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Your committee having opened a correspondence with, and at*tached themselves to, the Sunday School Union in London, have been enabled to obtain and supply the schools under their care with the school-books and publications of that society at very reduced prices, whereby the funds of this Union have been materially economised; and it is in contemplation to establish a depository of books suitable for Sunday Schools where such as are connected with the Union will be entitled to purchase them at cost prices.

EXTRACT from the REPORT of the ESSEX SUNDAY
SCHOOL UNION.

Chelmsford, April 29, 1815. IN again transmitting to you our Annual Report of the Essex Sunday School Union, we feel much satisfaction in observing that our expectations have been realised, and our conviction of the utility of Sunday School Unions has been strengthened and established. Old Schools have increased, new ones have been opened under the most pleasing auspices, and repeated instances of usefulness have sufficiently demonstrated that the work is of the Lord; with this persuasion we feel increasing encouragement to press forward, believing that in due time we shall reap if we faint not.

There are 15 Sunday Schools connected with this Union, containing 1170 children, and 184 teachers.

In reference to the Sunday School at Chelmsford, we have to observe, that the attendance of the children has in general been regular, and a very pleasing instance of usefulness has occurred during the past year, as stated in the Sunday School' Repository for April 1815. We have recently adopted the plan of addressing the children collectively, with a view of impressing their minds with the importance of a personal acquaintance with those things that concern their eternal interests, which, under the . divine blessing, we hope will be attended with many beneficial effects.

A new School has been opened at Kelvedon. A letter, dated Nov. 4, 1814, says, I received yours of the 31st this day, and, in compliance with your request, cheerfully return an answer to the several questions contained in your letter. We have now 70 children in our Sunday School, 23 girls and 47 boys, to whom

there are 11 teachers, 7 males and 4 females; and I think I may justly say, very suitable persons, who fear God and regard his institutions. I can only say at present that the morals of the children are better, and that their progress in learning to read, &c. is greater than we could have expected. I would also inform you, we have commenced-an Adult School consisting of 12 males and 3 females.

Chisshill, March 10, 1815.-Our friend observes, Our School commenced February 5, 1815, with the most pleasing prospects of extensive usefulness, and now consists of 70 boys and near 60 girls, to whom we expect a very considerable increase. The earnestness they discover, the diligence of their attendance, and their extensive improvement, are to me a matter of most grateful surprise; especially when I consider that many of these children have been literally brought from the high-ways and hedges, and from those employments which often end in an ignominious exit. The influence of our school on the parents of some of these children is already visible; one old man in particular, seems to be deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of eternal things. Our young friends, give me much satisfaction, near 30 have generously come forward to this good work. Our school is in its infancy, we want help, and any thing which you consider as beneficial we shall receive with thankfulness, and improve with fidelity. The same correspondent, in a letter, dated April 25, 1815, says, Our school has increased to near 200, and is increasing, so that we want very much a supply of books.

Dunmow, April 3, 1815.-I have the pleasure to inform you, that our Sunday School consists of about 70 children, some of them who can now read very well in the Testament, did not know their letters when they entered the school. The teachers have taken great pains in storing their memories with useful knowledge, and I have no doubt the time is coming, when at least some of them will rise up and call them blessed," as the honoured instruments of their preservation from vice and misery, and of their first acquaintance with the principles and duties of the Gospel. A child who was in our school of the name of Little, died lately giving very hopeful evidence of a work of grace upon his mind. In the former part of his illness he was fretful and peevish, but for many months before his departure he was full of patience and gratitude. He seems to have had proper views of himself as a sinner, and of the Gospel method of salvation. It was not so much what this child said, as what he did, that satisfied my mind that the Holy Spirit had accompanied Divine Truth with power to his heart. He was humble, teachable, and childlike, begged the prayers of others, intreated them to pray to him, and while he valued the society of the righteous, "beheld the transgressors, and was grieved;" he was about 10 years of age when he died. His favourite book was Janeway's Token for Children; may we not hope that something he had heard at school or in the House

of God, to which his teachers brought him, was rendered useful to his soul? I entertain hopes that his dying conversation was blessed to one in the family-a family which, till now, has been destitute of religion.

EXTRACT from FIRST ANNUAL REPORT of the COMMITTEE of the STROUD SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.

One of the principal objects for which the members of this Union formed themselves into a society, was to stimulate one another to increased activity in the work of gratuitous instruction. On this point the committee feel that they are justified in using the language of assured conviction. They can refer to the records of the Society, and appeal to the recollection of its members in proof of their conviction, that the meetings which have been held during the year, have made them more than ever before zealously affected in this good work. The pleasing instances which have been related at those meetings, of the happy effects of Sunday School instruction, have excited in the minds of the teachers fresh ardor in the cause. At one of those meetings, the committee had the great satisfaction of introducing to the Society Mr. Lloyd, the secretary of the Sunday School Union in London, whose judicious and zealous exhortations, contributed greatly to the interest of the meeting, and to the advantage of those who were present. One point on which Mr. Lloyd touched, the committee deem it proper to recal to the minds of the members of the Union. He adverted to the abundant supply of teachers with which some of the schools were furnished, so as to render it unnecessary for those teachers to attend their school more frequently than one Sunday in two, three, or four Sundays. He observed, that teachers ought to be sufficiently attached to their work to induce them, when circumstances allowed, to give a constant attendance. Many advantages are doubtless connected with such an attendance, beyond what can be expected from services which are merely occasional. He remarked, that it was highly desirable, that when any school had a superabundance of teachers, it should send detachments to places which were destitute, either to establish new schools, or to assist those schools which were languishing for want of help. This suggestion of Mr. Lloyd has not been entirely fruitless.

