The Red Cloud chief., 1892-06-17
A LIFE BLEMISH.
Or. Talmage on the Folly of Re-
Numbering Past Sins.
How Trctfui Christians Continually vex
God by Asking Pardon for Tina
which lie Promises to re
member No More.

The enormous audience which
thronged the tabernacle at Brooklyn
last Sabbath morning had fresh evil
dencc of DIR. Talmage's originality.
The value of a retentive memory every
ono knew by experience and had heard
cxtollcd from their schooldays up, but
they learned from DR.. Talmage's SER
mon that the art Of forgetting is worth
cultivating, and that there is the high
est possible example for its exercise.
His text was Heb. viii. 12: "Their sins
and their iniquities will I remember nc
more"
The national flower Of the Egyptians
Is the heliotrope, of the Assyrians Is the
water lily, of the Hindoos Is the mari
gold, of the Chinese is the c~hrysanthe-
mum. We have no national flower, but
there Is hardly any flower more sug-
gestive to many Of US than the forget
me-nots." We all like to be rcmem-
bered, and one Of our misfortunes is
that there are so many things we a
not remember.
Mnemonics, or the art of assisting
memory, is an important art. 1t was
FIRST suggested by Simonides of Cos 500
years before Christ. Persons who had
but little power to recall events, OIL to
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
IN invaluable possession. BY all means
cultivate il. / had an aged friend who,
detained all night ut a miserable depot
in waiting for IA rail train fast in the
snow banks, entertained a group of
some ten or fifteen clergymen, likewise
detained on their way home from n
meeting of presbytery, by, first, with q
piece of chalk, drawing out on the
black and sooty walls of the depot, the
character of Walter Scott's "Marmion,"
and, then, reciting from memory the
whole of that poem Of some
eighty pages of fine print. My
old friend through great age
lost his memory, and when l
asked him IL the story of the railroad
member now, but it was just like me-"
"Let me see" said he to me, 'have I
ever seen you before?' ''Ycs," I said.
'you were my guest last night and I
was with you an hour ago" What an
awful contrast in that man between the
greatest memory I ever knew and no
memory at all.
But right along with this art Of rccol-
lection, which I cannot too highly
euloyize, is one quite as important and
yet l never heard it applauded. I mean
the art Of forgetting. There is a
splendid faculty in that direction that
we all need to cultivate. We might,
through that process, be ten times hap
pier and more useful than we now are.
We have been told that forgetfulncss Is
q weakness and ought to be avoided by
all possible means. So far from a
weakness, my text ascribes it to
God. 1t Is the very top of ON
impotence that God is able to obliterate
a part of His own memory. II we
vine forgiveness the record of the mis-
behavior is not only crossed off the
books, but God actually let's it pass out
of memory. ''Their sins and their in
Equities will I remember no more" To
remember no more is to forget, and you
cannot make anything else out of it.
Gods power Of forgetting is so great
that II two men appeal to him, and the
one man, after q life all right, gets the
sins of his heart ~pardoned, and the
other man, after a life Of denomination,
gets pardoned, God remembers no more
against one than against the other.
The entire past Of both the moralist,
with his imperfections, and the profit
gate, with his debaucheries, is as much
obliterated In the one case as in the
other. Forgotten, forever and forever.
''Thcir sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more"
This sublime attribute Of forgetful-
ness on the part Of God you and I need,
in our finite way, to initiate. You will
do we'll to cast out Of your recollection
all wrongs done you. During the
course Of ones life he Is sure to be mis-
represented, to be lied about, to be in
jured. There are those who keep these
things fresh by frequent rehearsal. II
things have appeared in print, they
keep them In their scrap book, for they
cut these precious paragraphs out OF
the newspapers or books and at leisure
times look them over, or they have
them tied UP in bundles, or thrust In
pigeon holes, and they frequently re-
gale themselves and their friends by an
inspection of these filings, these sar-
casms, these falsehoods, these cruelties.
I have known gentlemen who car
ried them in their pocket books, SO
that they could easily get at these irri-
tations, AID they put their right hand
On the inside of the coat pocket over
their heart and say: "Look here! Let
me show you something" Scientists
catch yvasns and hornets and poisonous
insects and transfx them in curiosity
bureaus for study, and that is well.
But those Of whom I speak catch the
wasps and the hornets and poisonous
insects and play with them and put
them on themselves and on their friends
and see how far the n0xious things can
jump and show howdeep they can sting.
Have no such scrap book. Keep moth