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DELIVERED BEFORE
THE SUPERINTENDENTS, TEACHERS, AND PUPILS,
OF THE
SUJVDrfLY SCMOOXJS
ATTACHED TO ST* GEORGE’S CHURCH.
IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK>
ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR ENTERING INTO THE OCCUPATION
OF THE APARTMENTS PREPARED FOR THEIR ACCOMMO-
DATION BY THE VESTRY OF SAID CHURCH,
On Sunday, November 9, 1817.
BY THE REY. JAMES MILNOR,
Rector of St. George’s.'-*""
PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE BOARD OF OFFICERS OF
THE NEW-YORK SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION SOCIETY.
NEW-YORK:
PRINTED BY JOHN C. TOTTEN.
1817,New-Tork, Nov. 12, 1817.
Rev. and respected Sir,
We have the honor to inform you, that the Officers and Managers of
the New-York Sunday-School Union, having been highly gratified with the
Address which you delivered, on the last Sabbath, to the Superintendents,
Teachers, and Scholars of the Sunday Schools connected with St. George’s
Church; and believing that its publication would essentially subserve the
cause in which they are engaged, have unanimously adopted a Resolution,
respectfully requesting you to furnish them with a copy of it for the press.—
While we make this communication by order of the Board, you will permit
us to add our own earnest request, that you will comply with the object of the
Resolution, and to express the high esteem for your public and private char-
acter, with which we are, dear Sir,
Your Obedient and
Humble Servants,
Rev. James Milnor.
Z. LEWIS, )
R. HAVENS, S
Committee,
November 15, 1817.
Gentlemen,
1 am greatly indebted to the Officers and Managers of the Sunday
School Union Society, for the favorable opinion entertained by them of the
Address recently delivered in their presence to the Sunday Schools attached
to St. George’s Church, and to you for the obliging terms in which you have
communicated their request for its publication. Although no such disposition
of this hastily prepared communication was contemplated on my part, yet if
its appearance in print, in the estimation of your respectable Board, will at
ail subserve the interests of Sunday Schools, 1 resign it cheerfully to their
disposal.
1 am, Gentlemen,
very respectfully,
Your obedient Servant,
JAMES MILNOR.
Messrs. Z. Lewis, j Committee of the Board of Officers of Sunday School
and R. Havens, $ Union Society.ADDRESS.
I Congratulate you, my friends, on the occasion of our pre-
sent meeting. After contending with many difficulties and in-
conveniences, for want of suitable accommodations adjacent
to our church, your utmost wishes are now met by the com-
mendable liberality of the vestry of St. George’s, in the prepa-
ration of thC new apartments for your schools*
Their completion has occurred at a period peculiarly favor-
able 5 the recent encouraging accession to the number of your
pupils, in concurrence with an event so propitious to the accel-
eration of their improvement, being calculated to inspire you
with new ardour, and cheer your hearts with the most animat-
ing hopes.
Never was there an exercise of Christian charity more imme-
diately accompanied with its own reward, than that in which I
rejoice to see you so cheerfully, so assiduously employed.—
Never was there a labour of love so likely to grow upon the
affections, and to enlist every feeling of the heart in its pursuit.
Never was there a more lovely spectacle for men and angels,
or one on which the God of heaven looks with more benignity,
than a collection of young persons animated with love totvards
him and their fellow men, sacrificing personal ease and com-
fort, and disinterestedly devoting themselves to the improve-
ment of the children of poverty in learning, in morals, in reli-
gion*6
Such is the threefold design of your association.
You aim at the improvement of your pupils in learning. *
Extensive acquisitions in human erudition are only to be at-
tained by those, who, in the arrangements of Divine Provi-
dence, are blessed with affluence and: leisure for their pursuit.
Those whose allotments are of a humbler cast, disheartened by
the difficulties of their situation, because they cannot attain the
highest advancement in literature, often neglect the pursuit ot
any.
The habits too of a very large proportion of the poorer class
lead to a depreciated estimate of the value of intellectual im-
provement ; and in many cases their unhappy offspring are
brought up in an utter unacquaintance with God, and with reli-
gious and moral obligation, unless the charity of strangers res-
cue them from the ignorance in which parental neglect ingulphs
them.
