Arthur Guinness became a champion of the Sunday school cause. In 1786, he extended Raikes’s work to Ireland by organizing the first Sunday school in Dublin. The slim records we have show that Arthur funded the effort nearly by himself in the early days, did much of the organizing work alone at first, and spoke often to gatherings of his merchant friends to solicit their help. Given that he risked offending Roman Catholics, grumbling conservatives, the comfortable, and even Sabbatarians by his efforts, Arthur’s courageous devotion to this movement says much about what he was willing to brave to
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