The Successors of Robert Raikes.

AUTHOR OF

BY MRS. H. B. PAULL,

"ROBERT RAIKES AND HIS SCHOLARS," ETC.

URING the year 1880, the Centenary of Sunday Schools has been the all-absorbing theme in every religious community in England and its colonies; it may be pleasant to recall one fact upon which the success of the movement has so greatly depended, especially during the last fifty years.

At the time when the founders of Sunday schools so nobly exerted themselves to save the ignorant and neglected children of Gloucester and the neighbouring towns, the little, ragged, ill-trained objects they gathered around them were not only totally ignorant of the rudiments of education, but even of the very existence of decent, moral, or religious principles; paid teachers were on that account therefore absolutely necessary.

In spite of this fact, all honour is still due to those men and women who caught some of the spirit of their great leader, and fought the battle against ignorance, profanity, and sin with such wonderful success, not so much for the payment, as from love and pity for those little ones of whom the Saviour said,—

"Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not."

Still more honour is due, however, to those teachers who, at an hour when the great scheme was threatened with collapse for want of funds, came nobly forward and offered their services gratis. Bolton, in Yorkshire, on this account is far more worthy of renown than Blenheim or Waterloo, for there the standard of the cross was first raised by Dissenters to instruct the young "without money and without price."

This noble example was quickly followed in other towns, and among the teachers who then came forward so readily, we should, no doubt, if a record of their names had been preserved, find many who in their early days had themselves been Sunday scholars. Some few instances of this are named in the "Life of Robert Raikes," and it can be easily understood how those who knew the value of Sunday school teaching by experience would be ready to devote their Sunday hours of rest in trying to save from destruction other children as ignorant and neglected as they themselves had once been. These lovers of Sunday schools, from personal experience, were soon joined by others, equally influenced by a longing to obey the great Master's command to His erring disciple-" Feed My lambs."

Other and various motives, as time progressed and the numbers of Sunday schools increased, drew young men and women into the ranks, some of whom possessed the power of explaining abstruse or difficult subjects in simple and even childlike phraseology. The author of "The Peep of Day" possessed this power to a great extent. The writer has known more than one child weep over the descriptions of our Saviour's life so touchingly told and so easily read. Το

teachers with this power, however small, the effort brings its own reward, if his or her heart is truly in the work. What can repay the earnest endeavour to explain a difficult Bible doctrine or precept, or to relate a Bible story in simple language, more than the appearance of eager, upturned faces that gaze at the speaker with sparkling eyes and parted lips? And the effort after all is not difficult. When a child's attention is once gained by a homely yet startling phrase, it can easily be retained and kept up.

"Teaching we learn, and giving we retain

The birth of intellect; when dumb, forgot."

This assertion should and often does apply to Sunday school teaching more than to any other on account of the subjects taught. Many instances could be adduced to prove that while trying to explain in simple language the meaning or tendency of some doctrine or precept, the conscientious Sunday school teacher has been almost startled at a new and sudden light falling upon the subject, rendering clear what was before obscure or hard to be understood. And this fact illustrates the promise of higher authority than the truism of a poet-" He that watereth shall be watered also himself."

In looking back on the history of Sunday schools, even. from their commencement, but more especially during the last fifty years, it is a surprising fact to find that not only women of high position in England have been teachers in these schools, but also men. Divines of all denominations, statesmen of note, missionaries, and others whose names are spoken of with reverence, have been Sunday school teachers.

It is said, and the remark has been often verified, that the greatest minds are the most capable of presenting difficult subjects in the simplest form whether in writing or speaking. Perhaps to this fact we may attribute another. Many a man has been induced to become a minister or a missionary by the discovery that he possessed the power of arresting the attention of his Sunday school class by using simple language, and explaining difficult subjects in words suited to their understanding.