Sunday Schools furnish exactly that sort of engine which is
best adapted to remedy these evils. They raise not the expect-
ations of the poor to an unreasonable height. They point not
the hopes of their pupils, generally, to those large attainments,
which, for the most part, are reserved for those of ampler
means. But they propose to qualify them for the limited sphere
in which they are called to act, to enable them to read the in-
estimable volume of inspiration, to learn from it their duty
here and their hopes hereafter, and to receive the varied satis-
factions and comforts which even a very moderate portion ot
learning will not fail to bestow. Surely these are great advan-
tages. They will be found to give their possessor a more ele-
vated standing among his associates, to open new sources of
entertainment, as well as instruction, in the family circle, and
to render a progressive improvement of the worldly circumstan-
ces of individuals more practicable and easy. If the Sunday7
school pupil be blessed with genius, or evince uncommon apti-
tude to learning, he will become an object of particular atten-
tion, and the same benevolent feelings that have given him the
earliest rudiments of instruction, will probably open to him an
avenue to any degree of acquisition to 'which talent, virtue, and
assiduity may entitle him. Is it too much to hope, that some
future day may exhibit in the senate, at the bar, in our colleges,
and our pulpits, some distinguished characters, gratefully ac-
knowledging their obligations to Sunday Schools, for eliciting
and cherishing those sparks of genius, which, unfanned by the
breath of charity, might have been forever hidden from the
world ?
But these institutions have a special reference to the im-
provement of the morals of the poorer classes. This they ef-
fect both in a direct and a collateral manner. £0 rescue so
large a portion of children from the evils of street association,
to engage their minds in the love of employments of so opposite
a nature to those that have too generally disgraced the Sabbath,
to endear to them, by precept and example, a course of conduct
designed to make them respectable arid happy, to impress, by
the excellent lessons which they are made to read, the purest
precepts of Christian morality, are the immediate and direct ad-
vantages of these establishments. But will the benefit be con-
fined to these pupils ? Will the light of your example, my young
friends, your friendly visits to the mansions of poverty, the affec-
tionate interest you take in the offspring of the poor, your pru-
dent, well directed intimations of parental and of social duty,
produce no effect? Will the repetition by the lisping lips of
infancy at home of those excellent maxims and precepts which
they are here taught, make no impression on the minds of their
relatives and friends ? Will the tracts and narratives which the
children take away with them as the reward of merit, never be8
peTused with delight and profit by parents, by older brothers
and sisters, by the visitors and acquaintance of their families ?
Will the mother, when preparing her child on the morning of
God’s holy day for a decent appearance amongst its comrades in
school and in the house of God, and when reflecting after its de-
parture how holily and how happily it is employed, feel no com-
punctious visitings of conscience for her past aberrations from
duty, no incitements to imitate the example of her child ? Will
our young men and women, who are not engaged as teachers in
these schools, feel no restraining suggestions on illicit or injuri-
ous indulgence, in a view of the self-denying duties in which
they see you so commendably employed ? Will the lustre of
your example produce no accessions to your numbers, and the
increase of candidates for the honorable office of Sunday School
instructors, lead to the establishment of no fresh efforts in this
*
noble work ? O yes. In all these particulars, brief as are the
annals of our Sunday Schools, we are furnished with historical
answers of the most encouraging kind. Already the face of so-
ciety in this city presents the aspect of moral amelioration; and
various ramifications of social improvement owe their origin
and effect to the spirit excited in the conduct of Sunday Schools#
Never was there any undertaking so well calculated to make
us acquainted with the actual state of the poor, and with the na-
ture of those adventitious and moral evils that surround them ;
nor any better adapted to excite that charitable feeling towards
them which does not expend itself in the relief of present ne-
cessity, but lays the foundation of their permanent improve-
ment and comfort in the rectification of their moral vjews? and
the amendment of the habits of their lives.
But if Sunday Schools only subserved the interests of learn-
ing and morals, deserving as these are of culture and atten-
tion, there would still be a desideratum of a more estimable$
kind, wanting to draw out, in their most efficient exercise, the
affections of the Christian. '
Without the religion of christ, the most splendid at-
tainments in literature cease to possess any real value.-—
Without this you may attempt to raise the structure of moral civ-
ilization, but it is on a foundation of sand. Without the inspi-
ring motives which this blessed system presents, those of hu-
man expediency will fail to conduct, with vigour and persever-
ance, duties arduous and uninterrupted as yours. Without this
the blessing of heaven cannot rest upon your efforts. It is,
therefore, the chief glory of this charitable work, that it proposes
to add to the intelligence of the most uninformed part of society,
to improve their morals, and increase their worldly comforts, in
consonance with a design of greater importance than these,
though in strict unison with their promotion, that of preparing
them “ so to pass through things temporal, as that they may
not finally lose the things that are eternal.”
