The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-06-08
THE ART OF FORGETTING.
Rev DR.. Talmage Says It is a Cod
like Attribute.
We should Forget Our Pardoned Trans
gressions and Allow Others 10 Do
LiRewlso-En Enough Things in the
Present and Future That De-
Y serve to be Remembered.

The value Of a retentive memory |
everyone knows by experience, but
those who listened to DR.. Talmage's re-
cent sermon at the Brooklyn tabernacle
learned that the art Of forgetting Is
worth cultivating, and that there is the
highest possible example for It's exercise.
His text was Heb viii. 19. 'Their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no
more"
The national flower Of the Egyptians
is the heliotrope, OF the Assyriansis the
water lily, of the Hindoos Is the mari
gold, Of the Chinese Is the chrysanthe-
mum. We have no national flower,
but there Is hardly any flower more
suggestive to many Of us than the FOR
get-me. nots" We all like TO be remem-
bered, and one Of our misfortunes is
that there are 80 many things we can
not remember Mnemonica or the art
assisting memory, Is an important art
II was first suggested by Simonides, OF
Cos, Ave hundred years before Christ
Persons who had but little power TO re-
cali events, or put facts and names and
dates in proper procession have, through
the art, had their memory reinforced TO
an almost incredible extent A good
memory is an invaluable possession.
BY all means, cultivate 1t had an
aged friend, who, detained all night at
miserable depot in waiting for rail
train fast in tho snow banks, enter
tanned group OF some ten or fifteen
clergymen, likewise detained on their
way home from u meeting of presby-
terry, by, first, with piece OF chalk
drawing out on tho black and sooty
walls OF the depot the characters OF
Walter Scott's "Marmion," and then re-
citing 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 II
this story of the railroad depot wa
true, he said: ~ do not remember
now, but it was Just like me" lie
me see, said he to me, have / eve
seen you before?" "Yes," ! said, "yo,
were my guest last night and wa
with you an hour ago. What an aw
full contrast in that man between tn
greatest memory ] every knew and N
memory at all II :.
But right along with this art Of recol
lection, which cannot too highly euio
gize, Is one quite as important and ye
never heard It applauded. meal
the art of forget ting. There Is a splendi
faculty in tina t direction that we a
need TO cultivate. We might, throug
that process, be ten times happier an
moro useful than we now, are We hay
been told that forgetfulness 10 veal
ness and ought to be avoided by all po
sible means So far from a weakness
nv text ascribes It TO God. 1t Is II
very top of omnipotence that God
able 70 obhterate part OF His ow
memory. II we repent Of SIN and righ
ly seek the divine forgiveness, the re
ord Of the misbehavior Is not on
crossed off the books, but God actual
lets Il pass out of memory. Their sii
and their iniquities win ] remember
more" To remember no more is to 10
get, and you cannot make anythir
el.e out of 1t. Gods power OF forge
ting rs so great that II two men appe
70 Him, and the one man, after a II
all right, gets the sins of his heart pa
doned, and the other man, after q II
of abomination, gets pardoned, God
members no more against one th'
against the other. The entire past
both the moralist, with his inperf'
tons, and the proaigate, with bis
baucherics, is az much obliterated
the one case as In the other. Forgot
foreyer and forever. "Their sins a
their iniquities will I remember
more"
This sublime attribute OF forgetf
ness on the part Of God you and ne'
in our finite way. 70 initiate. You "
do we'll 70 cast out OF your recollecti
all wrongs done you. During the cou
of ones life he Us sure 10 be misrep
sented. TO be lied about, 10 be injur'
There are those who keep th'
things fresh by frequent rehearsal.
things have appeared In print, th
keep them in their scrap book, for tn
cut these precious paragraphs out
newspapers or books and at leisure tin
look them over, or they have them I
up In bundles, or thrust In pige
holes, and they frequently reg
themselves and their friends by an
spection of these hings, these sarcasr
these falsehoods, these cruelties. Ihi
known gentlemen who carried them
their pocket-books, so that they co,
nut their right hand In the inside OF
coat pocket over their heart and s
Look here! Let me show you Sol
thing" Scientists catch wasps
hornets and poisonous insects and tra
fix them In curiosity bureaus for stu
and that is well. But these OF whor
sneak catch the wasps and the horn
and poisonous insects and play "
them and put them on themselves
ON their friends and see how far
noxious things can jump and show b
deep they can sting. Have no such sc
book Keep nothing In your possess
that Is disagreeable Tear up the IA
hoods and the ISLANDERS and the hyl
criticisms Initiate the Lord In
text and forget, actually forget, subh
ly forget. THERE'S no happinessfor
in any other plan or procedure You
all around you in the church and on
the church dispositions acerb, NAL
cynical, pessimistic. Do you lu
how these men and women got that
positionP II was by the embalmn
Of things pantherine and viperous. 7
have spent much Of their time In {
inc the roll OF all the rats that /