Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-03-15


- Illustrated how all offenders may be
emRncipated; text, Hebrews viii, L.,
Their sins and their niQuities will re-
member no more"
The national flower of the Egyptians is
the heliotrope. of the Assyrians is the
water lily. of the Hindoos is the mari
gold. of the Chinese is the chrysauthe
mum. We have no national flower. but
there is hardly any flower more sugges-
tive to many of us than the forgetmeuat.
We all like TO be remembered. and one
of our misfortunes is that there are so
many things we cannot remember, Nine
monies. or the art of assisting memory,
is an important art. 1t was first sug-
gested by Simonides of CeoS 500 years
before Christ. Persons who had but
little power TO recall events or put facts
and names and dates in proper process
sions have through this art had their
memory REINFORCED TO an almost in
credible extent. A good memory is an
Invaluable possession. Ry all means cul-
tivate il. l had an aged friend who. de-
tanned all night at miserable depot in
waiting for rail train fast in the snow
banks. entertained a group of some ten
on their way home from meeting of
presbytery, 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 reciting
from memory the whole of that poem of
some eighty pages in fine print My old
friend, through great age, lost his mem
DRY. and when | asked him II this story
of the railroad depot was true he said
II do not remember now, but it was just
like me. Let me see" said he to me.
Have / ever seen you befOre:' Yes
| said; 'yon Were my guest last night,
and | was with you an hour age" What
an awful contrast in that man between
the greatest memory | ever knew and
no tnemery at ALL
The Art of Forgetting
But right along with this art of recol-
lection, which | cannot to highly eulO-
gize. is one quite as important, and yet
never heard it applauded ! mean the
art of forgetting. There is splendid
facnlty in that direction that We all need
to cultivate We might through that
process be ten times happier aud more
useful than we now are We have been
told that forgetfulness is weakness and
ough5 to be avoided by all possible
means. SO far from weakness. my
text ascribes ii 10 God. II is the very
top of omnipotence that God is able
TO obliterate a part of his own memory.
If we repent of sin and rightly seek the
divine forgiveness, the record OF the mis-
behavior is not only crossed off the books,
but God actually let's it pass Out of mem
DRY. Their sins and their iniquities will
] remember no more To remember no
more is to forget. and yon 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 a
life all right. gets the sins Of his heart
pardoned and the other man. after 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 profit gate, with his debauchcrrS.
is as much oblitcrated in the one case as
in the other. Forgotten forever and for
ever. Their sins and their iniquites
will ! remember no more
This sublime attribute Of forgctfulness
on the part Of God you and need. in
our finite way. to initiate. You will do
well to cast out of your recollecti0ns all
wrongs done you. During the course of
ones life he is sure to he misreprescnt-
ed, to be lied about. 10 be injured. There
are those who keep these things fresh by
frequent rehearsal If things have APP
peared 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 mp in bundles or
thrust in pigeonholcs. and they frequent
ly regale themselves and their friends by
an inspection Of these filings. these sar
casms. these fasehoods. these cruelties
Have no such scrapbook. Keep nothing
in your possession Tint is disagrecable
Tear up the falsehoods and the SANDERS
and the hypercriticisms.
How to BE Happy.
Initiate the Lord in my text and for
get. actually forget, suhimely forget
There is no happiness for you in any 9th.
er plan or procedure. You see all around
YOU in the church and out Of the church
dispositions acerb, malgn, cynical. pes
sinistic. Do you know how these men
and women got that dispositions 1t was
by the embalmment Of things panther
Inc and viperous. They have spent much
of their time in calling the roll OF all
the rats that have nibbled at their repu-
tation. Their soul is a cage Of yultures.
Everything in them is sour or imbitter-
ed. 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 abont
themselves. If they see two people
laughing, they think it is about them
selves. Where there is one sweet pippin
in their orchard there are fifty crabaD-
pies. They have never been able TO for
get. They do not want to forget They
never will forget. Their wretchedness is
supreme, for no one can be happy Ii be
carries pcrpetually 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 them) whose disposition Is genial and
summary. Why? Have they always
been treated wellf oh. no. Hard things