The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-07-07
miscellaneous.
REV. T. DEWITT TALMAGE.
sELAH THE WARNING SIGNAL TO
HUMANITY,
while the Rushing Imperial Train Passes DI-
Poetic Word, Charged with ResurreeuonS
and Mlllennlums.


Il Those who begin with praise END
with condemnation. Not a Presbytery
or Conference, or Association or religious
Conyention in all the earth will sanction
IL. There is no more prospect it will
take the place Of the old version than
that the Koran or last years almanac be
made a substitute for the Holy Scrip
tures. It has been a suCCets only in one
way, and that as a great printing job
congratulate the publishers who got out
the first edition, and / Commiserate those
who have announced other editions for
their financial misfortune. Sail on, oh
ship of the ages launched by KiTg
James's translatort! Sail on, till all ma
tiops get off the rough sea into the har'
Dor.
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 impor'
tanCe. They supposed it to be super
fluity, mere filling in, a meaningless
interjection, useless refrain, an indetn'
able echo. Selah! 1t is never a Scrip
tural accident. seventy.iour times does
it appear in the Psalms, and three times
in Habbakuk. You must not convict
this perfect book of seventy'two trivial
ties. Selah! 1t is an enthroned word.
If, according to an old author, there are
words that are battles, this word Is a
Marathon, ThermopyI@, a Sedan, a
Waterloo. 1t is word decisive, some
times for solemnity, sometimes for beau
ty, and sometimes for grandeur. Thro'
it roll the laundering Chariots Of the ON
nipotent God. Selah! l take that word
for mp text, as am 80 often asked what
it really means. 1t has an ocean of mean
ing, out of which 1 will dip only four or
five buCketfuls today. Tremelius did
we'll when he magnifed the meaning Of
the word as marine, ercellenter, vehement.
issime. God help me while speak to
you as far as l have time, about the Sc
lah of poetic significance, the Selah of
intermission the selah of emphasis, the
Selah Of pelpetuity.
Are you surprised that I speak of the
Selah of poetic signifCanCe2 Surely the
God who sapphired the heavens and
made the earth rosebud Of beauty, with
the oceans hanging to it like a drop Of
morning dew, would not make Bible
without rythm, without redolenCe, with.
ont blank verse. God knew that most of
the people who eventually would read
the Bible would be young people. be.
cause in this world of malaria and casu.
atty octogenarians are exceptional, and
the average Of human life being less than
thirty years, the Bible must necessarily,
if a successful book, be adapted to the
young. Hence the Prosody of the BIZ
BILE, the Drama of Job, the Pastoral of
Ruth, the Epic OF Judges, the Monody
of jeremiah, the Lyric of Solomon.s
Song, the Dithyrambic of Habbakuk, the
Oratorio Of the Apocalypse, the Idy, the
Strophe and the anti.Strophe and the
Selah f the Psalms. When you find
this word of my text you are to rouse
yourselves to great stanzas. You are to
open the door of your soul for analogies.
You are to spread the wings of your i'm.
agination for fight. II answered Thee
in the secret place of thunder; proved
Thee at the waters of Meribah. SelAh!"
"Tke earth and all the inhabitants there
of are dissolved l 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 nae about with songs of deliver.
ance. Selabl" "Though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled, though the
mountains shake with the swelling
thereof. Selahl" "The Lord of Hosts is
with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selahl" "Thou hast given banner to
them that fear Thee, that it may be dis
played because of the truth. Selabw 81
will trust thee in the covert Of the wines
Selahp 20, God, when thou wentest
forth before thy people; when thou didst
march through lhe wilderness. Selahl"
You see, the text is a signal hung out to
warn of the track while the rushing
train goes by with it's imperial passen.
gers. Poetic word, charged with resur-
reCtions and millenniums.
Next, speak of the Selah of intermis
sion. Gensenius Tholuck and Hengest.
enburg agreed that this word often
means rest in the music. According
to the Greeks it is a diapsalms, pause,
q halt in the solemn march of camilla
ton. Every musician understands it's
Importance. If you ever saw Julian or
any other other great leader standing
before ten thousand singers and players
upon instruments, with one stroke of the
baton put the multitudinous halleluiah
into silence, and soon after, with another
stroke, arouse it into full bathurst, you
know the mighty effect of a musical
pause. 1t heightens the power of what
went before, and the power that which
comes af er. So God thrusts the Selah
into his Bible and into our lives to make
us stop and think, stop and consider, stop
and admire, stop and repent, stop and
pray, stop and be sick, stop and die. 1t
is not the number of times we read the
Bible through that makes us intelligent
in the Scriptures; We must pause. 1t
may take us an hour to one word; it NAV
take day to one verse; it may take a
year to one chapter. We must pause and
measure the height, the depth, and the
length and breadth, the universe, the
eternity Of one passage There is one
little adVerb of two letters in the New
Testament would like to see man sail
around in lifetime-the adverb 80 in
the passage, God so loved the uorld."
Augustine made long pause after the
passage, But ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ" and it converted him. Mathew
Henry made long pause after the verse
"Open thou my lips, end my mouth shall
show forth thy praise" and it converted
him. CoWper made long pau q after