The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1902-03-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DISCOURSE THIS WEEK ON REool-
LECTION AND FORGETFULNESS.
Text Hebrews VIII, IL: Their Sins and
Their Iniquities VIII I Remember No
More"-Good Advice for Christians OF
All Denominations.

Washington, March 9.-t'rom the
letter to the Hebrews DR.. Talmage
takes a text and illustrates how all
offenders may be emancipated; text,
Hebrews viii, ~, Their sins and their
iniquities will / remember no more"
The national flower of the Egyptians
is the heliotrope, of the Assyrians is
the water lily, of the Hindoos is the
marigold, of the Chinese is the chrys-
anthemum. We have no national flow
err, but there is hardly any flower
more suggestive to many of us than
the forget me-not We all like to be
remembered, and one of our misfor-
tunes is that there are so many things
we cannot remember
With the art of recollection, which
cannot too highly eulogize, is one
quite as important, and yet | never
heard it applauded. | mean the art OF
forgetting. There is a splendid facul-
ty 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 weak
ness and ought to be avoided W ali
possible means. SO far from weak
ness, my text ascribes it to God. 1t
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 forgive"
ness, the record of the misbehavior is
Of on1u off hn
actually let's it 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 1t. Gods
power of forgetting is so great that Il
two men appeal to him and the one
man, after life all right, gets the sins
of his heart pardoned and the
other man, after life of abomination,
gets pardoned, God remembers no
more against one than against the
other The entire past of both the
moralist, with his imperfections, and
the profligate with his debaucheries,
Is as much obliterated in the one case
as in the other. Forgotten forever
and forever. Their sins and their in
EQUITIES will | remember 70 more"
This sublime attribute of forgetful-
ness on the part of God you and |
need, in our finite way, to initiate.
You will do well to cast out Of your
recollection all wrongs done you. Dur
ing 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 Keep nothing in your pos
session that is disagreeable. Tear up
the falsehoods and the ISLANDERS and
the hypercriticisms.
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,
malign, cynical, pessimistic. Do you
know how these men and women got
that disposition? 1t was by the. en-
balmment of things pantherine and
vigorous. Their soul is a cage of vul-
lures. Everything in them is sour Or
embittered. The milk of human kind
ness has been curdled. They do not
believe in anybody or anything
Where there is one sweet pippin in
their orchard there are fifty crab
apples. They have never been able to
forget They do not want to forget
They never will forget. Their wretch
edness is supreme, for no one can be
happy if he carries perpetually in
mind the mean things that have been
done him. On the other hand, you
can find here and there man or wo-
man (for there are not many of them)
whose disposition is genial and sum-
merry. Why? Have they always been
treated well? Oh, no. Hard things
have been said against them. They
have been charged with officiousness,
and their generosities have been set
down to a desire for display, and they
have many a time been the subject of
little tattle, 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 consented to be miserable.
But they have had enough divine phil
osophy to cast off the annoyances, and
they have kept themselves in the sun
light Of Gods favor and have realized
that these oppositions and hindrances
are a part of a mighty discipline by
which they are to be prepared for use
fulness and heaven.
Another practical thought: When our
faults are repented of let them go out
of mind. If God forgets them we have
a right to forget them. Having once
repented of our infelicities and misde-
meanors, there is no need of our re-
penting of them again. While it is
right that Christians repent Of new
sins and of recent sins, what is the use
of botnering yourself and insulting
God by asking him to forgive Sins
that long ago were forgiven? God
has forgotten them. Why do you not
forget them? No; you drag the load
on with you, and 365 times a year, if
you pray every day, you ask God to
~o.o11 oootrronroc ubfob he hoe mot