Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

In order to explain the above table, the following are the abbreviations used, which are just given as a specimen:

[blocks in formation]

r Reading.

Stands for a ticket or mark

of approbation.

Means that a ticket is to be forfeited, or is a mark of disapprobation.

This book is made of a convenient size for the pocket. The lines are ruled on both sides, and two open pages will in general be found sufficient for one month, and in several classes much longer.

Two or three of the first pages in this book are appropriated for the names and r idences of the children and parents; this is very convenient when visiting them. When tickets are given, an account of the number due to each child may be kept in this book.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.

AS year after year rolls round, and as the return of each anniversary arrives, your Committee desire to feel increasingly sensible of the importance of the work in which they are engaged, and of the necessity of augmented exertion, and extended zeal. In the pursuits of commerce, the termination of each year is considered delightful as it approximates the period of withdrawment from the busy concerns of life, but in the engagements of benevolence the success of past years is only an incentive to renewed activity, and the more labour is bestowed, the more labour is required. While the philanthropist and the Christian rejoice that so many fields have been cultivated, and are now adorned with plants of the Lord's right-hand planting, they cannot help beholding with sorrow the desert wildernesses, the barren heaths, and the gloomy wastes, which disfigure so large a portion of the landscape. "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed;" numerous are the places still destitute of Sunday Schools, and all the friends of these institutions are called to labour more and more abundantly.

Your Committee will now proceed to present a concise statement of the operations of the Sunday School Union during the past year, and of the successful exertions of the auxiliary and country Unions.

At the quarterly meetings during the past year, which have been much more numerously attended than in former years, the following questions have been discussed: What system of rewards is best adapted for Sunday Schools? What means are most adapted to promote the spiritual welfare of children who have left Sunday Schools? and, By what means can bad behaviour and inattention to improvement be most effectually counteracted in Sunday Scholars? By these friendly discussions much useful information has been elicited, and the experience and observations of various individuals have been collected together for mutual and general benefit. United prayers and praise have tended to animate every heart, and have led the instructors of the young to praise God for all their success, and to rely on his divine blessing to render their labours effectual. In many instances teachers who had been discouraged under their difficulties and disappointments, when attending these meetings have felt their minds invigorated, and like Paul when his brethren met him at Apii forum and The three taverns, have thanked God and took courage.

Your Committee have during the past year published a third

part of their spelling-book, containing only spelling. This work will be found very serviceable in the bible and testament classes. A new edition of Hints for the Establishment and Regulation of Sunday Schools is nearly ready for publication; it will contain much useful information, founded on experience. The secretaries have kindly consented to become depositaries. of the publications of the Sunday School Union, for the supply of Auxiliary and Country Unions, without any expence for agencies or commission. The secretaries of those Unions that may wish to purchase the publications of this society at the cost prices, are requested to send their money with their orders to the secretaries of the parent society.

Your Committee had hoped that the return of peace and the renewal of intercourse with the continent, would have afforded the means of introducing Sunday Schools; though their hopes have not been fully realized, they have the pleasure to report that a beginning has been made in France, One Sunday School, containing sixty children, has been formed at Luneroy, and another at Negrepelisse; it is also expected that one will be established at Montauban. It has been the decided opinion of those French ministers who have been consulted, that Sunday Schools are much adapted to the situation of France, and are calculated for eminent usefulness. Your Committee have voted £10. and some copies of their publications for the purpose of translation, to assist this great object. Their grants have been entrusted to the care of the Rev. Francis Martin, and they hope soon to receive a favourable account of his exertions in establishing Sunday Schools, as his mind is deeply impressed with their great importance. Your Commit tee had drawn up an address on the subject of Sunday Schools, with a view to have it circulated in France, but recent events have for the present suspended this design, yet your Committee cannot help hoping that the short year in which peace has been possessed, will be an important era in the religious history of France. The present ruler of that country has recently issued an edict in favour of education, and we may be assured that if the great body of the people are taught to read, and furnished with the sacred Scriptures, the foundations of popery and seepticism will be soon undermined.

A letter recently received from the Rev. Thaddeus Osgood expresses a strong hope that he shall shortly be able to establish several Sunday Schools in Canada.

