ROBERT RAIKES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20056, 11 October 1930, Page 19

ROBERT RAIKES.

Jgp MAN AND HIS WORK. ' (OTCUXXT WBITTES FOB THE MESS.) * (Br Tez Vbn. P. B. Hacgitt, M.A.) sr ->■ ?;• "® S&il U the third of a series of articles I "ft 1 mlKi <aelu»ively for The Press, and eup- '| IISSIW the New Zealand Council of • Education, to commemorate the .IHStfrf Robert Raikea. the founder, m j> |OwST i 4( tbt modem Sunday school. [sgjL part of the eighteenth cen- *'' jMSfWBf a very dark period in the hisEngland. The people were out education, the literature //i||§i§jjjjM tainted by the repulsive the social system was rotten and vice of all kinds ramauthorities could not think except drastic treatment Having bred criminals by . the State tried to escape re'(.wHlUßdlity by hanging them. Capital jflHHniaet was levied for quite trivial The conditions under which ■HpHpata-ia gaols existed were - horrible. HnHnfaols were shunned aB pest-houses; MMMMkfc even the clergy, passed by on fflSKlrilier side. Then, one day, appeared Hn' with the heart of a good Saxoari■BaS'tte mind-of a prophet (Isaiah lilllfchart Baikes was born inGloncester daughter of but also a manhighest moral ' and' scur''ffianmK. ' ' to give a tretnnu Had impartial report of news. I lingI ing people feel the I -side •of idleness, ! folly, and all the time, and to realise t meted to offenders and ineffective. In sister, of St. Thomas iiniral John Trigge, and benevolent disetive and well-culti-FasUdlons. portly and of good arried himself with r, in a dark blue or , a white or fancy sr buttons and cams, knee breeches of and cloth in winter, d shoes ornamented s, a three-cornered a large brown wig carls. Always he rented cane, and elegance," —a convn in some circles as 0 particular was he res and stockings rears he paid a man b swept between his 1 moreover, at night, ted in front of him feguard bis immacalepping'into puddles ,»»the open drain. « Prophet. 's were wrung" by ries often-time, aiid percome them. Gradi had formed in his mi of society was felt with" intensity: s preventable,. (2; productive of vice, vas largely the cause ■eached this social in his paper. Morewas a living witness as in him.:'' Buck'' sd dirt and disorder, risons regularly, not offering by gifts of read to the prisonregarded him as _ a dangerous fanatic, ' making men and [ with their lot. _ It nauseous, and life- ? the highest relighav» animated him., loing good*'—''That iaviour's character," e 'humbly, "that I School Movement. Ie to ape that efforts i the adult were not had hoped. If only young? There they ttle ragamuffins of colts running wild, 3st horse-play, using fighting oyer gambi chuck-farthing. ,As nation was scarcely not a school in all on of WhitechapeL mong the well-to-do Id interfere with the I These things ine children must be i a fourth tenet to his th the chijd—teach it hold of him? Ap■his "B->tanising" - i (jyldren by persuading some "•V* City arabs to meet him in the --tSiedml yard after the early Common'

ion service and tried to teach them the Catechism. These attempts failed again and again, partly because the youngsters didn't want information or discipline, and partly because they were naturally suspicious of one who was clearly of the "upper class." Ultimately he hit upon the plan of gathering children together into a school on Sundays. Of course, there were difficulties, even opposition, but Baikes was . not easily daunted. One day he chanced to. meet the Bev. Thomas Stock, vicar of- a neighbouring parish, -with whom he discussed his desires. Stock promised to "help him and did until his death. Baikes found his first leader in a Mrs Meredith, of Sooty Alley, who agreed to use her kitchen on Sundays as a school for one shilling a week. To this kitchen Baikes took such ragged ' urchins as he could induce to attend. "There goes Bobby Wild Goose and his ragged regiment." But he was. quite glad to be a fool for Christ's sake. Later on we see four of these schools. They were held on Sunday because children were not employed in ±he factorier on that day, but it should • be observed that these schools' were "secular" as well as religious. The children had to be taught their letters. Baikes set -out to give'them a ■ sound, elementary education, with Christianity as an inherent part. Results. A local employer, Mr Church, once told Mr Baikes, "The change could not have been more extraordinary had they been transformed from the shape" of wolves and tigers to that of men." It may be said that Baikes did not actually found the first Sunday School but all agree-that he did more ..than any one else. His plan succeeded. For', three years he. tested it and then set to work in a publicity scheme. He wrote it up in his own paper first, refraining- ■ from mentioning his own name, and to his joy it was copied in the London Chronicle. Numerous enquiries were sent to him and a letter he sent, to Colonel Townley was published in the "Gentleman's Magazine." A Novel Sight. On Sunday, September 24th, 1786, took place the Festival of Painswick, an event usually attended with disorders of all kinds. Three hundred children. were present "all being so clean and orderly, when everyone was so used to seeing them in a neglected state." After the service an old man said to Baikes: "Oh, Sir, that I should have

S* 4 lived to see the day -when poor children are befriended!" The collection amounted to £57. Monuments. On Thames Embankment is a fine statue erected in commemoration of the Sunday School Centenary, 1880. In the city of Gloucester is a tower to the memory of the Man of Gloucester. There is also a memorial- hail and there are numerous mural tablets in the .Church of St. Mary de Crypt. But the best monument to Bobert Baikes is the 32j000,000 children and teachers throughout the world who gather every Sunday to learn or teach of the Saviour of mankind.