Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-05-28
SELAH SIGNIFICANCE.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Pecu-
liar Exclamation.
The Expression In the Book OF Habakkuk
ms Well rs the Psalms-An Incentive to
Heroic Christian Exertion-A Skcp-
tics Feeble Effort.


last Sunday single word of frequent
occurrence in the Bible, and whose
meaning is. but little understood. From
1t he drew II profoundly impressive de-
scription of the varied and majestic
purposes of certain parts of Scripture
and practical lesson for Christians
generally. The text was Psalm Xxi 4:
''Selah."
The majority of Bible readers look
upon this word of my text as of no inn
portance. They consider 1t a superfluity,
meaningless intersection, useless re-
frain, an underlined echo. Selah! But
1 have to tell you that it is no
Scriptural accident. 1t occurs seven
ty-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 Selah!
1t is an enthroned word. Ii, according
to an old writer, some words are battles
then this word is Marathon, Their
mopyle. a Sedan, n Waterloo. 1t is
word decisive, sometimes for poetic
beauty, sometimes for solcmnity, some
times for grandeur and sometimes for
eternal import Through it roll the
laundering chariots of the omnipotent
God.
take this word for my text because
] am so often asked what is its mean
ing, or whether it has any meaning ut
all. 1t has an ocean of meaning, from
which l 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 the
God who sapphired the heavens and
made the earth rosebud of beauty,
with oceans hanging to it like drops OF
morning dew would not make Bible
without rhythm, without redolence,
without blank verse. God knew that
eventually the Bible would be
read by n great majority of young
people, for in this world of ma
laria and casualty an octogenarian is
exceptional, and as thirty years is more
than the average of human life, If 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 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 find this word Selah it
means that you are to rouse up to n
great stanza, that you are to open your
soul to great analogies that you are to
spread the wing of your imagination
for great fight. II answer thee in the
secret place Of thunder; proved thee
at the waters of Meribah. Selah. "
1.-The earth and all the inhabitants
thereof arc dissolved; bear up the
pillars of it. Selah." 'Who is this
king of glory? The Lord of Hosts, lie
is the king of glory. Selah." "Thou
shalt compass me about with songs OF de-
liverance. Selah." Though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled, though
the mountains shake with the swelling
thereof. Selah." "The 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 because of the truth.
Selah." Il will hide under the covert
of Thy wings. Selah." 80 God, when
Thou wentest forth before Thy people,
when Thou did'st march through the
wilderness. Selah."
Next | come to speak of the Selah OF
intermission. Gesenius, Tholuck, Heng'
stenberg and other writers agree IL
saving that this word Selah means
rest in music; what the Greeks call
diapsalma, a pause, halt in the solemn
march of cantillation. Every musician
knows the Importance of it. If yor
ever saw Julien, the great musica
leader, stand before 5000 singers ant
plavers upon instruments, and will
one stroke of his baton smite the multi
tudinous hallelujah into silence, ant
then, soon after that, with another
stroke of his baton rouse up the full
orchestra to great outburst OF harmo
nv. then you know the mighty effect OF
musical pause. 1t gives more power u
what went before; it gives more powe
to what is to come after. So Got
thrust the Selah into this Bible and int
our lives, compelling us to stop ant
think. stop and consider, stop and ad
ire, stop and pray, stop and repent
stop and be sick, stop and die. 1t Is no
the great number of times that we rea
Ene Bible through that makes US intel
lipent in the Scriptures. We mus
pause. What though it takes an hou
for one word? What though it takes
week for one verse? What though
takes a year to one chapter? We mus
pause and measure the height, tn
depth, the length, the breadth, the I'M
verse, the eternity of meaning in on