gister from time to time the particulars of all Cases recommended to the Committee, and approved by them. This Register shall include the Cases approved in former years, since the first establishment of a Chapel-Building-Committee ; and it shall be annually forwarded to the Committee of the General Chapel-Fund at every Conference, in order to guide them in their Distributions from that Fund. 1819.

V.

RESOLUTIONS concerning the Chapel-Building

Committee:

1. This Committee are requested to meet regularly on the First Monday in every Month; and oftener, if necessary.

2. All Letters on the Subject of Chapels should be addressed to the Secretary of this Committee. And it is particularly requested that such Letters may be sent postpaid.

3. The Preachers and others whom it may concern, are reminded, that, according to Rule, "No case shall be sanctioned by the Committee, unless it shall come before them as having received the previous approbation of the Quarterly-Meeting of the Circuit, and shall be recommended either by the Annual District-Meeting, or, at least, by three Superintendents in the Neighbourhood, who shall certify their approbation in writing." And the Conference again strongly recommends that the consent of the DistrictMeeting, and not merely of three Superintendents, shall be obtained, before any decisive step is taken, wherever it is possible to wait, without material inconvenience, until that Meeting shall be assembled.

The following is the proper Form of an application to the Chapel-Building-Committee for permission to erect a

by

New Chapel.

It is proposed that a New Chapel,
feet in breadth, outside, be erected at

in the

in Society is

feet in length,

Circuit; where the number of Members the average of regular hearers about The estimated

and the population about

expence of the Land is £

towards which £

; and of the Building £ have been, or will be, raised by Sub

scriptions, &c. The income from Pew-rents, &c., will

probably amount to £

per Annum. The Chapel will be properly settled on the Methodist Plan. The above proposal has received the sanction of the Quarterly and District Meetings; and the consent of the Chapel-Building Committee is hereby solicited.

N. B. 1. Where the land is not Freehold, the nature and term of its tenure must be distinctly specified.

2. The nature of the place previously occupied for worship must be described, whether private house, room, or Chapel; and also, if it were either of the latter, the manner in which it is to be disposed of, and its proceeds appropriated.

3. The Committee must also be informed, whether it is intended to erect a Gallery, or not; and if the former, of what kind.

4. If a Sunday-School is to be connected with the Chapel, the Committee must be assured that it will be a Methodist School; and conducted according to the general

rules and recommendations of our Connexion, in reference to such Institutions.

5. When the sanction of the District-Meeting cannot be waited for, those words which report that sanction must be omitted; and the Rule, requiring the recommendation of Three Superintendents, in their own hand-writing, must be strictly observed.

III. SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

THE Institution of SUNDAY SCHOOLS has, by general consent, been attributed to MR. ROBERT RAIKES, of Gloucester, in the year 1784. By the blessing of God on his industry as a Printer, he realized a considerable fortune, and spent the latter part of his life especially in the instruction of poor Children. His design was, to prevent them from spending the Sabbath in idleness, filth, and mischief; and to instruct them in the rudiments of learning, and the Christian Religion.

MR. WESLEY no sooner heard of it, than he approved of the design, published an account of it in the ARMINIAN MAGAZINE for January, 1785, and exhorted his Societies to imitate this laudable example. Many of them followed his advice.

In the year 1802, the Conductors of the METHODIST SUNDAY SCHOOLS in London, formed a Committee for corresponding with persons in the Country engaged in the same work, with a view to extend and establish Schools on the plan of employing gratuitous Teachers only. For a fuller account of the design of this Committee, see the METHODIST MAGAZINE for the year 1802, pp. 388, 430.*

I. ADDRESs of the Conference to the Methodist Societies on the subject of Sunday Schools.

Among other Institutions for the purpose of extending true religion at home are our SUNDAY-SCHOOLS; and we rejoice in their number, the zeal with which they are conducted, the sacrifices of so many of our young people who act as teachers, and the benefits which are constantly resulting from them. In proportion to the value of these institutions, we are anxious that they should be so conducted as to yield their full proportion of moral good; and that in order to this, they should be preserved on their first principles. We would, therefore, exhort all who have kindly and benevolently engaged in them, to watch over them with a pious anxiety, that they may fully communicate to the children educated in them the knowledge and influence of the Holy Scriptures. Let them recollect, that a Sunday School is strictly and entirely a religious institution, whose object is to train up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and that whatever has not a direct tendency to this end, is equally inconsistent with the principal design of such charities, and with the sanctity of the sacred day in

* See Myles's Chronological History.

which they are conducted, and that ultimately it will prove subversive of all genuine moral and religious effect. We regard it as essential to the religious character of Sunday Schools, that the children should be carefully instructed by Catechisms in the doctrines and duties of religion; that they should be accustomed to read the Scriptures, accompanied with the pious advices and explanations of their teachers; that they should on every Sabbath be regularly brought to the public worship of God; and that the teachers themselves should be persons who "fear God and work righteousness," "apt to teach" and enforce the truths of experimental and practical piety. Under the direction of such views, these valuable institutions will be the means of spreading through society the principles of truth and holiness; of preserving from the poison of infidelity, now alas! so industriously diffused, thousands of our rising youth; of conveying light and purity into the dwellings of the poor; and of correcting the morals of society. They may, then with hope and confidence be commended to the blessing of God. 1819.

II. Q. WHAT directions shall be given concerning our Sunday Schools, and especially concerning the attendance of the Children of those Schools on the Public Worship of the Lord's Day?

A. Let the Rules respecting our Sunday Schools, which were printed in the year 1817, be reprinted in the Minutes of the present year. They are as follows:

"It is the deliberate judgment of the Conference, that well-conducted Sunday Schools are of the greatest utility and importance, and deserve the zealous support of our Preachers and friends; but that in order to secure and perpetuate the full religious benefit which such institutions