It is a form of work where untrained Christian voluntary workers find opportunity for expressing their religious zeal; it is a form of work in which experts in certain types of elementary religious teaching revel.

It is educational work carried on by those who are not technically educationalists: it is evangelistic work carried on by those who are not technically evangelists.
What sort of information then are we to seek concerning it?
It is so important that it cannot be omitted; it is so widespread that it almost demands special consideration; it is so protean that tables designed to reveal all its aspects and values would be with difficulty designed, and tediously minute.

From the point of view of this survey it would be futile to ask, as most of the societies ask, simply for the number of Sunday schools, the number of teachers, and the number of scholars.

From those bare numbers we can gain no information which really enlightens us.

We want to know what the Sunday schools exist for, and whether they are accomplishing the object of their existence.