 
 Graded lessons, 120 
 Graded schools, early, 23 
 Greece, religious education jn, 6 
 Groot, Gerard, 34 
 
 H 
 
 Hebrew schools, modem, 213 
 Hebrews, early religious educa- 
 tion among, 7 
 Home department organization, 
 97 
 
 I 
 
 India, religious education in, 5 
 International Sunday School 
 Association, 91 
 
 Jacobs, B. F., 95, 103, 104 
 Jesuit schools, 40 
 Jesus as a teacher, 11 
 Jewish Christian homes, 16 
 Jewish school described, 10 
 Jews, religious education among, 
 
 8 
 John of Nassau, 39 
 Josephus, quoted, 9 
 
 K 
 
 Kindermaun, 43 
 
 Lesson committee, 106 
 Lesson system, story of, 101 
 Library, early Sunday-school, 
 
 195 
 Libraries and the Sunday-school, 
 
 193 
 Literature of the Sunday-school, 
 
 131, 145 
 Luther, 36 
 Lutheran schools, 88 
 
INDEX 
 
 239 
 
 M 
 McElfresh, F. W., report on 
 
 teacher training, 172 
 Medieval period, 29 
 Medieval saints, 32 
 Men and the Sunday-school, 178 
 Methodist Episcopal schools, 87 
 Missionary lessons, 116 
 Mississippi Valley campaign, 84 
 Modern progress, 136 
 Monasteries, 33 
 Motive of the Sunday-school, 
 
 3, 12, 53, 56 
 
 N 
 New England, beginnings in, 61 
 North America, early schools in, 
 
 o 
 
 Oberlin, John Frederic, 43 
 Opposition to the school, 69 
 Organizations for promotion, 80 
 
 Parish schools, 35 
 
 Periodicals, 199 
 
 Philadelphia "First-Day Soci- 
 ety," 65 
 
 Plymouth, Mass., Sunday- 
 school, 62 
 
 Popular education in Judea, 8 
 
 Presbyterian schools, 89 
 
 Primary unions, 133 
 
 Progress in recent times, 212 
 
 Psychology and the Sunday- 
 school, 139 
 
 Public education in England, 
 45,55 
 
 Public education in the United 
 States, 64 
 
 Quintilian, 17 
 
 Q 
 
 R 
 
 Raikes, Robert, 47 
 
 Raikes' schools, characteristics 
 
 of, 49 
 Raikes, service rendered by, 50 
 Religious Education Associa- 
 tion, history of, 201 
 Religious Education Associa- 
 tion, work of, 207 
 Religious education in Chris- 
 tianity, 15 
 Religious education in medie- 
 val periods, 29 
 Religious education in North 
 
 America, 59 
 Religious education, modern 
 
 meanings in, 143 
 Religious education, primitive, 4 
 Religious motive of the school, 4 
 Roman Catholic schools, 212 
 Rome, religious education in, 7 
 Roxbury, Mass., Sunday-school, 
 
 62 
 
 S 
 
 Scientific thought and the 
 school, 138 
 
 Significance of the Sunday- 
 school, 3 
 
 "Society for Promoting Sun- 
 day Schools," 48 
 
 Supplemental lessons, 114 
 
 Synagogue schools, 20 
 
240 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Teacher, evolution of the, 154 
 Teacher training, 156, 161 
 Teacher training in colleges, 169 
 Teacher training institute, 157 
 Teacher training standards, 103, 
 
 165 
 Temperance lessons, 115 
 Theological seminary and early 
 
 Sunday-school, 26, 166 
 Trumbull, H. C, 95, 106 
 
 U 
 
 Uniform lessons adopted, 96 
 Uniform lessons, difficulties of, 
 
 108 
 Uniform lessons, service of, 107 
 Unitarian lessons. 111 
 
 Unitarian schools, 88 
 Universities, rise of the, 31 
 
 Vincent, John H., 95, 103, 104 
 
 w 
 
 Wandering friars, 33 
 Wandering scholars, 32 
 Wesley, John, quoted, 48, 71 
 
 Xavier, Francis, 37 
 
 Zinzendorf, 39 
 Zwingli, 39 
 
Date Due 
 
 Q '^.V 
 
 F 22'38 
 
 9 -. 
 
 Wv 1 e '38 
 
 ^12 5S 
 
 MOfi/ 
 
 # T 
 
 ^^-•41 
 
 l»«6 
 
 '4B 
 
 F »5 '48 
 
 6 .18 'li .p9 7-49 
 
 4^-1 
 
 H '421'' ^2 '48 
 
 H 
 
 v.:^ 
 
 V t '46 
 
 -IT'^ 
 
 OE 3 '4(1 
 
 -f^. 
 
 « ;< •">. '•> f