In a future paper the writer hopes to bring forward some remarkable instances of this fact, but in the present paper it may perhaps be interesting to the reader to have personal history which verifies the remark mentioned above-namely, that "statesmen of note" have been Sunday school teachers. To do this more pleasantly I will set aside the third person and use the first.

I once heard from the pulpit of a Wesleyan chapel that three consecutive Lord Chancellors of England had been Sunday school teachers, Lord Selborne (Sir R. Palmer), Lord Hatherley (Sir W. Page Wood), and Lord Cairns (Sir Hugh Cairns). I have every reason to believe that the statement was a true one with respect to the first and the last, but I know it to be true in the case of Lord Hatherley from personal acquaintance with the facts, and from his own recent statements. During the year 1870, my husband was for a few months taking duty with Archdeacon Jennings, rector of St. John's, Westminster. On the first Sunday morning of his engagement, he accompanied the other curate to the schools to open them with singing and prayer.

After this, as soon as the classes were in order, my husband was taken round

by his companion to see their working, but not to interrupt. While proceeding, after leaving the schools, to the church, the curate asked—

“Did you notice an elderly gentleman among the teachers in the boys' school? "Yes," was the reply; "and it struck me as unusual for a gentleman or lady

of such an advanced age to be a Sunday school teacher."

'Perhaps it is so," he replied with a smile, "but there are circumstances connected with that gentleman more unusual than his age. Who do you think he is ? ” "I cannot imagine," was the reply.

"Only the Lord Chancellor of England," said the other curate.

"Is it possible? Does he come often? "

"Often!" replied the curate, "why, he has been a teacher in these schools for five-and-twenty years. He and Lady Hatherley are the most regular and punctual of our teachers."

"And is Lady Hatherley also a teacher?" asked my husband with increased surprise.

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'Certainly she is; you must have noticed her in the girls' school."

"I remember now that I did notice a middle-aged lady," he said, and then asked suddenly

"How do the children address these personages?"

"As the others do-Yes, teacher; no, teacher,' and so on."

I had opportunties during my husband's residence in Westminster of verifying what he told me, and my estimation of the then Lord Chancellor and his lady rose immensely in consequence.

Some of my readers may have read in the papers that about four or five years after the date of my husband's residence in Westminster, Lord and Lady Hatherley resigned their classes at the Sunday school on account of increasing age and infirmities. His lordship at that time must have been in his seventy-seventh or seventy-eighth year. [Lord Hatherley stated at Guildhall that he had been for forty years a Sunday school teacher.]

The teachers and children of the schools, being anxious to show their deep respect to the gentleman and lady who had not only been teachers for so many years but had also been instrumental in establishing the school, determined to do so by more than words. A subscription was set on foot which was strictly confined to the teachers and children, and enough money raised to purchase simple articles to be presented to Lord and Lady Hatherley as a token and a memento of their affectionate esteem. A day was appointed for a meeting at the schoolroom, when all the teachers and children were present, as well as a goodly company of ladies and gentlemen. The little souvenirs were presented by the Archdeacon to his lordship with a suitable speech and the ceremony closed with singing and prayer.

One of those presented to Lady Hatherley was a gold pencil-case. As a speaker said, the value of the gifts arose, not from their own intrinsic worth, but from the kind motive that actuated the givers.

Sunday school teachers may feel it an honour to number among them such celebrated men and women of high position as these, but those whose hearts are in the work esteem it an honour to themselves to follow the example of the great Master and His command, "Feed My lambs."

Eastern Echoes.

BY REV. W. SPENCER EDWARDS.

HE land of Uz remains doubtful, and I suppose Job's home and local habitation must still be classed with the questions that perplex so many Biblical students. Job is a very traditional character in Bible lands, and his words and deeds seem continually floating into notice from the dim past. His name is attached to wells and tombs very widely remote from each other, and travellers who seek to discover why are generally much more confused than informed.

