Letter from Arthur Helps, Bishop's Waltham, to an unidentified recipient, 1855 September 19 : autograph manuscript signed | WorldCat.org (original) (raw)

Summary:Replying to his " ... wish to have my opinion on the subject of Sunday Schools, because you have read in a book which does not bear my name, but which you suppose to be mine, a certain passage about Sunday Schools that seems to you far from satisfactory. I have not read the book in question since it was first published, and am not inclined to refer to it; I think it also hard to be thus called upon for one's opinions upon grave matters by a stranger; but I see throughout your letter a tone of such sincerity and earnestness that I cannot help replying to you. Well, then, I must frankly own I look upon Sunday Schools with anything but favour. I greatly fear that in this country we make the Sunday very repulsive and intolerable to our children - a day of penance rather than of joy. Poor little creatures! When I find them attending the two long services of our Church with the two wearisome sermons (wearisome at least to them, if I may trust my own recollections), when I see the long rows of little legs in heavy shoes upon the damp pavement, and when I hear the chorus of coughing which, through the Winter months, is very audible in Church, I sometimes think to myself, Is this what Christ meant when he said 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not'? To these wearisome services you would add wearisome teaching, so that the whole day may present nothing that is comforting or beautiful to the child except, perhaps, a little better dinner than usual. If you think that this is the way to endear Sunday to children, I differ with you entirely. But you will answer me That in many cases this is the only opportunity for teaching children anything; to which I shall rejoin, that does not make me satisfied with Sunday Schools, but only more dissatisfied with the system of education in this country, which leaves any of our children to be educated only on days properly appropriated to rest, religion, and festivity. Let not the conjunction in the last sentence of these three things (rest, religion, and festivity) surprize you. I believe that if the Rulers and Leaders of mankind would address themselves to the subject, they could contrive such a Sunday as should justly combine these three elements, and which would be the greatest blessing this toiling nation could receive."