History of the Sunday school movement in the Methodist Episcopal church

Front matter

History of the Sunday School

Movement in the Methodist

Episcopal Church

CHAPTER I English Antecedents of the American Methodist Sunday School Movement page

§ i. Early Methodism and Its Relation to Religious Education n

a. Its program, indicating the early soil of the Sunday School.

(i) Educational.

(2) Evangelistic.

(3) Social.

b. Methodism's preparation.

(1) Educational emphasis and institutions.

(2) Organization of children's classes by pastors.

(a) Legislation.

1748. 1766.

(b) Wesley's experience in children's classes.

(3) Sunday gatherings for religious instruction prior to 1780.

(a) In the Wesley family.

(b) In Wycombe by Hannah Ball.

§ 2. Methodism and the Raikes Movement 16

a. Methodism's relation to the founding of the Sunday School.

b. John Wesley's attitude and work.

c. Other leaders of the movement.

§ 3. Sunday School Plans and Later Legislation in England that May Have

Served as Models for American Methodism 24

a. Sunday School developments, 1798-1805.

b. Conversations between Wesley and the preachers, 1797.

1827, 1828.

d. Summary of legislation and work.

§ 4. Further Early Contributions of Methodism to the Sunday School

Movement 35

a. Origin of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 6. Adult Sunday School Work. c. Sunday Schools in Asia.

CHAPTER II Early Beginnings in America and the Evident Influence of English

Wesleyanism, i 784-1 827

§ 1. Methodism in America and Early Religious Instruction 42

a. Church organization.

b. Instruction of children.

(1) Legislation.

(2) Early instruction.

PAGE

§ 2. The Early Sunday School Movement 46

§ 3. Official Recognition of Sunday Schools and Their Organization 50

§ 4. The Book Concern and Sunday Schools 55

§ 5. Examples of Sunday School Work 55

§ 6. Relation of the Methodist Sunday Schools to Sunday School Unions.. . 57

§ 7. Religious Education on the Frontier and Among the Indians 58

Chapter III

The Methodist Sunday School Union and Sunday School Advance,

1827-1840

§ 1. Organization of the Methodist Sunday School Union 61

a. Organization. 6. Object.

c. Reception and immediate success.

d. Criticisms.

§ 2. Early Sunday Schools of the Union 65

§ 3. Problems of the Schools 66

§ 4. Early Work of the Sunday School Union Board 67

a. Periodicals.

b. Resolutions.

c. Helps to teachers.

d. A Sunday School pastor.

§ 5. Annual Reports of the Union 69

a. First Report and General Conference Legislation.

b. Second Report. ».

c. Third Report.

§ 6. Indication of Intensity of Interest 72

a. In Sunday School work.

b. In abnormal religious experiences.

c. In the educational feature.

d. In General Conference legislation.

§ 7. Later Legislation and the Decline of the Sunday School Union 74

o. Merging of benevolences.

b. The publishing fund.

c. Changes in Sunday School legislation following the merging.

CHAPTER IV The Period of Organizational Progress, 1840-1908

§ I. A Quadrennium of Re-beginnings, 1840-1844 78

a. Reorganization.

b. New legislation.

c. Publications.

d. The Board's doing first-hand work.

PAGE

§ 2. The Years of Calamities and Unprecedented Progress, 1 844-1 868 82

a. The forward plans of the Board.

(1) Election of "Editor of Sunday School Books and Tracts."

(2) New financial resources.

(3) Rallying the whole church.

b. Statistics showing the progress, 1844-1868, and additional legisla-

tion.

c. The calamities of the period and their relation to the Sunday

School work.

(1) European War (1848) and immigration to America.

(2) Cholera epidemic (1850).

(3) Civil War.

(a) Withdrawal of the Methodist Church, South.

(b) Disorganization of the work during the war.

§ 3. Two Decades of New Methods, 1868-1888 99

a. Creation of the "Department of Sunday School Instruction."

b. New Methods in general Sunday School work.

c. Statistics of the Sunday School Centenary (1880).

§ 4. Two Decades of the Emphasis of the Normal Sunday School and the

Agitation of Religious Education, 1888-1908 102

a. The semicentenary of the reorganization of the Methodist Sunday School Union, 1890.

6. The quadrennium report, 1888- 1892.

(1) Statistics.

(2) Organization of the Ep worth League.

