The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-06-02
''SEIA.H =
The Majority Of Bible Readers Look
Upon This Word as Of No
Importance.
But Dr.. Talmage Imp svssss the 0ppor-
tunity to Disabuse H. Peoples
Minds Of the Idea.

l. &
sermon a single word Of frequent oc-
currence in the Bible, and whose
meaningis butlittle understood. From
it he drew a profoundly impressive
description of the varied and ma
.jestic purposes of certain parts
OF scripture, and q practical
Lessons for Christians generally.
The text was Psalms lxi:4: 'Selah."
The majority OF Bible readers look
upon this word as OF no Importance.
They consider it superfuity, mere
1lling in, a meaningless interiection, a
useless refrain, an underlined echo.
Selah! But I have to tell you that it
is no scriptural accident. 1t occurs
~ times in the book of Psalms and
3 timesin the book OF Habahkuk. You
must not charge this perfect book
with ~ trivialities. Selah It is an
enthroned word. If, according to an
old writer, some words are battles
then this word is Marathon, a
'Thermopyla, a Sedan, Waterloo.
1t is a word decisive, something fol:
poetic beauty, something for grandeur,
and something for eternal import.
Through it rolls the laundering char
lots OF the omnipotent God.
take this word for my text be-
cause am so often asked what is
it's meaning, or whether it has any
meaning, at all. 1t has an ocean Of
meaning, from which 1 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 intermission,
the Selah OF emphasis and the Selah
OF perpetuity. @
Are you surprised that I speak of
the 'Selah ofpoetic significance? Surely
the God who sapphired the heavens
and made the earth.
ROSEBUD OF BEAUTY, ,s
with oceans hanging to it like drops
of morning dew, would not make a
Bible without rhythm, without red
olence, without blank verse. Where
ever 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 your
Imagination for great flight.
Wherever you find this word it is a
signal OF warning hung out to tell you
to stand off the track while the rush
ing train goes by with it's imperial
passengers. Poetic word, charged. with
sunrise and sunset, and tempest and
earthquake, and resurrections and
millenniums. -5--.s.I...sss-.- ,a. +
Next I come to speak to the Selah
of intermission.. Gesenius, Tholuck,
Hengstenberg, and other writer's agree
in saying that this word Selah means
a rest in music; what the Greeks call
a diapsalma, a pause, a halt in the
solemn march of cantillation. Every
musician knows the Importance of it.
Ii you every saw Julien, the great
musical leader, stand before 5000
singers and players and instrument,
and with one stroke of his baton
smite the multitudinous hallelujah in
to silence, and then, soon after that,
with another stroke OF his baton
rouse up the full orchestra to q great
outburst OF harmony, then you know
the mighty effect Of a musical pause.
1t gives power to what went before; it
gives more power to what is come after.
So God trusts the Selah into his bible
and into our liyes, compelling us to stop
and think, stop and consider, stop
and admire, stop and pray, stop and
repent, stop and be sick, stop and die.
When God tells us II times medita-
lively 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 81 books of the
| Bible. We must pause and ask fer
morelight. Wemust pause and absorb
the strength of one promise. some
times hear people boasting about how
many times they have read the Bible
through, when they seem to know no
more about it than apassenger would
about the state Of Pennsylvania who
should go through it in a St. Louis
lightning express train and in Pull
man sleeper" the two characteristics
OF the journey, velocity and somno-
lence. 1t is not the number OF times
| you 60 through the Bible but the num-
! Der Of times the Bible goes through
you. Pause, and reflect. Selah!
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 along
legate, 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 q
sick-bed or commercial disaster, or
a grave. But, thank God, it is not q
breaking down; it is only q pause. It
helps us to appreciate the blessings
that are gone; it gives us higher ap.
! probation OF the blessings that are to
come.
Oh, it is good that the Lord some.
| times halts US. David says. ''It is
| good that I have been afflicted. Before
/ was afflicted went astray, but nov
I have Kept thy word" Indeed, We
must all stop. Scientists have i'm.
proved human longevity, but none o.
them have proposed to make terrene
j life perpetual. But the gospel makes
death only