Thomas Watson on the evil of forgetting what we hear

Status
Not open for further replies.

Reformed Covenanter

Cancelled Commissioner
Forgetting what we hear. If a Scholar have his Rules laid before him, and he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will never learn. Aristotle calls the Memory, the Scribe of the Soul; and Bernard calls it the Stomach of the Soul, because it hath a retentive faculty, and turns heavenly food into blood and spirits.

We have great memories in other things; we remember that which is vain. Cyrus could remember the name of every Soldier in his huge Army; we remember injuries. This is to fill a precious Cabinet with dung; but, quàm facilis oblivio boni? as Jerome saith, how soon doe we forget the sacred truths of God? We are apt to forget three things, our faults, our friends, our instructions. ...

For the reference, see Thomas Watson on the evil of forgetting what we hear.
 
Forgetting what we hear. If a Scholar have his Rules laid before him, and he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will never learn. Aristotle calls the Memory, the Scribe of the Soul; and Bernard calls it the Stomach of the Soul, because it hath a retentive faculty, and turns heavenly food into blood and spirits.

We have great memories in other things; we remember that which is vain. Cyrus could remember the name of every Soldier in his huge Army; we remember injuries. This is to fill a precious Cabinet with dung; but, quàm facilis oblivio boni? as Jerome saith, how soon doe we forget the sacred truths of God? We are apt to forget three things, our faults, our friends, our instructions. ...

For the reference, see Thomas Watson on the evil of forgetting what we hear.
So true, and yet this side of the grave I think each saint must labor doubly hard to retain the truths of our Lord that so many adversaries, including our flesh, seek to dry out, snatch up, and choke. May we seek to fight off laziness in our duty to run hard for Christ. Memorizing the temporary comes more naturally to the old man that seeks to weigh down the new. In other words, from the OPs charge, I am often guilty. Woe is me.
 
Memorizing the temporary comes more naturally to the old man that seeks to weigh down the new. In other words, from the OPs charge, I am often guilty. Woe is me.

The point about remembering injuries, as opposed to mercies received from God and the help we have received from others, is highly convicting.
 
What a convicting reminder. How often I can remember the things of this earth that are fleeting, and yet scripture sometimes is as quickly forgotten as it is read.

I concur with Paul:
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:24-25a
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top