The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-10-16

eel1-feSpeeC wants to be STRUCK IN th6
mouth2- But that Is where they struck
Him. Or to be the victim OF vilest sx.
peetoration? But under that He
stopped. Oh, He was a WORKOUT Christ.
That 10 the reason He died so soon up.
on the cross. Many victims of cruci.
fxion lived day after day upon
the cross; but Christ. was in
the courtroom at I2 o'clock Of
noon and He had expired at
three o'clock In the afternoon of the
SANS day. Subtractipg from the
three hours between 1g ana o'clock
the time taken to travel from the
court roem to the place of execution
and the time that must HAYS been
taken in getting ready for the tragedy,
there could not have been much more
than two hotrs left. Why did Christ
live only two hours upon the cross,
when others had lived 4S hours? ALL
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 1t was written with a
trembling penmanship- trembling
with every letter of your name,
If it be your earthly name, or
trembling with every letter of your
heavenly name, II that be different
and more ehph6niotts. 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 writ
ten on the back of a letter, and you
opened 1t, saying. ''Why, here Is let
ter from mother" or Here is a letter
from father" and after you opened
it you found all the words, be-
cause of old age, were traced irregu-
larly and uncertain, so that you could
hardly read it at all. But after much
study you make it 0ut-a letter from
home, telling 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
where there are no partings. Yes.
your name is written in Heaven, if
written at all, with trembling chirog-
raphy.
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 a signature that because of
sickness or old age had a
tremor in it, yet 1t was as
bold as the man who wrote it.
Many an order written on the battle
field and amid the thunder of the
cannonade has had evidence of excite
ment 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 a boldness
of order that shows itself in every
word written. You do not need to be
told that trembling hand does not
always mean a cowardly hand. 1t
was with a very trem bling hand
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, signed
his name to the Declaration of Ameri-
can Independence, but no signer had
more courage, and when some one
said, There are many Charles Car
rolls, 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 timidity.
The daring and defiance seen in the
way your name is written in Heaven
is challenge to all earth and hell to
come on if they can to defeat your
ransomed soul. The way your name
is written there is as much as to say:
II have redeemed him; 1 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 ON
nipotent sword, by the combined
strength of all Heavens principalities
and powers and dominions, by the 90
600 chariots of the Lord Almighty, /
am going to see him through" Bold
handwriting! 1t is the boldest thing
ever written to write my name there
and your name there. He knows our
weaknesses and bad propensities bet
ter 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
assail us between now and the moment
y
vet he dares to write our name there.
Boldnessl Nothing at Saragossa, or
Chalons, or Marathon, or Thermopylae
to equal it! Nothing in the sack of
gunpowder which one English soldier
carried under the blazing ar
tillery of the Mohammedans and
blew up the gate of Delhi! Can
you not see the boldness in the
penmanship that has already written
our names there? Apostle Peter, what
do you think of it? And he answers:
Kept by the power of God through
faith unto complete salvation" Oh,
blessed Christ, what dost thou mean
by it? And He answers: "They shall
never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand" Your
names are written in Heaven"
Again, if according to the promise of
the text you are permitted to look into
the volumes of eternity and shall see
your name there, you will find it writ
ten in lines, in words, in letters un-
mistakable Some people have come
to consider indistinct and almost un-
readable penmanship a mark of genius,
and so they affect 1t. Because every
paragraph that Thomas Chalmers. and
Dean Stanley, and Lord Byron, and
Rufus Choate and other potent men
wrote was a puzzle, imitators make
their penmanship puzzle. Alexander
Dumas says that plain penmanship is
the brevet of 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 ineligible, and much of the writ
ing of this world is indecipherabIe.