The St. Louis Republic., 1901-12-30
FORGETTING THOSE THINGS
WHICH ARE BEHIND.
Present and Future, Declares the
Reverend Doctor Smart, Have
Enough Responsibility.

The Reverend Doctor r. d. Smart, pas
tor OF the Cook Avenue NJ. +. Church.
South. preached yesterday morning on part
Of PHILIPPIANS Ill, Il. Forgetting those things
which are behind" The Doctor said. in
part; ; .,..,.
the past. But surely. not all the past. II
SO. then why should We have been endowed
with memory at all? Is not experience the
But Of what service will experience be un-
less It be remembered? Are we not to erect
monuments to perpetuate the virtues Of the
these virtues may lead US to initiate them?
We stand to-day at the close OF the year; is
Il not natural to retrospect its experiences? !?
The sod Janus was always made with two
faces. one looking backward. and the other
.9erwerd: one peertng into the new year.
ana the other looking back into the old.
How natural for the plowman. as he ends
q straight furrow! How natural for 81.
PAU. at the end OF life. to retrospect the
past and say. I have fought a good fight.
this. there are NOT few things concerning
which No do well to say with this same
STsss Ss;cs g. spcssslss sss;, Forgetting those things
Let him who has but recently become a
Christian forget those wicked pursuits and
Rleasuree concerning which It is written
Love mot the world. neither the things os
the world Forget them in the sense that
he no longer sets his affections mainly
upon them. that he no longer turns to them
Tor his happiness One Of the great mis-
Forgetting the flesh pots OF Egypt, but
longing for them again. though they had set
out for Canaan Let the past suffice US to
have wrought the will Of the flesi.' hence
forth let us forget these things in that we
turn our backs upon them.
Then. too. We should forget the sins Of
the mast Of which We have reoented lest
they discourage US. Christ forgets them.
why should not We? He blots them ouf
as a thick cloud Men forgive. but often
do not forget, in that they remain distrust-
ful and suspicious but God takes the penI-
abandon OF love as u he had never Of
Tended at all. We hear II said Sometimes
that such an one never forgets anything
bishop Mesher's was a better one, for ft is
said OF him that he never forgot anything
but injuries; Christ never once reproached
his disciples Of their having once forsaken
him He blcts our sins out of his book of
remembrance. and remembers them against
US no more forever, and fs 1t wise for us to
continue to hold them in memory to buffet
us to depress, to desposl US OF hope and
to chill our sweet communion with him?
Then. too. there is a sense In which it Is
wise to forget the failures and misfortunes
Of the past. whether they be failures in
business life or in our spiritual life. Other
wise We become disheartened. No army
se os s + ,se + aafss Of
feats. The present and the future will have
enough failure and SORROW and responsible
fly to tax our strength to Its utmost with
out our carrying forward from year to year
all our past failures to add to these. And,
though # may sound strange. there Is q
sense in which even our successes and our
attachments should be forgotten. These
should not be 80 remembered as to satisfy
our desires for larger successes and higher
attainmente. Let us not live upon the past.
paths already trod, and onward urge thy
way"