The Progress., 1896-10-17
1ALMAGE'S SERMON. {

send this out, one of the most unique
sermons DR.. Talmagc ever preached.
1t is as novel as widc-swecping and
practical. His subject is. "Divine
Chirography.' the text being: Luke.
10: 20: Rejoice because your names
are written in heaven
Chirography. or the art of handwrit-
Ing. like the science of acoustics. is in 4
very unsatisfactory state. While con-
structing a church. and told by some
architects that the voice would not be
heard in a building shaped like that
proposed 1 came in muc, anxiety to
this city and consulted with Professor
Joseph Henry. of the Smithsonian In
stttutiOn, about the law of acoustics.
he said: Go ahead and build your
chHrch IN the shape proposed. ana l
think 1t will be all right. have stud
led the laws OF sound perhaps more
than any man of my time and have
come SO far this: Two audftOriums
may seem to be just exactly alike. and
in one the acoustics may DC good anu
In the other bad In the same nnsnt-
isfactory stage is chrography. although
many declare they have reduced it to
a science. There are those who say
they can read character by handwrit-
ing. 1t is said that the way one writes
the letter Il" decides his egotiem or
modesty. and the way ono writes the
letter "O'' decides the height and
depth of his emotions. 1t is declared
a cramped hand means a Cramped ma
ture, and an easy, flowing hand faciie
| and liberal spirit; but il there be any
thing in this science, there must be
some rules not yet announced. for
some of tho boIdest and most agrees
sive men have delicate and small pen
manship, while some of the most tlmld
sign their names with the height and
width and scope of the name Of John
| Hancock on the immortal document.
| Some of the cleanest in person and
| thought present their b1otted and spat-
| tered page, and some of the toughest
| put before us an immaculate chirog-
raphy. Not our character, but the
copy-plate set before us in our school
| boy day, decides the general style of
| our handwriting. So also there Is
fashion in penmanship, and for one de-
| cade the letters are exaggerated. and
| in the next minified: now erect and now
| asiant, now heavy and now fine. An
| autograph album is always surprise,
| and you find the penmanship contrad1cts
| the character of the writer's. But while
the chirography OF the earth is I'M
| certain, our blessed Lord in our text
| presents lue CAllo6iuRhJ SSASS~A-~,'
| When addressing the seventy disciples
standing before him. he said: Rejoice
| because your names are written In
| heaven"
When you come up and look for
! YOUR name in the mighty tones of eter-
! nifty and you are so happy as to find
! it there, you viii notice that the PEN
manship is Christ's, and that the let
tiers were written with a trembling
hand. Not trembling with old age, for
he had only passed three decades when
he expired. It was soon after the th1r-
/ tieth anniversary of his birthday. Look
over all the business accounts you kept
or the letters you wrote at thirty years
of age, and If you were ordinarily
strong and WELL then there was nc
tremor in the chfrography. Why the
! tremor in the hand that wrote your
name in heaven? Oh, 1t was COM
preston of more troubles than ever
smote anyone else. and all Of them
troubles assumed for others Christ
was prematurely old. He had been eX-
posed to all the weathers of Palestine
He had slept out of doors, now in the
night dew and now in the tempest. He
had been soaked In the surf Of Lake
: Galilee. Pillows for others, but he hac
not where to lay his head. Hungry, HI
. could not even get fig on which t.
breakfast: or have you missed the pa
thos OF that verse, "In the morning, a.
: he returned to the city, he hungered
and when he saw fig tree in the way
he came to it and found nothing there
on" Oh. he was hungry Christ, ant
nothing makes the hand trembl'
: worse than hunger, for it pulls upol
the stomach. and the stomach pull
upon the brain, and the brain pull
upon the nerves, and the agftate,
: nerves make the hand quake. On tn
I ton of all this evaporation came abuse
What sober man ever wanted to b
! called a drunkard? but Christ wa
: called one What man, careful of tn
4 company he keeps, wants to be cAl:e'
q the associate of profigates! but he wa
3 go called. What loyal man wants to b
t charged with treason? but he wa
: charged with 1t. What man of devon
r speech wants to be called q bias
phemer? but he was so termed. wha
man of self-respect wants to be struc
q in, the mouth? but that is where the
struck him. Or to be the victim c
J. vilest expectoration? but under that h
stooped Oh, he was a WORKOUT Chris
= That is the reason he died so soon upo
the cross. Many victims of cruciflxio
;, lived day after day upon the eros,
but Christ was in the courtroom at ]
O'Clock Of noon and had expired at
q o'clock in the afternoon of the sam
day Subtracting from the three hour