The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-01-12

The Scriptures give many examples
OF persons who prayed in secret
Elijah, Peter and Christ himself who
frequently event apart" to pray.
Christ says, "when ye pray pray ;"
be in earnest about 1t. Formal prayer
means nothing unless the heart is IN
earnest.
James Madison, the father of our
| G Constitution, to the end of his life
prayed every night the child's prayer,
"Now 1 lay me down to Sleep"
Christ promised that the Father
who seeth in secret shall reward secret
prayer.
Prayer is the Christians sure sup
port. Lee came back from Fredricks-
burg because his base of supplies were
too far away. Men need prayer as a
base of supplies for higher and better
living. A man who prays in secret
regularly Will not get drunk, will not
swear. He who never desires to COM
mune with God cannot know God.
Men who haye brought things to
pass in this world have been men of
-Stonewall Jackson, Robert E..
Lee, Chinese Gordon, Gladstone, Lu-
Their, Sturgeon.
The human soul whose hand is
clasped with Gods can with the other
lift any load or do any task
At night Mr.. Vann's theme was
':The Laboring People"
els not this the carpenters SOM"
was his text.
All persons who are worth a place
in the world are laborers. Perhaps
double as many people in the world
do manual labor as live by professions.
All professional men might die and
the world could wag on but bread
winners and home-builders are indis-
pensable.
The laboring man has put more into
the ballot box and got less out than
any other class of persons in the world.
Laborlng men and women ought to
esteem themselves highly.
Labor is honored and blessed of
God;
For the common things of the com mon day
Are ringing bells far away
Christianity offers laboring man
carpenters son for king.
Christ's labors with his hands taught,
l. That manual labor may be divine.
The carpenters son was as well &C.
copied at the carpenters bench as on
the cross.
2. Chrlst's carpenter-life dignifed
all honest toll.
3. The Bible is friendly to the work.
ing mans cause, and Christ is the la
boring mans friend.
The Bible says pay the hireling, pay
him promptly, and pretty we'll may 1t
be inferred that he ought to be paid
in cash and not in orders.
During the discourse Mr.. Vann
beautifully and quite effectively
quoted the following tribute to the
laborlng man by Carlyle:
1.-TWO men / honor, and no third.
First, the toilsome craftsman, that
with earth-made implements, labori-
ously conquors the earth and makes
her mans. Venerable to me is the
hand, crooked, coarse. Venerable,
too, is the face, all weather-tanned,
besoiled with It's rude intelligence for
it is the face of a man living
man-life. Hardly-entreated brother
For us was thy back so bent, for us
were thy straight limbs and fingers so
deformed thou vert our conscript on
whom the lot fell, and fighting our
battles vert so marred. For in thee,
too, lay God-created form, but it was
not to be unfolded encrusted must it
stand with the thick adhesions and de-
facements OF labor and thy body, like
thy soul, was not to know freedom.
Yet toll on, toll on thou art in thy
duty, be he out who may; thou toiiest
for the altogether lndlspensable-for
daily bread."'