Connecticut western news., 1896-10-08

ful of the company he keeps wants 10 be called the associate of profiigatess But he was so called. What loyal man wants to be charged with treasonr But he was charged with it. What man of devout speech wants to be called blas- phemer? But he was so termed What man of self respect wants to be struck in the mouth? But that is where they struck him. Or to be the victim of the vilest approximation? But under that he stopped. Oh, he was a worn out Christi That is the reason he died so soon upon the cross.
 Many victims of crucifxion lived day after day upon the cross, but Christ was in the courtroom at 1a o'clock of noon, and he had expired at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day Subtracting from the three hours between l2 and 5 o'clock the time taken to travel from the courtroom to the place of execution and the time that must have been taken in getting ready for the tragedy, there could not have been much more than two hours left. Why did Christ live only two hours upon the cross, when others had lived AS hours? An, he was worn out before he got there! And you wonder, oh, child of God, that, looking into the volumes of heaven for your name, you find it was written with trembling manship-trembling with every letter of your name, if it be your earthly name, or trembling with every letter of your heavenly name, if that be different and more euphonious. That will not be the first time you saw the mark of quivering pen, for did you not, oh, man, years ago see your name SO written on the back of letter, and you opened il. saying, Why, here is letter from mother" or Here is a let ter from father" and after you opened it you found all the words because of old age were traced irre9ularly and un- certain, so that you could hardly read it at all? But after much study you made it ont-a letter from home tell ing you how much they missed you, and how much they prayed for you, and how much they wanted to see you, and if it might not be on earth that so it might be in the world where there are no part ings. Yes, your name is written in heaven, if written at all, with trem- bling chirography.
 Some Autographs
 Again, in examination of your name in the heavenly archives, if you find it there at all, you will find it written with a bold hand. You have seen many signature that because of sickness or old age had tremor in it, yet it was as bold as the man who wrote it. Many an order written on the battlefield and amid the thunder of the cannonade has had evidence of excitement in every word and every letter, and in the speed with which it was folded and handed to the officer as he put his foot in the swift stirrups, and yet that commander, notwithstanding his trembling hand, gives boldness of order that shows it. self in every word written. You do not does not always mean cowardly hand. It was with very trembling hand Charles Carroll of Carrollton signed his name to the Declaration of American Independence, but no signer had more courage. And when some one said, 'There are many Charles Carrolls, and it will not be known which one it is, !" he resumed the pen and wrote Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Trembling hand no sign of timidityl The daring and de- fance seen in the way your name is earth and he'll to come on if they can to defeat your ransomed soul.
 The way your name is written there is as much as to say: 'I have redeemed him. I died for him. I am going to crown and enthrone him. Nothing shall ever happen down in that world where he now lives to defeat my determination to keep him, to shelter him, to save him. By my Almighty grace am going to fetch him here He may slip and slide, but he has got to come here. By my omnipotent sword, by the combined strength of all heavens principalities and powers and dominions, by the 90, 900 chariots of the Lord Almighty, l am going to see him through" Bold handwriting! It is the boldest thing ever written to write my name there and your name there. He knows our weaknesses and bad propensities better than we know them ourselves. He knows all the Apollyonic hosts that are sworn to down us if they can. He knows all the temptations that will as- sail us between now and the moment of our last pulsation of the heart, and yet he dares to write our name there. Bold ness! Nothing at Saragossa or Chalons or Marathon or Thermopyle to equal it Nothing in the sack of gun powder which one English soldier carried under the blazing artillery of the Mohamme- dams and blew up the gate of Delhi. Can you not see the boldness in the penman- ship that has already written our names | there? Apostle Peter, what do you think | If it? And he answers, Kept by the lower of God through faith unto com- plete salvation. '' Oh, blessed Christ, what dost thou mean by it? And he an- | swers: '.They shall never perish, | Neither shall any man pluck them out | of my hand. II "Your names are written | in heaven.
 Eternal Volumes.
 Again, if, according to the promise ! If the text, you are permitted to look into the volumes of eternity and shall see your name there, you will find it written in lines, in words, in letters unmistakable. Some people have come to consider indistinct and almost un- readable penmanship a mark of genius, and so they affect it. Because every paragraph that Thomas Chalmers and Dean Stanley and Lord Byron and Ru- fus Choate and other potent men wrote
 was a puzzle. imitators make their pen.
 manship puzzle Alexaudre Dumas
 says that plain penmanship is the brevet | If incapacity. Then there are some
 who. through too much demand upon
 their energies and through lack of time,
 lose the capacity of making the pen in
 telligible, and much of the writing oi
 this world is indeoipherable. We have
 seen piles of inexplicable chirography,