(3) The Rindge Fund.

c. The closing years of the period and the decline of the work.

d. The reorganization as the "Board of Sunday Schools."

CHAPTER V Principles and Methods of Sunday School Instruction, 1840-1908

§ 1. The Child and Its Religious Experience 106

a. Disciplinary statement.

b. Emphasis upon learning the catechism.

c. Religious experience of the child as central and the Bible as the

textbook. § 2. Means and Instrumentalities in the Sunday School Work 1 12

a. Books.

b. Parents.

c. Pastors.

d. Teachers.

§ 3. The Training of the Teacher 119

a. Appeal and early plans for teacher training (1827- ).

b. The "Normal Sunday School."

c. The "Institute."

d. The "Normal College."

PAGE

e. The Chautauqua Movement. /. Lyceum courses. § 4. Courses of Study for the Pupils 129

a. Question books, catechisms, etc.

b. Lesson leaves.

c. Lesson books and graded courses.

d. Uniform lessons.

e. Supplemental lessons.

§ 5. Specific Methods of Instruction and the Organization of the Sunday

School 143

a. Resolutions and articles setting forth problems in method.

b. Specific methods recommended.

(1) Syllable repetitions and formal rules.

(2) Use of blackboard.

(3) Use of illustrative objects — museums.

(4) Singing and hymn books.

c. Characterizations of the period.

§ 6. Sunday School Libraries 1 53

§ 7. Sessions of the Sunday School 157

§ 8. Children's Meetings 159

§ 9. Prophecies of the Modern Emphasis in the Sunday School 160

a. Sunday School missionaries.

b. Vocational guidance and social service.

c. Recreation.

d. The children's church.

e. The legitimate field of the Sunday School.

(1) Relative to rich and poor.

(2) Relative to age.

(3) The Sunday School for all the congregation.

§ 10. The Extensive Work of the Sunday School 163

a. In America.

(1) In organization, and frontier work.

(2) Among non- Americans in America.

b. In foreign fields.

§ II. The Climax of the Period in the New Emphasis and the Graded Lesson Plan 171

o. The biological and pedagogical emphasis.

b. The period of fruitage.

(1) Its character.

(2) Its agencies.

(a) International Primary Union and Graded Lesson Conference.

(b) Religious Education Association.

(c) Sunday School Editorial Association.

c. Methodism and the Graded Lessons.

d. The organization of the Board of Sunday Schools.

CHAPTER VI The New Organization and Its Advance, 1908-1916 PAGE

§ 1. The Emphasis of the New Organization 176

a. The Adult Movement.

b. The centrality of the child.

§ 2. The Goal of the Movement 177

a. The statement.

b. The vital problems.

§ 3. The Extension and Promotion Work 179

a. Teacher-training courses and institutes.

b. Reports.

c. Extension plans.

d. Missionary education.

e. Special features in present plan.

(1) Leaflets of instruction.

(2) Divisions of Teen-Age.

(3) Cooperation of Board of Sunday Schools with other boards.

(4) Three experiments.

f. Standardization program.

§ 4. The Curriculum and Literature Plans . 185

a. The International Lesson Committee.

b. Departmental Uniform Lessons.

c. Revised Graded Lessons.

d. College Voluntary Study Courses.

e. Publications of the Board of Sunday Schools.

CHAPTER VII Summary of the Sunday School Movement in American Methodism

§ 1. The General View '. . . . 201

§ 2. Elements Entering into the Educational Program Historically Considered 203

a. Organization.

b. Equipment.

c. Method, including Curriculum.

d. The Teacher.

e. The Goal.

APPENDICES

I. Appendix — Statistics

§ 1. Table of Growth of the Sunday School 2 13

§ 2. Table of Sunday School Gifts to Missions 215

§ 3. Table of Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations 216

II. Appendix — Constitution of the Board of Sunday Schools Chap. IX — Board of Sunday Schools 216

Bibliography 223

Index 226

Chapter I English Antecedents Of The American

METHODIST SUNDAY SCHOOL

MOVEMENT

§ i. Early Methodism and Its Relation to Religious

Education

Methodism was born in a university atmosphere and among university men. How fitting and inevitable that the church of the Wesleys, organized by that choice company of Oxford (University) students, should be found always with an educational program! But the movement was a reaction against infidelity and formalism in behalf of faith and a personal, conscious relationship with God. How fitting and inevitable that Methodism should be found always with an evangelistic program! And, furthermore, that little group formulated a social program, a ministry to the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned. Could there have been a better combination of ideals as a soil in which to develop that beautiful, sturdy plant, the Sunday school, that had in the centuries sought many lands for its growth to perish always at last from a hostile climate ?

