Article August 1, 1914 Issue

Good Memory

HENRY M. PERKINS

The accurate retention or remembrance of the things of Truth is of great significance. The counsel to the Israelites was, "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day." This emphasizes the fact that a mere mental rehearsal of the divine commandments is insufficient. The Master said, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." If the good and true is held in thought with sincere purpose, the life will take its direction accordingly. The more serious forgetfulness of God is the failure to obey Him. Our Leader says, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts" (Science and Health, p. 261).

In the paths of obedience the blessings of Christian Science have found their way to human hearts and lives. Religion with many consists in the tenacious holding of some man-made creed. The leaven of Christian Science has now largely permeated modern thought by showing that immortal Truth should be articulated with the needs of daily life, and that this can be done not by merely learning the letter, but by being receptive to the spirit of the gospel.

If a good memory consists in remembering and treasuring the good, the natural inference is that this would mean a forgetting and forsaking of evil. To the Philippians, Paul wrote, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." How little inspiration or enthusiasm would that great apostle have felt if he had continually thought upon his past failures, his former enmity to Christian truth, and his persecution of the early churches!

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