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PREFACE.

WITH the issue of this number we close the Second Volume of the Methodist Quarterly.-We deem it, therefore, a fitting occasion to state again, in brief and explicit terms, the object for which this periodical was started. As we asserted at the first, it had not its birth in hostility, or even unfriendliness, to existing Methodist periodicals, whether denominational or otherwise. To supersede the use, diminish the number of readers, or infringe on the province of any one of them, was far from our thought or wish. But while denominational magazines may serve very important ends, and are, as a rule, deserving of far greater support than they generally obtain from those to whose interests they are devoted, yet they do not, and cannot, cover all the fields of usefulness which may be cultivated by religious periodical literature. Their freedom and independence of action are also of a very limited character. The work they do is mainly done to order. Every intelligent person, who has duly reflected on the subject, must admit that the common cause of Methodism may be advantageously served by an organ independent and unsectional, if conducted in a spirit of fairness and kindness toward all denominations of Methodists.

The Methodist Quarterly has aspired to be such an organ. At its commencement it hoisted no dubious colours, but spoke out frankly its purpose. On the question of Church Government-the only root of bitterness which has sprung up in Methodism, seriously to trouble it-we declared our sympathy with what are called liberal principles, but earnestly disowned all bigotry and bitterness in referring to, or advocating them, For the present generation of Methodists, we believe the days of controversy on Church polity are over. The question, now earnestly asked and considered is, how can the system be

worked most efficiently? and the test of efficiency is the amount and quality of spiritual result. In this belief we proposed to abstain from disputation on church polity in our pages, and manifest toward all the spirit of brotherly love.

Accordingly in our first number we held out the hand of fraternal friendship to all Methodist denominations by name, save the parent body. In the first draft of our address they were named as well, but an excess of modesty led us to strike the sentence out. We now believe our second thought was not the best, and have ever since regretted the act. From our Wesleyan brethren we have received an amount of sympathy and support equal to that given us by any other.

We appeal to the eight numbers we have issued for proof of the sincerity and truthfulness of our original assurances. Our contributors have furnished us with articles which have been generally commended by the press, and their christian spirit is as unimpeachable as their ability. By our statement made at the beginning we abide, and are prepared to stand or fall on our merits. Still to our friends we tender our fervent thanks for their support, and, in asking for its continuance, we again pledge ourselves that no effort shall be wanting on our part to be worthy of their patronage.

Nov. 25, 1868.

ERRATUM.-The Notes at the bottom of pages 308 and 309 should be transposed.

THE METHODIST QUARTERLY.

MARCH 1868.

ART. I.-SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

It is intended in this paper to make a contribution to the animated and healthful discussion of Sunday school topics which is at present being carried on in conferences, in magazines, in the pulpit, and in newspapers even. No attempt will be made to consider all the phases of the subject; but only to deal with a few broad and leading questions, and, it may be in the spirit of prophecy, with the important changes likely to be brought about in connection with Sunday school operations, by the influences of causes hereafter to be mentioned. While it is hoped the reader will not encounter any dogmatic declarations of opinion, yet there will be found a free and frank utterance of such thoughts as may arise. Simple criticism, or mere fault-finding, or censorious pointing out of blots and blemishes, would be alike unjust and ungenerous; nevertheless, it may

be that in the course of these remarks the reader will discover that remedies for evils named are not always prescribed. Let him understand in such cases, that as yet these may be subjects for more mature consideration hereafter, or subjects on which it is not easy to give a decision in one way or another. Moreover, let it be observed beforehand, that whatever is written has reference more particularly to schools in the northern part of the country. We know little of those in the southern or agricultural districts; so, whether the faults, or remedies, or suggestions, which may be mentioned will be applicable to them or not, we cannot say.

