The age-herald., 1902-03-16

text and illustrates now all oHenuerS may rc emancipated; text. Hebrews viii, 12. Their sins and their iniquities will remember no more
 Tie national flower of the Egyptians Is the neliotropo of the Assyrians is the water lily. of IL Hindoos is the marigold of the Chinese is the chrysanthemum. We hay-. no national flower, but there ia haroly any flower more suggestive to many of us than the forgetmenot. We all like to be remembered, and one of our nlisfortunes Is that there are so many things wA cannot remember. Mnemonics, or the art of assisting mem ory. is an important art. It was first suggested by Simonides of Coos BOO years before Christ Persons who had but little power to re- call events or put facts and names and dates in proper processions have through this at had theiI memory re-enforced to an almost incredible extent. A good memory is an invaluable possession. By all II cans cultivate it. I had an aged friend who, detained all night at a mis- erable depot ir waiting for a rail train fast in the snowbanks, entertained group of some ter or fifteen clergymen, likevi.se cetained on their way home from a meetins of uresr rytery. by first with a piece of chalk drawing out on the black and sooty walls of the depot the char acte1s of Walter Scotts ''Marmion" and then reeiting from m emory the whole of that poem of somC eighty pages in fine print My old srieEd, through great lost his memory, and when I asked him if this story of the railroad depot was true he sad, I do not remember now, but it was jrst like me. Let me see," said he to me Have I ever seen you before? Yes" I said; you were my guest last nighL, an I was with you an hour ago." What an awful contrast in that man be- tween thc greatest memory l ever knew and no memory a all!
 The Art of Forgetting.
 But right along with this art of rec ollectIon, which I cannot too highly euloqize, is ono quite as important, and yet I never heard it applauded. I mean the art of forgetting. There Is a splen- did 1acu'ty in that direction that we all leed to cultivate We might through that process be ten times happier and more useful Ican we now are. We have been told that forgetfulness is a weak ness anu ought to be avoided by all pos siblo means So far from a weakness, my text ascribes it to God. It is the very top of omnipotence that God is able to obliteTate a part of his own memory. If we repent of sin and rightly seek the di- vine forgiven IFS, the record of the mis- behavior is not only crossed off the books but God actually lets it pass out of mem- ory. Their sins and their iniquities will l remember no more" To remember no morc it ( 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, after a life all right gets the sins of his heart pardoned and the other man after a life of aoom'naticn. gets pardoned God re- members no more against one than against the ether The entire past of both the moralist, with his imperfec- tions and the profiigate with his de- baucheries, Is es much obliterated in the one case as in tho other. Forgotten for ever and fore, CT. Their sins and their .niquities will I remember no more."
 This sublime attribute of forgetful- ness on me pat of God you and need in our finite way to initiate. You will do we" to cast our of your recollection all wrongs done You. During the course of one s life be Is sure to be misrepre- sented to be lied about, to be injured There are those who keep these things 'icS!i DS frequent sTenearSal. IT things have appeared in print, they keep them in tde'r scrapbook. for they cut these prec!nus paragraphs out of newspapers or books and at leisure times look them over, CT they have them tied up in bun dies or thrust in pigeonholes and they frequently regale themselves and their friends by an inspection of these hings these sarcasms, these falsehoods, these cruelties. l have known gentlemen who carried them in their pocketbooks, so that they could easily get at these irri- tations. and they put their right hand in the inside of their coat pocket over their heart and say: Look here! Let me show you something" Scientists catch wasps and hornets and poisonous insects and transfix them in curiosity bureaus for study, ana that is we'll but these of whori l 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 noEious things can jump and show how deep they can sting Have no such scraphook. Keep nothing in your possess sion that is dsagreeable. Tear up the falseho"ds and the islanders and the hypercritieisms
 How to Be Happy.
 Initiate the Lord in my text and for get, actually forget, sublimely 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, cyni- cal pessimistic Do you know how these men and women got that disposition? It was by the embalmment of things pantherine and vigorous They have spent much of their time in calling the roll of all the rats that have nibbled at their reputation. Their soul is a cage or vultures. Everything in them is sour or imbittered. The milk of human kind ness has been curdled. They do not be- lieve in anybody or anything If they see two people whispering, they think 1t 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 do not want to forget. They will never forget. Their wretched- ness Is supreme, for no one can be hap Py II ne carries perpetually in mind the mean things that have been done him. On the other hand, you can find here anu there man or woman for there are not many of them) whose disposi- tlon Is genial and summery. Why? Have they always been treated well? Oh. no. Hard things have been said against them. lhey nave been charged with officious- ness, and their generosities have been set oown to a desire for display and they nave many time been the sub- Ject oL tittie 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 ha noiearohio