Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-10-13

way. Not put into a glorif1ed mob.
No, no! 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 dissolute, should say, Il never
heard of your conversion and do not
believe you have a right to be here"
you could just laugh laugh of tri-
umph, and turning over the leaves con-
tanning the names of the redeemed,
say, Read it for yourself. That is
my name, written out in full, and do
you not recognize the handwriting?
No young scribe of heaven entered
that. No anonymous writer put it
there. Do you not see the tremor in
the lines? Do you not also see the bold
ness of the letters? Is it not as plain
as yonder throne, as plain as yonder
and the handwriting unmistakable?
and the handwriting unmistakables
day / repented and turned. Hear it!
Hear it! My name is written there!
Therew
l have sometimes been tempted to
think that there will be so many of Us
in heaven that we will be lost in the
crowd. No. Each one of us will be as
distinctly picked out and recognized as
was Abel when he entered from earth,
the very first sinner saved, and at the
head OF that long procession of sinners
saved in all the centuries. My dear
hearers, if we once get there, do not
want it left uncertain as to whether we
are to stay there. After you and / get
fairly settled there, in our heavenly
home, We do not want our title proved
defective. We do not want to be eject
ed from the heavenly premises. We do
not want some one to say, This is not
your room in the house Of many man
sions, and you have on an attire that
you ought not to have taken from the
heavenly wardrobe, and that is not
really your name on the books. II
you had more carefully examined the
writing in the register at the gate, YOU
would have found that the name was
not yours at all, but mine. Now move
out, while | move in" Oh, what
wretchedness, after once worshipping
In heavenly temples, to be compelled
to turn your back on the music, and
after having joined the society of the
blessed, to be forced TO quit it forever,
and after having clasped our long-lost
kindred in heavenly embrace, to have
another separation! What an agony
would there be in such a good-by TO
heaven! Glory be to God on high that
our names will be so plainly written in
those volumes that neither saint, nor
cherub. nor seraph, nor archangel shall
doubt it for one moment, for five hun
dred eternities, if there were room for
so many. The oldest inhabitant of
heaven can read it, and the child that
left its mothers lap last night for
heaven can read it. You will not Just
look at your name and close the book,
but you will stand. and soliloquize, and
say, "Is it not wonderful that my name
is there at all? How much it cost my
Lord to get it there? Unworthy am /
to have it in the same book with the
sons and daughters of martrydom and
with the choice spirits of all time! But
there it is, and so plain the word and
so plain all the letters" And you will
turn forward and backward the leaves
and see other names there, perhaps
your fathers name, and your mothers
name, and your brothers name, and
your sisters name, and your wifes
name, and apostolic names, and say,
Il am not surprised that those names
are here recorded. They were better
than / ever was. But establishment
overwhelming, that my name is in this
book And turning back to the page
on which is inscribed your name, you
will stand and lock at it, until seeing
that others are waiting to examine the
records with reference to their own
names, you step back into the ranks
of the redeemed, with them to talk over
the wonderment.
Again, if you are so happy as to find
your name in the volumes of eternity,
you will find it written indelibly. Go
I'D to the State Department in this ma
tional capital and see the old treaties
signed by the rulers of foreign nations
just before or just after the beginning
of this century, and you will find that
some of the documents are so faded
out that you can read only here and
there a word. From the paper, yellow
with age, or the parchment unrolled
before you, time has effaced line after
line. You have TO guess at the name,
and perhaps guess wrongly. Old Time
is represented as carrying a scythe,
with which he cuts down the genera
tons; but he carries also chemicals
with which he eats out whole para
graphs from important documents. We
talk about indelible ink; but there is
no such thing as indelible ink. 1t is
only question of time. the complete
obliteration of all earthly signatures
and ENDORSEMENTS. But your name,
put in the heavenly record, all the mil
ienniums of heaven cannot dim 1T. AZ
ter you have been so long in glory that,
did you not possess imperishable mem
DRY, you would have forgotten the day
or your entrance, your name on That
page will glow as wildly as on the in