Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-06-11
ART OF FORGETTING
Or. TALMAeE SHOWS THAT FOB
esTFuLNEss HAS lTe USES.

Or. TALMAGE SHOWS THAT FOR
GETFULNES9 HAS lTS USES. g
The vaIao Of notcntivc Memory Every
Ono Knows. bat Thoro Are Some Things
Tint Arc Ecst Forgo.tcn-A scriptural
I;xn,npls Cor Ita Exercise.
BROOKLYN, June 5.-The enormous
audience which tlronged the Tabernacle
this morning had fresh evidence Of DR..
Talmage's originality. The value of Q
rctentive memory every ono knew by
experience and had heard oxtolled from
their school days up, but they learned
from d.. Talmages sermon that the ert
Of forgetting Is worth culivating, and
that there is the highest possible ex,
ample for tia exercise. His text was
Hebrews viii, 10, Their aims and their
iniauities will | remember no mole.n
The national Aower,of the Eggypttane
is. the heliotropeS of the Assyrians Is the
water lily. of the IIindoos is the mari
gold, ofthe Chinese is the chrysanthe-
mum. We lmvc no national flower, but
there is hardly amy Cover more sugges-
tive to many OF us than the forgetme-
not We al Hike 10 be remembered,
end ono OF our Inisfortunes is that there
ure 30 many things wc cannot rcmem-
bcr. Mnemolrrs, or the art Of assisting
memory. Is ia important art. IL was
first suggested by Simoni,les Of Cos five
hundred years before Christ
Persons who Ind but Httlo power to
recall events. or put facts and names
and dates in proper PROFESSIONS have,
through this aIt. had their memory TO
enforced TO an almost incredible c1tent,
a good memory {; an Invaluable posses
sion. By NIL means cultivate It. l had
an aged friend who. detained OIL night
at miserable depot III waiting for a
rail train fast tn TIE SHOW banks. enter
tanned q group OF some ten or fifteen
clcrgymop, likewise Detained ON their
way homo FROM u meeting of pres
bytory, first. with pieco Of chulk,
drawing out on the black End sooty
walls OF the depot tho characters of
Walter SCOTS "Marmin.r and then re
citing from memory the whole CT that
poem H scrne eighty pages IN 1ne
print
Ny old friend. through great age, lost
his memory, und when / asked him Il
this story Of tho railroad depot was true;
he said, II do not remember now. but it
was just El1c me. Let mo sec, said he
to me, "havo / ever seen you beforcy'
Yes" snitl. "you wero my guest last
night and ! was with you On hour ago
What all awful contrast In that man
between the greatest memory ever
knew and no memory ut all.
CULTIVATE FoRoETFULNEsS.
But right clong with this art Of recol-
lection. Which cannot too highly eulo-
gizc, is oac quito Gs important and yet
never heard 1t npplauded. Imeml TIC
art Of forgetting There Is o splendid
faculty In that direction that We al
noed to cultivate. Wo might, through
that process. be ten times happier and
more useful than we now are. We have
been told that forgetfulness Is q weak
ness nnd orght TO be evoided by ell pos
sible ,neaus. So far from weakness, my
text ascribes it to God. It Is the very
top of o1nnipotoncc That God Is able to
oblitcrate d part Of his own memory. Ii
we repent OF sin end rightly sock the
divine forgiveness, the record Of the mis-
behavior Ia not only crossed OF tho
books, bnt God actually lets 1t plss cat
Of memory
"Their sins and their iniquities will !
remember no more" To remcmber uo
moro is 10 forget, end you cannot make
anything else out Ut it. Gods power of
forgetting is % great that if two mca
appeal TO him. md the ono man, after a
life oil right. gets che sins Of his heart
pardoned, and the other mon, after q
life OF abolnination. gots pardonel, God
remembers DO moro against one than
against tho Other. Tho entire past of
both tho 1noralist, with his impcrfec-
tions. and the profiigatc. with Lis de-
bauchcries, Is as much obli.erated In
the one case IFS in tho other. Forgotten,
forever anu forever. 'Their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no
more
This sublime attribute Of forgetful-
ness On the part Of God you end need
in uur finite way 10 initiate. You will
do well to cast cut Of your recollection
all wrongs done you. During tho course
oi ose's life he is sure to be nisrcpre-
ecntcd. to be lied ubUut, to be injured.
Thcro aro those who keep these things
fresh by frequent rehearsal. If things
havo appeared In print they keep them
in their scrnpDook, for they cut these
precious paragraphs out Of newspapers
or books and ut leisure times look them
over, or they have them tied up in bun
dies or thrust in pigeorholes, and they
frequently rcgaie themselves and their
friends BY III inspection of these filings,
these sarcasns, these falsehoods, these
crueltiea
hapo know gentlemen who carried
them III their pocketbooks, go that they
could easily get Mt these irritations, and
they put their right hard in the inside of
the coat pocket over the heart aud say;
"Look horel Let mo chow you come
thing" Scientists catch wasps alid lior-
nots and poisonous insects and transfix
them in curiosity bureaus for study, and
that is we'll. But these ri whom
sl,euk catch the wasps, aud the hornets,
and tho poisonous insects and play with
thcm a2i put them on themselves and
IN their friends, md see how fer the
noxious insects can jump Hnd show how
deep they can sting. Have no such
scrapbook. Keep nothing in your pos
session ulat is dsagreeable. Tear up
the falschoods, unl the ISLANDERS, and
the hyporcriticisms.
Initiate tue Lord tn my text and for