THE history of Sabbath-schools is nearly allied to the onward progress of the Church of God in the earth. In all ages, whenever pure religion has been revived, it would seem that especial attention has always been given to the early religious instruction and training of children and youth by the Church of God; and herein lies the grand Sunday-school idea. Says a Scotch divine: "Vital religion, and the godly upbringing of the young, have ever gone hand in hand." The soul is diseased, and a Bible education is the only remedy. In that wonderful Book, which extends its record over the long period of four thousand years of this world's history, there is throughout a wonderful regard for children. Of the patriarch Abraham, nearly four thousand years ago, it is written: "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Gen. xviii.19. With what wonderful power does the history of the childhood of Joseph, and Moses, and David, and Samuel, and Daniel, illustrate the value of the instruction and religious training of children.

When Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel, received the law amid the thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes of Mount Sinai, he called "All Israel" together (Deut. v.1), and by divine direction his words were (Deut. vi.6): "Hear, O Israel.... These words, which I command thee this day, shall be (1) in thine heart: and (2) thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children," etc., i. e., the Church's children—not parents exclusive, but inclusive of course. "Israel," that was called upon by Moses, was the Church of God upon earth, and it is her express duty to the end of time to see that all her children shall be "taught of the Lord." It is true that parents are the divinely-appointed guardians and instructors of their children, and this obligation rests upon them; and yet they are, alas! too often incapable of the religious instruction of their own children or of any other, besides being often indifferent; and the Church of God, by her catechetical or Sabbath-school instruction, has always had, and probably will always have, to supply the lack of unfaithful parents. There is no agency which so supplies the lack of mothers as a good Sabbath-school.

Thus we find in Deuteronomy, nearly four thousand years ago, the great Sabbath-school principle foreshadowed and embodied; and where, we may ask, can be found in all the Bible a more definite authorization or divine appointment for any of the great denominational Christian Churches which now so bless our land than is here found for the Sabbath-school? It is ordained and blessed of God. The Sabbath-school is simply the Church of Christ putting forth its legitimate effort in its most inviting field of action. It is the regular systematic working department of the Christian Church—not an outside auxiliary, but an inside,—the Church itself in action; and as such let it be carefully guarded and cherished. The same Divine lips which said "Go preach," said also and equally to his disciples, "Go teach." Says the Rev. J. H. Vincent: "There is just as much divine authority for the Sabbath-school as there is for the sanctuary—no more." Our Divine Lord and Master himself repeatedly astonished his own disciples by his particular notice of and care for little children, and with sore displeasure he rebuked his followers for hindering them from being brought to him.

It was not until nearly the close of the second century, or, according to Tertullian, in the year A.D.180, that the Christian Church felt compelled, in order to check the defection of heathen converts, to set about the establishment of those celebrated catechumenical schools, of which Origen was one of the catechists, for the systematic religious instruction by the Church of Christ of the children and youth.

So useful and necessary, however, did this work prove itself to be, that very soon similar schools were universally established. They continued to flourish until near the close of the sixth century, when they declined and became obscured for ten long centuries in the gloom of the Dark Ages, with only an occasional prince, or pastor, or layman in the spirit of the Master, to teach the children the way of life.

In the sixteenth century, however, on the dawn of the Reformation, Martin Luther established his celebrated Sunday-schools at Wittemberg in the year 1527; and soon after John Knox inaugurated the Sunday-schools of Scotland, "with readers," as the history of Scotland informs us, in 1560; so that on the incoming of the Reformation the children were again "taught of the Lord." In the year 1580, Borromeo, the pious Archbishop of Milan, established a system of Sunday-schools throughout his large diocese in Lombardy.

In our own land our Pilgrim Fathers early entered upon the work; for Ellis, in his History of Roxbury, Massachusetts, says: "In 1674, 6th 11th month, is the first record of a Sabbath-school." The records of the Pilgrim Church in Plymouth, Massachusetts, inform us that a Sabbath-school was there organized as early as in 1680. Joseph Alleine, the author of the "Alarm to the Unconverted," opened a Sabbath-school in England in 1688, and many others might be mentioned in both countries in succession. But the first Sabbath-school of which we have any authentic, definite, and detailed account, extending over a period of a quarter of a century, was that established by Ludwig Hacker in Ephratah, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, as early as the year 1747. It was continued uninterruptedly during a period of more than thirty years, until the building was taken for a soldiers' hospital in the time of the Revolutionary War. It enjoyed precious seasons of revival, and had its children's meetings, and we are informed that many children were hopefully converted to God. We have before us a long letter from Dr. Fahnestock to the Rev. W. T. Brantley, D.D., of Philadelphia, written in 1835, detailing many interesting facts connected with the history of this Sabbath-school, drawn from living pupils and records.

