Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1892-05-26
MAJESTY AND MIGHT,
TIE TREMENDOUS SIGNIFICANCE Oh
THE WORD "sELAH.n

THE TREMENDOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE WORD "sELAH.n
DR.. Talmage's Eloquent Discourse Re-
sarding an Oft Repeated Yet Little en-
derstood Old Testament Expression.
Practical Lessons for Christians.
BROOKLYN, May 22.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today took for the subject : his
sermon a single word of frequent occur
renee in the Bible, and whose meaning
is but little understood. From it he
drew a profoundly impressive descrip-
ton of the varied and majestic purposes
of certain parts of Scripture. and aprac-
teal 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 10 I'M
p~ortance. They consider 1t a superHu-
ity, a mere filing in, a meaningless IN
teriection, a useless refrain, an unde-
fined echo. Selah. But l have 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
=Habakkuk. You must nor charge this
perfect book with seventy-seven trivial
ties. Selah, 1t is an enthroned word.
If, according to an old writer, some
words are battles, then this wor9 is a
Marathon, q Thermopyle. q Sedan, q
Waterloo. 1t is d word decisive.
times for poetic beauty. sometimes for
selemnity. sometimes for grandeur. and
sometimes for eternal import. Through
it roll the laundering chariots of the
omnipotent God.
l take this word for nv text because ]
am so often asked what is its meaning.
or whether it has any meaning at all. It
has an ocean CT meaning. from which l
shall this morning dip up only four or
five bucketfuls. will speak to You. so
Ger IS / have time, of the Selah OF poetic
significance, the Selah of intermissioa.
the Selah of emphasis and the Selah of
p%erpetuity.
Are you surprised that l 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 Cl2pS of
morning dew. would not make 4 Bile
without rhythm. without reJ"leice,
without blank verse. God knew that
eventually the Bible would be read by a
great maori: of young people. forin
this world of malaria and casualty M
octogenarian is exceptional. and rs thir-
t. years is more than the average of
human life. if the Bible IS t o be a sue
cessful 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 Githyram-
bic of Habakkpk. the thr'nodv of Jere-
miah. the lyric If Solomon,s Song. the
oratorio OF the Al @alypse. the idyl. the
strophe and antistrophe. ard the Selah
of the Psalms.
ITS GREAT SIGNIFICANCE.
Wherever You find this word Selah. it
means that you are to rouse up to great
stanza, that You are 10 open your soul 10
great a~nalosies. that You are to spread
the wing of Your imagination Cor great
fight. Il answered thee in the secret
place of thunder: l proved thee ut the
waters of Meribah. Selah. The earth
and all the inhabitants thereof are Gis-
solved: l bear up the pillars Of it. Sc
iah." WHO'S this King Of Glory: Tn"
Lord of Hosts. he is the Rig OF Glory.
Selah." Thou shalt compass me about
with songs of d~eliverance. Selah.
Though the waters thereof oar and he
troubled. though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah.'
THE Lord Of Hosts is with Us. the Sod
of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." Thou
hast given a banner TO them that fear
thee. that it may be displayed because
of the truth. Selah." Il viii hide IN
der the covert OF thy wings. Selah.~
.Oh. God. when thou wentest forth b,
fore thy people, when thou diGSt march
through the wilderness. Selah.
Whorever You find this wordit is asig
nal OF warning hung ont to tell you to
stand off the track while the rushing
t-aiS-aoes hM-with
P-1sen-
gers. Poetic word. charged with sun
rise and sunset. and tempest and earth-
quake. and restrictions and milIen-
NUNS.
Next come TO speak Of the Selah OF
intermission. Gesenius. Tholuck. Herg-
stenberg ard other writers agree in say
ing that tins word Selah means a rest in
music: what the Greeks call a dap
salma, a pause. q halt IL the solemn
march Of c~antillation.
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-
men:s, and with one stroke of his baton
s,nite the multitudinous hallelujah into
silence, and then. soon after that. With
another stroke of his baton rouse up the
full orchestra to a great outburSt Of lar
n then you know the mighty effect
of a musical pause. 1t gives more pow
er to what Went before: it gives more
power to what is to come after.
SoGod thruStS the Selah into his Bible
and into our lives. compelling Us 10 stop
and TANK, stop and consider. stop and
admire, stop and pray, stop and repent,
t and be sick. stop and die Il 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 1t take an hour for one
word: What though it take a week for
one verse: What though it take 4 year
for one chapters We must pause aud
measure the height. the depth, The
length. the breadth, the universe. the
eternity of meaning in II verse.
should ike to see some II sail
around one little adverb IL the Bible, a
little adyerb of two letters, during one
lferme-tae word $50" in the New
Testament passage, GOD 50 loved the
world" Augustine made a long pause
after the verse, "Put We on the Lord Je-
scs Christ, and it converted him. Nat
thew Henry made a long pause after the
verse. Open thou my lips, and my
mouth shall show forth thy praise, ana
IL converted him. William Cowper
made a long pause after the verse. Be
ing freely justified by his grace" and il
converted him. When Gci tells Us
seventy-seyen times meditatively to
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