It is the most remarkable Sunday school that the earth ever knew, commencing at Deut. 31:10: “And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years [toward the end of it], thou shall read this law [meaning the whole of the Pentateuch]. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, women and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of the law; and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.”

This is a remarkable statute. There is nothing like it in history. Notice the true conception of the Sunday school, viz.: men, women, and children. Notice the length of that Sunday school; it probably did not last the whole year of the land sabbath, for it commenced with the Feast of Tabernacles. There was no work to do; all agricultural work was suspended, and the nation gathered before God in Sunday school, – men, women, and children; and in the hearing of the assembled nation the whole book of the Pentateuch was read and expounded, and so expounded that even a child that had not known anything must know the law of God, and believe and do it. Now the question arises, Did they ever try to observe that law? Of course, when they did not keep the land sabbath at all they did not keep that law. But we have one remarkable fulfilment. After their return from captivity in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, they did carry out this law. That account tells you that they were gathered together, men, women, and children, and that Ezra stood upon the pulpit (that is the only place in the Bible where the word “pulpit” is mentioned) and Ezra slowly read the law and the scribes around him explained the law. He slowly read a part, then came the explanation of that part; it lasted from an early hour in the morning to a late hour in the evening; and it was kept up until they got through with the Pentateuch.

I am quite sure that it would produce a revolution to keep the people of the present day in a religious service that long. They have so many other things that they want to do, that every year they are losing the opportunity to hear the Word of God. I know a number of churches that count it a sin for the preacher to preach over fifteen minutes; I could give you the names of the churches that make it a rule that the service should not be over fifteen minutes. Now how are those people to know the meaning of the Word of God? One of the highest things in the world for the preacher is to be able to expound the Word of God from the pulpit. Now, you count up the services in the year, counting morning and evening, thirty minutes every Sunday, and it would require a man to be as old as Methuselah ever to get through with the high places in the Bible from his pulpit, and as the multitude of people never hear the law of God except as it is announced from the pulpit, they are reared in ignorance of that law. The modern service has become ritualistic. There are about ten items on the program of the Sunday morning service, and by the time they get to the sermon it is usually about fifteen minutes to twelve, and when the dinner horn blows they all want to go to dinner, and there is only fifteen minutes for the sermon. If the man goes over thirty minutes they get restless. What are you going to do about it? How can they compare themselves with those ancient people that gave so much time to the law of God?

- B.H. Carroll, Interpretation of the English Bible