Connecticut western news., 1892-05-26
MAJESTY AND MIGHT.
THE TREMENDOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF
 THE WORD "SELAH."

ilage today took for the subject of his ,erlnon d single word of frequent occur ience in the Bible. and whose meaning is but little understood. From it he lrew profoundly impressive descrip- tiOn of the varied and majestic purposes of certain parts of Scripture. and n prac- tical lesson for Christians generally. The text was Psalms Xxi. 4. "Selah."
 The majority of Bible readers look upon this word of my text as of no i'm portauce. They consider it a supertiu- ity, a mere filling in. meaningless in- terJection, useless refrain, an unde- fined echo. Selahl But 1 have to tell you that it is no Scriptural accident. It 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 triviali- ties. Selah! 1t is an enthroned word. If. according to an old writer. some words are battles. then this word is Marathon, ThermopylR. a Sedan. Waterloo. It is Il word decisive, some times for poetic beauty. sometimes for telemnity, sometimes for grandeur. and sometimes for eternal import. Through it roll the laundering chariots of the omnipotent God.
 take this word for my text because l am so often asked what is it's meaning or whether it has any meaning ut all. It has an ocean of meaning. from which l shall this morning dip mp only four or five bucketfuls. will speak to you, so Fur \ huy off h..S Salu of significance, the Selah of internission, the Selah of emphasis and the Selah of perpetuity.
 Are you surprised that speak of the Selah of poetic signiticanceY Surely the God who sapphired the heavens and made the earth 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 m this world of malaria and casualty an octogenarian is exceptional, and as thir- ty years is more than the average of human life, if the Bible is to be suc- cessfui book 1t 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 dithyram- bic of Habakkuk, the threnody of Jere- miah. the lyric of Solomon's Song. the oratorio of the Apocalypse, the idyl. the strophe and antistrophe, and the Selah of the Psalms
 ITS GREAT SIGNIFICANCE. fin oh if means that you are to rouse mp 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 flight. "l answered thee in the secret place of thunder; proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah." The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dis solved; bear up the pillars of it, Se- lah." "Whois this King of tilory? 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 Selah." "l will hide un- der the covert of thy wings. Selah." | Oh. God. when thou wentest forth b. fore thy people. when thou didst march | through the wilderness. Selah." Wherever you find this word 1T is sig | nal of warning hung out to tell you to stand off the track while the rushing train goes by with it's imperial passen- gers Poetic word. charged with sun- rise and sunset. and tempest and earth quake. and resurrectlons and milien- | niums.
 Next come to speak of the Selah of | intermission. HesenIus. Tholuck. Heng- stenberg and other writers agree in say 1 ing that this word Selah means rest in music: what the Greeks call a diap- sllma, a pause, halt in the solemn | march of cantillation.
 Every musician knows the importance of it. If you ever saw Julien. the great musical leader. stand before five thou- sand singers and players upon Instru- ments. and with one stroke of his baton s1nite the multitudinous halleluJah into silence, and then. soon after that with another stroke of his baton rouse mp the | full orchestra to q great outburst of har- rnony. then you know the mighty effect of musical pause. It gives more pow | CT to what went before: 1t gives more | power to what is to come after.
 l SoGod 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. It is not the great number of times that we read | the Bible through that makes us intelli
 gent in the Scriptures. We must pause. | What though it take an hour for one
 word? What though it take week for one verse? What though it take year
 for one chapter? We must pause and
 measure the height. the depth. the l length. the breadth. the universe. the eternity of meaning in one verse. | l should like to see some one sail
 around one little adverb in the Bible, q
 little adverb of two letters, during one
 lifetime-the word "so" in the New
 Testament passage. "tiod so loved the
 world." Augustine made d long pause | a1Ier the verse, fut ye ou the Loiu "e
 sus Christ" and it converted him. Mat
 thew Henry made long pause after the
 verse, "Open thou my lips. and my
 month shall show forth thy praise, ane
 it conyerted him. William Cowpel
 made long pause after the verse. Be
 ing freely justified by his grace. and '
 converted him. When God tells us seventy-seven times meditatively tc
 pause in reading two of the books of the
 Bible. he leaves to our common sense to
 decide how often we should pause in
 reading the other sixty-four books of the
 Bible
 GOD CALLS A HALT.