Acts 11:16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water… A topic suggested by the expression of St. Peter, "Then remembered I the word of the Lord." Some explanation may be given of "memory" as a distinct mental faculty, but the one on which the acquisition and increase of knowledge greatly depend. A faculty capable of culture, but taking different features in different individuals. Some have verbal memories, others memory for principles. Some have trained memories in particular subjects, but little power to retain general knowledge. Formal aids to memory are suggested, but its true culture lies in its use. As a mental faculty, it comes under Christian sanctifying, as well as into Christian use. In ordinary education attention is paid to the training of this power, and in the Divine culture attention to it is equally needed. It may even be said of our Lord's preparation of his apostles for their work, that he stored their memories with his words and his works, so that there might be the material on which the Holy Spirit could hereafter work," bringing all things up into remembrance" on fitting occasions. Consider - I. STORING MEMORIES. Illustrate what anxious work this is to the parent, the school teacher, and the professor. Due effort is made to ensure (1) adequate stores; (2) well-arranged stores; (3) clearly apprehended stores; (4) moral stores. Two things are found necessary to the holding of things in memory - (1) they must be clearly apprehended; (2) they must be sufficiently repeated. It is found that we hold things in measures of safety dependent on the amount of attention which we have given to them. Apply these principles to the storing of our memories with religious facts and principles; dwelling on the importance of requiring the young to learn the Scriptures, of demanding from our Christian teachers clearness of statement and efficient repetition; showing that, as in St. Peter's case, a man only has the right truth or principle at command, on occasions of need, if these have previously been lodged in the memory. The skill with which our Lord, in his time of temptation, fetched the right weapons from the Scripture armory with which to defeat and silence his foe, reveals to us the fact that his memory had been well stored with Scripture during his childhood and youth. The duty of seeing that our own mind is well furnished, and that the minds of those directly under our influence are well furnished, with Scripture facts and truths and principles, should be earnestly pressed. We can do no better service to the young than to fill up their thoughts and hearts with "thoughts of Christ and things Divine." II. KEEPING MEMORY-STORES. There is one great law which applies to the efficient retention of any kind of knowledge we may have. It is that we keep adding more stores of the same kind. We virtually lose out of memory facts relating to botany or astronomy unless we keep on adding to them new botanical or astronomical facts. And the same law applies to religious things - they will fade down and seem to die out of memory unless we constantly add to them. We retain by increasing. Show how this should be a powerful motive urging us to keep up our daily soul-culture, our reading of the Word, our meditations in the Divine truth, our attendance on the means of grace. We cannot keep what we have unless we set ourselves in the way to get more. III. USING MEMORY-STORES. Just this St. Peter does in connection with our text. Something occurred which suggested a sentence his Lord had once employed. He hardly knew that he had put it among his memory-stores, but he had been attentive to every word that fell from his Master's lips, and they came up before him at the moment when he could use them wisely. We often think that there must be much more in our memories than can ever be of service to us, and we even think that it is useless to teach the young so much of Scripture and of Catechism and of hymns. But no man can foretell what situations unfolding life may make for him, or what moral demands it will present. Take any life, and it will be found full of surprises, and it is a very great thing to ensure that we are reasonably prepared for all possible situations. St. Peter could not have imagined himself in the house of Cornelius and set upon using that particular sentence. So we shall find, as life progresses, that (1) occasions come for the use of our memory-stores; (2) circumstances help to recall them; and (3) God's Spirit brings them up before us, and aids us in finding their proper application and use. The well-furnished godly memory is no accident. It is a part of the Christian culture, and therefore, for ourselves and for those on whom we are called to exert our influence, we come under solemn and weighty responsibilities. An interesting illustration of the use of a godly memory in time of pressure and need is found in Ezra 8:21-23, where Ezra's remembrance of God's promises to and gracious ways with his people in the olden time, gave him strength for an arduous and perilous undertaking. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. |
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