Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-07-22
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Forsive and Forget"

TEXT: 'Their sins and their iniquities
tciH remember no more."-Hebrews viii,
~.
The national flower OF the Egyptians is
the heliotrope, of the Assyrians is the water
hy of the Hindoos is the marigold, of the
Chinese is the hrysanthemum. 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 remem-
bered, and one of our misfortunes Is that
there are so many things we cannot remem-
Der. Mnemoncs, or the art of assisting
memory, is an important art. 1t was first
suggested by Simonides OF Cos i've hundred
years before Christ.
Persons who had but little power to recall
events, or put facts and names and dates in
professions, have through this art had their
memory reinforced to an almost incredible
extent. A good memory is an almost in
valuable possession. By all means cultivate
it. | had an aged friend who, detained all
night at miserable depot in waiting for
rail train fest in the snow banks, entertained
a group of some ten to fifteen clergymen,
likewise detained on their way home fromA
meeting of presbytery, first, with piece of
chalk, drawing out on the black and sootY
walls of the depot the characters of w alter
SCOTS ''Marnlion," and then reciting from
memory the whole of that poem of some
eighty pages in fine print.
Ny old friend, through great age, lost his
memory, and when l asked him if this story
of the railroad depot was true he said, Il do
not remember now, but it was just like me.
Let me see" said he to me, have l ever
seen you before?" YES" 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 l ever
knew and no memory at all.
But right along with this art of recollec-
ton, which l cannot too highly eulogize, is
one quite as important and yet l never
Ill or-& e 60
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 fOrgetfulness is a
weakness and ought to be avoided by all
possible means. So far from weakness, my
text ascribes it to God 1t is the very top of
omnipotence that God is able to obliterate
part of His own memory. If we repent of
sin and rightly seek the divine forgiveness,
the record of the misbehavior is not only
crossed off the book, but God actually lets
it pass out Of memory.
Their sins and their iniQuities will [ re-
member 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 if two men appeal to Him, and
the one man, after a 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 past of
both the moralist, with his imperfections,
and the profigate with his debaucheries, is
as much obliterated in the one case as in the
other. Forgotten, forever and forever.
Their sins and their iniquities will 1 re-
member no more"
This sublime attribute of forgetfulness on
the part of God you and 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 misrepresented, to be lied about, to be in
jured, There are those who keep these
things fresh by frequent rehearsal. If things
have appeared in print they keep them in
their scrapbook, for they cut these precious
paragraphs out of 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 regale themselves
and their friends by an inspection Of these
filings, these sarcasms, these falsehoods, these
cruelties.
1 have known gentlemen who carried
them in their pocketbooks, so that they
could easily get at these irritations and they
put their right hand in the inside of the coat
pocket over the heart and say: "Look here!
Let me show you something." Scientists
catch wasps, and hornets, and poisonous in
sects and transfix them in curiosity bureaus
for study. and that is we'll. But these of
whom speak catch the wasps, and the hOr-
nets, and the poisonous insects, and play
with them and put them on tn emSelves and
on their friends, and see how far the noxious
insects can jump and show how deep they
can sting. Have no such scrapbook. Keep
nothing in your possession that is Disagree
able. Tear up the falsehoods, and the SLAM
ders and the hypercriticisms.
Initiate the Lord in my text aid forget,
actually forget, sublimely forget. There is
no happiness for you in any other plan of
procedure. You see all around you, in the
church and out of the church, dispositions
acerb, malign, cynical, pessimistic. Do you
know how these men and women got that
disposition, 1t was by the embalmment of
things pantherine and vi porous. They have
spen& much of their time in calling the roll
of all the rats that have nibbled at their rep
utation. Their soul is cage of vultures.
Everything in them is sour or imbittered.
The milk of human kindness has been
curdIed. They do not believe in anybody or
anything.
If they see two people whispering they
think it is about themselves. II they see
two people laughing they think it is about
themselves. Where there is one sweet pip
pin in their orchard there are fifty crab
apples. They have never been able to for
get. They do not want to forget. They
never will forget. Their wretchedness is SUI
preme, for no one can be happy if he carries
perpetually in mind the mean things that
have been done him.
On the other hand, you can ind here and
there man or woman (for there are not
many Of them) whose disposition is genial
and summary. Why? Have they always
been treated we'll? Oh, no. Hard things
have been said against them. They have
been charged with ofticiousness; and their
generosities have been set down to desire
for display, and they have many time
been the subject of tittle-tattle and they
have had enough small assaults like gnats
and enough great attacks like lions to have
made them perpetually miserable, if they