The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-06-08
"SEIIAIIp
II Gives Rhythm to a Most Per-
feet Book.
1t Is Charged With Sunrise. Tempest ana
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. by Rev. L.
Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID.


4: "Selah."
The majority of the bible readers
look upon this word of my text as OF no
importance, They consider it super
fluffy, mere filling in, meaningless
interiection, a useless refrain, an un-
defined echo Selah! But | have TO
tell you that it is no scriptural accident
1t occurs seventy-four times IN the
book of psalms and three times III the
book of Habalikuk. You must not
charge this perfect book with seventy
four trivialties. Selah! 1t Is an en-
throned work. If, according to an Old
writer, some words are battles, then
this word is Marathon,a Thermopyl@'
a Sedan, a Waterloo. 1t is word de-
cisive, sometimes for poetic beauty,
sometimes for solemnity, sometimes
for grandeur and sometimes for eternal
import. Through itroll the laundering
chariots of the Omnipotent God.
take this word for my text because
| am so often asked what is its meaning,
or whether it has any meaning at all.
1t has an ocean of meaning, from which
I shall this morning dip up only four or
five bucketfuls. will speak to you, so
far as ] have time, of the Selah OF
poetic significance, the Selah OF inter-
mission, the Selah of emphasis, and the
Selah of perpetuity.
Are you surprised that speak OF the
Selah of poetic significance? Surely tho
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
..edolence, without blank verse
God knew that eventually the Bible
would be read by a great majority OF
young people, for in this world OF
malaria and casualty an octogenarian
is exceptional, and as thirty years is
exceptional, and as thirty years is more
than the average of human 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 dithryambic of Habaklkuk, the
threnody of jeremiah, the lyric of Solo
mons Song, the oratorio of the Apoca-
lypse, the idyl, the strophe and anti
strophe and the Selah of the Psalms.
Wherever you find this word Selah, 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 imagination for
great fight. 81 answered thee in the
secret place of thunder; ] proved thee
at the waters of Meribah. Sclah." 1.-THE
earth and the inhabitants thereof are
disolved: l bear up the pillars of it.
Selah." "Who is this king of glory?
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 mount
aims shake with the swelling thereof
Selah." "The Lord of Hosts with us,
the God of Jacob is our refuge, Sclah."
"Thou hast givena banner to them that
fear thee, that it may be displayed be-
cause of the truth, Sclah." 81 will
|
Selah." 80 God, when Thou wentcst
forth before thy people, when thou did
list march through the wilderness,
Selah."
Whenever you find this word it is a
sigrGl of warning hung out TO tell you
to stand off the track while the rushing
train goes by with his imperial passen-
gers. Poetic word, charged with sun
rise and senset, and tempest and earth
quake, and resurrections and millen-
NUNS.
Next l come to speak of the Selah of
intermission, Gesenius, Tholucll, Heng-
stenbcrg and other writer's agree in say
ing that this word Selah means a rest
in music: what the Greeks call cantil-
lation. Every musician knows the i'm
portance of it. If you ever saw Julien,
the great musical leader, stand before
5000 singers and players upon in
struments, and with one stroke of his
baton smite the multitudinous hallelu-
iah into silence, and then, soon after
that, with another stroke of his baton
rouse up the full orchestra to great
outburst of harmony, then you know
the mighty effect of a musical pause.
1t gives more power to what went be-
fore; it gives more power to what is to
come after.
SoGod thrusts the Selah into His Bible
and into our lives, compelling us to stop
md thiall, stop and consider, stop and
admire, stop and 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 intel
ligent in the scriptures. We must pause
What though it take an hour for one
word? What though it take aweek fol-
ore verse? What though it take year
FOR one chapter? We must pause and
measure the height, the depth, the
length, the breadth, the universe, the
eternity of meaning in one verse.
should like to see some one sail around
ore little adverb in the Bible. little
adverb of two letters, during one life
ti,ne-the word so in the New Tesla
ment passage, God so loved the
world" Augustine made long paus,
after the verse, put We on the Lore
Jesus Christ" and it converted him
Matthew Henry made long pause after
the verse, "Open thou my lips, and my
mouth shall show forth thy praise" ant
1t co ,verted him. William Cowper made
q long pause after the verse. being
freely justified by his grace" and i
converted him. When God tells us sew
enty-seven times meditatively to paus,
In reading two of the hooks of th,