The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-10-07

and the time that must nave been taken
in getting ready for the tragedy, there
could not have been much more than
two hours left, Why did Christ live
only two hours upon the cross, when
others had lived 4S hours? Ah, 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 it was written with q
trembling penmanship--trembling with
every letter Of your name, if it bo your
earthly name, or trembling with every
letter of your heavenly name, if that be
different and more euphonious. 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
20 written on the back Of letter, and
you opened ii, saying, "Why, here is a
letter from mother" or "Here is let
ter FROM father and after you opened
it you found all the words because of
old age were traced irregu]arly and un-
certain, so that you could hardly read
it at all? But after much study yo1l
made it out-a letter from home tell
ing you how much they missed you, and
how much they prayed for you, and how
much they wanted to zee you, and if it
might not be on earth that so it might
be in the world where there are no part
ings. Yes, your name is written in
heaven. if written at all, with trem-
bling chirography.
Some Autographs.
Again. in examination Of your name
in the heavenly archives, if you find it
there at adj, you will find it written
with bold hand. You have seen many
signature that because Of sickness or
old age had a tremor in it, yet it was as
bold as the man who wrote it. Many an
order written Oh the battlefield and
amid the thunder of the cannonade has
had evidence Of excitement 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 boldness of order that shows it.
self in every word written. You do not
need to be told that trembling hand
does not always mean a cowardly hand.
1t was with q very trembling hand
Charles Carroll of Carrollton signed his
name to the Declaration of American
Independence, but no signer had more
courage. And when some ono said,
"There are many Charles CAROLS, 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 de-
fance seen in the way your name is
written in heaven are 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. 7 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 I am going
to fetch him here. He may slip and
slide, but he has got to come here. By
my omnipotelt sword, by the combined
strength of all heavens principalities
and powers and dominions, by the 20, :
900 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 better
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 as
sail US between now and the moment of
our last pulsation of the heart, and yet
he dares to write our name there. Bold
ness! Nothing at Saragossa or Chalons
or Marathon or Thermopyl@ to equal
it. Nothing in the sack of gun powder
which one English soldier carried under
the blazing artillery Of the Mohamme-
dams and blew up the gate Of Delhi. Can
you not see the boldness in the penman-
ship that has already written our names
there? Apostle Peter, what doy think
of it? And he answers, 'Kept by the
power of God through faith unto COM
plete salvation. - Oh, blessed Christ,
what dost thou mean by it? And he an
swers: "They shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out
Of my hand" "Your names are written
IN heaven.
Eternal Volumes.
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
written in lines, in words, in letters
unmistakable. Some people have come
to consider indistinct and almost un-
readable penmanship q mark of genius
and so they affect it. Because every
paragraph that Thomas Chalmers and
Dean Stanley and Lord Byron and Ru-
fus Choate and other potent men wrote
was puzzle. imitators make their PEN
manship a puzzle. Alexandra 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 in
telligible, and much of the writing Of
this world is indecipherable We have
seen piles of inexplicable chirography,
and we ourselves have helped augment
the magnitude. We have not been sure
of the name signed or tho sentiment
expressed, or whether the reply was af-
firmative or negative. Through indis-
tinct penmanship last wills and testa-
ments have been defeated, widows and
orphans robbed Of their inheritance,
railroad trains brought into collision
through the dim words of a telegram
put into the hand of conductor, and
regiments in this wise. mistaking their
instructions, have been sacrificed in
battle.
I asked Bishop Cowic, in Auckland,
New Zealand, the bishop having been
in many of the wars, what Tennyson, in
his immortal poem, 1.-The Charge of the
Light Brigade, meant by the words,
''Some ono had blundered," " and the
bishop said that the awful carnage at
Balaklava was the result of an indis-
tinctly written and wrongly read mill
tary order. "Somc one had blundered. "
But your name, once written in the
Lambs book of life, will be so unmis-