The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-23
ASINGLE WORD HIS TEXT.
REV. TALMAGE BREACHES A SER
MON ON "SELAH."

throned One Through Which Roll
the laundering Charioss of the On
nipotent God.
BROOKLYN. N. Y, May 22.-Rev. DIR.
Talmage to-day took for the subject of his
sermon a single word OF frequent Occurrences
in the Bible,e whose meaning is but little
understood. From 1t he drew profoundly
impressive description Of the varied and
majestic purposes of certain parts of script
ure, and a practical lesson for Christians
generally. The text was Psalms Xxi :, 4:
''Selah.n
The majority of Bible readers look upon
this word or my text as of no Importance.
They consider 1t a superhuity, a mere dlling
in, meaningless interjection, a useless re-
frain, an undeflued echo. Selahl But I
have to toll you that 1t 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 seventy-seven trivialities.
Selahl 1t is an enthroned word. II, ac-
cording to an old writer, some words are
battles, then this word is a Marathon, a
Thermopyle Sedan, a Waterloo. 1t is O
word decisive. sometimes for poetic beauty,
sometimes for solemnity, sometimes for
grandeur, and sometimes for eternal im~
port. Through IL roll the laundering
cheriots OF the Omnipotent God.
l take this word for my text because
am so often asked what is its meaning, or
whether 1t has any meaning at all. 1t has
an ocean OF meaning, from which l shall
this morning dip up only four or five buclc-
ettuls. will speak to you so far as have
time. Of the Selah of poetic significance, the
Selah OF insermlssion, 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 1t like drops of morn
ing dew, would not make Bible with-
out rhythm, without redolence. withous
blank verse. God know that eventually the
Bible would be read by great majority OF
young people, for Ia this world OF malaria
and casually an octogenarian is exceptional,
and as thirty years Is more than the aver
age of human lie, IL 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 dithyrambio of Ho bak-
kuk, the threnody of jeremiah the lyric of
Solomon's Song, the oratorio of the Apoca-
iypse, the idyl, the strophe and antistrophe,
and the Selah Of the Psalms.
Wherever you find this word SeIah, 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 flight.
81 answered thee in the secret place OF
thunder; proved thee at the waters of
Meribah. Selah." 1.-The earth and all the
inhabitants thereof are dissolved: bear up
the pillars Of it Selah." "Who is this King
of Gloryi The lord of Hosts, he is the King
OF Glory. SelAh. j" "Thou shalt compass me
about with songs of dellverance. 5elah."
Though tho waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with
fbp auNaliinor fharaof
of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob ia our
refuge. Selah." Thou hast given a ban-
nar to them that fear thee, that IL may be
displayed because of the truth. Selah." 1T
will bide under the covert of thy wings.
Selah." 20, God, when thou wentest forth
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 to tell you TO stand Off
the track while the rushing train goes by
with It's imperial passengers. Poetic word,
charged with sunrise and sunset, and tom
pest and earthquake. aud resurrections and
milienniums.
Next 1 come to speak OF the selah Of in-
Permission. Gesenius, Tholuck, Hengsten-
berg, and other writer's agree In saying that
thls word Selah means rest in music;
what the Greeks called a diapsalma. a
pause, halt in the solemn march OF cantil-
lation. Every musician knows the impor-
tance Of it. II you ever saw Julien, the
great musical leader, stand before five
thousand singers and players upon instru-
ments, and with one stroke of his baton
smite the multitudinous hallelujah into
silence, and then, soon after that, with
another stroke of his baton rouse up
the full orchestra to great out,
burst OF harmony, then you know the
mighty effect of a musical pause. IL
gives more power to what went before; it
gives mora In what Ia n Of
SO God thrusts the Seleh into his Bible and
into our lives, compelling us to stop and
think, stop and consider. stop and admire.
stop aud 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
scriptures. We must pause. What though
it take an hour for one words What
though it take a week for one versel What
though 1t take year for one chaptsrs
We must pause and measure the hight, the
depth, the length, the breadth. the universe.
the eternity OF meaning in one verse. [
should Ike 70 sec some one sail around
one little advero in the Bible, a little ad-
verb Of two letters, during one lifetime
the word ''so' IN the New Testament pass
sage, "God so loved the world" Angus
tin made long pause after the verse,
Put We on the Lord Jesus Christ" and it
converted him. Mathew Henry made a
my lips, and my mouth shall show forth
thy praise" and it converted him. Will
iami Cowper made a long pause after the
verse, being freely justified by bis grace,n
and 1t converted him. When God tells us
seventy y-seven times meditatively to pause
In reading two OF the books of the Bible, he
leaves it to our common sense to decide how
often we should pause in reading the other
sixty four books OF the Bible.
We must pause, and ask for more light.
We must pause, and weep over our sins.
We must pause, and absorb the strength of
one promise. l sometimes hear people
boasting about how many times they have
read the Bible through, when they seem to
know no more about it than a passenger
would know about tbestate of Pennsylvania
who should 20 through In st. Louis light
ming express train and in Pullman
sleeper" the two characteristics of the
journey, velocity and somnolence. It is not
the number Of times you go through the
Bible, but the number Of times the Bible goes
through you. Pause, reflect. Selahl
So, also, ON the scroll of your life and
mind. We go rushing on, In the song Of
our prosperity, from note of joy TO note Of
joy, and it is q long-drawn-out legato, and
we become Indifferent and unappreciative,
when suddenly we come upon blank in the
music. There is nothing between those
bars. A pause. God will fill it up with
sick bed. or a commercial disaster or n