All the exercises of these schools are in harmony with the
solemn requisitions of the Christian Sabbath. To be able
one day to read the Bible is the object of ambition held out to
the little novitiate, who is only learning to lisp the letters of
his alphabet: to have it soon placed in his hands is the stimu-
lus to new exertion presented to the learner of the easier les-
sons : to read and commit its interesting narratives and heav-
enly precepts, to have gradually unfolded its precious doc-
trines, to be directed to the grace of the Holy Spirit, to impress
them on the understanding and the heart, are the privileges of
those who are competent to their reception. Religion then is
the sanctifying principle of Sunday School associations, and all
their operations have principally in view its practical promo-
tion. It is this that must enlist in their behalf the ministers of
God, the stated recipients of the commemorative symbols of
£10
a Saviour’s love, and all who' desire the advancement of his
name and kingdom in the world. This consideration presents
an unequivocal answer to that objection to Sunday Schools,
which some perceive in the facilities afforded to the poor by
those places of education which are open to their children
during the week. In some of these religious instruction is
slighted; in others the number taught by a single instructor
precludes its efficient employment; often there is" a lamenta-
ble incompetency in religious knowledge, and but little evi-
dence of its practical influence on the teacher himself. And if
none of these difficulties occurred, were the poor children left
to run at large on the Sabbath; were no friendly hand to con-
duct them to the public worship of their Maker, little actual
profit, of a religious kind, would result from the instructions of
the week. It is the habit of pious occupation in the intervals
of our Sunday services, and of constant attendance and orderly
deportment during the hours of worship, that stamps an incalcu-
lable value on well conducted Sunday Schools.
To give them this character it is manifest, that the Teachers
should themselves be taught of God. It is therefore of the
utmost importance, that only such of our young friends
as are well indoctrinated in the principles of religious faith,
and exhibit the influence of the self-denying doctrines of
the cross in the purity and piety of their lives, should be
engaged in the business of Sunday School tuition. Per-
haps it is too rigid an exaction that all should be united in
external profession with the church, by the sacred bond of
Christian communion. The timidity of youth, or mistaken ap
prehensions of the nature of this holy duty, may deter some
from an immediate union with their brethren in this public
avowal of their devotion to Christ, upon whom affectionate in-
tercourse in the pious duties of the institution, union in prayer,II
and the more familiar instructions of the private assemblages of
the teachers, may ere long produce impressions that will not
fail to direct them to the table of the Lord.
; It would-be blamable ingratitude to him “ from whom all ho-
ly desires, all good counsels, and all just works, proceed,” if he
who now addresses you did not bear his testimony to the value
of Sunday Schools as instruments, under God’s blessing, of
spiritual profit to their conductors. It has been the happi-
ness of your pastor to enrol amongst the attendants.on that al-
tar, where it is his unmerited privilege to dispense the emblems
of redeeming love, an encouraging number of estimable young
persons, who he trusts have been born of the Spirit, and are
united by a living faith to the Redeemer. In the hearts of
many of these, the work of grace has been either begun, or
consummated, in the bosom of the Sunday Schools. Although,
therefore, the profane and thoughtless should not be invited to
engage in duties of a character so peculiarly serious and re-
ligious, and it is very desirable that all employed in them
should be communicating Christians, yet other orderly and well
disposed young persons should not, in my view, be excluded
from a situation so well adapted to foster the growth of evan-
gelical piety, to excite a love towards its sincere professors, and
to increase the number of the avowed disciples of Christ.
Such are some of the advantages of these excellent institu-
tions. .They impart to the objects of their care the first rudi-
ments of human learning; they inculcate pure morals ; they
impress on their tender minds the elements of religious truth.
To their conductors they afford the noble pleasure of well-do-
ing, the means of advancing in holiness, the opportunity of ce-
menting the bond of Christian fellowship.
That the community in general, its poorer classes in particu-
lar and the church of Christ, all partake, directly or indirectly,12
of their benefits, is already evident to every intelligent observ-
er of their progress. But on you, my friends, who hold the '
office of Superintendents and Teachers, and on your coadja*
tors in the associate schools with which you stand connected,
will it depend to exhibit hereafter still more ample evidences
of their benign effects.
Let no discouragements damp your ardor. Visit with fre-
quency the abodes of poverty. Convince their occupants that
you are their friends. Kindly remonstrate with them, where it
is requisite, on the sin of neglecting the religious arid moral cul-
ture of their own minds, and on the duties they owe the children
whom God has given them, if properly trained to be the com-
fort and staff of their old age, if brought up in vice, to bring
their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. If you perceive
that the example of the parents is likely to defeat your good
intentions towards their children, try the effect of friendly ex-
postulation, and bring their cases with importunity before God
in your secret approaches to the throne of his grace. In your
Sunday instructions, give your little pupils something of a reli-
gious nature, which their infant minds may comprehend and re*
tain, and which, repeated in the family circle, may be blessed
to the edification of their brothers and sisters, and perhaps even
of some dissolute and thoughtless parents.
