p. 141 | The Memory by Jos. Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1873

The Memory.

By Jos. Clarke

“Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forget him.” Gen. 40:23.

Very treacherous indeed is the memory, and only by cultivation and care is it kept in proper condition for the pursuits of life; and with all our care, helps are needed—journals, ledgers, memorandum books, notes, and receipts.

But chiefly is the memory at fault in retaining the favors we daily receive from God and man, and, most of all, it fails in retaining the word of God and the holy influences of his Spirit.

Man, in his first estate, no doubt, was perfect; the natural sciences were a second nature to him, and his memory never hesitated or faltered; but sin brought in a gradual change, and we are brought very low in the scale of mind, for the memory has failed, and with it all the mental powers.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” says the Law-giver. Well, he knew that men were forgetful, and that in the last days, Satan would weave his subtlest web from the ingenious devices of apostate Christianity, to evade this most important institution.

To forget God is the first impulse of fallen human nature; and to ignore his Sabbath, is the surest means of doing this. Satan has made the papal church the author of a rival Sabbath, and her apostate daughters are sealing their doom by working in the same direction.

Great pains and labor have been taken by men of God to write out the word of God; for they well knew the weakness of the memory. Says Peter, “Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance.” 2 Pet. 1:15. Also see chap. 3:1, and Jude 5.

One of the important offices of the Comforter (Holy Spirit) is to quicken the memory of such as accept its influences. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Some particular denominations of Christians are helping this forgetfulness by claiming the obsoleteness of the Old Testament, and thus causing that document to be almost wholly neglected. To such an extent is this carried by them that the New Testament loses all its force, and multitudes receive baptism who are as ignorant of the plan of salvation as the Hindoos, and are as surely deceived.

Christ, on his way to Emmaus, enlightened the minds of his fellow-travelers by a reference to the testimony of the ancient prophets, and refreshing their minds by the testimony of the Old Testament, which they had in a measure forgotten. But here are a people who would almost consign the Old Testament to oblivion.

All will allow that there is a tendency in our nature to forget God and our obligations to him. Who that has any knowledge of his own heart has not mourned over this tendency of his nature? Let us consider what the psalmist says in chapter 50: 22, 23. Please turn to the chapter and read. Jos. Clarke.