The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-06-23
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
subject-"Forgive and Forget"

Chinese is the chrysanthemum. We have nc
national flower but there is hardly any
flower more suggestive to many of us than
the forgetmenot. Veal like TO be remem-
bered, and one of our misfortunes IS that
there are so many things we cannot remem-
her. Mnemonics. or the art of assisting
memory, is an important art. 1t was first
suggested by Simonides of Cos five 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
il. had an aged friend who detained all
night at a miserable depot In waiting for a
rail train fast in the snow banks, entertained
a group of some ten to fifteen clergymen,
likewise detained on their way home from a
meeting of presbytery, first, with piece of
chalk, drawing out on the 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.
NY old friend, through great age, lost his
memory, and when | asked him if this story
of the railroad depot was true he said, II do
mot 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 recolec-
lion, which l cannot too highly eulog ize, is
one quite as important and yet | never
heard it applauded. l mean the art of for
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 forgettuness 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 orgiveness,
the record of the misbehavior is not only
crossed off the book. but God actually lets
IL 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
80 great that if two men appeal to Him, and
fhe one man, after 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 moralst, with his imperfections,
and the profigate with his debaucheries. is
as much obliterated in the one case in the
other. Forgotten, forever and forever.
Their sins and their inquities will | Re
member no more"
This sublime attribute of forgetfulness on
the part of God you and | need in cur finite
way to initiate. You will do well to cast out
of your recollection all wrongs done you.
During the course OF oue's 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 II 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 reyale themselves
and their friends by an inspection OF these
fiings, these sarcasms, these falSehoods, these
cruelties.
have known gentlemen who carried
them in their pocketbooks, so that they
could easily get at these lrritatious, 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 well. 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
tan sting. Have no such scrapbook. Keep
nothing in your possession that is disagree
able Tear up the falsehoods, and the SIAN
derS and the hypercriticisms
Initiate the Lori in my text and 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 psntherine and viperous. They have
spent much of their time in calling the roll
of all the rats that have nibbed at their rep
utation. Their soul is cage of vultures.
Everything in them is sour or imbittered
The milk of human kindness has been
curdled. 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 find here and
There a man or woman for there are not
many OF tneml whose disposition Is genial
and summary. Why? Have they always
been treated well? Oh no. Hard things
have been said against them. They have
been charged with officiousness; 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
snade them perpetually miserable, il they
would have consented to be miserable.
But they have had enough divine philoso-
ply to cast off the annoyauces, and they
have kept themselves in the sunlight of
Gods favor, and have realized that these
sppositiens and hindrauces are part of a
mighty discipline, by which they are to be
prepared for usefulness and heaven. The
secret of it all is they have by the help of
abe eternal God learned how to forget
Another practical thought-when our
faults are repented of let them go out of
mind. If God forgets them, we have right
20 forget them. Having once repented of
our infelicities and msdemeanors, there is
DO need OF our repenting Of them again
Suppose owe you large sum of money.
and you are persuaded l am incapacitated
70 pay. and you give me acquittal from that
obligation. You say: II cancel that debt.
IAN is right now. Start again. And the
next day / come in and say :'You know
about that big debt owed you. have come
pn to get you to let me off. l feel so had
about il | cannot rest. Do let me off, Yor
Eeply with little impatience: II did let vol
.nH nop't bother vourcalf and bNotbar -,