Methodist Sunday School Union.
--The third regular monthly meeting of the Methodist Sunday School Union was held yesterday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, at the Clay Street Church. For an hour previous to the commencment of the exercises the members of Sunday Schools were constantly arriving, and by the time the meeting opened the body of the church was crowded with bright and happy looking children. The meeting was otherwise largely attended. Mr. Asa Snyder presided, and the proceedings were opened with prayer, after which "The Beautiful Land of Rest" was sung. The following schools were reported present: Broad Street, Centenary, Trinity, Union Station, Clay Street, Manchester, Sidney and Rocketts. The statistics show that in eight schools the average attendance for the past month was eight hundred and fifty, and the number of conversions during the same period, forty-two.The meeting was addressed by the Rev. Jacob Manning, a well known and very pious minister of the Virginia Conference, who has lately been appointed missionary to labor exclusively for the Sabbath school cause in the city of Richmond and its suburbs and in Manchester. This denomination has recently awakened to a lively sense of the importance of this cause, and is putting forth extraordinary efforts to push it forward. Mr. Manning, in his remarks, adverted to the remarkable scene before him — the bright faces and beaming eyes of the little boys and girls — as a beautiful sight. He also spoke of the importance of the missionary enterprise for which he had been selected. He should feel happy in going out into the highways and byways of the city to bring in all the children to the Sunday school; but he urged the friends of the schools, the officers and teachers, not to relax their efforts, but to co- operate with him and labor as perseveringly as they had ever done before for the good of the cause.
After the close of Mr. Manning's remarks, a collection was taken up to aid the cause, and twenty life members were made by the payment of ten dollars each — making a total of two hundred dollars.
The meeting was also addressed by the Rev. John E. Edwards, who urged the members of the Union to persevering efforts to push forward the cause. He congratulated the association that they had a good President, a good missionary and such liberal friends. Alluding to the statistics presented, he said the forty-two conversions reported for the month among the scholars was an interesting fact, and he earnestly hoped that during the coming year God would more abundantly than ever bless the schools.
The exercises were interspersed with the singing of beautiful hymns, conducted by the Sabbath School of Clay Street Church, and performed in a very creditable manner.
The interest of the meeting was kept up until a late hour in the afternoon, when the children and their friends dispersed with a feeling of renewed attachment to the cause. Much good, we are assured, will result from the workings of the Methodist Sunday School Union.
The next meeting will be held on the second Sunday in January, at half-past 2 o'clock in the afternoon, with the Manchester Sabbath School.
