Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-03-14
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u text ana illustrates how all offenders
may be emancipated; text. Hebrews
viii, -, ''rheir sins and their iniduities
will 1 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
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 can
not remember. Mnemonics, or the art
OF assisting memory, is an important
art. 1t was first suggested by Simon
ides Of Ceos 500 years before Christ.
Persons who had but little power to re-
call events or put facts and names and
dates in proper professions have through
this art had their memory REINFORCED
to an almost incredible extent. A good
memory is an invaluable possession.
BY all means cultivate II. l had an
aged friend who, detained all night at
miserable depot in waiting for a rail
train fast in the snowbanks. enter
tanned 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 Scott's "Marmion" and then re-
citing 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 1 ask
ed him II this story of the railroad de
pot was true he said, 81 do not remem-
Der now, but it was just like me.
''Let me see" said be to me-. "Have !
ever seen you before? YES" l said;
you were my guest last night. and 1
was with you an hour ago." What an
awful contrast in that man between
the greatest memory 1 ever knew and
no memory at ALL
The Art OF Forgctting.
But right along with this art of rec
objection, which I cannot too highly
eulogize, is one quite as important, and
yet never heard it applauded. mean
the art Of forgetting. There is splen-
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 ascribcs It to God.
1t is the very top of omnipotence that
God is able to obliterate 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 or the books. but God ac-
tually let's 1t pass out of memory.
Their sins and their iniquities will 1
remember no more" To remember no
more is to forget, and you cannot make
anything else out of IL. 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 par
doned God remembers no more against
one than against the other. The entire
past or both the moralist. with his i'm
projections. and the profigate, with
his debaucheries, is as much obliter-
ated In the one case as I'm the other
Forgotten forever and forever. Their
sins and their iniquities will l remem-
Der no more"
This sublime attribute of forcetful-
ness on the part OF God you and /
need. In our finite way, to initiate. You
viii do we'll TO cast out OF your recol-
lection all wrongs done you. During
the course OF ones life he is sure 10 be
misrepresented, to be lied about, 10 be
injured There are those who keep
these things fresh by frequent re-
! hearsal. IL things have appeared I'm
print. they keep them I'm 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 Them 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-
casms, these falsehools, these cruelties.
i have known gentlemen who carried
them In their pocketbooks. so that they
could easily get at these irritations, and
they put their right hand In the inside
OF their coat pocket over their heart
and say: Look herei Let me show
you something" Scientists catch wasps
and hornets and poisonous insects and
transfix them In curiosity bureaus for
study, and that is well, but these OF
whom 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 noxious things can jump and show
how deep they can sting. Have no
such scrapbook. Keep nothing in your
possession that is disagreeable. Tear
up the falsehoods and the SANDERS and
the hypercriticisms.
How to he Happy.
Initiate the Lord In my text and for
get, actually forget. subiimely forget.
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 dispo-
sition? 1t was by the embalmment of
enings pantherine and viperous. They
nave spent much Of their time in call
Ing the roll Of all the rats that have
nib6led at their reputation. Their soul
Is cage OF yultures. Everything in
them Is sour or imbittered. The milk
or human kindness has been curdled.
They do not believe in anybody or any
thing. IL they see two people whisper
Ing, they think 1t is about themselves.
III they see two people laughing, they
think 1t is about themselves. Where
there is one sweet pippin in their or
chard there are fifty crabapples. They
have never been able to forget. They
DO not want to forget. They never will
forget. Their Indebtedness is supreme,
Tor no one can be happy if he carries
perpetuaily In mind the mean things
that have been done him. On the 9TH
er hand, you can find here and there a
man or woman (for there are not many
or them) whose disposition is genial