Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1921-03-30

j. i. !. ]. !. !. j. j. !. i. !. j. !. 4.
philadelphia North American. Re-
printed by Request.)
The American Sunday school be-
gen in Philadelphia. Some witty phi
losopher has said that the chief won
der in the world is why anything
ever begins at all. Next to that is
the mystery Of it's beginning in one
place rather than another.
The City Of Beginnings! This old
town with the queer name, quarried
out Of the ancient Greek by quaint
old-world-rcving Quaker, the city
which was to call together those
| who love and help each other, man
aged to be in on nearly all the great
beginnings Of American history.
Penn brought his frame" Of gov
ernment here for it's first planting.
, The Declaration and Constitution
were written and proclaimed here.
The flag was made here. Thones
Kunder organized here the first
spoken challenge against negro slav-
cry. If mistake not, insurance and
banking and transcontinental rail
road promotions had their begin
nings in Philadelphia.
. And Franklin made his real be-
ginning here--himself a sort Of uni
vcrsal starter. The Republican party
held its first national convention in
Philadelphia. The American Anti
Slavery Society started. here. Coal
! stoves, ectricity-Philadelp has
, contributed chapter OF beginnings
to all these things. The list might
! be almost Indefinitely extended.
| Certainly Philadelphia has been
! the chief power house Of the Ameri-
can Sunday school. It's principal
publications have had their home
here. It's leading organizations have
been onicered and directed from tho
headquarters here. And from the
,, first the leading laymen Of Philadei-
phia have likewise had leading
hand in the activities Of this. grow
ing spiritual industry.
Queer Beginnings.
And here is another queer thing
about beginnings. They never begin
in the way that it might have been
expected that they would begin. 1t
| would never occur to us to think of
Franklin as the founder of Sunday
school. We would more. naturally
think OF saintly John Woolman or a
! fiery Methodist Bishop Asbury
| And, Of course, the sunday school
would spring from the bosom of the
church, warmed to life by pure
evangelical zeal. 1t should have
started with the flaming eloquence
Of Wesley or Whitefield. 1t should
have crossed the Atlantic in the wake
Of the Puritan and Pilgrim and land
ed on the bleak New England shore.
AS matter Of fact, with the start
| ling oddity and unexpectedness that
marks all the great human begin
| nings, the Sunday school, which
picked an obscure newspaper editor
for its old-world announcer, also
worked out an equally informal
| American beginning.
Franklin did not start the Sunday
school in Philadelphia. But there
was another Ben in the City Of Bro.
| therly Love in 1890, who was almost
as much Of busybody as the editor
! OF "the Pennsylvania Gazette and
universal instructor in all the arts
and sciences" had been. This other
Ben was DR.. Benjamin Rush.
Ike Franklin, who was always
writing pieces to the paper (his
own). now suggesting plans for
sweeping the sidewalks and again
for setting up "juntas," starting col,
leges and libraries and organizing
new governments and constitutions
like Franklin, Ben Rush was al.
ways writing pieces. Letters to
Rich Men," letters on prison reform
letters against slavery. With James
Pemberton he organized the first
anti-slavery society and was its sec.
retary for many years.
And, Of course, DR.. Ben was a
RA