The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-10-16
DIVINE CHiROGRAPHY.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Disconrses on
Heavens Record.
Is Your Name written In tho book Ok
of LIfe?-rhe ChIrokraphy of Earth
L. Uncertain, But the Celes-
tlaI Hand Is Not Changed.

text:
Rejoice because your names are written In
Heaven.-Luke x, 20
Chlrography, or the art OF hand
writing, like the science Of acoustics;
is In very Unsatisfactory state,
While Constructing 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 con-
suited with Prof. Joseph Henry, of
the Smithsonian Institution about the
law of acoustics. He said: "Go ahead
and build your church in the shape
proposed, and l think it will be all
right have studied the laws of
souhd perhaps more than any man of
my time, and / 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 satne Unsatisfactory
stage is chirography, although many
declare they have reduced 1T
to a science. There are those who say
they can read character by handwrit-
ing. 1t is said that the tvay one writes
the letter ''l' decides his egotism or
modesty, and the way one writes the
letter 20" decides the height and depth
of his emotion. 1t is declared a
cramped hand means a cratnped ma
ture, and an easy, flowing hand faeile
and liberal spirit; but il there be any
thing in this science, there must be
some rules not yet announced, for
some of the boldest and most agrees
sive men have delicate and small
pehmanship, while some of the most
timid sign their names with the height
and width and scope of the name
of John Hancock on the immor
tai document. Some of the clean
est in person and thought present
their blotted and spattered page, and
some of the toughest put before us an
immaculate chirography. Not our
character, but the copy-plate set be-
fore us in our schoolboy day, decides
the general style of our handwriting.
So also there is fashion in penman-
ship, and for one decade the letters
are exaggerated, and the next mini
fed; now erect and now aslant, now
heavy and now fine. An autograph
album is always a surprise, and you
character of the writer's. But while
the chirography of the earth is uncer-
tain, our blessed Lord in our text pre-
sents the chirography celestial. When
addressing the 20 disciples standing
before Him, He said: Rejoice be-
cause your names are written in
Heaven"
OF course the Bible, for the most
part, when speaking of the heavenly
world, speaks figuratively while talk
ing about books and about trumpets
and about wings and about gates and
about golden pavements. and about
orchards with twelve crops of fruit
one crop each month-and about the
white horses of Heavens cavalry; but
we do well to follow out these in
spired metaphors and reap from them
courage and sublime expectation and
consolation and victory. We are told
that the heavenly library there is
Book of Life. Perhaps there
are many volumes in it. When
we say book, we mean all
written by the author on that subject.
/ can not tell how large those heaven
ly volumes are, nor the splendor of
pages, nor whether they are pictorial
lied with some exciting scenes of this
world. l only know that the words
have not been impressed by type, but
written out by some hand, and that
all those who, like the 20 disciples to
whom the text was spoken, repent and
trust the Lord for their eternal saliva
ton, surely have their names writ
ten in Heaven. 1t may not be
the same name that we carried
on earth. We may, through
the inconsiderateness of parents, have
a name that is uncouth, or that was
afterward dishonored by one after
whom we were called. do not know
that the 20 entrances of the names of
the 20 disciples correspond with the
record in the genealogical table. 1t
may 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 it announced to
us as we pass in, and we will know it
so certainly that we will not have to
be called twice by it, as in the Bible
times the Lord called some people
twice by name, saul! SaulF' "Sam-
uel! Samuell' Martial Marthar
When you come up and look for
your name in the mighty tome of eter-
nifty and you are so happy as TO find it
there, you will notice that the pen
manship is Christs, and that the let
tiers were written with trembling
hand. Not trembling with old age, for
He had only passed three decades when
He expired. 1t was soon after the
thirtieth anniversary of his birthday.
Look over all the business accounts
you kept or the letters you wrote at 30
years of age, and if you were ordinar-
lily strong and we'll, then there was no
tremor in the chirography. Why the
tremor in the hand that wrote your
name in Heaven? Oh, it was compress
sion of more troubles than ever smOte
anyone else, and all of them trout les
assumed for others. Christ waH pre-
maturely old He had been exposed
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 other, but
he had not where to lay His head.
Hungry, He could not even get a fig on
which to breakfast; or have you missed
the pathos of that verse, "In the morn
ing, as He returned unto the city, He
hungered, and when He saw Z
fig tree in the way, He came to it
and found nothing thereon. Oh, He
was a hungry Christ, and nothing
makes the hand tremble worse than
hunger, for 1t pulls upon the stomach,
and the stomach pulls upon the brain,
and the brain pulls upon the nerves,