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hv the Schools , and the countenance he received from a Dissenter" and a " Quaker . " About this time it was estimated that no less than 250 , 000 children , in
different parts of England , were under instruction by Sunday Schools . The late Bishop Porteus , then Bishop of Chester , recommended the formation of Sunday Schools in his extensive diocese . This
prelate had early conceived a very favourable opinion of the plan , as we are informed ^ in his Life just published , an / 1 in several instances privately encouraged it .
_* f But , as an act of prudence , he determined not to give it the sanction © f his public approbation , till , as he observes , * time and experience > and more accurate enquiry , had enabled him to form a more decided judgment of its real value , and its probable effects . '
When , however , repeated information from various quarters , and particularly from some of the largest manufacturing town 6 in his diocese , had convinced him that such institutions , wherever the experiment had been fairly tried , had produced , and could not fail to produce , if discreetly regulated , essential benefit , he
no longer hesitated in promoting them generally throughout his diocese . With this view , as the wisest and most effectual mode of giving publicity to his sen * timents , he addressed to his clergy a
very excellent letter , containing , in a short compass , a plain , temperate , and judicious exposition of the advantages of Sunday Schools , and of the rules by which they should be conducted . "Life of Biihop Portent , p . 93 .
This patronage of Sunday Schools , by the late Bishop of London , appears much more in character , than the caution , from which he at first withheld his
public support . Considering his opinion of the scheme , and that it originated with a man after his owii h ^ art , in church matters , it is wonderful , thfct while thousands wete perishing " for lack of knowledge , " he could hesitate to em-
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ploy any influence which his pub . lie station afforded to urge Cleroy and Laity thus to do good on the Sabbath-day * The trite adage bis dat qui cito daty is here peculiarly applicable .
On this occasion , the late Mr , Thomas Christie , whose name oc . curs in the Repository , ( p . 125 130 ) should not be forgotten . That gentleman , during the course of a liberal education in Scotland , where he ofice designed the
medical profession , had composed Essays on a variety of subjects . A volume of these he published in 1789 , under the title of < 4 Mis . cellanies ; Philosophical , Medical and Moral / ' The 3 d consists of
" Hints respecting the state and education of the people . " Having complained that iC too great eagerness in inferior manufactures , obstructs the formation of human minds , the greatest of all
manufactures , " he proposes that * ' part , at least , of the Sunday may be usefully employed in instruct , ing those who will not go to church , and indeed cannot be expected to go , because they can neither read , write nor understand . " He adds ,
** Since these remarks were first written , a grand and extensive plan has been set on foot in England , by Mr . Raikes of Gloucester , for the education of the common people . It will easily be understood that I allude to the institution
of Sunday Schools . It is with infinite satisfaction , that I find so many eminent and excellent persons have now engaged in promoting these , and that the good effects flowing frorm them arc already beyond all expectation . Excellent Mr . Raikes ! May thy bencrolent examp le hast
be universally followed ! Thou raised the depressed ( luman mind , and given light to those who sat in darkness . Tbc blessing of them that were ready to perish shall come upon thce ; and the people who were destroyed for lack oj knowledge shall celebrate thy name P . 314 ,
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5 S 2 Memoir of Mr . Robert Raikcs *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1811, page 582, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2421/page/6/
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