The Monitor-register., 1896-10-09
HIS UNIQUE SERMON.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE breaches YIN
DIVINE cHIRoGRAPHY.

Eternal Life-Ink Made From the Cal
vary Sacrifice.
w,su,NeToN. Oct. I've send out
this. one of the most unique sermons
Dr Talmage ever preached. 1t is as
novel as wide sweeping and practical.
His subiect is "Divine C~hirography,
the text being Luke K, 20, "ReJolce
because your names are written Ill
heaven"
C~biroeraphy, or the art of handwrlt-
ing. like the science of acoustics, Is III
very unsatisfactory state. While 0 Il
structing a church. and told by some
architects that the voice would no DO
heard in a building shaped like that
nronosed, 1 came in much anxiety to
this city and consulted with Professor
Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian lnstl-
tuition about the law OF acoustics. ne
said: go ahead and build your church
in the shape proposed, and L think IL
will be all right. 1 have studied the
laws of sound perhaps more thar any
man of my time, and l have come SO lar
as this: Two auditoriums may seem TO
be exactly alike and in n the acoustics
NAV be good and in the other bad.
In the same unsatisfactory stage is
chiroerapby. although many declare
they have reduced it to a science. There
are those who say they can read charac-
ter by handwriting. 1t is said that the
wav one writes the letter 81" decides
his eaotism or modesty, and the way
one writes the letter 80" decides the
height and depth Of his emotions. 1t is
declared a cramped hand means a
oramped nature, and an easy, flowing
hand a facile and liberal spirit. But if
there be anything in this science, there
must be some rules not yet announced,
for some of the boldest and most ag-
gressiye men have a delicate and small
~penmanship, while some of the most
timid sign their names with the height
and width and scope of the name of
John Hancock on the immortal docu-
ment. Some of the cleanest in person
and thought present their blotted and
spattered page, and some of the rough
est put before us an immaculate chirog-
raphy. Not u character, but the CODY
plate set before us in our ~schoolboy day
decides the general style of our hand
writing. So also there is q fashion in
~penmanship, and for one decade the let
tiers are exaggerated and in the next
minified, now erect and now aslant,
now heavy and now fine. An autograph
album is always a surprise, and you
find the penmanship contradicts the
character of the writers. But while the
chirography of the earth is uncertain,
our blessed Lord in u text presents
the c~hirography celestial. When ad-
dressing the 70 disciples standing before
him, he said, Rejoice because your
names are written in heaven"
The Book of Life.
Of course the Bible, for the most
part, when speaking of the heavenly
world, speaks iguratively while talk
ing about book, and about trumpets, and
about wings, and about gates, and
about golden pavements, and about
orchards with 10 crops of fruit-one
crop each month-and about the white
horses of heavens cavalry. But we do
well to follow out these inspired eta
phors and reap from them courage and
sublime expectation and consolation and
victory. We are told that in the heaven
ly library there is a book of life. Per-
haps there are many volumes in it.
When we say a book, we mean all writ
ten by the author on that subject. I
cannot tell how large those heavenly
volumes are, O the splendor of their
binding, nor the number of their pages,
nor whether they are pictorialized with
some exciting scenes of this world. I
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 salvation surely have
their names written in heaven. 1t may
not be the same name that we carried
on earth. We may, through the incon-
siderateress of parents, have a name
that is uncouth, or that was afterward
dishonored by one after whom we were
called. I do not know that the 70 en-
frances of the names of the 70 disciples
correspond with the record in the genoa
logical 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 an
nounced 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, Saul!''
Samuel, Samuel" Martha, Martial
When you come up and look for your
name in the mighty tones of eternity
and you are SO happy as to find it there,
you will notice that the penmanship is
Christ's, and that the letters were writ
ten with a trembling hand-not trem-
bling with old age, for he had only
passed three decades when he expired.
1t was soon after the thirtieth anniver.
sary 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 ordinarily strong and we'll ther
there was no tremor in the chirography.
Why the tremor in the hand that wrote
your name in heaven? Oh, it was
compression of more troubles than evel
smote any n else, and all OF then
troubles assumed for others. Christ wa
~prematurely old. He had been exposed
to all the weathers of Palestine. He haC
slept out of doors-now in the night dew.
and now in the tempest. He had beer
soaked in the surf of Lake Galilee. Pill
lows for others. but he had not where
to lay his head. Hungry, he could no
even get a fig on which to breakfast-ol
have you missed the pathos of tina
verse, Sin the morning, as he returnet
unto the city, he hungered, and wheI
he saw a fig tree in the way he came t.
it and found nothing thereon?" Oh, HI
was a hungry Christ. And nothing makes
the hand tremble worse than hunger,
for it pulls upon the stomach, and the
stomach pulls upon the brain, and the
brain pulls upon the nerves, and the
agitated nerves make the hand quake.
On the top of all this evaporation CAM
abuse. What sober man ever wanted te
be called a drunkard? But Christ was
called one. What respecter of the Lords
day wants to be called a Sabbath breaker
But he was called one. What man care
full of the company he keeps wants tt
be called the associate of profigates
But he was 80 called. What loyal mar
wants to be charged with treason? Blu
he was charged with it. What man o.
devout speech wants to be called a bias
phemer? But he was SO termed. VIVA
man of self respect wan to be strucl
in the mouth? But that is where they
struck him. Or to be the victim of thu
vilest ex~pectoration? But under that hi
stopped. Oh, he was a worn out Christ
That is the reason he died SO soon upo1
the cross.
Many victims of crucifixion lived day