Robert Raikes instituted not only, but organized, the SYSTEM of Sabbath-schools, and popularized them in England, in Gloucester, in February, 1781. All benevolence was single-handed until such men as Robert Raikes and William Wilberforce organized it, and sent it forth systematized on its errand of love, mercy and salvation throughout the world. Before this, as we have seen, there were isolated occasional Sabbath-schools, but their influence was confined mainly to one city, one town, or one church, and expired with an individual. But Robert Raikes "founded Sabbath-schools for the Church universal." John Wesley preached and organized. George Whitefield preached, and did not organize. Robert Raikes organized Sabbath-schools, but his predecessors did not do so. And we can in both cases see the important difference. Within the short space of four years from the period when Mr. Raikes established his first Sabbath-school in Gloucester, England, more than one-quarter of a million of children in England were enjoying the blessing of Sabbath-school instruction. All honor, then, to Robert Raikes!

To Bishop Ashbury appears to belong the honor of first introducing Robert Raikes's idea of Sabbath-schools into this country, in Virginia in 1786. How long the school was continued, or what was its influence in Virginia, we are unable to state.

The first "Sunday-school Society" was formed in London, September 7, 1785. This was on the system of paid teachers, but when the plan of voluntary, unpaid teachers had become established, this society gave place to the present "London Sunday-School Union," which was organized to meet this change on the 13th of July, 1803. Both of these societies were formed on the union plan, including the various denominations, the first including an equal number of Churchmen and Dissenters in its management.

The First-day or Sunday-School Society in Philadelphia was organized in 1791, and Bishop White was its first president.

We learn from a carefully prepared editorial in the first volume of the "Sunday-School Teacher's Magazine and Journal of Education," published in New York, 1823, that after a careful personal interview of the editor with the parties, he had been enabled to ascertain the precise time and the circumstances under which the first Sabbath-school was commenced in New York city. Mr. and Mrs. Divie Bethune had spent part of the years 1801 and 1802 in England, where they had observed the progress of Sunday-schools in Great Britain; and on their return, in connection with their pious mother, the late Mrs. Isabella Graham, they arranged their plans, and "in the autumn of 1803 these three Christian philanthropists opened the first Sunday-school in New York for religious and catechcetical purposes, at their own expense, at the house of Mrs. Leech, in Mott street." Mrs. Graham and Mr. and Mrs. Bethune then established two other Sabbath-schools in other parts of the city, and soon after one for the children in the alms-house in New York. It is to the same source, too, that adult schools owe their commencement in this country, or at least in New York. Mrs. Graham, it is stated, opened the first adult school in Greenwich, in 1814, on the second Sabbath in June, only about two months before her death. We are thus particular to state these facts, for we are aware that a later date has been insisted upon for the inauguration of the first Sunday-school of New York.

Samuel Slater opened a school for his operatives in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1797. The Broadway Baptist Sabbath-school, in Baltimore, was established in 1804, and it is said to be still in operation. Mrs. Amos Tappan (Miss Buckminster) opened a Sabbath-school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1803. We do not learn that the Churches and organized Christian bodies took hold of the Sabbath-school movement in this country, so as to produce permanent and efficient action, until 1809, when we find an elaborate constitution and plan of action from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1810 a Sabbath-school was organized in Beverly, Massachusetts, and in Boston in 1812. Soon after this there began to be a more general and awakened interest in the Churches in behalf of Sabbath-schools, and the years 1814, 1815, and 1816 were years of most triumphant progress, so that in 1817 Sunday-schools were organized in most of our flourishing churches and Christian communities throughout this country.

Early in 1816 the New York Sunday-School Union was established, and is the first and oldest Union in our land, having just celebrated its semi-centennial. The American Sunday-School Union was organized in 1824, to provide a juvenile Christian literature (and from whence our public school district libraries borrowed their first idea) and to plant a Sunday-school wherever there is a population.

Surely, if any work in our land needs to be hastened, it is that of the religious instruction of the neglected children and youth of this nation by means of Sabbath-schools. Not to mention the various modern denominational movements, the above we believe to be a correct history of the Sunday-school progress, and we suppose it to be sufficiently full for practical purposes in this work. We have ample materials on this subject to fill a large volume, but this may here suffice. There are other questions, however, which ought to be here recorded in connection with the progress of the cause. In Great Britain the work is embarrassed from the fact that as a general rule only the children of the poor and middle classes attend their Sabbath-schools. In the early stages of the Sabbath-school movement in this country the same custom prevailed here, and it is certainly worthy of record by what means the change was effected.

