Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-04-10

| Iuo i8mlIy ID INC lnO6C important
institution upon the earth. 1t is the
hope of the world. Its influence is
greater than that of kings, emperorf
or cabinets. Parents and children
gathered around the hearthstones in
separate families make up commu.
mites, and they make States and
nations and choose their rulers. As
the families are, so is the govern
ment-good or bad-men-unmar
ried men are merely individuals and
feel no great responsibility outside
of their individual comfort and VOL
fare. But parents are concerned for
their children. We live for them
and would die for them, conse-
quently we want good government
that will protect them. But it is
not every family who feels this deep
concern. From my window I see
the homes of many neighbors and
can count on my fingers those whose
presence is safeguard to the COM
munity, and the rest are of but little
consequence. If they were to move
away it would not add to our peril.
So it is in all communities. The few
protect the many. So it is in church
and State. Twenty members of our
Legislature control its legislation.
Ten members of an average church
membership give the church it's char
actcr. Sodom was destroyed be-
cause ten good men could not be
found. If all men were good we
would have nosneed of courts or
prisons. But for every church that
is set on q hill there is Jail in the
valley. | hear the preacher calling
and the bell tolling from the one,
and imagine l hear the devil calling
from the other, and he cries out as
the sergcants did in the old muster
language, "Oh, yes Oh, yes All
who belong to Capt. Satan's company
parade here" And the people are
going and coming all the time, some
to one call and more to the other.
But as the devil can't be heard afar
off, he goes about calling, and even
invades the sanctuary and calls
aloud while the preacher is preach
ing:
"Man never crects a house of prayer
But what the devil builds pulpit there,
And twill be found upon examination
The devil has tho largest congregation"
His pulpit is always at the rear
end, where the young people love to
sit, and you can tell how popular he
is by the number who sit there.
was Illuminating about this family
institution and its great Importance
in the world, because I have been
reading about it in the Apocrypha,
which is in one of our family Bibles.
| heard a preacher say once that q
Bible with the Apocrypha in it should
not stay in his house. Well, it took
1926 years to exclude it from the
Protestant Bible, and most of it is
in the Roman Catholic Bible yet.
What is called sacred canon was
not established until the sixteenth
century, and for centuries before
that almost every great theologian
had his own catalogue of inspired
books as he believed them. For 800
years only ten of Paul's opistles were
admitted. The Book of St. James
and the Revelation of st. John were
excluded. SO were Esther and
Daniel and Jonah in the Old Testa-
ment. Luther tried to have He
brews, and James, and Jude, aud the
Revelations of St. John excluded,
but failed. But all differences OF
opinion seem to have been harmon
lied at the Council Of Trent by all
Christians and the Apocrypha was
left in, not as an inspired part, but
to be read for religious instruction
In it was excluded from the
p liant Bible, but it remains in
many of the old time family Bibles,
and is in one of mine. I dare to
peruse it sometimes, especially "The
Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of
Sirach," which is called Ecclcsiasticus,
which has fifty chapters and is as
full of maXims and morals and in
struction for the family rs are the
Proverbs of Solomon. Addison says
that if this book had been left in the
canon, or if it had the name Of some
great Greek philosopher, it would
have commanded the admiration of
mankind. TO my mind it is the
condensation of wisdom for family
government. 1t is as pointed and
pnngcnt as anything that Solomon
ever wrote. This Jesus was better