But it is needless for me to pursue, in detail, the various du-
ties to which your charitable undertaking calls you. My own
observation, the growing prosperity of your schools, afford suf-
ficient evidence how well you know, how assiduously you fulfil
them. Little else remains for me than to entreat you never to
be weary in well doing, but to persevere in your endeavours,
not in a spirit of jealous rivalship, but of honest emulation, to
sustain and improve the rank which is already given to your
schools in the estimation of the parent societies and of the
public.13
Let me not, however, close this address, without reminding you
of that humility and self-abasement which should be the attend-
ant of all your labours. Whatever success may crown them,
give to God alone the glory and the praise. Unless his bless-
ing had accompanied your exertions, they would have been
ineffectual and vain. Continue to depend upon him. Let
all your difficulties be spread before him, in your social and
private prayers. “ In all your ways acknowledge God, and
he shall direct your paths.5’ “Commit your ways unto him
and trust in him,” and you have his gracious promise, that
“ he will bring it to pass.”
If at any time your hearts are discouraged by the personal
fatigues to which your office subjects you, or by the seeming
fruitlessness of your labours, and the occasional ingratitude of
those for whom they are expended, set before your minds the
blessed Jesus. In the midst of the basest returns from those
whom he came to seek and to save, he persevered to death in
offices of mercy. For his very enemies at length he submitted
to a dishonouring, excruciating death. In every needful suffer-
ing, and in unremitted endeavours to do good, whatever conse-
quences may ensue, he has “ left us an example that we should
follow his steps.”
Of one thing, my friends, it is right you should stand
apprized. Though God approve and prosper your work
and labour of love ; though the peace of your own consciences,
and the applause of the good and pious attest your integrity in
the manner of conducting it, you will not escape censure from
an uncharitable and envious world. If singular devotion
to God be, as I trust it will, the ground on which you
expect his favour ; if an abstinence from those demoraliz-
ing amusements and associations, which so effectually des-
troy the life of God in the soul of the Christian, be consider-
ed by you, as I trust it will, an essential evidence of self-denial: if14
your conversation in the world, deriving its character from the
holy duties of your office, be* as I trust it will, seasoned with
grace ; if you are open in your avowal, as I trust you will be,
of a reliance for your salvation, not on this, or any other work of
your own, no, nor on your ceremonial enrolment in the: visible
church of Christ, but on the life-giving efficacy of the doctrines
of the cross, applied by faith to the renovation of your natures,
and having their heavenly operation, under the influence of
God’s Spirit, evinced in the holiness of your lives; and more es-
pecially if your efforts in your present work are attended with
eminent success, yoU must expect to encounter the sneers of the
ungodly, and stand lessened in the estimation of many nominal
professors. This was the lot predicted for his faithful follow-
ers, by our divine Immanuel. His prediction has ever been
verified: all that have lived godly in this world, in one shape or
another, have suffered persecution; often from quarters whence
should have been afforded consolation, encouragement, and aid.
Let meekness of disposition and patience of endurance, should
yours be the common lot of true Christian piety, characterize
your conduct under it. But let nothing deter you from holy
boldness in support of an evangelical profession of the gospel,
and a steady production of all the fruits by which the Lord
Jesus Christ requires it to be manifested before the world; for
on these constituents of Christian character, under God, will
greatly depend the success of your benevolent and pious ex-
ertions.
I cannot, my friends, omit mentioning with heartfelt satisfac-
tion, that besides the two schools that are hereafter to be taught
in the adjacent building, I am informed, that under the auspices
of an additional number of teachers from our church, the room
now vacated by the removal of the boys’ school to their new
apartment, is to be hereafter occupied as a Sunday School for15
adults. Of the utility of this measure there cannot be the
smallest doubt; of its practicability as little. With the spirit
now so happily prevalent amongst you, any beneficial object
that merits your attention, may be harmoniously and success-
fully achieved. No one better deserves that character than one
which contemplates the extension of the benefits of Sunday
instruction to those who, from poverty, or the neglect of parents,
have grown up without even such a moderate portion of learn-
ing as would qualify them to read the Sacred Scriptures. For-
mer attempts of this kind have resulted both in temporal and
spiritual profit to their subjects. Not only persons in the merid-
ian of their days, but those in whom the lamp of life has been
nearly extinguished, have been conducted to an acquaintance
with that blessed volume which contains the words of eternal
life, and to an experimental knowledge of the Saviour whom it
reveals, and have left the world exulting triumphantly in the
hopes of the gospel, and invoking blessings upon Sunday
Schools, as the means, under God, of their enjoyment. I heart-
ily wish prosperity to the intended effort^ and question not that,
in union with their brothers and sisters of the Schools already
established, the teachers of the adults will experience in the
discharge of their duties and in their beneficial effects, sources
of inward happiness, such as never yet were found in the haunts
of folly and dissipation; pleasures that will attend them
through life, of which the retrospect will cheer the gloom of a
sick bed, and comfort the soul in the trying hour of dissolution.
