Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-06
ART OF FORGETTING.
Forgiven. Sins. Are. Not to Be Treas
uredUp, Against the Sinner.
ONE CONFESSION Is SUFFICIENT.
Your Neighbors' Faults Must Be -Banished
From Your Memory.
TALNAGES REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON

ESPECIAL TKLEGRAM TO THE pIsPArcH.I
BROOKLYN, June 5.-Dr. Talmage's tex
this morning was Hebrews viii, II, ''Thei
sins and their iniquities will L remember n
more"
The national flower of the Egyptians j
the heliotrope, of the Assyrians is the waite
lily, of the Hindoos is the marigold, of tn,
Chinese is the chrysanthemum. We hav
no national flower, but there is hardly an.
flower more suggestive to many of us thar
the "forget-me-not" We all like to be re
membered, and one of our misfortunes i
that there are SO many things that we can
not remember.
Mnemonics, or the art of assisting mem
ory, is an important art 1t was first sug'
gested by Simonides of Cos 500 years before
Christ A good memory is an invaluable
possession. By all means cultivate it ]
had al aged friend, who, detained all night
at miserable depot in waiting for rail-
train fast in the snowbanks, entertained a
group of some 10 or Is clergymen, likewise
detained on their way home from a meeting
of Presbytery, by first, with piece OF
chalk, drawing out on the black and sooty
wells of the depot the characters of Walter
Scott's ''Marmion," and then reciting from
memory the whole of that poem of some so
pages in fine print.
Man Who Had Lost His Memory.
NV old friend through great age lost his
memory, and when 1 asked him if this story
of the railroad depot was true he said: II
do not remember now, but 1t was just like
me-" 'Let me see," said be to me, ''have
ever seen you before?" eyes" said,
"you were my guest last night and 1 was
with you an hour ago." What an awful
contrast in that man between the greatest
memory ever knew and no memory at all
But right along with this art of recollec-
tion, which cannot too highly eulogize, is
one quite as important and yet never
heard it applauded. 1 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 forpetfulness is a
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 Omnipotence that God is able to OBJ
literate 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 books, but God
actually lets it pass out of memory. Their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more" To remember no more is to forget,
aud you cannot make anything else out of
it
Gods Faculty OF Forgetfulness.
Gods power of forgetting is SO great that
If two men appeal to him, aud the one man,
after life all right, gets the sins of his
heart pardoned, and the other man, after a
life of abomination, gets pardoned, God re-
members 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 oblitersted in the one case as in the
other. Forgotten, forever and forever.
tTheir sins and their iniquities will I re-
member no more"
This sublime attribute of forgetfulness on
the part of God you and 1 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 injured.
There are those who keep these things
fresh BY frequent rehearsal. If things have
appeared in print they keep them in their
scrap book, for they cut these precious para
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 inspec-
tion of these filings, these sarcasms, these
falsehoods, these cruelties. I have known
gentlemen who carried them in their pocket
books, so that they could easily get at these
irritations
Keep No Scrap-Book of Noxious Things.
Scientists catch wasps and hornets and
POISONOUS insects and trausfx them in
curiosity bureaus for study, and that is
we'll But these of whom 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 noKious things can jump and
show how deep they can sting. Have no
such scrap-book. Keep nothing in your
possession that is disagreeable. Tear up
the falsehoods and the ISLANDERS and the
hypercriticisms. Initiate the Lord 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 PAN
therine and viperous- They have spent
much of their time in calling the roll OF all
the rats that have nibbled at their reputa-
tion. Their soul is q cage of vultureS.
Everything in them is sour and embit-
tered. The milk of human kindness has
been curdled. They do not believe in any
body or anything. If they see two people
whispering, thev think it is about them
selves. If they see two people laughing,
they think it is about themselves.
More Bitter Fruit Than Sweet.
Where there is one sweet pippin in their
orchard there are so crab apples. They
have never been able to forget They do
not want to forget They never will for
get Their wretchedness is supreme, for
no one can be happy if he carries perpet-
ually in mind the mean things that have
been done him.
On the other hand, you can find here and
there a man and woman (for there are not
and summery. Why? Have they always
been treated we'll? o., no. Hard things
have been said against them. They have
been charged with oficiousness, and their
generosities have been set down TO O desire
for display, and they have many a time
been the subject of tittle-tattle, aud they
have had enough small assaults like gnats
and enough great attacks like lions to have
made them perpetually miserable if they
would have consented to be miserable. But
they have had enough divine philosophy to
cast of the annoyances, and they have kept
themselves ip the sunlight of Gods favor
and have realized that these oppositions
and hindrances are part of the mighty dis
cipline by which they are to be prepared
for usefulness and heaven. The secret of it
all is, they have by the help of the Eternal
God learned how to forget.
Fo rget Your Faults ThatAre Atoned.