LIST OF THE SCHOLARS' SERVICES AND TEACHERS' PRAYER MEETINGS, SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 1862, IN CONNECTION WITH THE GENERAL SUNDAY SCHOOL CONVENTION.

Meetings of Sunday scholars were held as under :

xii SCHOLARS' SERVICES AND TEACHERS' PRAYER MEETINGS.

United teachers' prayer meetings were held in the evening of the same day at the following places:

General Sunday School Convention.

INTRODUCTORY MEETING,

In the Lecture Hall of the Sunday School Union, Old Bailey,
MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1862.

JAMES ABBISS, ESQ., ALDERMAN, IN THE CHAIR.

THE proceedings were commenced by singing the hymn,—
"Kindred in Christ, for His dear sake,
A hearty welcome here receive;
May we together now partake
The joys which only He can give.

"To you and us by grace 'tis given
To know the Saviour's precious name,
And shortly we shall meet in heaven,
Our hope, our way, our end the same.

"May He by whose kind care we meet,
Send His good Spirit from above,
Make our communications sweet,

And cause our hearts to burn with love !"

after which Mr. FEATHERSTONE, of St. Mary's Cray, offered prayer. Mr. HARTLEY read a letter from Mr. Alderman Challis, treasurer of the Sunday School Union, expressing his regret that, being absent from town, he was unable to take the chair according to arrangement; and moved,"That Mr. Alderman Abbiss be requested to preside."

Mr. WATSON Seconded the motion, which was cordially agreed to. The CHAIRMAN said,-My dear christian friends and fellow-labourers in the Sunday school, to those of you who know me I am sure I need offer no apology for appearing before you this evening; but there are a great many strangers now present, to whom it may be a matter of surprise that at the last moment I should be called upon to preside over your deliberations. To them I will only say, that no one more than myself regrets the circumstance by which you are deprived of the services of your Treasurer on this occasion, who would, with so much more ability than I can hope to do, have filled this important position. Happily for me, I shall have little else to do this evening than to sit still and listen to the able and interesting papers which are to be laid before you. But before I call upon the gentlemen who are to address you, I must on my own behalf, and also on behalf of the Committee of the Sunday School Union, tender a very hearty

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and sincere welcome to the friends who have assembled here from various parts of this and foreign countries. I trust that after the proceedings of this Convention we shall all go away very much improved that the brethren from the country will be able to impart to us, and that we shall be able to impart to them, some useful suggestions and counsels, by which we shall be mutually aided in carrying on our great work. For, brethren, I do look upon the work of the Sunday school teacher as one of vast importance; and I believe that even now the world does not fully appreciate the great benefits which the rising race are deriving from our labours. In welcoming you, therefore, to this Convention, I again express the hope that we shall all go to our homes, at its close, wiser and better men, with a more earnest resolution and purpose to do all in our power for the promotion of that cause which I believe we all have so much at heart.

Mr. W. H. WATSON, Senior Secretary of the Sunday School Union, then read the following paper on

"THE HISTORY AND INFLUENCE OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND." The circumstances under which the present meeting is convened, and the character of the individuals composing it, render my position one of no small honour, but, at the same time, one of considerable responsibility. The Yorkshire Conference of Teachers in 1860 thought a national convention desirable; our brethren in America expressed a wish that it should take a more enlarged character, and this desire was supported by the Conference of Evangelical Christians of all nations at Geneva last September. Every meeting of teachers has a peculiarity and importance not attaching to public meetings generally, because each teacher is actively engaged in the work under consideration; but the present assembly has a still stronger interest belonging to it, inasmuch as those attending it are all representative men, selected by their brethren as possessing especial experience and wisdom. This meeting is the first of its kind. Its proceedings will go forth, and will exert an influence wherever the English language is spoken, and may probably find expression, in whole, or in part, in other tongues. Το deliver the first address to such an assembly is, therefore, no slight privilege, but it at the same time involves much anxiety. The key-note of this Convention has to be struck, and great will be my regret if, by any incompetency on my part, the melody and harmonies of this important series of meetings should fail in stirring up the sensibilities, and energies, and spirituality of the minds which shall be gathered together.

The history of Sunday schools in England is now well known, and the only difficulty which will arise on that subject will be to condense it within the limits by which this address must be bounded. The influence of Sunday schools in England is not so easily dealt with. In order to ascertain what influence they have had, it may be desirable to cast a glance backward to the condition of England, intellectually, morally, and religiously, prior

to the establishment of Sunday schools. A great change will be found in all these respects, a change which will be universally admitted to be for the better; and it will then remain for consideration whether that change may be attributed, in any and what degree, to the establishment and progress of that Sunday school system, the origination of which we cannot but attribute to that good man, Robert Raikes.

The history of England, for some years prior to that event, presents a very painful picture as it respects the intellectual cultivation of the people. The two universities of Oxford and Cambridge were then the places where those who were to be the governors and instructors of the people completed their education; and it will be readily perceived that the discipline exercised there would influence all their previous studies. "But," says Dr. Swift, "I have heard more than one or two persons of high rank declare they could' learn nothing more at Oxford and Cambridge than to drink ale and smoke tobacco; wherein I firmly believed them, and could have added some hundred examples from my own observations in one of these universities -meaning that of Oxford. Gibbon, the historian, who was a member of Magdalen College there, says he was never once summoned to attend even the ceremony of a lecture, and in the course of one winter might make, unreproved, in the midst of term, a tour to Bath, a visit into Buckinghamshire, and a few excursions to London. Dr. Johnson gives the following * account of his outset at Pembroke College :-"The first day after I came, I waited on my tutor, Mr. Jordan, and then stayed away four. On the sixth, Mr. Jordan asked me why I had not attended; I answered I had been sliding in Christ Church meadow." This apology appears to have been given without the least compunction, and received without the least reproof. While such laxity existed in the oversight of the students, it became a matter of necessity that the examination for degrees should be correspondingly easy, and such was the case. Lord Eldon gives the following account of his examination in 1770:-"An examination for a degree at Oxford was, in my time, a farce. I was examined in Hebrew and in history. 'What is the Hebrew for the place of a skull?' I replied, 'Golgotha.' 'Who founded University College?' I stated (though, by the way, the point is sometimes doubted) that King Alfred founded it. 'Very well, sir,' said the examiner, 'you are competent for your degree!'" In 1780, Dr. Vicesimus Knox says, "The greatest dunce usually gets his ' TESTIMONIUM signed with as much ease and credit as the finest genius.

The statutes require that he should translate familiar English phrases into Latin, and now is the time when the masters show their wit and jocularity. I have known the questions on this occasion to consist of an inquiry into the pedigree of a race-horse." It could not be expected that the examination would be very strict, as the examiners were chosen by the candidate himself from among his friends, and he was expected to provide a dinner for them after the examination was over. Lord Chester

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