Let me now say a few words to you who are the Parents
of these children. You ought to feel a deep and affecting
interest in their welfare. They are gifts from God, intended,
if it be not your own fault, to be blessings to your old
age. They are gifts, for which you will be made accountable
at his bar. Your happiness, both here and hereafter, is very16'
nearly connected With your manner of executing the trust
which the providence of God has imposed upon you* If you
have been yourselves instructed in your youth, you can attest
the advantages of early education. If you have not,"you have
often had reason to deplore the loss. In either case, the timely
culture of your children’s minds, their becoming acquainted
at the very dawn of reason with the God that made them, and
with the revelation of his will, their being early initiated in the
evangelical doctrines afid moral instructions of the Bible, their
being led to his sacred courts, and taught to pray, and praise,
and listen to his word, are benefits which you ought to estimate
as of very high and momentous importance. Whether you re -
gard your own happiness, or that of the children God has given
you, the interests of this life, or of that on which you are Soon to
enter, you should prize these Sunday School institutions as the
most valuable instruments of securing these blessings. Their
success greatly depends on you. We ask you not to contri-
bute in a pecuniary: way to their support. We feel too much
sensibility towards you, under the restricted circumstances in
which Divine Providence has placed you, to insult your pover-
ty by such a request. But although you cannot afford, nor do
we expect at your hands, this sort of aid, there is much that you
may do in support of Sunday Schools. Although you cannot
give money—you can give your children. You can send them to
us for instruction; you can see that they punctually attend; you
can put them in clean, though it may be homely, apparel on this
holy day; you can encourage them to be diligent in learning,
obedient to their teachers, silent and attentive in the house of
God: and above all, you can help our endeavours most essen-
tially by yotir good example. The latter duty is of immense
importance. If we teach your children to reverence the name
of God, and on going home, they hear you without a blush most17
wantonly profane it ; if we teach them to hallow his sacred
day, and you spend it in idle conversation or in dissipated con-
duct ; if we teach them to love and respect you, and you by
intemperate habits or improper behaviour appear to forfeit
your claims to both; if we instil virtuous principles in their
minds on Sunday, which it is your employment, botli) by
precept and example, to eradicate during the remainder of
the week; in any of these cases our labour is probably lost.
With sincere feelings of benevolence towards you and your
children, our designs are defeated, and the sacrifice of time
and of comfort which we have made in your behalf, will to
m be subjects of mourning and regret..
On the contrary, my friends, by pursuing an opposite course,
by giving us your assistance in the particulars already stated,
Sunday Schools may become to you and your children bless-
ings of the choicest kind—blessings that will brighten the
gloom of poverty, assuage the many ills that accompany its
pressure, and prepare you for that happy state in which all dis-
tinctions will be lost, and happy spirits shall ever unite in the
praise and worship of God.
Children of these Schools, it would seem to comport with
the occasion of this assemblage, that I should say a few words
to you. Perhaps, however, your minds can more readily grasp
the familiar instructions communicated to you in school by
your pious instructors, than general addresses of this sort. It
is in listening to these you will find your principal advantage.
