Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-05-27
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Dlvine's Sun.
day Sermon.

fraip, an underlined echo. .Selah! but
have to tell you that it is no Scriptural &C
cident. 1t occurs seventy-four times in the
Book of Psalms and three times in the Book
of Habakkuk You must not charge this
perfect book with seventy-seven trivialities.
Selah! 1t is an enthroned word. II, accord
ing to an old writer, some words are battles
then this word is Marathon, a Thermopy-
lac, Sedan, Waterloo. 1t is a word de-
cisive sometimes for poetic beauty, some
times for grandeur, and sometimes for
eternal import. Through it roll the thun-
dering chariots of the OmnipoteDt God.
take this word for my text because am
so often asked what is its meaning, or
whether it has any meaning at all. 1t has
an ocean of meaning, from which L snail
this morning dip up only four or five buck
etfuls. l viii speak to you. solar as nave
time, of the Selah Of poetic significance. the
Selah of intermissiop, the Selah OF emphasis
and 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 oceans
hanging to it like drops of morning dew,
would not make a Bible without rhythm,
without redolence, without blank verse.
God knew that eventually the Bible would
be read by great majority OF young peo'
pie, for in this world OF malaria and casualty
D
years is more than the average OF human
life. if the Bible is to be a successful book 1t
must be adapted to the young. Hence the
prosody of the Bble-the drama OF job, th9
pastoral of Ruth, the epic OF Ju igeS, the
dithyrambic of HabakkuS, the threnoiy OF
Jeremiah. the lyric OF SOlomon's Song, tns
oratorio of the Apocalypse, the ldyl the
strophe and antistrophe, and the Selah o.
the Psalms. ..
Wherever you find this word Sslah it
means that YOU are to rouse up TO great
stanza, that you are to open your soul TO
great analogies, that YOU are to spread tno
wing of your imagination for great hight
81 answered thee in the secret place OF thun-
der: | proved thee at the waters of MERRIAM.
Selah." "rhe earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are dissolved; l bear up the pillars
of it. Selah.n who is the King OF Giory
The Lord of Hosts. He is the King OF Glory,
Selah~ "Thou shalt compass me about with
songs Of deliverance. Selah." Enough
the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swell
inc thereof. Selahn THE Lord OF Hosts Is
with us. the God of Jacob is our refuge
Selah." Thou hast given q banner to them
that fear Thee, that it may be displayed
because of the truth. Selah. Il VIII niue
under tho covert of Thy wings Selah.
ssOh. God. when Thou wentest forth ostore
the wilderness. Selah.'
Whoever you find this word il is signal
of warning hung out to tell you TO stano OH
the track while the rushing tram goes Oy
with its imperial passengers, Poetic worn,
charged with sunrise and sunset, and tempest
and earthquake, and resurrectlonS anu
milleDniums.
>. Next l come to speak of the Selah OF in-
tcrmission Gesenius, TholucS, HengsteA-
in SqV that
this word Selah means rest IN muse; wn9t
the Greeks call a diapsalma, pause, matt
in the solemn march of cantlllation.
Every musician knows the Importance or
II. IL YOU ever saw Julien, the great
musical leader. stand before five thousand
singers and players upon instruments, an
with one stroke of his baton smite the multi
tudinous hallelujah into silence, and then,
soon after that, with another stroke OF MS
baton rose up the full orchestra 10 great
outburst OF harmony then you know tne
mighty effect of musical pause. 1t gives
more power to what went before; 1t gives
more mower to what is to come after.
So God thrusts the Selah into His Bible
and into our lives, compelling us TO stop an
think. stop and consider, stop and admire,
stop ami pray stop and repent, stop ana Do
sick, stop and die. 1t is not the great num-
Der OF times that we read the Bible through
We must pause. What thou gh II take an
hour for one word? What though 1t take
week for one verse? What though it take a
wear for one chapter? We must pause and
measure the height the depth, the length,
the breadth. the universe, the eternity OF
meaning in one verse.
should like to see some one sail around
one little adverb in the Bible, little advero
of two letters. during one lifetime-the word
$50 in the New Testament passage, GOD
SO loved the world Augustine madea long
pause after the verse, Put We on the Lord
JesS Christ" and it converted him. Mat
thew Henry made a long pause after tne
verse. 'Open Thou my lips, and my mouth
shall show forth Thy praise, and 1t convert'
ed him. William Cowper made a long
pause after the verse, being freely JUSTIFIED
by His grace" and it converted MIN: Whsr
God tells US seventy-seven times me il6atlvely
to pause in reading two books OF the blDle
he leaves TO our common sense TO decld'
how often we should pause in reading The
other sixty-four books of the Bible.
We must pause and ask for more hgnt
We must pause and weep over our sins W.
must pause and absorb the strength Of on
promise. / sometimes near people boastlns
about how many times they have read tn
Bible through, when they seem TO know N
more about it than a passenger would know
about the state of Pennsylvania who should
go through it in 4 St. louis lightning ex
press train and in q Pullman sleeper" tn
two characteristics of the journey, veloclt
and somnolencs. Il is not the number o
of times you 90 through the Bible, but tn
number of times tao Bible goes through you
Pause, reflect. Sslahl
So also on the scroll of your life ana mind
We 90 rushing or in the song OF our pros
perity from note OF JOY to note OF JOY, aud
Is a long drawn out legato, and we becom
indifferent and unappreciative when SUD
denly we come upon blank IN tne music
There is nothing between those bars.
pause. God will fill it up with sick BED
or a commercial disaster, or a grave. Blu
thank God, it is not breaking down. IL
only a pause. 1t helps US TO appreciate tn
blessings that are gone. It gives US highe
onnreciation Of the blessings that ale I
come.
Tbe Sclah OF Habakzuk and David is
dividing limo between two anthems. Davl
helms his book with the words, blessed
the man." and after seventy-four Selahs II
closes his book with the words, Praise
fine Lord " So there are mercie5 behind u
and there are going to be mercies before u
It's rool for Us that God halts US IN our 10
tunes. and hats us with physical dlstres
and halts us at the graves of our dead. Mo-
than oncs you and | have been halted /
such q Selah. You wrung your nanos an
said: Il can't sea any sense in this Prov
dence: can't see why God gave me tn
child, If he is so soon going to take it away
Oh, my desolate homel Oh, my broke
hearth You could not understand it. BIZ
it was not q Selah OF overthrow. 1t CAV
you greater appreciation OF the blessing
that have gone; it will yet give you create
appreciation of the blessings that will com
When the Huguenots were being vel
much prosecuted in France a father an
mother were obliged to fly from the couutr.
leaving their child in the possession Of
comparative stranger They did not kno'
whether they would ever return, or return
ing, if they would be able to recognizs thei
child, for by that time she might be growl
Tho mother was almost frenzied at Oh
thought OF leaving the child, and then, eve
IL coming back again, not being able to kuo
her. Before they left the father drew b
sword and he marked ths wrist Of tbs
rhild with deep cut. II must have been
great exigencv to make father do that.
Years OF absence passed on and att
awhile the parents returned and their fir