In speaking of the good which has resulted from the meetings. of the Society, it would be inexcusable not to advert to the general muster of scholars, teachers, and friends of Sunday Schools, which was made last Whitmonday. The scenes which that day exhibited will not soon be forgotten. The very sight of more than two thousand of the children of the poor who, from Sabbath to Sabbath, enjoy the blessing of religious instruction, was itself a sermon of no ordinary force. The Redeemer of mankind seemed to the eye and ear of faith to be repeating to every friend of

Sunday Schools the exhortation once addressed to Peter-" Feed my lambs." The influence of reflections of this nature was evidently felt by the ministers who conducted the religious services of the day.

The scenes of the morning of that day were excellent preparatives for the duties of the evening, when 300 teachers met with one accord, in one place, to hear the Word of God. They heard with attention and with profit. At subsequent meetings the most satisfactory proofs were given, that the effect of the services of that day had been an increase in many of the schools in the number both of teachers and of scholars, together with a visible improvement in point of diligence on the part of each.

The second of the objects for which this Union was formed, was improvement in the method of instruction by means of hints on the subject, which it was expected the Society would, from various quarters, receive. This expectation has not been disappointed, and many useful suggestions have been offered at the quarterly meetings.

The third object proposed to be answered by the Union, was the opening of new schools where they might be needed; and under this head your committee have the pleasure to state, that during the year seven new schools have been established, viz. at Standish, at the Thrup, at Painswick Slad, at Bisley, at Brimscomb, at Chalford, and at Thieves-comb.

There are in connexion with the Stroud Union 25 schools, containing 3,635 children, and 453 teachers, an increase of more than one-third part of the present numbers having been made during the last year. A few schools within the district of the Society have not yet joined the Union; those schools, added to the above, make a grand total of more than 4000 children.

The last, but not the least, of the four objects for which the Union was formed, was to cherish sentiments of Christian concord and affection.

The teachers of the various schools belonging to the Union, wish to consider one another not as rivals, but as friends and fellow-labourers. They are aware, at the same time, of the existence of various obstacles which oppose the cultivation of this sentiment, arising from a multiplicity of sources, but chiefly from the imperfection of our nature. They do not think that the Scripture saith in vain--" The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy." Many of the schools are contiguous to one another. The 25 of which the Union is composed, are contained within a circle of twelve miles diameter, and the majority of them within one-third part of that space. People are naturally most partial to the religious denomination to which they belong, and to the school in which from week to week they laboriously exert themselves; nor are the Committee of the Stroud Union sanguine enough to expect, that the result of the Union will be to keep this partiality in every instance within legitimate bounds. But

they assuredly know, because they have felt, that the tendency of the Union is to promote a disposition of which, among other excellencies, it is said that it envieth not, hopeth all things, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth in the truth, and is in a word the fulfilling of the Law. On this subject the committee particularly recommend to the attention of the Society, a resolution passed at a former meeting, respecting children who may leave one school with the wish to join another. The observation of that rule has already been attended with considerable benefit.

THE Hibernian Sunday School Society is very actively and successfully employed in extending the work of instruction in Ireland. It has been already instrumental in producing many good effects, and the sphere of its operations and usefulness is constantly extending. When we consider the amazing benefits which have arisen in England from the establishment of Sunday Schools, during more than thirty years, we cannot refrain from entertaining ardent expectations of the happy influence of similar institutions in the sister kingdom. The following is an Extract from the FIFTH REPORT of the HIBERNIAN SUNDAY

SCHOOL SOCIETY, for the year ending April, 1815.

THE number of Schools in connexion with your society still continues to increase. Within the last year aid has been given in money and books to one hundred and twenty-nine Schools, of which fifty-two had received similar assistance in former years; seventy-seven applied for the first time. To these one hundred and twenty-nine Schools, grants have been made by your Committee of 611 Bibles; 3,624 Testaments; 4,193 Spelling-Books No. 1; 4,275 Spelling-Books No. 2; 3,493 Alphabets, and 171 Hints for the Establishment of Sunday Schools, and £74. 11s. in money.

Exclusive of which the following books have been sold at reduced prices:-50 Tesfaments; 1,289 Spelling-books No. 1; 1,641 Spelling-Books No. 2, and 315 Alphabets.

The entire number of Schools assisted since the establishment of the society will appear from the following statement. Grants were made in to 2 Schools

1810, 1811,

to 42 Schools which had not before applied 1812-13, to 73 Schools which had not before applied 1813-14, to 58 Schools which had not before applied 1814-15, to 77 Schools which had not before applied Making a total, 252 Schools, containing 28,598 children.

Within the same period the following assistance has been afforded gratuitously:-1,288 Bibles; 10,689 Testaments; 15,311 Spelling-Books No. 1; 13,329 Spelling-Books No. 2; 9,095 Alphabets; 394 Hints for conducting Sunday Schools; and 54 Bibles, 707 Testaments, 5,413 Spelling-Books No. 1; 5,270 SpellingBooks No. 2; 1,212 Alphabets, and 11 Hints for conducting

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