But you must listen with a view to profit. Consider your
teachers as your seniors in knowledge, and competent to give
you information and advice on which your happiness in this
and in a future world will very much depend. When they point
you to the God that made you ; when they tell you that he not
only created, but from day to day preserves you ; when they
G18
descant upon his mercy in sending his only Son into the world
to redeem your souls from eternal misery ; when they speak to
you of this blessed Saviour, and of the manner in which (you are
to seek his love and favour^ remember, my children, that these
things are not recited to you, as you do your little tales to one
another, merely for amusement. These are solemn truths; truths
in which e very one of you has a personal concern ; truths, which
if you believe and conform to, you will be forever happy, if
you neglect, you will be forever miserable. Try to understand
them, to keep them in your memories, to recollect them es-
pecially when Satan tempts you to sin against God. For in-
stance, whenever you are about to swear an oath, remember
that one of God’s commandments, which you have been taught
here, forbids you to take the name of the Lord your God in
vain, and declares he will not hold him guiltless (that is he will
severely punish him) who takes his name hi vain. When you
are tempted to titter a falsehood, first consider, that your Bible
says “ all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone.” When wicked acquaintance per-
suade you to loiter about the streets, or to absent yourself from
school on Sunday, call to mind that God hath made this day
holy, that it is his day, and that if you break it you not only
wound our and your parents5 feelings, but you sin against God,
and that you will be made to answer for it at his bar. If any
of you are inclined to be refractory and disobedient to your
parents^ let it restrain you, that God has commanded you to
honor your father and mother, and that his word declares,
“ The eye which mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the
young eagles shall eat it.” When disposed to quarrel and
contend with one another, do not forget that your Saviour re-
quires of you not only to love him, but that as he has loved19
you, you should also love one another. All anger and hatred
towards your brethren and school-mates is forbidden by his
word, and every instance of it on your parts will be record-
ed in Heaven, and laid to your charge in the day of judg-
ment. v Treasure up, my dear children, what is taught you
in the lessons put into your hands; and you who are so far
advanced as to read your bihles, prize it as a great privilege.
Commit much of it to memory, and ask explanations of things
that you do not understand. Let it encourage you that God
has pronounced his blessing on him “ that readeth, and on
them that hear the words of that book, and keep those things
which are written therein.”
He will bless you, by imparting to you the influences of his
Holy Spirit to enlighten and impress your hearts. He will
make you true Christians both in faith and practice; and if
you are so, no matter what your outward fortune in the world,
you will be supremely happy in the love of your God and Sa-
viour in this life; the companions of angels and saints, nav,
of this very God and Saviour, in the life to come.
Again, children, besides the advantage of school instruction,
what an additional means of becoming and of growing up good
Christians, is afforded you by your stated attendance on public
worship* You that can read, what pleasure and profit in fol-
lowing your minister with seriousness and devotion in the
prayers of the church, and in uniting your infant voices in
the praise of God. Although you may not understand every
thing that you hear in sermons, yet it is hoped many things you
can comprehend; and the more quiet your demeanour, and
• fixed your attention, the easier will it be to derive benefit from
them. I have much pleasure in praising you for great im*
provement in your behaviour in church. Still there is room
for more, and I hope at no distant day to be able to exhibit20
the Sunday School children generally, as examples of good
conduct to all the other children in the congregation.	~
I thank you, my friends, Superintendents and Teachers, for
your assiduous exertions in producing orderly conduct amongst
your pupils during the solemn exercises of devotion. The
attention it has required subjects you to great sacrifices of per-
sonal comfort and satisfaction in duties which are so much
your delight. Perhaps this is one of the most painful dis-
couragements attendant on your laudable occupation. But it
is an evil that has already lessened, and as your discipline and
persuasions are continued and produce their effect on your
pupils, it will still further diminish. Habit also will enable
you, and it is an object of attainment earnestly to be desired,
to unite such a portion of attention as is requisite to the deport*
ment of the children, with a necessary regard to your personal
engagement in the duties of the sanctuary.
Finally, my friends, indulge me in the repetition of my wish,
that the interesting employment, which, with fresh advantages
and renovated zeal, is now to engage you, and all its appendant
concerns, be frequently carried to a throne of grace. On my
full belief of the close communion with Heaven which many of
you maintain; on my knowledge of your social union in stated
weekly prayer to God for his heavenly benediction on your
labours; on the endeavours which I know you use to teach
even these little ones to lisp their supplications to God, do I
principally ground my hope of your perseverance in well doing,
and of the smiles of Heaven on these schools. Never intermit
these essential assistances. Without the blessing of God your
labours cannot prosper. This will be dispensed in answer to
evangelical prayer. “ The effectual fervent prayer of the
righteous man availeth much.5’ “ The prayer of the upright
is the delight of the Lord.” “ We know that God heareth21
not; sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of God,
and doth his will, him he heareth.” Go on, my beloved
friends, with cheerfulness and hope, and may God give * new
efficacy to your endeavours* May you each be of the number
of the righteous,- who shall shine forth as the sun in the king-
dom of their Father; of the wise, who shall shine as the bright-
ness of the firmament; of those who turn many to righteous-
ness, and who shall, as their glorious reward, shine as the stars
for ever and ever.
