The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1903-04-30
THE SOULS *
SINCERE DESIRE"
The Youths Companion.

The Youths Companion.
THE Mather farm was advertised to
be sold at auction on June 18th.
That wae to be the last scene of the
tradegy which in fifteen years had
owe: taken the family. From being the
richest and proudest in the town, it
had come, through misfortune, dis
grace aud death, to the dreaded auc-
ton block.
Eunice Mather, the one daughter OF
the house, had drained the cup OF
grief. She was strong, silent woman,
who for years had worked desperately
In trying to save the remnant of good
fortune and good name. She bad the
pride of her race, and the endurance.
Her favcrite brother was known as
an aZnostic, and slowly and almost UNI
COZ sciously Eunice had drifted toward
his views. Her character lacked that
sentences which Christianity had Civ
en- to her mother, and to the other
women of her kindred who had re-
senbled her in their stern virtue. 1t
was ten years since she had been to
church. The one tie that held her to
the beliefs of her girlhood was the
whlIe-f fenced plot at the top of the Or
chard that held her dead and this, too,
was to be sold by auction! The
thought was fntolerable.
Shut in her room that June day, the
lonely woman cried out in her anguish,
with the heartrending cry, "Oh God r.
Then she gathered herself together and
walked, quiet and white, down the
stairs to the front yard, where the auc-
ton was to be held.
As she stepped from the door a man
advanced to her. She dimly recogniz-
ed him as one Of her fathers friends
from the neighboring city. In few
words he explained that he had had a
fancy for buying the farm where he
had had SO many pleasant visits. Since
he had arrived, however, he had heard
that she wanted to stay on the place.
By all means she ought If she wished
He would gladly lend her the money
to buy it in, and the interest might
wait her convenience. He had been
prospered, and the sum In question
Was not Of consequence to him.
Eunice listened in bewilderment and
ecstacy. She could stay! She might
see again the faces of the cattle and
the calves, and hear the Growing of the
cocks and the beating of the sheep.
The haying would be done just as for
80 many years. But, most wonderful
of all, the sacred graves would be
touched by no thouehtless foot-and
she might some day find place among
them.
As she stood in the June sunshine
almost breathless with the sudden re.
lief, thought flashed through her
mind. In an instant it had become a
conviction. For years she had not
prayed. The anguish of the last hour
had wrung from her unwilling lips one
exclamation, 80 God !" It had not
been a prayer. It had hardly been
even an appeal. But God had answer
ed--had answered the prayer she had
not prayed! All Ler agnosticism
dropped away from her as if 1t had
meyer been. She was certain, as a child
Is certain of his fathers gift. /. could
have come from no one else. There
was q God, and He heard-even the
unspoken whisper of thelsoul.
The next Sunday Eunice drove to
the Westinghouse, two miles away.
Her name had not been dropped from
the church roll, where it was placed in
her girlhood. Yet nobody expected
TO see her at church again. But from
that day her seat was never empty.
Months after the auction, when she
had settled down to the hard toll of the
farm,-for her self-appolnted task was
no light one,-she appeared one satur-
day night at the lecture preparatory
for the communion service. Just az
the minister pronounced the benedlc-
ton, she rose and said:
Friends, I have something / wish
to say to you. I have been wanderer
for years. l trust have been forglv-
en-. I want to testify here before you
all that I believe that God is a prayer
hearing and prayer-answerlng God. +"
So out Of one despairing, inarticulate
cry q tossed and driven soul found