It was in 1738, a little less than fifty years before Robert Raikes began his Sunday school in Gloucester, England, that a prayer and Bible-study meeting became the Wesleyan Church of England. These fifty years — what busy years they were in the tilling of the soil in which to plant the new seed that was to be disseminated so widely through the Gloucester Journal, owned and edited by the time-honored Gloucester philanthropist, and through the Arminian Magazine, begun and edited by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism!

"Lady Huntingdon, the Wesleys, and their early associates were of the excellent of the land. They set for themselves the task of raising the English people to a footing in religion and intelligence like their own. It was not long, and could not be, before these men of the university should begin the work of education." * Soon there was Kingswood School that boasted later an Adam Clarke as its pupil ; then came the Leeds School, and the Newcastle Orphan House with its forty children under a master and mistress; and not of least moment the school of sixty in John Wesley's own house in London, where the poor came without pay and with clothing provided when necessary.2 In all these institutional efforts religion formed a prominent part of the education.

A second feature of the preparation for the Sunday school movement was the emphasis upon the duties of the pastor as a religious instructor. In the year 1748 the Conference passed the following :

Q. 9. Might not the children in every place be formed into a little Society?

A. Let the Preachers try by meeting them apart, and giving them suitable exhortations.3

In the Minutes, of 1766, the more detailed and definite instructions are given.

V

Family religion is shamefully wanting, and in almost every branch.

And the Methodists in general will be little better till we take quite another course with them. For what avails public preaching alone, though we could preach like angels ?

I heard Dr. Lupton say: "My father, visiting one of his parishioners, who had never missed going to church for forty years, then lying on his deathbed, asked him, 'Thomas, where do you think your soul will go?' 'Soul! Soul!' said Thomas. 'Yes; do you not know what your soul is?' 'Ay, surely,' said he; 'why, it is a little bone in the back, that lives longer than the rest of the body.' So much Thomas had learned by often hearing

'Hyde, A. B. : The Story of Methodism.

2For a comparison of Charity Schools, Schools of Industry and Sunday Schools, See (Economy of Charity, Mrs. Trimmer, 1801.

"Minutes of the Methodist Conferences, vol. i, 1744-1798, published by John Mason, London, p. 43, year 1748.

sermons, yea, and exceeding good sermons, for forty years." We must instruct them from house tc house; till this is done, and that in good earnest, the Methodists will be little better than other people.

Then there are subjoined quotations on visiting from house to house from Baxter's Gildas Salvianus or The Reformed Pastor, as it was later styled. Wesley follows in general his suggestions, but introduces the new features of instructing children.4

i. Every Preacher take an exact catalogue of those in Society, from one end of each town to the other. 2. Go to each house, and give, with suitable exhortation and direction, the "Instructions for Children." 3. Be sure to deal gently with them, and take off all discouragements as effectually as you can. See that the children get these by heart. Advise the grown persons to see that they understand them. And enlarge upon and apply every sentence as closely as you can. And let your dealing with those you begin with be so gentle, winning, and convincing, that the report of it may move others to desire your coming. True, it is far easier to preach a good sermon than to instruct the ignorant in the principles of religion. And, as much as this work is despised by some, I doubt not but it will try the parts and spirits of us all. So Archbishop Usher: "Great scholars may think it beneath them to spend their time in teaching the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. But they should consider, that the laying the foundation skillfully, as it is the matter of greatest importance in the whole building, so it is the very masterpiece of the wisest builder : 'According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation,' saith the great Apostle. And let the wisest of us all try, whenever we please, we shall find that to lay this groundwork rightly, to make an ignorant man understand the grounds of religion, will put us to the trial of all our skill."

Perhaps in doing this, it may be well,

1. After a few loving words spoken to all in the house, to take each person single into another room, where you may deal closely with them, about their sin, and misery, and duty.

*Note especially Chap. Ill, Sec. ii, Arts. 1-3, Fifth Edition, London. (Religious Tract Society, 1829.)

2. Hear what the children have learned by heart.

Questions from three to ten, inclusive, have to do with the catechising of the individuals in the home relative to sin, repentance and conversion, suggesting the questions and answers for the conversation.

ii. Before you leave them, engage the head of each family to call all his family every Sunday, before they go to bed, and hear what they can rehearse; and so continue till they have learned all the "Instructions" perfectly. And afterward take care that they do not forget what they have learned.

