Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-05-27
A TREMENDOUS WORD.
SELAH" THE DIVIDING LINE
OF ANTHEMS.
Or. TainaEe Analyses Word Ere
quently Found In the Old Testament
II Will Hide Under <he Covert OF
Thy Wings. Seiali."

"J "hSs' Sci"h
BROOKLYN N. Y, May %, lS92.-The Rev.
DR.. Talmage to-day took for the subject OF his
sermon single word OF frequent occurrence
in the bible, and whose meaning is but little
understood. From it he drew profoundly inn
pressive description OF the varied and majestic
purposes OF certain parts of scripture, and
practical lesson for christians generally. The
text was Psalms 81: 4: "Selah.'
The majority Of bible readers look
upon this word of my text as of no inn
portance. They considerit superflu-
ity, mere filing in, a meaningless
inter ton, a useless refrain. an unde-
fined echo. Selah! But / Lave to tell
you that it is no scriptural accident.
1t occurs seventy-four times In the
Book Of Psalms and three times in the
Book of HaballluK. You must not
charge this perfect book with seventy
seven trivialities. Selah! 1t is an en-
throned word. If. according to an old
writer, some words are battles. then
this word is Marathon, Thermopyle,
a Sedan, Waterloo. IL is word de-
cisive, sometimes for solemnitv, some
times for grandeur, and sometimes for
eternal import. Through it roll the
laundering chariots of the Omnipotent
God
take this word fo- my text because
/ am so often asked what is its mean
ing, or whether it has any meaning at
all. 1t has an ocean of meaning, from
which shall this morning Clip up only
four or five bucketfuls. | will speak
to you, so far as have time, of the Sc
lah of poetic significance, the Selah of
intermission, 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 bible without rhythm, without
redolence, without blank verse. God
knew that eventually the bible would
be read by great majority of
young people, for in this world
of malaria and casualty an octoge-
marian is exceptional, and as thirty years
is more than the average of human life,
if the bible is to be a 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 Hab-
akkuk, the threnody of Jeremiah,
the lyric of Solomon's Song, the ora
torio 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
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. 81 answered thee in
the secret place of thunder: / proved
thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah."
1.-THE earth and all the inha bitants
thereof are dissolved; l bear up the
pillars of it. 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
banner to them that fear thee, that it
may be displayed because of the truth.
of thy wings. Selah." 80, God, when
thou wentest firth before thy people,
when thou did'st march through the
wilderness. Selah."
Wherever you find this word it is a
signal of warning hung out 10 tell you
to stand off the track while the rush
ing train goes by with lis imperial
passengers. Poetic word, charged with
sunrise and sunset, and tempest and
earthquake, and resurrection and
millenniums
Next come to speak Of the Selah of
intermission. Gesenius, Tholuck,
Hengstenberg, and ether writers agree
in saying that this word Selah means
a rest in music; what the Greeks call
diapsalma, pause, halt in
the solemn march of camilla
ton. Every musician knows the
Importance of it. If you ever saw
Julien, the great musical leader, stand
before five thousand singers and play
ers upon Instruments, and with one
stroke of his baton smite the multitu-
dinous hallelujah into silence, and
then, soon after that, with another
stroke of his baton .ouse up the full
orchestra to great outburst of har-
mony, 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 thrusts 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 number of
times that we read the bible through
that makes us intelligent in the script
ures. We must pause. What though
it take an hour for one word? What