Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1902-03-15
THE ART OF FORGETTING
DR.. Talmage Illustrates How All Offend.
ers May Be Emancipated.
How to Be Happy = Allow Other TO Forget
Come Into Mercy and
Pardon.

WASHINGTON, ID. C.-From the letter
to the Hebrews DIR. Taimage takes a text
and illustrates how all offenders may be
emancipated; text, Hebrews viii, T.,
Their sins and their iniquities viii l re
member no more.
The national flower OF the Ezyptiaas is
the heliotrope. OF the Assyrians is the
water lily, OF the Hindoos Is the marigold,
OF the Chinese Is the chrysanthemum. We
have no national flower. but there is
hardly any flower more suggestive 70
many of us than the :orgc ,menot. We all
like TO be remembered. and one OF cur mis-
fortunes is that there are so many things
we cannot remember. Mnemonics, or the
art of assisting memory, Is an important
art. It was first suggested by Simonides,
of Coos. 500 years before Christ. Persons
who had but little power to recall events
or put facts and names and dates in proper
professions have through this art had their
memory REINFORCED to an almost incredi-
bic extent. y good memory Is an invalua-
BILE possession. BY all means cultivate it.
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 cler-
gymen, likewise detained on their way
home from 4 meeting of presbytery. by
first with piece OF chalk drawing out on
the black and sooty walls OF the depot the
characters of Walter SCOTS ''Marmion"
and thea teciting from memory the whole
of that poem OF some eighty pages IN line
print. My old friend, through great age.
lost his memory, and when | asked him if
This story of the railroad depot was true
he eaid, 81 do not remember now. hut it
was just like me. Let me see" said he to
me. Have I ever seen you before"
"Yes," l said; won were my guest last
night, and was with You an hour ago"
What an awful contrast IN that man be-
tween the greatest memory l ever knew
and no memory AZ ALI
But right along with this art OF recol-
lection, which / cannot too highly eulogize.
is one quite as important, and yet never
heard it applauded. l mean the art OF for
getting. There Is q splendid faculty in
that direction that we all need to cult
yate. We might through that process be
ten times happier and more useful than
we now are. We have been told that for
getfulness 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 omnipotencc
that God is able 20 obliterate n part OF His
own memory. IL we repent OF sin ard
rightly seek the divine forgiveness, the
record OF the misbchavior is not only
crossed of the books, but God actually
lets 1t pass out OF memory. Their sias
and their iniquities will l remember no
more. To remember no more Is 10 forget.
and yon cannot make anything else out OF
1t. Gods power OF forgetting is great
that If two men appeal 10 Him and the
one man, after lie all right, gets the
sins OF his heart pardoned and the other
man, alter lie OF abomination, gets par
doned God remembers no more against
one than the other. The entire past os
both the moraiiss, with his imperiections.
and the proh.gate. with his debaucheries,
Is as much obiterated in the one cGse as
IN the other. Forgotten forever and for
ever. Their sins and their iniquities will
j remember no more"
This sublime attribute OF .orgetfulness
on the part OF God you and | need, in our
finite way, 10 initiate. You will do well to
cast out OF your recollection all wrongs
done you. During the course OF ones life
ne Is sure to be misrepresented, 20 be lied
about, TO be injured. There are those who
keep these things fresh by frequent rehear-
sal. II things have appeared in print, they
Keep them in their scrapbook, for they cut
these precious paragraphs out of news
papers or books and at leisure times look
them over, or they have them tied up in
bundles or thrust IN piceonholes, and they
frequently regaie themselves and their
friends by an inspection OF these filings,
these sarcasms, these falsehoods, these cru
elites. L have known gentlemen who car
red them in their pocketbooks, so that
they could easily get at these irritations,
and they PUT their right hand in the inside
say: Look here! Let he show you SONG
thing" Scientists catch wasps and hor-
nets and poisonous insects and trar -
them in curiosity bureaus for study, and
that Is wei, but these OF whom | speak
catch the wasps and the hornets and pois-
cnous 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 disagrceablc
Tear up the falsehoods and the SANDERS
and the hypercriticisms.
Initiate the Lord IN my text and forget,
actually forget, sublmely forget There
Is TO happiness for You in any other plan
or procedure. on see all around YOU in
the church an! cut OF the church DISPOSE
TORS aeerb, malign. cynical, pessimis;ic.
DO you know how these men and women
got tina. disposition. II was BY the EN-
balnmcnt OF things pantherine and viper.
Gus. They have spent much OF their time
IN calling the roll OF all the rats that have
nlObled at their reputation. Their soul is
= cage Of vultures. Everything in them is
sour or imbitterel. The milk OF human
kindness has becn cnrdied. They 40 not
believe IN anybody or anything. If they
see two people whispering they thinl; Ii il
about themselves. II they see two people
laughing, they think it is about them
selves. Where there Is one sweet pippin
IN Their orchard there are fifty craoappes.
They have never been able TO forget They
do not want to forget. They never will
forget. Their wretchedncss is supreme,
for no one can be happy ii ne carries per.
petualiy IN mind the mean things that
have been done him. On the other hand,
You can find here and there a man or
woman ltor there are not many OF them
whose disposition is genial and summery
Why! Have they always been treated
well! Oh, no. Hard things have been said
against tsem. They have heen charged
with otiiciousncss, and their gcnerositicI
have been set down to desire Tor display,
and they have many time been the sub.
ject OF little tatt.e. and they have had
enough small assaults like gnats and
enough great attacks like hons to have
made them perpctually miserable. II they
-woul have consented to miserable.
But they have had enough divine phiio-
sophy to east off the annoyances .d they
have kept themselves in the sunlight OF
Gods favor and have realized that these
oppositions and hindranoes are Il part OF a
mighty discipline BY which they are to be
prepared Tor usefulness aad heaven The
secret of il all Is they have. by the help
OF the Eternal God learned how 10 forget.
Another practical thought: When our
faults are repeated OF Leo them 90 out OF
mind. Ii God forg.ves them, we have n