Interesting Work_in Shanghai Delegates to the World's Sunday School Convention recently held in Tokio are to visit Shanghai and are expected at the end of this week, when they will receive a welcome from the Chinese churches of Shanghai. The occasion affords opportunity for noting recent progress in Sunday school work. There are at present upwards of 30 Chinese churches in the city and most of them have their Sunday schools, though some of the most important among them have not taken up the work. Whilst exact figures are not available, it is estimated that the Chinese Sunday schools are attended by 3,000 scholars under 20 years of age. The Baptists have probably 1,000 in their six churches, the Methodists, with their two large churches, have probably 800 and the Presbyterians 500 attached to their three churches.
In addition to these "regular" Sunday schools, there is a special type of school which deserves attention, the "street Sunday school"—one whose scholars are little waite and strays and uncared-for children. Many of their parents are too poor to send the children to school on week days, and too careless about religious matters to care where they go on Sundays, The ildren represent the most superstititious classes of the community, and the least educated.
Workers in these school have some interesting experiences. When a new school is started, the children come with dirty hands and faces, and in the kindest possible way, 80 as not to offend these little ones, who are exceedingly sensitive, soap and water are applied on that first Sunday, though this drives away or scares off some. The next Sunday finds a few coming with hands and faces cleaned already, and this is of course rewarded in some way, by a card or a gift of some kind. The singing during the first few weeks would hardly be called warbling, but in a surprisingly short time many become able to carry the tune of simple hymns, and often little groups can be seen here and there, when taken unawares, during the week singing little snatches which they have learned on Sundays. Their little lives are 680 barren that these are great experiences to them.
This street Sunday school, strangely enough, exemplifies what the Sunday school was originally intended to accomplish. For it was started in England 200 years ago, not for the children of Christians, who were of course most carefully catechized in the home and in special classes, but for the uncaredfor "heathen" children of the industrial sections of the great cities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.