ON SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. BY THE LATE JOHN GREGG, D.D., Bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, AND FORMERLY MINISTER OF TRINITY CHURCH, DUBLIN. EDITED BY HIS SON, ROBERT S. GREGG, D.D. Bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ro DUBLIN: TOTHECA AUG 1882 BODLEIANA GEORGE HERBERT, 117 GRAFTON STREET. LONDON: HATCHARDS. 1880. 141. 2. 96. PREFACE. THE following Observations on Sundayschool Instruction were published by the late Bishop of Cork, in 1847, when he was Minister of Trinity Church, Dublin. They formed the substance of an Address which he had delivered from the Pulpit of Trinity Church on a week-day evening to the Teachers of his own Sunday-schools and others. This Address he had written out, and, contrary to his usual practice, had read from the pulpit. He wrote a short preface to it in the following words : "As Sunday-school Instruction is given very largely, it is of much consequence that it be of the right kind, and be rightly given. Sunday school Teachers are a numerous and important class, and may confer great benefit on society. If the following observations shall in any degree contribute to the improvement of some of them, they will answer a valuable purpose. No observations could be profitable without the blessing of God; and His blessing can prosper even these. May He forgive what is wrong, and bless what is right in them, for Jesus Christ's sake." I have ventured to reprint this Address now, in the hope that it may be read by many of a younger generation than those to whom it was addressed, who desire to do a real work for God, whether it be in the all-important field of Sunday-school Instruction, or in the still wider fields of the Ministry. The thoughtful and suggestive words addressed to the Teachers in Trinity Church Sunday-schools many years ago, contain terse and telling statements of many of the principles which were exemplified from its earliest to its latest day in the ministry of the late Bishop of Cork, and which made his ministry in the best sense a successful ministry that is, a ministry fruitful of good for human souls. Sunday-school Teachers who desire to teach not for time but for eternity, may well ponder over what is here written, and those to whom the ministry of the Word is committed may, if they read these pages, be moved to ask themselves whether they too, labouring in thought and prayer, as those did who have gone before, are wise to win souls, "speaking the truth in love." ROBERT S. CORK. THE PALACE, CORK, November 26th, 1879. |