At the close of Wesley's exhortations, he concludes :

The sum is : Go into every house in course, and teach every one therein, young and old, if they belong to us, to be Christians, inwardly and outwardly.

Make every particular plain to their understanding. Fix it in their memory. Write it on their heart. In order to this, there must be line upon line, precept upon precept. I remember to have heard my father asking my mother, "How could you have the patience to tell that blockhead the same thing twenty times over?" She answered, "Why, if I had told him but nineteen times, I should have lost all my labor." What patience indeed, what love, what knowledge is requisite for this ! Q. In what method should we instruct them? A. Read, explain, enforce, i. The rules of the Society.

2. Instructions for Children.

3. The fourth volume of Sermons.

4. Philip Henry's Method of Family Prayer.

Over and above: Wherever there are ten children in a Society, spend at least an hour with them twice a week. And do this, not in a dull, dry, formal manner, but in earnest, with your might.

"But I have no gift for this." Gift or no gift, you are to do it, else you are not called to be a Methodist Preacher. Do it as you can, till you can do it as you would. Pray earnestly for the gift, and use the means for it; particularly study the children's Tracts.5

6Minutes of the Methodist Conferences, vol. i, 1744-1798, published by John Mason, London, pp. 63-69, year 1766.

The origin in Methodism of these classes dates back to Wesley's own experiences. In 1735, as a missionary in Georgia, Wesley taught the children of Savannah on Sunday. In order to encourage the children who were too poor to have shoes to come he went to the meetings barefoot himself. Later he visited Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut and learned of his more successful instruction of children and adults in classes not exceeding ten persons. These "classes" Zinzendorf had instituted after the revival among the children in 1727. Over each class a teacher was placed and the instruction was religious. This plan Wesley adopted for his new church.6

For nearly thirty years before the Gloucester Sunday School Movement Wesley had been in the habit of meeting the children in various places and giving them direct religious instruction. The following are extracts from his Journal :

Sunday, 11 [April, 1756]. — I met about a hundred children, who are catechized publicly twice a week. Thomas Walsh began this some months ago ; and the fruit of it appears already. What a pity that all our preachers in every place have not the zeal and wisdom to follow his example!

Sunday, 30 [August, 1758]. — I began meeting the children in the afternoon, though with little hopes of doing them good. But I had not spoke long on our natural state before many of them were in tears, and five or six so affected that they could not refrain from crying aloud to God. When I began to pray their cries increased, so that my voice was soon lost. I have seen no such work among children for eighteen or nineteen years.

Saturday, 30 [May, 1772]. — I met a company of the most lively children that I have seen for several years. One of them repeated her hymn with such propriety, that I did not observe one accent misplaced. Fair blossoms! And if they be duly attended, there may be good fruit !

Gatherings on Sunday for the purpose of religious instruction were even a more direct preparation of Methodism for the Sunday School of 1780.

The first illustration comes from the inner life of the Wesley

IS family of nineteen children. It would be difficult to estimate the influence of these early experiences upon the life and attitude of John Wesley when he faced the question of religious education in the churches he was organizing.

As their circumstances were narrow and confined, the education of their progeny fell particularly upon themselves; and especially on Mrs. Wesley, who seems to have possessed every qualification requisite for either a public or private teacher.7

During her husband's absence [1711-1712] Mrs. Wesley felt it her duty to pay more particular attention to her children, especially on the Lord's Day in the evening, as there was then no service in the afternoon at the Church. She read prayers to them, and also a sermon, and conversed with them on religious and devotional subjects. Some neighbors happening to come in during these exercises, being permitted to stay, were so pleased and profited as to desire permission to come again. This was granted; a good report of the meeting became general; many requested leave to attend; and the house was soon filled, more than two hundred at last attending ; and many were obliged to go away for want of room.8

Hannah Ball, of Wycombe, opened in 1769 a Sunday school for the training of children in the Scripture. In a letter to Wesley dated 1770 she gives the following description:

The children meet twice a week, every Sunday and Monday. They are a wild little company, but seem willing to be instructed. I labor among them, earnestly desiring to promote the interest of the Church of Christ.9

§ 2. Methodism and the Raikes Movement

These are not isolated but representative examples, and in only one denomination, of the many efforts during the half century prior to Robert Raikes's experiment. Well has it been said, "Raikes is the father of the Sunday school, not as its inventor, still less as its maker or perfector, but as its prophet." 10 For

7Clarke, Adam : Wesley Family (1823), p. 256, publishers J. & T. Clarke. 8Ibid., p. 328.

