The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1892-06-02
A TREMENDOUS WORD,
POWER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF TIE
SINGLE WORD "SEIAH."


'ural Accident. as Unthinking People
SUPPOSE Through 1t Roll tho Thunder
ing CharIots of the Omnipotent God.
BROOKLYN, May 22.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage toduy took for the subject of his
sermon q single word of frequen occur
renee in the Bible and whose meaning
Is but little understood. From it he
drew q profoundly impressive description
of the varied and majestic purposes Of
certain parts OF Scripture and a practical
lesson tor Christians generally. The
text was Psalms lXi, 4, ''Selah."
The majority OF Bible readers look
upon this word Of my text MS Of no I'M
portance. They consider it super
fluffy, mere filing in, q moanglc less in
terjection, Il useless refrain, an underlined
echo. Selah! But have TO tell YOU
that it is no Scrlpturul accident. 1t oc-
ours seven tY.tOur times Ill the book of
Psalms and three tines in the book OF
Habakkuk. You must not charge this
perfect book, with seventy seven trivial
ties. Se.ah! 1t is an euthroned word.
Ii, according to au old writer, some
words are battles, then this wold is
Marathon, Thermopyln, a Sedan, a
Waterloo. IL is word decisive; some
times tor poetic beauty, sometimes for
solemnity, sometimes for grandeur and
sometimes tor eternal import. Through
it roll the laundering chariots of the
Onnipotent God.
take this word for my text because
am so often asked what's its meaning,
or whether 1t has any meaning at all. 1t
has an ocean OF meaning. from which
shall this morning dip up only four or
five buckettrls. l Will speak to you, so
tar as l have time. Of the Selah of poetic
significance, the Selah of inter,nission.
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 rosebud Of beauty, with
oceans hanging to 1t like drops of morn
ing dew, would not make Bible with
out rhythm, without redolence, without
blank verse. God knew that eventually
the Bible would be read by great ma jor-
ty OF young people, for in this world of
malaria and casualty an octogenarian is
exceptional. and rs thirty years is more
than the average of hu nan life, if the
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 Solo
mons song, the oratorio of the Apoc
alypse, the idyl, the strophe, and anti.
strophe and the Selah Of the psalms.
Wherever you tind this word Selah il
means that you are to rouse up TO great
stanza, that you arc to open your soul
TO great aualogies, that you are to spread
the wing CT your imagination for great
flight. II answered thee N the sc ;ret
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 glory?
The Lord of hosts, he is the king OF
glory. Sc ah." "Thou shalt compass
me about with songs of dclivcrance.
Selah." "Though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, thou III the noun
talns shake with the swelling thereof
Seiah." 1.-The Lord Of hosts is with us,
the God of Jacobs our refuge. Selah.''
Thou has t given banner to them that
cause of the truth Selah." 81 will
Se'ah." 80, God, when thou wentest
forth before thy people, when thou ddst
march through the wilderness. Selah."
Wherever you find this word II Is q
signal of warning hung out to tell you
train goes by with its imperial passen.
and sunset, ,iand tempest and earthquake
and resurrections and millenniums,
Next come to speak of the Selah o
intermlssion. Gesenius, ThUluck, Hen
Gutenberg and other writer's agree ir
saying that this word SeIah means a
rest in music; what the Greeks call /.
diapsalma, a pause, halt in the solemn
march OF cantlllation.
Every musician knows the importance
Of it. If you ever saw Julien, the great
musical leader, stand before five lhous
aud singers and players On iustru'
ments, and with one stroke Of his ba.
ton smite the multitudinous hallelujal
into silence, and then, soon after will
another stroke ofhis baton rouse up the
full orchestra to great Outburst Of har
mony, then you know the mighty etlecr
OF musical pause. 1t gives more
power to what went before; IL gives m re
po"cl W w uuL ID W COluC after. % u OC
thrusts the Selah into his Bible and into
our lives, compelling us to stop aut
think, stop and consider, stop and ad
mire, stop and pray, stop and repent
stop and be sick, stop and die. 1t s not
the great number OF times that we read
the Bible through that makes us inteli
gent.in the Scriptures. We pause
What though it take an hour Tor one
wordP What though it take Il week tol
one verse? What though it though II
take year for one chapter? We mus
pause and measure the height, th(
depth, the length, the breadth, the uni
verse, the eternity of nearing in ONT
verse.
1 should like to sec some one sal
around one little adverb in The Bible,
little adYerb of two letters, during on,
llietlme-lhe word 800" IA tl,e Nov
Testament passage, "God so loved th
world" Augustine made a long paus,
after the verse ''Put We on the ,or,