At the risk of many indignant denials, we say that the institutions under consideration have not accomplished all the good they might, and therefore ought to, have done. Such an assertion a very few years ago would have subjected him that uttered it to no little odium; and, if any had deigned to reply, they would have overwhelmed the offender with an avalanche of words and phrases, trite and hackneyed,-there would have

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been "the nursery of the Church," of course, to begin with; then the number of local preachers, missionaries, and even "travelling preachers" who had risen (they had always "risen") from our Sunday schools; and after this, vague and flatulent speculations as to what the Christian Church and society generally would have been but for Sunday schools. Then we should have been told as a complete finisher to all arguments, that there were 30,000 teachers and 3,000,000 scholars in the Sunday schools of the land. Those figures have done duty for half a generation of Sunday school tea party speakers. But we don't hear quite so much of this" tall talk" now-adays. The totals with so many ciphers in, tell both ways, and they are rather ugly facts to handle. If there be all these workers, and all this work, and all this impressible material, what is the out-come? Is it proportionate to numbers and to labour? Weak brethren have become doubtful; and those we should regard as strong brethren say roundly that results are grievously inadequate to the money, time, and work laid out. Some persons overleap themselves, and fall on the other side, and would like to say the whole system is a failure, and in parts of it positively injurious. One wise man has enquired and cogitated on the subject till he has brought himself to astonishing conclusions certainly. The Rev. J. B. Sweet, Rector of Colkirk-with-Stibbard, has published a pamphlet entitled "The Failure of the Present Sunday School System, its Cause and Remedy." The writer considering that Sunday schools had, in 1851, been in operation long enough to be judged by the results which they might be found to have produced; and if they were, as was so constantly reiterated, nurseries of the Church, then it must, he says, "follow as a general consequence that those places in which the Sunday school system has been longest and most zealously worked, and has prevailed in greatest proportion to the population, will exhibit the largest congregations on the Lord's day, the greatest proportion of adult worshippers, and the highest religious tone and appreciation of Divine ordinances." Expecting to prove this, Mr. Sweet set to work with his multiplication table, and, to his own dismay, statistically proved quite the contrary; whereupon, Mr. Fountain Hartley, Statistical Secretary of the London Sunday School Union, as he was officially bound to do, set to work upon the pamphlet, and has statistically made it into rags and tatters. Mr. Hartley objects that Mr. Sweet has taken the attendance at morning service in churches and chapels only

* See English Independent issues in September, 1867.

(as given in the census papers for 1851) which is rather unfair; he quotes towns against those in the pamphlet, which show a contrary result; he mildly charges Mr. Sweet with "modifying the basis of his calculations," otherwise opposite conclusions would have been come to; and states that the "weak point in the calculation is the smallness of the areas selected for comparison." Mr. Hartley then proceeds himself to go into elaborate calculations, and statistically arrives at the very opposite conclusion to Mr. Sweet. Readers who may feel interested in such calculations are referred to the letters themselves.

After all, is it not a melancholy admission we have all to make, that the children-at any rate a great many of them-who have been brought up in the schools, under such influences as might exist there year after year, when they become men and women, marry and are given in marriage, and have children of their own, do not themselves profess religion so much as ever, or rarely, to go to a place of worship? Is there a Sunday school teacher of even limited experience who does not himself know many such cases? What is more surprising is that these very people are extremely anxious that their children should regularly attend at the school, as they themselves used to do. Is there a teacher of twenty or thirty years' experience, who reads these words, who does not call to mind the troops of boys and girls grown to be young men and maidens, who have passed under his eyes, perhaps under his own personal care, who are not now ever seen in the sanctuary; many gone to the bad, most caring nothing for, utterly indifferent to, eternal things, those subjects which were their Sabbath learning or should have been in early days? Why, if we had kept half or quarter of the children who have attended our schools in our churches and chapels, even as members of our congregations only, how much more numerous and how much larger the churches and chapels must necessarily have been! Does the state of English society generally warrant Sunday school teachers in boasting so very much of what they have done? Prisons, gin-palaces, beershops, social and criminal statistics, city and town missionaries, district visitors, tract distributors these testify to the existence of a terrible amount of juvenile and youthful depravity, which we humbly venture to say ought not to exist to such an extent, considering the amount of Sunday school agency at work, and would not exist if that agency were wisely and piously directed.

It seems to us that our leaders in Sunday school operations have not taken sufficient note and estimate of the changes

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