Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/802

* SUNDAY. 700 SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. v., ch. 3, which provided that all secular labor should be unlawful on Sunday, except in cases of necessity. This was supplemented by the sweeping act of 29 Car. II., ch. 7, which pro- hibited all 'worldly business' on the 'Lord's day,' except where absolutely necessary, or for charity. These statutes have been substantially followed in practically all of the United States. The New England States were the first to regulate the observance of Sunday by a series of statutes. The Constitution of the United States prohibits the restriction of religious liberty or the en- forcement of religious observances, and therefore, in law, Sunday is regarded merely as a civil day, which is a convenient one for the suspension of business, because of its observance as a holy day by a great majority of the people. These stat- utes are constitutional as a valid exercise of the police power. Works of necessity and great public convenience are usually excepted. Thus, a physician may carry on his practice, making lawful charges for his services ; drug stores may keep open; transportation lines may handle freight and passenger traffic ; milk dealers are usually permitted to deliver their product; and all persons whose business conduces to the pub- lic liealth are permitted to continue their ac- tivities. Where a cessation of operations would cause great financial loss, an exception is com- monly made. Where a person is traveling on Sunday in violation of law, and is injured, he is not pre- cluded from recovering damages if he is other- wise entitled thereto. Although contracts entered into on Sunday were valid at common law, the courts of many States have interpreted their Sunday statutes as including this kind of a business transaction. A payment of a debt on Sunday is generally held to discharge the obliga- tion. Wills executed on Sunday may be probated in most jurisdictions. In most States the legal Sunday begins at midnight on Saturday niglit, and continues twenty-tour hours. In a few New England States Sunday ends at sunset. Many States exempt Hebrews and others who observe Satiu'day or some day otlier than Sunday as a holy day from the operation of the Sunday laws, but if such persons do not keep sacred any other day, they must suspend business on Sun- day. The need of one day in seven for rest from labor has long been recognized from an economic standpoint also. Not only has it been found that man produces more and better work by resting one day in seven, but also that he is a better physical and social being for observing such a rule. Sunday labor in the United States is, how- ever, increasing. It has been estimated that in Massachusetts alone 50,000 persons work on Sunday. That the increase is general is shown by the growing opposition of the labor unions, and their frequent demands for shorter hours throughout the week, on the ground that they have no assurance of the Sunday respite. SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. An agency of the Church for giving religious instruction to learn- ers of all ages. The method of instruction is gen- erally interlocutory and the subject of study more particularly the Bible. In its essentials the Sunday-school or Bible-school was an impor- tant part of the early .Jewish educational sys- tem. About B.C. 80-70 Simon ben Shetach established a system of religious schools in con- nection with .synagogues in Palestine, making attendance obligatory. Historians like Eders- heim and Schiirer confirm the general existence of such schools then and later in the time of Christ. Bunsen says that "the Apostolic Church made the school the connecting link between herself and the world." Her catechetical instruction (cf. Luke i. 4; Acts xviii. 25) grew so steadily in acknowledged importance that church buildings were designed to provide special acconuiiodations for the Bible-school. These early catechumenical schools included children and adults, who were taught individually, by the interlocutory method, subject matter beginning with the Old Testament story of creation and proceeding to practical Christian living. Gregory the Illuminator Chris- tianized Armenia at the beginning of the fourth century by a compulsory system of Bible-schools for children in every city, while at that period similar schools were to be found in Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Egypt, and elsewhere. In all these schools the Bible text was the main subject. In the Middle Ages the Bible-school idea was ad- hered to among the Waldenses, Albigenses, Lol- lards, Wiclifites, etc. A notable example of the Bible-school, apparently in many ways like our modern institution, were the schools of Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, in the middle of the sixteenth century. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the direct study of the Bible gave way to the rote memorizing of set an- swers in catechisms not intended for such uses, and genuine Bible teaching was thus largely dis- placed. It is to Robert Raikes (q.v.) that the modern revival of the Sunday-school is justly accredited, although numerous isolated Bible-schools were to be found both in England and America prior to his time and pioneer eli'orts were made in America independent of his example. (Consult Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school, Philadelphia, 1889.) According to contempo- rary testimony Raikes gathered some street boys in July, 1780, into a room in Sooty Alley, Glou- cester, England, under the temporary care of a Mrs. Meredith, but .soon transferred the school to the house and care of Mrs. Mary Critchley, in Southgate Street, where the first permanent Raikes school was established. The pupils were instructed not only in the Bible, but in reading, and in catechisms of the day. Later the school was held in Saint Mary de Crypt Church, then in the Crypt Grannnar School, then at the Corn Exchange, and thence was transferred to the church again. The school seems to have had as many as 100 scholars at a time, the teachers re- ceiving a shilling a day from Raikes for their work. Raikes worked quietly and experimentally for three years, and then on November 3, 1783, began to publish his idea in his newspaper, the Gloucester Journal. He published as early as 1785 The Sunday Scholar's Companion. In the extension of the Sunday-school idea Raikes ac- cords much credit to .John Nichols, of The Gen- tlemen's Mayazine. The cause was notably fur- thered by Hannah !More, .John and Charles Wesley, and Whitefield, and even the Queen expressed an interest in the movement by sending for Raikes in order to hear his plan described. In 1784 Rowland Hill started a Sunday-school in Lon- don at Surrey Chapel. William Fox and Jonas Hanw.ay were instrumental in organizing a gen-