The end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth made great demands on people's religious faith. Two world wars left devastating memories for many. In the midst of these troubles, people who loved children sought ways to help them comes to grips with world events, while struggling to find answers themselves. This installment in an ongoing series on the history of Sunday School explores these institutions against this backdrop of challenged faith.
Throughout the 1800s, the task of spiritual education proceeded unevenly. Many churches still did not have Sunday Schools. Some crusaders, however, like Southern Baptist Bernard W.Spilman of North Carolina, were undaunted, as one historian makes clear: "An ofttold story recounts how Spilman, who was once told it would be impossible to convince Southern Baptists to support the Sunday School and that his work was bound to fail, took up his dictionary and simply crossed out the word failure." H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1987). p. 645 .
Despite some challenges, the Sunday School movement was also growing in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and Belgium. The first World Sunday School convention was held in 1889 in London. Though it was dominated by Americans, Canadians, and Britons, the convention still provided a valuable opportunity to take on a more global perspective at a time when it was obvious to many, if not all, that war in Europe was imminent.
