Anonymous, ‘Religious Intelligence. The General Sunday-School Society’ The Evangelical Magazine, 6 (1809), 571-572

Anonymous, ‘Religious Intelligence. The General Sunday-School Society’ The Evangelical Magazine, 6 (1809), 571-572

THE General Half-Yearly Meeting of the Society for the Support and Encouragement of Sunday Schools, in England, Wales, Ireland, and adjacent islands; Right Hon. Lord Barham, President; was held on the 11th instant. The Committee reported that since their last meeting, they had issued 8995 Spelling Books, 1666 Testaments, 36 Bibles, and the use of 125 Schools, containing upwards of 6000 children; and that since the commencement of their Institution, they had distributed 277,577 Spelling-Books, 60,570 Testaments, and 7662 Bibles, to 3270 Schools, containing upwards of 260,000 children, besides a sum of 41762 for the payment of Teachers.

The committee had availed themselves of the resolution passed at the last General Meeting for extending the patronage of the society to Ireland. Many applications had already been made, and 1300 Spelling-Books, and a proportionate number of testaments, had been furnished; and a correspondence had been opened with several Clergymen of the first respectability with a view to the regular and general establishment of Sunday-Schools, throughout that important but benighted portion of the British Empire. Wales had also continued to attract the attention of the Committee. The northern part of the principality having been already generally provided, the Committee had been chiefly employed in satisfying the increasing demands of the south. Application had been made thence for not fewer than 67 Schools during the last half year, for whose use 1800 Welsh Spelling-Books, together with a proportionate number of copies of a stereotyped Welsh Testament had been furnished.

The Committee congratulated the members of the Society upon the decisive evidence afforded of its progressive utility. Whether they looked to England, to Wales or to Ireland, they had the satisfaction of seeing the work of education rapidly proceeding under their supplies.

The public at large, they added, would not need to be informed home intimately religious and moral institution stood connected with political order and social happiness; and if they bore this truth in mind, a truth inculcated and confirmed by almost every day’s occurrence, they would require no additional incentive to patronize and support an institution which had been and continued to be, so signally efficacious in dispensing the means of knowledge and virtue thro’ the great mass of the community.

Subscriptions continue to be received by MR. Thomas Smith, Secretary to the Society, No. 19, Little Moorfields.

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