Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-01-12

the agony she suffered for US, the times
she wept over our cradle and the anxious
sighs her bosom heav / as we lay upon
it, the sick nights when she watched rs
long after every one was tired out but
God and herself. Her lifeblood beats
in our heart. and her image lives in our
face. That man is graceless as cannl-
bal who Ill treats his parents.sand ne
who begrudges them daily bread and
clothes them but shabbily, may God
have patience with him: cannot.
heard man once say. Il now have my
old mother on my hands" Ye storks
on your way with food to your aged
parents. shame him!
THE PROSECUTED CHURCH
But yonder in this Bible sky flies a
bird that is speckled. The prophet de-
scribing the church cries out, Mine
heritage is unto me as speckled BIRD;
the birds round about are against her
So it was then; so it is now. Holiness
picked at. Conservation picked at. Be
neyolence picked at Usefulness picked
at. A speckled bird is peculiar bird;
and that arouses the antipathy of all the
beaks of the forest.
The church of God is peculiar insti.
tltion, and that is enough to evoke at
tack of the world, for it is a speckled
bird to be picked at. The inconsisten-
cies of Christians are banquet on which
multitudes get fat. They ascribe every
thing you do to wrong motives. Put a
dollar in the poor box and they will say
that you dropped it there only that you
might hear it ring. Invite them to
Christ, and they will call you fanatic.
Let there be contention among Chris
tians. and they will say: "Hurrah' The
church is in decadence."
Christ intended that his church should
always remain a speckled bird. Let
birds OF another feather pick at her, but
they cannot rob her of a single plume.
Like the albatross, she can sleep on the
bosom of a tempest. She has gone
through the fires of Nebuchadnezzars
furnace and not got burned; through the
waters of the Red sea and not been
drowned: through the shipwreck on the
breakers of Melita and not been foun-
dered. Let all earth and hell try to hunt
down this speckled bird, but far above
human scorn and internal assault it shall
sing over every mountain top and fly
over every nation, and her triumphant
song shall be: The church of God!
The pillar and ground Of the truth.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against
her"
But we cal not stop here. From a
tall cliff, hanging over the sea bear the
eagle calling unto the tempest and lift
ing its wing to smite the whirlwind.
Moses, jeremiah, Hosea and Habakkuk
at times in their writings take their pen
from the eagles wing. 1t is bird with
ferceness in its eye, its feet armed with
claws of iron and its head with dread
ful beak. Two or three of them can fill
the heavens with clangor But gener-
ally this monster of the air is alone and
unaccompanied, for the reason that Its
habits are so predaceous it requires five
or ten miles Of aerial or earthly domln-
ion all for itself.
The black brown of its back, and the
white Of its lower feathers, and the fire
of its eye. and the long flap of its wing
make one glimpse of it as 1t swings
down into the valley to pick up rabbit,
or a lamb, or a child and then swings
back to is throne or the rock some
thing never to be forgotten. Scattered
about its eyrie Of altitudinous solitude
are the bones Of its conquests. But
while the beak and the claws of the
eagle are the terror of all the travellers
of the air, the mother eagle is most kind
and gentle to her young. God compares
his treatment of his people to the eagles
care of the eaglets. Deuteronomy xxi,
II. LAS an eagle stirreth up her nest.
Auttereth over her young spreading
abroad her wings. taketh them. bearetb
them on her wings. so the Lord alone
did lead"
WISDOM OF THE EAGLE.
The old eagle first shoves the young
one cut of the nest in order to make II
fy. and then takes it on her back and
flies with it and shakes it off in the air.
and if it seems ike falling quickly flies
under it aud takes it on her wing again.
So God does with US. Disaster. failure
in business. disappointment, bereave-
ment, is only Gods way Of shaking rs
out OF our comfortable nest in order
that we may learn how to fly. You who
are complaining that YOU have no faith
or courage of Christian zeal have had it
too easy. You never Will learn to f.
in that comfortable nest.
Like an eagle. Christ has carried US
on his back. st times we have been
shaken off. and when we were about to
fall he came under Us again and brought
US out of the gloomy valley to the sun
nv mountain. Never an eagle brooded
with such love and care over her yonng
as Gods wlnes have been over rs.
Across what oceans of trouble we have
gone in safety upon the Almighty wings.
From what mountains OF sin we have
been carried and at times have been
borne up far above the gunshot of the
world and the arrow of the devil.
When our time on earth is closed on
these great wings of God we shall speed
with infinite quickness from earth's
to heavens hills, and as from
the eagles circuit under the sun men on
the ground seem small and Insignificant
as lizards on rock. 80 all earthly things
shall dwindle into q S Y. and the rag
ing river of deatl, -..r beneath Will
seem smooth and e...ssy as Swiss lake.
Itwas thought in ancient times thatan
eagle could not only molt its feathers in
old age. but that after arriving to great
age it would renew its strength and be
come entirely young again. To this
Isaiah alludes when he says: "They that
wait on the Lord shall Eencw their
They shall mount up with
wings of eagles" Even so the Christian
in old age will renew his spiritual
strength. He shall be young in ardor
and enthusiasm for Christ, and as the
body fails the soul will grow in elasticity
till at death it will spring uplike glad
dened child into the bosom Of God.
Yea. in this ornithologcal study see
that Job says, His days fly as an eagle
that hasteth to its prey" The speed Of
a hungry eagle when it saw its prey
score Of miles distant was unimaginable.
1t went like thunderbolt for speed and
power. So fly our days. Sixty minutes,
each worth heaven, since we assembled
in this place have shot like lightning into