The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-06-07
FORGETTING.
DIR. TALMAGE SAYS 1T rs AN ART
and ONE TO BE CULTIVATED
And That It IL Quito Important a.
tho Art of Recollcction-An Inter-
esting Sermon.

tho Art of Recollcction-An Inter-
esting Sermon.
Brooklyn, June 5.-The enormous audi-
ence which thronged the tabernacle this
morning had fresh evidence OF DR.. Tai
mage's originality. The value of re-
tentive memory every one knew by expe-
rience and had heard extolled from their
schooldays up, but they learned from Dr.
Talmage's sermon that the art Of forget
ting is worth cultivating, and that there
is the highest possible example for its ex-
ercise His text was Hebrews 8, l.:
Their sins and their iniqulties Will l
remember no more"
The national flower Of tho Egyptians Is
the heliotrope, of the Assyrians Is the
gold, Of the Chinese Is the chrysanthe-
mum. We have no national flower, but
there Is hardly any flower more sugges-
tive to many Of us than the 'forget-me-
not" 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 assisting mem
DRY, Is an important art. 1t was first Sug-
gested by Simonides Of Cos 500 years be-
fore Christ Persons who had but little
power to recall events, or put facts and
names and dates in proper procession
have, through this art, had their memory
reinforced to an almost incredible extent.
A good memory is an Invaluable posses
sion. BY all means, cultivate It, had
an aged friend, who, detained all night at
q miserable depot in waiting for rail
train fast In the SnoW-banks, entertained
q group of some ten or fifteen clcrgymen,
likewise detained on their way home
from a meeting Of presbytery, by, first,
with a piece Of chalk, drawing out on
black and sooty walls Of the depot, the
characters Of Walter SCOTS "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 IL this
story Of the railroad was true, he said:
81 do not remember now, but it was just
like me-" Let me see" said he to me,
shave I ever seen you before?" YES" 1
said, you were my guest last night, and l
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 can not too highly eulogize,
is one quite as important and yet l never
heard it applauded. l mean the art of
forgetting. There Is a splendid faculty
in that direction that we all need to cul-
W, bot
be ten times happier and more useIuf
than we now are. We have been told
that forgetfulness is 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 omnipo-
tcnce that God is able to obliterte a part
of His own memory. If we repent of sin
and rightly seek the divine forgiveness,
the record of the miSbehayiOr is not only
crossed Off the books but God actually
let's 1t pass out of memory. Their sins
and their iniquities will l remember no
more" To remember no more IS to for
get 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 life all right,
gets the sins Of his heart pardoned, and
the other man, after life OF abomination,
gets pardoned, God remembers no more
against one than against the other. The
entire past of both the moralist, with his
imperfectiolS, and the prOfiigate, with
his debauchelieS, is as much 0bliterated
in the one case as in the other. Forgot
ten, forever and forever Their sins and
their iniquities win ! remember no more"
This sublime attribute of forgetfulness
on the part of God you and | need, in our
finite way, to initiate. You will do well
to cast out of your recollection all wrongs
done you. During the course of ones life
he is sure to be mlsrepresented, to be lied
about, to be injured. There are those who
keep these things fresh by frequent re-
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
they frequently regale themselves and
their friends by an inspection of these
filings, these sarcasms, these falsehoods,
these cruelties. l have known gentlemen
who carried them III their pocketbooks, so
that they could easily get ut these irrita-
tons and they put their right hand in the
inside of the coat pocket over their heart,
and say: Look here! Let me show You
something" Scientists catch wasps and
hornets and poisonous insects and transfix
them in curiosity bureaus for study, and
that is well. But these of whom ] speak
catch the wasps and the hornets and pois-
Onous insects and play with them and put
them on themselves and on their friends
and see how far the noXious things can
jump and show how deep they can sting
Have no such scrapbook. Keep nothing
in your possession that is disagreeahle.
Tear up the fasehoods and the ISLANDERS
and the hypercriticisms. Initiate the Lord
in my text and forget, actually forget,
sublimely forget. There is happiness
for you in any other plan or procedure.
You see all around you in the church and
out of the church dispositions acerb, malign,
cynical, pessimistc Do YOU know how
these men and women got that disposition?
1t was by the embalmment of things pan
Uterine and viperous. They have spent
much of their time in calling the roll of all
the rats that have nibbled at their reputa-
ton. Their soul is a cage of vutures.
Everything in Them is sour or embittered.
The milk of human kindness has
been curdled. They do not be-
lieve In anybody or anything. If they see
two people Whispering they think it is about
themselves. If they see two people laugh
ing they think it is about themselves
Where there is one sweet pippm in their
orchard there are fifty crab apples. hey
have never been able to forget. They 30
not want to forget They never will for
get. Their wretchedness is supreme, for
no one can be happy if he carries pcrpetu-
ally in mind the mean things that have been
4 t1,n,, L.,,~