Officers of the male and female Sunday School Union Socie-
ties, we thank you for the favor of your presence on an occa-
sion full of interest to us, and as we trust, not without an inti-
mate connexion with that of the parent institutions. We de-
sire no prosperity in which it is not our ardent prayers that all
our sister establishments may participate. It is a common
work of charity in which we are engaged. All are concerned
for the welfare of each of its branches. An honest emulation
will inspirit our efforts, but not a sentiment of unchristian
rivalship will, it is hoped, be suffered to intrude amongst us.—
Let us be thankful for that harmony of co-operation and of
views, that have hitherto marked the proceedings of the parent
institutions and of all their schools ; for the singular success,
with which God has attended our labour of love ; and especial-
ly for his unspeakable goodness in sanctifying the pious offices
of so many of our Sunday School instructors to their spiritual,
and, as we trust, their eternal profit.
It is also a ground of gratitude to God, that besides the insti-
tutions associated in common union with each other, during the
past year, several not in their connexion have been begun, and
some of them are flourishing and successful. We rejoice at
this accession to the general sum of usefulness in Sunday School
tuition 5 and although it would have been a source of still22
greater satisfaction if our brethren had deemed it proper to
unite in the general plan, yet we desire neither to censure their
motives, nor the measures in which they have issued. There
is a disparity of opinion as to the mode, but what is most es-
sential, all agree in the inestimable value and importance of
Sunday Schools. May the blessing of Heaven rest on their
pious exertions, and on every other effort to promote the
increase and prosperity of this excellent charity.
Brethren and friends of this congregation, we are grateful
both to your officers and to you for the countenance and en-
couragement which you have afforded to the humble attempts at
usefulness in which our young people, in union with some of
more advanced years, have been engaged. We invite your
pecuniary contributions to the general object, and the continu-
ance of your friendly support to the particular institutions con-
nected with this church.
Of such of you as send children, over whom you have a su-
perintendance, to these schools, we request, that you would en-
deavour so to accommodate your domestic concerns, as to give
them the opportunity of constant and punctual attendance. In
one way or another, all may be directly or indirectly useful in
this most interesting work. May the members of this church
be distinguished by that surest evidence of sincere piety,
which is found in offices of mercy and of love; to their fellow
men; and amongst these may the instruction of the ignorant,
the Reformation of the vicious, the salvation of perishing souls,
be principal objects of concern.23
Sunday School Committee, No. 10 of the “New-York Sun-
day School Union Society,’5 was organized on the 7th of March,
1816, by several members of the congregation of St. George’s
Church, and the School was opened on the .10th, at No. 31
Gold-street, but soon after removed to the large room, No. 37
Cherry-street, where it has been kept until the opening of the
rooms erected by the corporation of that Church. The com-
mittee consists of fifteen members, who are elected from the
permanent Teachers of the School—They choose their Chair-
man and Secretary, and also two Superintendents to conduct
the School in conformity with the general rules of the parent
Society, and such particular regulations as are adopted by the
Committee.
Female Sunday School, No. 6, was organized under the “ So-
ciety for the promotion of Female Sabbath Schools,” on the
16th April, 1816, by several ladies of St. George’s Church, who
opened the School on the 20th, at No. 53 John-street; but re-
moving to the Church shortly after, they have continued teach-
ing there until the erection of the new rooms. The perma-
nent teachers constitute a Society which regulates the internal
concerns of the School. The Directress and Secretary there-
of are, ex-officio, Superintendents of the School.
The number of Scholars admitted into these Schools has ex-
ceeded one thousand; of whom the greater part have been dis-
charged—many honourably, having become good readers.24
a large proportion from change of residence, and many for
non-attendance. Great proficiency has been evidenced by
numbers : many pupils are now reading the scriptures who
commenced the alphabet in these Schools.
The School-house is situated in Cliff-street, directly in the
rear of the church, and contains two apartments, sixty feet in
length, with every accommodation : the entrance to each School
is distinct. It was opened on Sunday afternoon, the 9th No-
vember, 1817. On this occasion the Schools proceeded to the
upper room in the following order:—The Female School, with
two Superintendents, sixteen Teachers, five junior Teachers,
and one hundred and thirty-three Scholars: The male School,
with two Superintendents, nineteen Teachers^ three junior
Teachers, and one hundred and twenty-four Scholars. The
exercises commenced in presence of the Officers of the Union
Societies, the Vestry of the Church, and several respectable vis-
itors, with a short address and prayer by the Reverend J,
Milnor, when the following hymn was sung.
I.
GREAT God, thy watchful care we bless r
Which gives our feeble plan success:
Here may we oft delight to meet
Our youthful charge at Jesu’s fe^t.
n.
These walls we to thine honour raise,
Long may they echo to thy praise ;
And thou, descending, fill the place
With choicest tokens of thy grace.25
III.
