Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-06-27
PAUSE,
Yt VILE AND wReTcHED, AND THINK
OF ETERNITY.
Sermon Preached by Rev. 7. Dewitt Tai
mage at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
Yesterday korning-Annivsr-
sary OfAnoiher Year Of
Church Work.
SIGNAL 10 WARN YOU OFF THE TRACK


Tabernacle in crowded with an immense
congregation. DIR. Talmsge announced
the opening hymn as follows:
Awake, my soull stretch every nerve
Aud pres with yigor on"
after which he preached from the fol-
lowing text;
Psalm LSJ, q: "Selsh!"
The new version OF the New Testa-
ment is dead. 1t had a life Of six weeks.
No two critics agreed in commencing all
of it. Those who begin with praise end
with condemnation. Not presbytery
or conference or association or religious
convention in all the earth will sanction
| il. There is no more prospect that u
| will take the place of the old version than
that the Koran or last years almanac
| will be made a substitute for the Holy
| Scripture. Ii has been a success only in
one way, and that as great printing
| lob. congratulate the publishers who
| yot ont the first edition, and | commis'
sera,e those who have announced other
editions Tor their financial misfortune.
Sail on, O ship OF the ages launched by
King James trsnslators, Sail on, till
al. nations get OIL the rough sea into the
harbOr.
But there is practical revision OF the
Bible which thousands OF christians
have silently made when they regarded
the one word of my text as OF no im-
portance. They supposed it to he a su-
perfluity, mere filling in, meaning
less interjection, useless refrain, Al in
detinable echo. Selah!
Its Never Q scriptursl Accident.
Seyenty.four times does it appear in
the Psalms, and three in Hsbakuk.
You must not convict this perfect book
OF seven trivialties, Selah. IL is an en-.
throned wsrd. II. according to an old
author, there are words that are battles,
this word is Marathon, a Thermopylae,
a Sedan, a Waterloo. Ii is word deci.
siye sometimes for solemnity, and some
times for beauty, and sometimes Tor
grandeur. Through it roll the thun-
dering chariots OF the OmnipoteDt God,
Selah! take that word for my text,
as | am so often asked what II really
means. Ii has an ocean OF meaning out
OF which i will dip only four or five
bucketsiul to-day. Tramelius did well
when he magniied the meaning OF the
word as marine, ercSiiSnter, rsheaent's.
slime. God help me while l speak to
YOU as far as / have time about the
Selah of poetic significance. the Selah OF
intermission, the Selah OF perpetuity.
Are you surprised that speak OF the
Selah of poetic significance? Surely
the God who sapphired the heavens and
made the earth a rosebud OF beauty,
with the oceans hanging to it like drop
OF morning dew
Would Not Make q Bible Without
Rhythm,
without redolence, without blank verse.
God knew that most of the people who
eventually would read the Bible would
be young people, because in this world
Of malaria and casualty octogensrians
are exceptionable, and the average oil
human life being less than thirty years,
the Bible must necessarily, II
successful book, be adapted
10 the young. Hence the Prosody OF
the Bible, the Drama OF Job. the Pasto-
raj of Ruth, the Epic of Judges, the
Monody of jeremiah, the Lyric OF Solo
nous song, the Dittyrambic OF HOba'
kuk, the Oratories OF the Apocalypse,
the Idyl, the Stroplic and the anti
Stroplic, and the Selah OF the Psalms.
When YOU find this word OF my text
YOU are to rouse yourself TO great stan
aus; you are to open the door OF your
soul for analogies. You are to spread
the wings Of your imagination for flight.
49, answered thee in the secret place of
thunder; proved thee az the waters OF
Meribah, Selah" "The earth and all
the inhabitants thereof are dissolved.
/ bear up the pillars thereof, Selah,
"who is this king of glory? The Lord
of Hosts. he is the king OF glory, Selah"
"Thou shalt compass me about with
songs Of deliverance, Selah!' Though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled;
though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof. Selah, the Lord OF
Hosts is with us "The God OF Jacob is
our refuge, Selah!" "ThOu hast given a
banner to them that fear thee that it
NAV he DISPLAYED because OF the truth,
Selah!" 81 will trust in the covert OF
tly wings, Se'ah!' 80. God, when thou
wentest forth before thy peo.
pie, when thou didst march
through the wildernessl Selah! You
see the text IS
the Track,
while the rushing train goes by with its
imperial passengers. Poetic word chsrg.
ed with resurrec,ions and millenniums!
Next | speak OF the Selah of inter
mission. Gesenius, Thobuck and Hen.
gestenberg agreed that this word often
means q rest in the music. According
to the Greeks II is diapsallna, a pause,
a halt in the solemn march OF cantilla-
tion. Every musician understand its
importance. ID you ever saw Julian or
other great leaders standing before 10000
singers and players upon instruments
with one stroke Of the baton put the
multitudinnus halleIujah into silence,
and soon after with another stroke
rouse il into full outburst, you know
the mighty effect OF a musical pause.
Pause! Reflect! selah!
So in the scroll ot your life and mine We
20 rushing on in our song OF prosperity
IRON note OF JOY to note OF JOY, and it is
a smooth and long drawn out ieqato, and
we become indifferent and unspprecia-
tive when 10, We find a blank in the
muse; no notes between these two bars.
A pause! The spaces will be filled up
Will SIN DCu
or a grave. You and have been halt
ell by more than one Selah. But thank
God IL is not a ruinous break down, it
will make the past mercies the more
valuable, and will make the future the
more tender. The Selah OF David and
Habakuk was only q dividing line be-
tween anthems The psalmist btgan
his book with Blessed is the man." and
alter seyenty-four selahs ended with
Praise ye the Lord" We have mer-
eies behind US, We are going to
have mercies before US. Ii is
for our sood that God makes
Us halt in our fortunes and halt with
physical ailment. aud halt at the grave
OF our dead. We rebel AMI saw, al can.
not see the use OF this. II that child
was to be taken away so soon, why WAS
she given at all? Oh, my dcsolate
home! Oh, my broken heart!' But
selah Does Not Mean Overthrow.
Ii means only n pause. We are going
Il on again. There are brightness ahsaj