Several years ago, while in attendance upon a Sunday-school meeting, the writer of this enjoyed a lengthened interview with the late Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, then in his prime. Our conversation turned upon that unfortunate feature of the cause in England which virtually excluded all the better-to-do children of that country. Dr. Beecher's eye lit up at once, and with great animation, as he said to me: "It was the same here at first, and I do not know but I had an important hand in producing the change. I saw the tendency of things, and feared that our Sunday-schools would result in a failure if only the poor children gained the benefit of them in this land, and it troubled me for some year or two. At last," said he, energetically, "I resolved to overthrow that system, and went and called upon Judge W., one of my most influential families, and said, 'Judge W——, I want you to bring your children to Sunday-school next Sabbath.' 'Me!' exclaimed the Judge in amazement. 'Yes, you,' calmly responded Dr. Beecher: 'I have made up my mind to take my children, and I want you and a few others of the best families to popularize the thing.' A little explanation secured the object. He then called upon Mrs. S——, the most aristocratic lady in the community, and said, 'Mrs. S—— I want you to lead your two daughters into our Sunday-school next Sabbath;' and, said the Doctor, 'Mrs. S—— almost shouted in astonishment;' but a more particular and careful explanation than sufficed with Judge W—— succeeded here; and then the family of the first physician was in like manner secured, and we all turned our labor and influence on the Sunday-school movement, and it gave an unheard-of impetus to our Sunday-school, and by means of the press and by letters and personal conversation the facts became known and met with almost universal approval and adoption in our country, and the reform soon became complete." Blessings, a thousand blessings rest upon the memory of the man, or the men and women, who aided to bring about this glorious change in this land!

The law of progress is very noticeable in the teaching of the Sabbath-school. Robert Raikes's first idea was scarcely more than to keep the children out of the streets and to protect the Sabbath. Then the children were taught to read and write. After that a great advance was made by the introduction of the Bible as the reading-book; the next step was to commit the Bible to memory; and then the Christian Churches took hold of the Sabbath-school. For awhile Memory was crowded to its utmost extent, to the injury of the scholar, and more memorizing became the hobby in most of our schools. After a while the physicians checked this, by telling us that by crowding the memory we were developing a new disease amongst children, viz., Hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. Then our schools were in trouble, and resort was had to question-cards, and finally question-books became the hobby. In a few years question-books began to be stale and monotonous, and we appealed to the imagination and resorted to stories and anecdotes until they wearied, and then we searched commentaries, and theology was administered to the children in large doses. After that what was called spiritual teaching was adopted, but that soon degenerated into mere exhortation. Now we find that we must comprehensively grasp and rightly use them all, and make a hobby of none. The memory is the grand store-house of the mind, and it should be well filled; but it is folly to over-stock it and overwhelm the brain. The imagination is God's grand medium of worship and communion with him and the spiritual world. We cannot worship God without it. Let us not exorcise it because some abuse it. "The imagination has the same place in the faculties that the eye has among the senses." The intellect is God's great gift which distinguishes man from the brute. Let us never worship nor pervert it. The heart is the soul of man. To save it the Son of man came down from heaven to earth. Unless the heart is gained all is lost; but if we appeal to the heart alone, we but develop the puny Christian. Let us, therefore, use all wisely, but misuse none. At first the aim of Sabbath-school teaching was very feeble and indefinite: to keep the children out of mischief—teach them to read the Bible—correct their manners and make them good children—not profane and disobedient. Then the aim was to give them a general knowledge of Bible history and catechism. The ablest early Sabbath-school works published under the patronage of the Queen of England did not even hint at the possible conversion of the children. The Bible was long introduced as a book of task lessons to the young, and catechism and hymn learning engrossed our Bible classes. Now, the Bible is exalted, and so applied in our Sabbath-schools as to be the most attractive of all books to the children and youth. Now, the aim of Sabbath-school teaching is, or ought to be, the immediate conversion of the children to Christ. It is a poor excuse to suffer a child to drown because we have but one opportunity of saving it. Now, many Sabbath-school teachers have learned the great and precious art of leading even little children to Jesus—"Just now."

Sabbath-schools are, as we believe, about to enter upon a great and glorious career, compared with which all the past history of the cause is but as the early dawn before a bright and glorious day; and this era is the culture and training by the word and grace of God of all that constitutes the best style of man and Christian; for we hold it to be the true teacher's position that there is no weakness or infirmity of temper, habit, purpose, or character in any of our pupils that the Sabbath-school, with its divine text-book and the promised Spirit of God, is not perfectly competent to remove. Let this be our standard, and according to our faith be it unto us. May the great Master so bless and prosper this heaven-born institution that speedily "our children may all be taught of the Lord, and that great may be the peace of our children."