Here let the great Redeemer reign
With all the graces of his train;
While power divine his word imparts
To conquer youthful sinners’ hearts.
IV.
And in the great decisive day
When God the nations shall survey,
May it before the world appear
That crowds were born for glory here.
The Officers and Vestry then entered the church, where a
large congregation were already assembled, and the schools
passed in procession through the centre aisle of the church to
the seats reserved for them in the gallery. The exercises in
the church were commenced with prayers, and a psalm by
the congregation ; after which the following hymn was sung by
the teachers and pupils.
CHILDREN.
COME, let our voices join
To sing a song of praise 5
For favours so divine
Our grateful ftotes we’ll raise.
TEACHERS.
To God alone the praise belongs,
His love demands your noblest songs.
D26
CHILDREN.
When wandering far astray,
In paths of vice and sin,
You kindly pointed out
The danger we were in.
TEACHERS.
To God alone be all the praise,
Who turns your feet from sinful ways■
CHILDREN.
Now we are taught to read
The Book of Life divine,
Where our Redeemer’s love
Through all the pages shine.
TEACHERS.
To God alone the praise is due,
Whose sacred book is sent to you.
CHILDREN.
Within this sacred house
Our youthful feet are brought,
Where prayer and praise abound,
And heav’nly truths are taught.
TEACHERS.
To God alone your praises bring,
And with his saints his glories sing.
CHILDREN.
For favours such as these
Our grateful thanks receive $27
Lord, here accept our hearts,
’Tis all that we can give,*
TEACHERS.
Great God, accept their infant songs,
To thee alone the praise belongs*
CHORUS.
Lord, let this glorious work
Be crown’d with large success ;
May thousands yet unborn
This institution bless.
Then shall thy praise be sounded high
Throughout a vast eternity.
The Address was then delivered; and after singing the fol-
lowing hymn, the exercises were concluded by the benediction.
CONGREGATION.
O what a pleasure ’tis to see
Christians in harmony agree !
To teach the rising race to know
They^re born in sin, exposed to zvo.
CHILDREN.
O what a privilege is this,
That we obtain so rich a grace ;
We’re taught the path to endless day—
We’re taught to read, to sing, and pray.
CHORUS.
To God let highest praise be given:
Hark, how the echo sounds from heaven—28
Come let us with the angels join s
Glory to God, good will to men*
CONGREGATION*
Lord, thou hast said in sacred page
That Children are thy heritage,
Accept them,) bless them with thy grace,
Till they above behold thy face.
CHILDREN.
Let blessings in abundance flow
On all around us here below;
May we our benefactors meet
Around Jehovah’s blissful feet.
CHORUS.
To God, let highest praise be given:
Hark, how the echo sounds from heaven—
Come let us with the angels join :
Glory to God, good will to men.29
NOTICE FROM THE STANDING COMMITTEE.
It was the wish of several members of the General Commit-
tee, that a statement of the present situation and prospects of
the Sunday School Union in this city should accompany the
printed address of the Rev. Mr. Milnor. For this purpose
a motion was brought forward, and the subject referred to the
Standing Committee of the Board.
However anxious the Standing Committee may have been
to comply with the laudable requests of their co-workers in
this great and good cause, they have found it altogether im-
practicable at the present moment. The previous arrange-
ments necessary to procure an accurate census, and the time
which it would unavoidably take, seemed to the Committee to
postpone the publication of Mr. Milnor’s most excellent ad-
dress too long. They considered also that the period was
fast approaching when an annual statement must be laid be-
fore the public, and when every interesting fact would be col-
lected, and embodied in one general report.
The Standing Committee are happy, however, in the oppor-
tunity which is now afforded them, of congratulating the friends
of the Sunday School system on the prosperous state of the
Union Society in particular, and of the general spread of the
system itself throughout almost every part of the United States.
In this city the moral effects of Sabbath-instruction are visible
to the least discerning. Cleanliness, order, and obedience are
observable in every school under our superintendence ; and
the effect of religious instruction on the children is beginning
to make its appearance in the attention which many of the pa-
rents show to their own eternal welfare,30
The plan of dividing the city into districts, and the appoint-
ment of active visitors in each, for the purpose of seeking out
new objects, as well as for looking after the delinquents, has
already been attended with much good. The scholars are more
regular in their attendance, and their numbers increasing.—
The harvest is indeed great, and though the labourers are not
sufficient, they are yet numerous and zealous; and the Gen-
eral Committee confidently look forward to the period when
there shall not be an uneducated child in our growing city.
JAMES EASTBURN,
Chairman of the Standing Committee.
New-York, Nov. 24,1817.