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"These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified,
then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these
things unto Him" (John 12: 16).
Peter stresses the value of remembrance saying:
"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things
. . . . . Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance" (II Pet. 1: 12, 13).
"This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure
minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and
Saviour" (II Pet. 3: 1, 2).
In Peter's estimate memory is associated with a stirring up of the mind. Diegeiro
occurs just seven times in the N.T. and in the five references other than those used by
Peter, the word is used of one awaking from a sleep (Matt. 1: 24; Mark 4: 38, 39;
Luke 8: 24); and the effect upon the sea of a great wind (John 6: 18). Moses too was
inspired to stress the value of remembrance and the danger and evil of forgetfulness.
"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty
years in the wilderness . . . . . Beware that thou forget not . . . . . thine heart be lifted up,
and thou forget . . . . . but thou shalt remember the LORD thy God . . . . . if thou do at all
forget . . . . . ye shall surely perish" (Deut. 8: 2, 11, 14, 18, 19, 20).
To recapitulate. The sense impressions received from the external world provide us
with the basic material of thought, but these basic materials only minister to thought
when they can be examined and compared and when deductions can be drawn from the
results of this comparison. Without memory, we should be for ever making bricks, but
never building. Each day we should receive the impressions made through the eye, the
ear, the taste, touch and smell, but we should never be able to translate these into terms of
thought unless we could re-call them at will, or at least by effort.
At long last memory will be seen to become almost synonymous with identity. A man
who has lost his memory, has lost his identity. A man is an individual who possesses one
peculiar set of memories, memories that, while they include others, are memories that
belong to him and to him alone. At the resurrection, a new body will be provided, but
given to this new body will be the one and only individual memory that makes you,
YOU. Unless we remember the past, we shall not be able to realize the wonder of
redemption, forgiveness or the many blessings of grace. Without memory, we might as
well have never existed and never have been redeemed.
Having the material, the sense impressions, and having the power to recall them,
reason is made possible. Reason is much more than redeemed impressions, but
remembered impressions are essential to reason. Shakespeare in his wonderful way
speaks of memory as "the warder of the brain" and as "the receipt of reason". We must
consider this next step on the road to "meaning" namely "reason", in our next article.