Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-10-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME BY THE
WASHINGTON PREACHER
Subject. "Divine ChIrogrAphy."

satisfactory state. While con .tru'tu5
church, and told by some architects that tue
voice would not be heard in a building shaped
like that proposed. | came in much anxiety
10 this city and consulted with Prot joseph
Henry, Of the Smithsonian Institution, about
the law OF acoustics. He said: "GO aheAi
AMI build your church in the shaps pro-
posed, and | think II will bs all right l
have studied the laws Of sound perhaps mora
than any man Of my time, and / have come
50 far A. this: Two auditOriums may seem TO
be exactly alike, AMI in one the acoustics
may be good and IN the other bad. In the
same unsatisfactory stage Is chlroCrdphy,
although many declare they have reduced II
to a science. There are those who say they
can read character by handwriting. 1t Is
said trat the way one writes the letter "I'
decides his ego,ism or modesty, and the way
one writes the letter 80" decides the height
and depth OF his emotions 1t is declared
cramped hand meansa cramped nature, and
an easy. flowing hand facile and liberal
spirit; but IL there be anything in this science,
there must be some rules not vet announced,
for some Of the boliest aud most aggressive
men have delicate and small penmAnship,
while some OF the most timid sign their
names with the height aud width AMI scope
of the name OF John Hancock on the immOr-
tai document. But while the ehirOgraphy
of the earth is uncertain, our b'essad Lord
in our text presents the chirocraphy ceies-
tial Whep addressing the seventy disciples
standing before Him. lie said: "RejOce be-
cause your names are written in heaven"
or course, the Bible, for tina most part,
when speaking OF the heavenly world, speaks
figuralively while talking about books and
about trumpets. and about wings and about
gates and about golden pavements and about
orchards with twelve crops of frult-One
crop each month-anl about the white
horses Of heavens cavalry; but we do we'll 10
follow out these inspired metaphors AMI reap
from them courage aud sublime expectation.
and consolation and victory We are told
that in the heavenly library there L. u Book
of Life. Perhap2 there are many volumes IN
it. When we say hook, We mean aIl writ
ten by the author on that subject. canuO.
tell how large those heavenly volumes are,
nor the splendOr of their binding, nor the
number Of their pages, nor whether they are
pictOraliz4d with some exciting seen Is OF TINS
world. l only know that the words have no,
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 Ii may not be the same
name that we carried on earth. We may,
through tia inconslderateness OF parents,
have name that is uncOuth, or that was
afterward dishCnOred by one after whom We
. were Cdiieu. L uV uOl hllON NldL tue SEN tiltN
entrances of the names OF the seventy dis.
ciples correspond with the record in tne
genealogical table. 1t may not bethe name
/ by which We were called on earth, but it will
( be the name by which heaven will know W,
an / we will have it announced to us as We
. pass in, and We will know 1t so certainly that
/ we will not have to be called twice by il, AS
in the Bible times the Lord called some peo-
/ pie twice by name: "Saul! SAUL! "Sumuel!
! Samuel" "Martha! Martha!'
/ In examination OF your name In the
/ heavenly archives, il you find it thera at
all, you will find it written with a bold han l..
| 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 thlnder Of the cannonade has had
evidence OF excitement in every WORT aud
every letter and in the speed with which it
was folded and banded 10 the officer rs be
put his foot in the swift strrupS, and yet
that commander, Notwithstanding his tram.
bling hand. gives a boidness Of order that
shows itself in every word written. You do
not need TO be told that a trembling hand
| does not always mean cOWartly hand. Il
was with n very trembling hand C1Ares
Carroll, of Carrollton, signed his name to
the Declaration of American lndepen ieuce,
but no signer had more courage and when
some one said, fThere are many Charles
CAROLS, and it will not be known which one
it is he resumed the pen and wrote Char es
Carroll of Carrollton. Trembling hand no
sign Of timidity The daring and defiance
seen in the way your name Is written in
heaven is a challenge 70 all earth and hell to
come on if they can to defeat your ransomed
soul.
Again, if according to the promise of the
text you ara permitted to look into the
volumes OF eternity and see your name there,
you will find it written in lines, in words. in
letters unmistakahe. Some people have
come to consider indistinct and almost un-
readable penmanship mark of genius, and
so they affect II. Because every paragraph
that Thomas Chalmers, and Dean Stanley,
and Lord Byron, and Rufus Choate ana
other potent men wrote WAS puzzle, imtta-
tors make their penmanship puzzle. Alex
ander Dumas says that plain penmNnship is
the brevet of ,lcapacity. Then there are
some who, through too much demand upon
their energies and through lack of time, lose
the capacity Of making the pen intelligihle,
and much OF the writing of this world is in
decipherabe. We have seen piles Of mex
plicable chirography, and we ourselves have
helped augment the magnitude We have
not been sure Of the name signed. or the
sentiment expressed, or whether the reply
was affirmative or negative. Through in
distinct penmanship last wills and tesla.
ments have been defeated widows and
orphans robbed of their inheritance, railroad
trains brought into collision through the
dim words Of telegram put into the hand
of conductor. and regiments, in this wise,
installing their instructions, have been
sacrificed in battle. / asked Bishop
Cowie, in Auckland, New Zealand, the
Bishop having been in many of the wars
what Tennyson, in his immortal poem,
"Tne Charge of the Light Brigade, "
meant by the words, "Some one had
blundered," and the Bishop said that
the awful carnage at Balaklava was the
result of an indistinctly-wri and
wrongly-read military order, "Some one
written in the Lambs Book of Life. will be
so unmistakable that all heaven can read il
at the first glance. Il will not be taken for
the name of some other, 50 that in regard to
it there shall come to be dIsputation Not
one of the millions End billions and quad
trillions of the finally saved will doubt thar
it means you and only you. Oh, the
glorious, the rapturoIs gertrude of that
entrance on the heavenly roll. Not saved in
promiscuous way. Not put into a
glorlfled mob. No, mol Though you came
up, the worst sinner that was ever saved
and somebody who knew you in this world
at one time as absolutely abandoned and
dissoute should say; 81 never heard OF
your conversion and I do not believe YOU
nave d IiBut 10 W. mere, you coulu Just
laugh laugh of triumph, and, turning over
the leaves containing the names of the re-
deemed, say "Read it for yourself. That
is my name. written out in fun and do you
not recognize the handwriting? No young
scribe of heaven entered that. No annony-
nous writer put it there. Do you not see
the tremor in the lines2 Do you not also see
the boldness of the letters? Is it not as plain
as yonder throne, as plain as yonder gatet
Is Ii not the name unmiStnk nble and the
handwriting unmistakable? The cruri1ed
Lord wrote it there the day Irepented and
turned. Hear it, Hear it! My name is
written there! Therem