But in these valleys of Arabia I keep saying to myself, "Did not Job live here ? Is not this Job's country? Was it not somewhere here that the great patriarch had his great household ?" I cannot fully account for it. I never held a theory for it or against it. I see the apparent force of some objections urged against it, and yet I cannot dismiss the conviction from my mind: it grows upon me. As I traverse these valleys I am continually recalling the map and the Book and becoming vividly conscious of a charming realness in both.

I am sitting in the door of a tent. It is an awning made of roughly woven camel's hair-and a very welcome screen from the sun that glares in full front, a huge and blinding ball of fire on a fine sapphire sky. I am the guest of a Grand Sheik in one of the Arabian valleys. Twenty hours ago he sent a messenger to our encampment with a polite invitation to halt and make "Heff," which meant "Call and be comfortable." Everything is truly patriarchal-no; not exactly all-I pause to correct myself. It would be very patriarchal but for that little fellow whose bright eyes are staring hard upon me. He is one of the Sheik's numerous family, and the probable pet of the great household. I take him to be three years old, or thereabout. I am struck with his sagacious look. With a Bible in his hand and a teacher by his side, few Sunday school children would learn faster than he. But his only bit of a garment disturbs my gravity and breaks awkwardly in upon all these patriarchal associations. I wonder what wind blew it into this very far and isolated corner of the old Eastern world. It is a shred of modern commerce from a Lancashire loom-a yard of calico from Manchester-and it hangs on his back like a floating advertisement. I see the name of a Manchester firm in blue letters on the border!

But I am thinking of Job, and just now another incident breaks in upon my thoughts. I as vividly recall the household of Abraham. I cannot help it, for behind this black curtain I hear invisible women chattering and laughing. That, however, only by the way. Job is the chief person here. I see him in this Grand Sheik, not that he is worn with sorrow or broken down with bodily affliction. I don't perceive a line of care on his big, round face. He is a tall, robust fellow, with a broad, shining forehead, a pair of brilliant eyes, massive white teeth, and a long glossy beard, just turning grey. His head and neck are curtained in white muslin, a red robe streams down to his knees, and his feet are bare. He prays, for I see his prayer-mat rolled up in that corner. He is a man of great note and consequence in these parts, and has made his mark on surrounding tribes and the mischievous, marauding clans as truly as he makes these footprints on the yellow sand. He is the type of Job in his palmy days. Here, too, are Job's home surroundings. I see them in these home-born servants-in that burly fellow who sits on the sand pounding coffee-berries in a stone mortar—in those retainers who hang about the door of the tent to carry messages, or fetch water, or go and kill the kid just ordered for a feast in honour of our visit, and in that stooping and very white-bearded old man, who whispers something so often in the Grand Sheik's ear, and then gives orders. He is a kind of master's master, the Grand Sheik appears so obedient to whatever he suggests. He is evidently the steward of the household.

And here is Job's wealth. I see it in these oxen scattered among thirty-three tents-in those sheep and goats browsing on the hills, devouring the tufts of grass in the gullies that intersect those rocks, and in those camels, more than I can number, that surround this desert home. Everything has reminded me of Job and his book for many days. I have explored the mines where "iron is taken out of the earth." I have handled and tossed the stoned dates stitched up in little leather bags, and fancy I now understand better than I did, "My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity" (Job xiv. 17). I have passed many a house of clay (Job iv. 19), easy enough to "dig through" "in the dark." Those rascals that prowl about the tent at dusk, from nobody knows where, are the scouts of the old "Sabeans" (Job i. 15). I have passed many a rock tossed down and "removed out of his place" (Job xiv. 18) and many a rock "graven with an iron pen" (Job xix. 24). That gust that roused us at midnight and sent our tents spinning over the sand was the "great wind from the wilderness that smote the four corners of the house" (Job i. 19). The corresponding aspects of the land and the Book would fill a volume. Job had many trials, but had also rich compensations temporal and spiritual. My impression is that Job and his friends often made "heff" in these valleys.