9Tyerman, L. : Life and Times of John Wesley (1872), vol. ii, p. 534. See Ball's Memoirs for the letter.

10Cope, H. F. : The Evolution of the Sunday School, pp. 50, 51.

three years Raikes did not make public his plan of education, the rather testing it, but November 3, 1783, he mentioned it in the Gloucester Journal, and later gave a full description of the undertaking.11

The incident that led to the beginning of the first Sunday-school under Robert Raikes relates itself to Methodist history. It was Sophia Cooke, later the wife of the "Demosthenes of Methodism," the Rev. Samuel Bradburn, one of Wesley's most noted preachers, who first suggested the idea of a Sunday school to Robert Raikes, assisted in its first organization, marched with him at the head of the scholars when they were taken to the parish church, "and was one of his most effective teachers." The Methodist Magazine of 1834 prints this obituary :

Recent Deaths

March 17th. At Islington, in the London North Circuit, Mrs. Sophia Bradburn, widow of the late Rev. Samuel Bradburn, aged seventy-five years.

She was a native of Gloucester; and in the eighteenth year of her age was brought to the enjoyment of the pardoning mercy and renewing grace of God, when she immediately united herself to the Methodist Society, of which she continued an exemplary member to the end of her life. It is stated, on good authority that she first suggested to Mr. Raikes, with whom she was personally acquainted, the plan of Sunday school instruction. Commiserating the case of a large number of ragged children, whom he saw in the streets, he said to Miss Cooke (for that was her maiden name) "What shall we do for these poor, neglected children?" And she answered, "Let us teach them to read and take them to church." The suggestion was adopted; and Mr. Raikes and Miss Cooke conducted the first company of Sunday scholars to the church, exposed to public laughter as they passed along the street with their unpromising charge.12

"For full description see The Origin of Sunday School, Methodist Magazine (London), August, 1817.

"Methodist Magazine (London), 1834, P- 319- See also biographical facts given by her nephew, Mr. Charles Cooke, surgeon, related in Robert Raikes, the Man and His Work, by J. Henry Harris, pp. 143ft.

Methodism gained its largest foothold among the common people, the class for which the Sunday school did its best and most extensive work. John Wesley gave all his time to the work of the church as its head and director, gaining thereby an opportunity larger than that Robert Raikes*had to extend the Sunday school movement. Besides this unparalleled advantage, Wesley was editing the Arminian Magazine, that earliest periodical of its class in the Protestant world. It had already gained some prestige since its first volume in 1778. In this magazine, January, 1785, 13 Wesley printed an account of Raikes's school in a letter written by Raikes himself, under the caption "An Account of the Sunday-Charity Schools, lately begun in various Parts of England."14 But John Wesley had little need of urging the Methodists by printed page to engage in this excellent work. His superintendent's duties took him from society to society, where he came into direct contact with all activities of the churches and could encourage and urge on the work among children. Hence Wesley's Journal gives us the best information upon the early Wesleyan Sunday school progress. It is to be remembered in this connection that John Wesley, and even more his brother, Charles 'Wesley, were prolific hymn writers. The great prominence given to singing in the Wesleyan Sunday schools is very manifest. Wesley's first notice of this new institution was in July, 1784, when he writes:

Sunday, 18. — I preached, morning and afternoon, in Bingley church, but it would not near contain the congregation. Before, service I stepped into the Sunday school, which contains two hundred and forty children, taught every Sunday by several masters, and superintended by the curate. So, many children in one parish are restrained from open sin, and taught a little good manners, at least, as well as to read the Bible. I find these schools springing up wherever I go. Perhaps God may have a

"Arminian Magazine, vol. viii, p. 41. (Called Methodist Magazine beginning with 1798.)

""By the close of 1786, it is conjectured not less than 250,000 children were every Sunday receiving instruction" (J. A. James, The Sunday School Teacher's Guide, p. 16).

deeper end therein than men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians?

From this time on to the end of Wesley's ministry in 1790 his Journal makes frequent mention of the Sunday school.

