The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-03-19
TALMAGES SERMON.
DR.. Talrnage Shows How Offenders
May be Elnancipate0.

how all offenders may be emancipatcd:
text, Hebrews viii, -. Their sins
and their iniQuities will l remember
no more
The national flower of the Egyp-
tianS is the heliotr0pc. OF the ASSy-
rians is the water lily. OF the Hlndp"s
is the marigold, Of the Chinese IS the
chrysanthemum. We have no nation
al fower. but there is hardly any flower
more suggestive to many OF us than
the fUrgetmenOt. We all ike TO o2
remembered. and one of our miSTor-
tunes is that there are so many things
we cannot remember. MnemonlcS, or
the art Of assisting memory, is an i'm
portant art. 1t was first suggested
BY SimonideS Of Gees 500 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 eX-
tent. A good memory is an invaluable
possession. BY all means cultivate 1t.
had an aged friend who. detained all
night at miserable depot in waiting
for rail train fast in the snowbankS,
entertained a group Of some ten or nj
teen clergymen, likewise detained on
their way home from a meeting OF
prebytery, by first with 4 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 memory. and when
asked him if this story Of the rail
road depot was true he said, Il do not
remember, now, but it was just like
me. Let me See,' said he to me.
Have l ever seen you before:"
Yes" l said: you were my guest
last night, and l was with you an
hour ago." What an awful contrast
in that man between the greatest
memory I ever knew and no memory
at all.
But right along with this art Of rec
election, which I cannot too highly
eulogize, is one quite as important,
and yet never, heard it applauded.
I mean the art of forgetting. 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
forgetfulneSs is a weakness and ought
to be avoided by all possible means. So
far from weakness, my text ascribes
it to God. It is the very top Of omni-
potence that God is able to obliterate
a part of his own memory. II we re-
pent of sin and rightly seek the divine
forgiveness, the record Of the misbe-
havior is not only crossed off the
book, but God actually lets it pass out
of memory. Their sins and their ini-
ouities will remember no more" To
remember no more is to forget. and
YOU 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, aftera life all right,
gets the sins CT his heart pardoned and
the other man, after a life of abomina-
tion. gets pardoned God remembers
no more against one than against the
other. The entire past Of both the
moralist. with his imperfectionS. and
the prohigate, with his debauchtrles.
is as much obliterated in the one case
as in the other. Forgotten forever and
forever. Their sins and their lnlQul-
ties will remember no more"
Initiate the Lord in my text and
forget, actually forget, sublimely for
get. There is no happiness for you in
any other plan or procedure. You see
all around you in the church and out
Of the church dispositions acerb, ma
lign, cynical, pessimiStic. Do you
know how these men and women got
that disposition? twas by the en-
balmment of things pantherine 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 a cage OF Tultures.
EVERYTHING in them is sour or imbit-
tered. The milk of human kindness
has been curdled. They do not be-
lieve in anybody or anything. If they
see two people whispering, they think
| it is about themselves. If they see
two people laughing, they think it is
about themselves. Where there is
one sweet pippin in their orchard
there are fifty crabapples. They have
never been able to forget. They dc
not want to forget. They never will
forget. Their wretchedness is supreme
for no one can be happy if be carries
perpetually in mind the mean things
that have been done him. On the
other hand, you can find here and
there q man or woman (for there are
not many Of them whose disposition
is genial and summery. Why? Have
they always been treated well? Oh,
no. Hard thing have been said against
them. They have been charged with
offciouSness, and their generosities
have been set down to a desire for dis
play, and they have many a time been
the subject of title Iirtatle, and they
have had enough small assaults like
gnats and enough great attacks like
lions to have made them perpetually
miserable if they would have consent
ed to be miserable. But they have
had enough divine philosophy to cast
off the annoyances, and they have
kept themselves in the sunlight Of
Gods favor and. have realized that
these oppositions and hindrances are a
part of 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 the Eternal
God, learned how to for get.
Not only forget your pardoned
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