The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-05
NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN.
TALMAGE breaches ON DIVINE
CHIROGR Apply.

TO Character-MOst of the biblical
References to the Heavenly
world Figurntive-An Incident in
Connection with Signing of the
Declaration of Independence
Washington, oct Ave send out this
one of the most unique sermons DR.. Tai
mage ever preached. 1t is as novel as
wide-sweeping and practical His sub
ject is, divine Chirography," the text
being: Luke 1920: Rejoice, because
your names are written in heaven"
Chirography, or the art Of handwriting,
like the science of acoustics, is in very
unsatisfactory state, While constructing
a church, and told by some architects
that the voice would not be heard in a
building shaped like that proposed, came
in much anxiety to this city and consult
ed with Prof Joseph Henry of the Smith
sonian Institution about the law of acous-
1ics He said: go ahead and build your
church in the shape proposed, and I think
1t will be all right. 1 have studied the
laws of sound perhaps more than any
man of my time, and l have come so
far as this: Two auditoriums may seem
to be exactly alike, and in one the acous-
tics may be good and in the other bad. ."
In the same unsatisfactory stage is CHI
Biography, although many declare they
have reduced it to a science. There are
those who say they can read character
by handwriting. 1t is said that the way
one writes the letter a. decides his ego
tism or modesty, and the way one writes
the letter 20" decides the hight and depth
of his emotions. 1t is declared a cramped
hand means a cramped nature, and an
easy, flowing hand a facile and liberal
spirit; but if there be anything in this
science, there must be some rules not
yet announced, for some of the boldest
and most aggressive men have delicate
and small penmanship, while some of the
most timid sign their names with the
hight and width and scope of the name
of John Hancock on the immortal doc
ument. Some of the cleanest in person
and thought present their blotted and
spattered page, and some of the toughest
put before us an immaculate chirogra-
ply. Not our character, but the copy
plate set before us in our schoolboy day.
decides the general style of our hand
writing. So also there is a fashion in
penmanship, and for one decade the let
tiers are exaggerated, and in the next
minifed; now erect and now aslant now
heavy and now fine. An autograph al
bum is always a surprise, and you find
the penmanship contradicts the charac
ter of the writer's. But while the Chi
Biography of the earth is uncertain, our
blessed Lord in our text presents the CHI
Biography celestial When addressing the
seventy disciples standing before Him, he
said: Rejoice, because your names are
written in heaven"
OF course the Bible, for the most part,
when speaking of the heavenly world
speaks figurauvely while talking about
book and about trumpets and about wings
and about gates and about golden pave
ments and about orchards with twelve
crops of fruit-one crop each month-and
about the white horses of heavens cav
airy; but we do well to follow out these
inspired metaphors and reap from them
courage and sublime expectation. and con
ISOLATION and victory. We are told that in
the heavenly library there is a Book OF
Life. Perhaps there are many volumes in
II. When we say a book, we mean all
written by the author on that subject. !
cannot tell how large those heavenly vol
umes are, nor the splendor of their bind
ing, nor the number of their pages, nor
whether they are pictorialized with some
exciting scenes of this world. only know
that the words have not been impressed
by type. but written out by some hand
and that all those who, like the seventy
disciples to whom the text was spoken
repent and trust the Lord for their eternal
salvation, surely have their names written
in heaven. 1t may not be the same name
that we carried on earth. We may,
through the incOnsiderateness of parents
tsaWm a.
afterward dishonored by one after whom
we were called. l do not know that the
seventy entrances Of the names of the
seventy disciples correspond with the
record in the genealogical table. 1t NAV
not be the name by which we were called
on earth but it will be the name by which
heaven will know us, and we will have II
announced to us as we pass in and we
will know 1t so certainly that we will not
have to be called twice by it, as in the b.
Die times the Lord called some peopIe
twice by name. Saul! Saulp Samuel
Samuel Martial Martha?'
When you come up and look for your
name in the mighty tones of eternity and
you are so happy as to find it there. YOU
will notice that the penmanship is Christ 5
and that the letters were written with a
trembling hand. Not trembling with old
age, for he had only passed three decades
when he expired. 1t was soon after the
LnlElleLn anniversary of his birthday
Look over all the business accounts Won
kept or the letters you wrote at thirty
years Of age, and IL you were ordinarily
strong and well, then there was no tremor
In the chirography. Why the tremor in
the hand that wrote your name in heaven ?
On, II was a compression 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 Gal
lice. Pillows for others, but he had not
where to lay his head. Hungry, he could
not even get fig on which to breakfast.
or have you missed the pathos of that
verse, In the morning, as he returned I'M
TO the city, he hungered. and when he
cav fig tree in the way he came 10 II
and found nothing thereon" Oh. he was
hungry Christ, and nothing makes the
hand tremble worse than hunger, for II
pulls upon the stomach, and the stomach
pulls upon the brain. and the brain pulls
upon the nerves, and the agitated nerves
make tho hand quake. On the top Of all
this evaporation came abuse What So
Der man ever wanted TO be called a drunk
ard? but Christ was called one. What