Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-23
A TREMENDOUS WORD.
Selah Is Not a Superfuous Sound,
but Full of Significance.
THE MARX OF DRAMATIC CLIMAX.
A Pause in Sacred Music and o Call for
Emphasis in Gods Word.
TLLNAGES REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
rsprc1AL TELEGRAM TO THE prspArcH.1

BROOKLYN, May 22.-Rev. DR.. Talmage
to-day took for the subject of his sermon a
single word of frequent occurrence in the
Bible. The text was Psalms Xxi, 4; "Selah. %
The majority of Bible readers look upon
this word of my text of no importance.
They consider it a superfiuity, a mere filing
in, a meaningless inte erjection, a useless re-
frain, an underlined echo. Selah! But have
TO tell you that it is no Scrfptural accident.
1t occurs "a times in the Book of Psalms and
three times in the Book of Habakkuk You
must not charge this perfect book with II
trivialities. Selahi 1t is an enthroned
word. If, according to an old writer, some
words are battles, then this word is q
Marathon, a Thermopyle, a Sedan, Water
loo. 1t is word decisive sometimes for
poetic beauty, sometimes for solemnity,
sometimes for grandeur and sometimes for
eternal import. Through it roll the thunder
ing chariots of the Omnipotent 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 shall
this morning dip up only four or five bucket
fuls. 1 will speak to you, so far as have
time, of the Selah of poetic significance, the
Selah of intermissien, the Selah of en-
phasis and the Selah of perpetuity.
The Poetic Significance of 1t.
Are you surprised that speak of the Selah
of poetic significance? Surely the God who
sapphired the heavens and made the earth
q rosebud of beauty, with oceans hanging to
il like drops of morning dew, would not
make Bible without rhythm without red
olence, without blank verse. God knew
that eventually the Bible would be read by
a great majority OF young people, for in this
world of malaria and casualty an octo-
genarian is exceptional and as 80 years is
no0Nrse hQ nn n Y Q a n N fa fhn
Bible is to be successful book, it must be
adapted to the young. Hence the prosody
of the Bible-the drama of Job, the pastoral
of Ruth, the epic of Judges, the dithyrambic
of Habakkuk, the threnody of Jeremiah,
the lyric of Solomon's Song, the oratorio of
the Apocalypse, the idyl. the strophe and
antistrophe and the Selah of the Psalms
Wherever you find this word Selah it
means that you are to rouse up to a great
stanza, that you are to open your soul to
great analOgies, that you are to spread the
wing of your imagination for great fight.
Il answered thee in the secret place of
thunder; l proved thee at the waters of
Merbah. Selah." "The earth and all the
inhabitants thereof are dissolved: l bear up
the pillars of it, Selah." "Who is this King
of glory2 The Lord of Hosts, he is the King
of glory. Selah"
Wherever you find this word it is a signal
OF warning hung ont to tell you to stand Oft
the track while the rushing train goes by
with its imperial passengers. Poetic word,
charged with sunrise and sunset, and tenn
pest and earthquake, and resurrections and
millenniums.
Its Place In the Art of Music.
Next 1 come to speak of the Selah of inter-
mission. Gesenius, Tholuck Hengstenberg
and other writers agree in saying that this
word Selah means a rest in music. If you
ever saw Julien, the great musical leader,
stand before $3.50 singers and players on
instruments, and with one stroke of his
baton smite the multitudinous hallelujah
into silence, and then, soon after that, with
another stroke of his baton rouse up the full
orchestra to great outburst of harmony,
then you know the mighty effect of musical
pause. 1t gives more power to what went
before; it gives more power to what is to
come after
So God thrust the Selah into his Bible and
into our lives, compelling us to stop and
think, stop and consider, stop and admire,
stop and pray, stop and repent, stop and be
sick. stop and die. 1t is not the great num-
Der of times that we read the Bible through
that makes MS intelligent in the Scriptures.
We must pause. What though it take an
hour for one word? What though it take q
week for one verse? What though it take a
year for one chapter2 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, a little adverb of two letters. during
one lifetfme-the word 80" in the New
Testament passage, "God so loved the
world" When God tells us Il times medita-
lively to pause in reading two of the books
of the Bible he leaves to our common sense
TO decide how often should pause in
reading the other Ga books of the Bible.
The Sacred Utility of the Pause.
We must pause and ask for more light.
We must pause and weep over our sins. We
must pause and absorb the strength of one
promise.
So also on the scroll of your life and mind.
We go rushing on in the song of our pros
perity, from note of joy to note of joy, and it
is long-drawn-out legato, and We become
indifferent and unappreciative, when sud-
denly we come upon a blank in the music
There is nothing between the bars. A pause |
God will fill it up with a sick bed, or CON-
mercial disaster or a grave. But, thank |
God, it is not a breaking down; it is only a |
nause It helps us to appreciate the bless
lngs tnat are gone; it gives us higher appre- |
citation of the blessings that are to come |
Oh, it is good that the Lord sometimes |
halts us; David says. 1T Is good that have
astTay, but now l have kept Thy word" |
Indeed, we must all soon stop. Scientists |
have improved human longevity, but none |
of them have proposed to make terrene life |
perpetual. But the Gospel makes death |
only a Selah between two beatitudes-be- |
tween dying triumph on the one side of the |
grave and celestial escort on the other side |
of the grave. |
Isnext speak of the Selah of emphasis. |
All! my friend, you and l need to |
correct our emphasis. We put too much |
God and the next world. People think these |
things around us are so important, the |
things of the next are not worthy of our |
consideration. The first need for some Of
us is to change our emphasis
Selahas Dramatic Emphasis.
But when 1 speak of the Selah of emphasis
must notice it a startling, dramatic
emphasis. 1t has in it the bark, the hist of
the drama. That Weakening, and arousing
emphasis we who preach or INSTRUCT need to
use more frequently. The sleepiest au-
diences in the world are religious audiences.
You Sabbath school teachers ought to have
more OF the dramatic element in your in
structions. BY graphic Scripture scene, by
1mpersOnation, urge your classes to right
action. We want in all our schools and COL
leges and prayer meetings, and in all our at
temptS at reform, and in all our churches,
TO have less less OF the style didatic and
more OF the style dramatic. The tendency
in this day is to drone religion, to whine
religion, to cant religion, to moan religion,
TO croak religion, to sepulchrZe religion,
when we ought to present it in animated
and spectacular manner.
Sabbath morning by Sabbath morning l
address many theological students who are
preparing Tor the ministry. Tney come in
here from the different institutions. l say
to them this mornin = If you will go home
and look over the history of the church you
souls TO Christ who have been dramatic.
W hen you get into the ministry, if you
attempt to culture that element, and try to
WELD it for God, you will meet with mighty
rebuff and caricature, and ecclesiastical
council Will take your case in charge, and
they will try to put you down: but the God
who starts you will help you through, and
great will be the eternal rewards for the
assiduous and the plucky.
Why People Don't Attend Church.