Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-06-16
IT'S GOOD TO FORGET.
Or. TALMAeE DIScoURsEs ON RIGHT
EoUs LAPSEs OF MEMORY.

Elea Tor Charity ana mercy.
BROOKLYN, June 5.-The enormous audi
enee which thronged the Tabernacle this
morning had fresh evidence of DIR. Tai
mage's originality. The value Of a retent-
tive memory every one knew by experience
and had heard eXtolled from their school
days up, but they learned from DIR. Tai
mage's sermon that the art of forgetting
is worth cultivating, and that there is the
highest possible example for its exercise.
His text was Hebrews viii, 10, "Their sins
and their iniquities will l remember no
more"
The national flower of the Egyptians is
the heliotrope, of the Assyrians is the
water lily, of the Hindoos is the marigold,
OF the Chinese is the chrysanthemum. We
have no national flower, but there is hardly
any flower more suggestive to many of
us than the forgetmenot. We all like to
be remembered, and one of our misfortunes
is that there are so many things we cannot
remember. Mnemonics, or the art of as
sisting memory, is an important art. 1t
was first suggested by Simonides of Cos
five hundred years before Christ.
Persons who had but little power to re-
call events or put facts and names and
dates in proper professions, have through
this art had their memory REINFORCED to
an almost incredible extent. A good
memory is an invaluable possession. BY
all means cultivate it. l had an aged
friend who, detained all night at a miser-
able depot in waiting for rail train fast
in the snowbanks, entertained group Uf
some ten or fifteen clergymen likewise de-
tanned on their way home from a meeting
of presbytery, first, with piece of
chalk, drawing out on the black and sooty
walls of the depot the characters of Wal.
ter Scott's "Marmion," and then reciting
from memory the whole of that poem OF
some eighty pages in fine print.
My old friend through great age lost his
memory, and when | asked him if this
story of the railroad depot was true, he
said, 81 do not remember now, but it was
just like me-" 'Let me see," said he to
me, "have ever seen you before?" Eyes u
/ said, you were my guest last night and
/ was with you an hour ago." What an
awful contrast in that man between the
greatest memory ever knew and no mem.
ory at all.
A SPLENDID FACULTY.
But right along with this art of recollec.
tion, which / cannot too highly eulogize, is
one quite as important, and yet / never
heard it applauded. mean the art of for
getting. There is splendid faculty in
that direction that we all need to cultivate
We might through that process be ten
times happier and more useful than we
now are. We have been told that forget
fulness is weakness and ought to be
avoided by all possible means. So far from
a weakness, my text ascribes it to God. II
is the very top of omnipotence that God is
able to obliterate part of his own mem
ory. If we repent of sin and rightly seek
the divine forgiveness, the record of the
misbehavior is not only crossed off the
books, but God actually let's it pass out Of
memory.
"Their sins and their iniquities will I re
member no moren To remember no more
is to forget and you cannot make anything
else out of it. Gods powerof forgetting is
so great that if two men appeal to him, and
the one man, after life all right, gets the
sins of his heart pardoned, and the Other
man, after life of abomination gets par
doned, God remembers no more against
one than against the other. The entire
pastOf both the moralist, with his imper
fections, and the prefigate, with his de
baucheries, is as much obliterated in tn,
one case as in the other. Forgotten, for
ever and forever "Their sins and theil
iniquties will remember no more"
This sublime attribute of forgetfulnes.
on the part of God you and I need, in oul
finite way, to initiate. You will do wei
to cast out of your recollection all wrongs
done you. During the course of ones life
he is sure to be misrepresented, to be lice
about, to be injured. There are those wht
keep these things fresh by frequent re
hearsal. If things have appeared in print
they keep them in their scrapbook, fol
they cut these precious paragraphs out o.
newspapers or books, and at leisure time.
look them over, or they have them tied W
in bundles, or thrust in pigeonholes, ant
they frequently regale themselves ant
their friends by an inspection of thest
fings, these sarcasms, these falsehoods
these cruelties.
I have known gentlemen who carried
them in their pocketbooks, so that they
could easily get al these irritations, and the,
put their right hand in the inside of tn,
coat pocket over their heart and say: "Lool
herel Let me show you something." Sci
entists catch wasps and hornets and poi
sonous insects and transfix them in curios
ity bureaus for study, and that is well
But these of whom speak catch the wasps
and the hornets, and poisonous insects ant
play with them, and put them on them
selves and on their friends, and see how
far the noxious things can jump, and show
how deep they can sting. Have no sucl
scrapbook. Keep nothing in your posses
sion that is disagreeable. Tear up th,
falsehoods, and the ISLANDERS, and the hyper
criticisms.
Initiate the Lord in my text and forget
actually forget, sublimely forget. Their
is no happiness for you in any other pla1
or procedure. You see all around you, il
the church and out of the church, disposi
tions acerb, malign, cynical, pessimistic
Do you know how these men and womel
got that disposition? 1t was by the em
balmment of things pantherine and viper
GUS. They have spent much of their tim,
in calling the roll of all the rats that hav,
nibbled at their reputation. Their soul il
q cage of vultures. Everything in them il
sour or imbittered. The milk of human
kindness has been curdled They do no
believe in anybody or anything. II the.
see two people Whispering they think it il
about themselves. If they see two peopl,
laughing, they think it is about them
selves.
Where there is one sweet pippin in thei
orchard, there are fifty crab apples. The,
have never been able to forget. They d.
not want to forget. They never will for
get. Their wretchedness is supreme, fo
no one can be happy If he carries perpetu
ally in mind the mean things that hav'
been done him. On the other hand, yol
can find here and there man or woman
(for there are not many of them) who's
disposition is genial and summery. Why
Have they always been treated well? Oh
no. Hard things have been said agains
them. They have been charged with off
ciousness; and their generosities have beel