Your Committee noticed in their last Report the formation of the Southwark and East London Auxiliary Sunday School Unions, they have now the pleasure to state that the West

P

London and the Central and North London Auxiliary Sunday School Unions have been since established. These Auxiliaries have been eminently useful in their different local situations; they have examined the state of the poor relative to education, and have found that, even in the metropolis and its vicinity, thousands are perishing for lack of knowledge. They are now endeavouring to establish Sunday Schools in those situations which require them, and in many instances their exertions have been already crowned with success, and several new Sunday Schools have been formed. The beneficial influence of these societies will be evinced by the following extracts from their Reports,

EXTRACT from the FIRST REPORT of the SOUTHWARK AUXILIARY SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.

WHILE we have realized a blessing from this institution in our meetings, and said with the disciples, "It is good for us to be here," has our union been without other benefits? have we not gone to labour in our several Schools with greater zeal and activity? and have not our hearts been animated with a hope for the prosperity of the cause, beyond our immediate sphere? Yes! we have not only desired it, but put our hands to the work! and the Report of this evening will prove the happy result of our united endeavours. An additional School of 139 children has been established in Southwark, by means of this Auxiliary Union. This School will stand among its first fruits, and be a witness for us to all who may not feel the necessity of such an institution as we have formed.

In reporting the progress of this institution during the past year, the Committee will briefly relate the success that has attended the specific objects of this Union.

Respecting the first object, viz. to facilitate the means of communication between the Schools in our district and the Parent Society, and to render it every assistance in our power,—the Committee have the pleasure to state, that by dividing our Union into districts, and appointing a secretary to each, they are enabled to convey with ease any information to the several Schools received from the parent institution. Your Committee need only to point to the Teacher's Magazine for January, to manifest their further success in furnishing a Report of the State of the Schools belonging to this Auxiliary Union.

Ever considering the Institution as an Auxiliary, and wishing to attend to any recommendation from the Parent Society, the Committee, upon receiving a resolution from them, stating that it was desirable for each Auxiliary to remit some part of their funds annually as a bond of union, took the subject into consideration, and voted to them the sum of £5. feeling confident, that should

the Auxiliary need assistance for any object greater than the magnitude of its funds, the Parent Society would be ever ready to assist it. In this confidence they are much strengthened in the ready grant of £5. 5s. which the Parent Society voted towards the new School in Kent-street, upon an application made through this Auxiliary.

In the endeavour to promote another object of this Union, viz. by mutual communication to stimulate and encourage each other in the work,-the Committee have met with much encouragement. In ascertaining the state of our Schools, the committee requested the number of children on the books, and the number attending to be returned. By this means the number of absentees were known, which they conceived a better standard to judge of the real state of a School than by its numbers.-They recommend in One of their quarterly reports twelve to fifteen children absent in one hundred as a desirable standard, entertaining no doubt, but such Schools as had reported thirty absent in one hundred, would feel a desire to imitate the example of those that had reported only twelve.

To render the quarterly meetings interesting, the Committee requested from each School a written report of its rise and progress, several of which have been read during the year, comprising a great deal of interesting matter, manifesting in many instances the watchful hand of a kind Providence over the welfare of many Schools.

Another object of this Auxiliary, and one of the most important, viz. to increase old and open new Schools in our district, has also occupied the attention of the Committee. For want of a sufficient fund at our commencement, a great part of it being occupied in the establishment of a depository, we were unable to undertake any thing towards this object. Upon an application, bowever, for assistance from the Southwark Sunday School Society on the behalf of a new School in Kent-street, which was designed to increase the number from 200 to 500 children, the committee applied for assistance to the Parent Institution, who readily voted the sum of £5. 58. towards it. The collections at our quarterly meetings enabled the committee to vote a further sum of three guineas to so desirable an object, viz. the increase of old Schools. But the Committee hasten to report a circumstance that must afford this meeting peculiar pleasure, viz, the opening of a new Sunday School under the immediate patronage of this Auxiliary Union. Having ascertained a desirable spot near the King's Bench, a sub-committee was appointed to inquire whether any circumstances in the neighbourhood favoured the opening of a new School. The report was of so very encouraging a nature, that the Committee felt no hesitation in voting the sum of £5. 5s. to so desirable a purpose. The sum voted may appear small, but when the meeting is acquainted with the circumstances that at

« PreviousContinue »