April 16 [1786]. — (Being Easter Day) I crossed over to Warrington, where, having read prayers, preached, and administered the Lord's Supper, I hastened back to Bolton. The house was crowded the more, because of five hundred and fifty children, who are taught in our Sunday schools : such an army of them got about me when I came out of the chapel that I could scarcely disengage myself from them.

Friday, 27 [July, 1787]. — We went on to Bolton. Here are eight hundred poor children taught in our Sunday schools, by about eighty masters, who receive no pay but what they are to receive from their Great Master. About a hundred of them (part boys and part girls) are taught to sing; and they sung so true, that, all singing together, there seemed to be but one voice. The house was thoroughly filled, while I explained and applied the first commandment. What is all morality or religion without this? A mere castle in the air. In the evening, many of the children still hovering round the house, I desired forty or fifty to come in and sing, "Vital spark of heavenly flame." Although some of them were silent, not being able to sing for tears, yet the harmony was such as I believe could not be equalled in the king's chapel.

Friday, 18 [April, 1788]. — Notice having been given at Wigan of my preaching a sermon for the Sunday schools, the people flocked from all quarters in such a manner as never was seen before. I spoke with all possible plainness.

Saturday, 19 [April, 1788]. — We went on to Bolton, where I preached in the evening. . . . There is not such a set of singers in any of the Methodist congregations in the three kingdoms. There cannot be, for we have near a hundred such trebles, boys and girls, selected out of our Sunday schools, and accurately taught, as are not found together in any chapel, cathedral, or music room within the four seas. Besides, the spirit with which they all sing, and the beauty of many of them, so suits the melody, that I defy any to exceed it; except the singing of angels in our Father's house.

Sunday, 20 [April, 1788]. — About three I met between nine hundred and a thousand of the children belonging to our Sunday schools. I never saw such a sight before. They were all exactly clean, as well as plain, in their apparel. All were serious and well behaved. Many, both boys and girls, had as beautiful faces as, I believe, England or Europe can afford. When they all sung together, and none of them out of tune, the melody was beyond that of any theater; and, what is best of all, many of them truly fear God, and some rejoice in his salvation. These are a pattern to all the town. Their usual diversion is to visit the poor that are sick (sometimes six or eight, or ten together) to exhort, comfort, and pray with them. Frequently ten or more of them get together to sing and pray for themselves; sometimes thirty or forty ; and are so earnestly engaged, alternately singing, praying, and crying, that they know not how to part.

Tuesday, 8 [June, 1790, at Newcastle]. — In the evening I preached to the children of our Sunday School, six or seven hundred of whom were present. N. B., None of our masters or mistresses teach for pay : they seek a reward that man cannot give.

Sunday, 13 [June, 1790]. — In the morning I preached a charity sermon in Monkwearmouth church, for the Sunday school; which has already cleared the streets of all the children that used to play there on a Sunday from morning to evening.

Tuesday, 19 [October, 1790, at Lynn]. — In the evening all the clergymen in the town, except one who was lame, were present at the preaching. They are all prejudiced in favor of the Methodists; as, indeed, are most of the townsmen; who give a fair proof by contributing so much to our Sunday schools ; so that there is near twenty pounds in hand.

Two letters written by Wesley in the last years of his life are of note here. One of these was to Duncan Wright at Bolton, dated from London, January 9, 1788. He wrote :

You send me a comfortable account of the work of God in your circuit. I cannot doubt but a blessing redounds to you all for the sake of the poor children. I verily think these Sunday schools are one of the noblest specimens of charity which have been set on foot in England since the time of William the Conqueror.15

An even later testimony is a letter to the Rev. Charles Atmore from Madeley March 24, 1790. It read :

'"Tyerman, L. : Life and Times of John Wesley, vol. iii, p. 522.

I am glad you have set up Sunday schools at Newcastle. This is one of the best institutions which have been seen in Europe for some centuries, and will do more and more good, provided the Teachers and Inspectors do their duty. Nothing can prevent the success of this blessed work, but the neglect of the instruments. Therefore be sure to watch over them with all care, that they may not grow weary of well doing.16

When Wesley paid his last visit to Newcastle he preached from Psa. 34. 11 to the children of the Sunday school. "It was calculated to profit both them and persons of riper years. The sermon was literally composed and delivered in words of not more than two syllables." 17 Of Mr. Wesley it was said that he always had a smile and a kind word for the children, "and his manner was to place his hands on their heads and give them his heavenly benediction."