The Sunday School Teacher's Guide

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1818 edition. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTION, Containing A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. TO trace a mighty river to its source, has ever been considered a sublime and interesting employment. It is pleasing to ascend its course from the point where it opens into the ocean, and becomes the inlet of wealth to an empire, till we arrive at the spot, where it bubbles up a spring but just sufficient to irrigate the meadows of a neighbouring farm, and to observe, as it receives the confluence of tributary waters, how it diffuses its benefits to the tribes that dwell upon its banks. Still more engaging is the task, to trace the streams of benevolence to their source, and contemplate the origin of those institutions, which in their progress to the swelling tide of christian knowledge, confer eternal blessings on immortal souls. For what is the Nile or the Niger; the Missouri, the Euphrates, or the Thames, compared with the river of life? The smallest rivulet which flows into this celestial stream, has more sublimity and importance than the mightiest rivers upon earth, and will be traced with the deepest interest upon the nap of the Redeemer's kingdom, millions of ages after the ocean itself shall be dissipated into nothing. Justly therefore, may it be accounted an object worthy our attention to trace, by a rapid survey, the origin, the progress, and improvement of the Sitndav School, InstiTution. To the greater part of those who are employed in diffusing the benefits of this admirable system, it is almost impossible to form an adequate idea of the extreme ignorance of the poor, before its introduction. Except where a hippy few of their children were gathered beneath the wings of some charitable institution, the...