The Penn's Grove record., 1892-05-27
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvIyEs sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject. "seiah."
TEXT: "Selah.n Psalms Xxi, 4.

They consider it a superiority, a mere filling
in, a meaningless interjection, a useless re.
frain, an underlined echo. Selah! But ]
have to tell you that it is no Scriptural ac-
cident. 1t 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 se~venty-seven trivialities.
Selahi Ii is an enthroned word. II, accord.
ing to an old writer, some words are battles,
then this word is a Marathon, a Thermopy.
Ice, a Sedan, a Waterloo. 1t is n word de
cisive, sometimes for poetic beauty, m
times for grandeur, and sometimes for
eternal import. Through it roll the u
dering chariots of the OmniE otent God.
take this word for my text because | Am
so often asked whit Is its meaning, or
whether it has any meaning at all. 1t has
an ocean Of meaning, from which l shall
this morning dip up only four or five buck
etfuls. | will speak to you, SOLAR as l have
time, of the Selah of poetic significance. the
Selah OF intermission, the Selah Of emphasis
and the Seiah of perpetuity.
Are you surprised that / speak of the
Selah of poetic signifcanceg 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 a Bible without rhythm,
without redolence, without blank verse.
God knew that eventually the Bible would
be read by a great majority of young peo'
pie, for in this world Of malaria and casualty
an octogenarian is exceptional, and as thirty
years is more than the average of human
life. if tire 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 Ju iges, 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 Selab Of
the Psalms.
Wherever you find this word Selah it
means that you are to rouse up to great
stanza, hat you are to open your soul to
great analogies, that you are to spread the
wing of your Imagination for great flight.
II answered. thee in the secret place OF thnn-
der; | proved thee at the waters of Meribah.
SeIah." The earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are dissolved; l bear up the pillars
of it. Selah.n 'Who is tine King of Gloryi
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 SWELL
ing thereof. Selah.n 'FThe Lord Of Hosts is
| with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah." Thou hast given a banner to them
that fear Thee, that it may be displayed
under the covert of Thy wings. Selah."
"Oh, God, when Thou wentest forth before
Thy peop.e, when Thou didst march through
the wilderness. Selah."
Whoever you find this word it is a signal
of warning hung out to tell you to stand oil
the track while the rushing train goes by
with its imperial passengers, Poetic word,
charged with sunrise an 1 sunset, and tempest
and earthquake, and resurrections and
millenniums.
Next | come to speak of the Selah of in
Permission. Gesenius, Tholuck, Hengsten.
berg and other writers agree in saying that
! this word Selah means a rest in music; what
the Greeks call a diapsalma, a pause, a hall
In the solemn march Of cantillation.
Every musician knows the Importance OF
it. Ii you ever saw Julien, the great
| musical leader, stand before five thousand
singers and players upon instruments, and
| with one stroke of his baton smite the multi
tudinous hal .elujah into silence. and then,
| soon after that, with another stroke OF his
baton rose up the full orchestra to a great
outburst of harmony, then you know the
mighty effect of a musical pause. 1t gives
more power to what went before; 1t gives
| more power to what is to come after.
So God thrusts the Selah into His Bib.
and INFO our lives, compelling us to stop and
| think, stop and consider, stop and admire,
stop AMI pray, stop aud repent, stop and be
! sick, stop and die. 1t is not the great mum
Der OF times that we read the Bible through
| IIdt mdhco us llltliiStht III buc bSt
| We must pause. What though it take an
| hour for one word2 What though it take a
| week for one verse; What though it take a
wear for one chapter2 We must pause and
measure the height, the depth. the length,
1.-THE breadth, the universe, the eternity OF
meaning in one verse.
should like to see some one sail arounG
one little adverb in the Bible, a little adverb
OF two letters, during one lifetime-the word
$50 in the New Testament passage, "God
so loved the world" Augustine made a long
pause after the verse, Put ye on the LORD
Jesus Christi and it converted him. Mat
thew Henry made a long pause after the
verse. 'Open Thou my lips, and my mouth
shall show forth Thy praise" and 1t convert
ed him. William Cowper made a iehs
pause after the verse, being freely justified
by His grace" and it converted him: WheI
God tells us seventy-seyen times meditatively
to pause in reading two books OF the Bible
He leaves to our common sense TO decide
how often we should pause in reading TIT
other ~sixty-four books of the Bible.
We must pause and ask for more light
We must pause and weep over our SINS. W
must pause and absorb the strength OF on
promise. / sometimes hear people boastlnt
about how many times they have read tn
Bible through, whent they seem to know M
more about it than a passenger would Know
about the State of Pennsylvania who shouic
go through it in a st. Louis lightning, OK
press train and in a Pullman sleeper" tn
two characteristics of the journey, velocity
and somnolepce, 1t is not the number o
of times you 90 through the Bible, but th'
number of times the Bible goes through you
Pause, reflect. Selahi
SO also on the scroll of your life ana mind
We go rushing on in the song OF u pros
perity from note of joy to noteo OF JOY, n
is a long drawn out iegato, and we becom
Indifferent and unappreciative when SUD
denly we come upon a blank in the music
There is nothing between those bars. 4
pause. God will fill it up with a sick bed
or a commercial disaster, or a grave. bul
thank God, it is not a breaking down.. 1t !
only a pause. 1t helps us to appreciate tn
bIessin!s that are gone. 1t gives us highe
appreciation of the blessings that are U
come.
TIE Selah Of Habakkuk and David is
dividing line between W anthems. Ddvi
begins his book with the words, blessed
the man. and after seventy-four Selahs h
closes his book with the words, "fraise y
the Lord" So there are mercles behind Us
and there are going to be mercles before us
it is good for US that God halts US in our fol
tunes and halts us with physical aistres'
and halts us at the graves OF our dead. Nor
than once YOU and l have been halted b
such a Selah. You wrung your hands an
said; Il can't see any sense IN this frovl
dence: | can't see why God gave me tina
chils. il He is so soon going TO take 1t away
on. nv desolate homet Oh, my broke
hearth You could not understand IT,, bu
il was not a Selah OF overthrow. 1t CAV
YOU greater appreciation of the blessing
that bave gone; it will yet give you create
aunreciation of the blessings that will CONF
when the Huguenots were beng yer
much prosecuted in France a father an
mother were obliged to fly from the countr!
leaving their child in the possession OF
comparatiye stranger. They did not kno'
whether they would ever return, or return
ING, il they would b able to recognize thei
child. for by that time she might be grow
Ths mother was almost frenzied at Il
Thought of leaving the child, n then, eve
II coming pack again, not being able to kno
her. Before they left the father drew 3
sword and he marked the wrist of th
child with a deep cut. II must have been
great Sxigencv 10 make a father do that
Years of absence passed on and aft
awhile the parents returned, and their fir
anxiety was to find their lost child, Tn
looked up and down the land, examining h
wrists of the young people, when lol aft
awhile the father found a maiden with a Sc
Upon her wrist. She knew him not but
new her. And oh, the joy of the reuuio
SO it Is now. "Whom the Lord loveth Z
chastsneth." he cutteth, He marketh ar
when he comes 70 claim HIS own the Lor