The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-03-11

AANo @N
may be emancipated; text, Hebrews
viii. IL, Their sins and their iniquities
will l remember no more"
The national flower OF the Egyptians
Is the heIiotrope, of the Assyrians Is
the water lily. Of the HiDdoos is the
marigold. OF the Chinese Is the chrys-
anthemum. We have no national iow-
er, but there is hardly any flower more
suggestive TO many OF us than the for
getmenot. We all like to be remem-
bered, and one of our misfortunes Is
that there are so many things We cam
not remember. MnemOnics, or the art
of assisting memory. is an important
art. 1t was first suggested by Simon
ides OF Coos 500 years before Christ.
Persons who had but little power to re-
eall events or put facts and names and
Eates in proper professions havethrough
this art had their memory REINFORCED
to an almost incredible extent. A good
memory is an invaluable possession.
By all means cultivate it. | had an
aged friend who. detained all night at
a miserable depot in waiting for a rail
nam A~oA IA AZ I'm liz SDlCk-
tanned q group of some ten or fifteen
clergymen. likewise detained on their
way home from q meeting of presby-
terry. by first with a piece of chalk
drawing out on the black and sooty
walls Of the depot the characters of
Walter SCOTS "Marmion" and then re-
citing from memory the whole of that
nnGrn 0f Cnmn niUhtu n1unS in finn
print. My old friend. through great
age. lost his memory. and when | ask
ed him If this story of the railroad de
pot was true he said. II do not remem-
Der EOw. but it was just like me.
let me see" said he to me. Have 7
ever seen you before?" Yes" | said;
you were my guest last night, and I
was with you an hour ago" What an
awful contrast in that man between
the greatest memory ever knew and
no memory at all.
The Art Of Forgetting.
But right along with this art of rec
objection, which | cannot too highly
eulOGize. is II quite as important, and
yet ! never heard it appIauded. | mean
ALC y u 5CbIAh5. Z Id Il Sp.Ch"
did 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 n
weakness. my text ascribes ii to God.
1t is the very top of omnipOtence that
God is able to Obliterate n 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 ac-
tually lets il pass out of memory.
Their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more" To remember no
more is to forget. and you cannot make
anything else out of it. Gods power
men appeal to him and the one man.
after Il life all right, gets the sins of
his heart pardOned and the other man.
after Il 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 i'm
projections, and the profiigate, with
his ~debaucheries, is as much obliter-
ated in the one case as in the other.
Forgotten forever N forever. Their
sins and their iniquities will I remem-
Der no more"
This sublime attribute Of forgetful-
ness on the part of God you and |
need. in Dur finite way. to initiate. You
will do well to cast out of your recol-
lection all wrong done you. During
the course of ones life he is sure to be
misrrpresented. to be lied about. to be
injured. There are those who keep
these things fresh by frequent re-
hearsal. If things have appeared In
print. they keep them in their scrap
book. for they cut these precious para
graphs out of newspapers or books and
at leisure times look them over. or they
have hem tied up in bundles or thrust
IN ~pigeonholes. and they frequently re-
gale themselves and their friends by
an inspection of these filings. these sar-
eaSms. these faIsehools. these cruelties-
| have known gentlemen who carried
them in their pOckethookS so that they
could easily get 1T these irritations. and
they put their right hand in the inside
of their coat pocket over their heart
and say: Look here! Let me show
rou something" Scientists catch wasps
and hornets and poisonous insects and
transfx them in curiosity bureaus for
study. and that is well, but these Of
whom I 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 nox:oTs things can jump and show
how deep they can sting. lave no
such scrapbook. Keep nothing in your
possession that is disagreeable. Tear
up the falsehoods and the ISLANDERS and
the hypercriticismS.
How to Be Happy.
!, Initiate the Lord in my text and for
get. actually forget. sublime!y forget
There is no happiness for you in any