Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1892-06-03
REV. DR.. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "SELAH."
SUBJECT: "SELAH. ="

cldent. 1t occurs seventy-four times in the
Book OF Psalms and three times in the Book
OF Habakkuk. You must not charge thi,
perfect book with seventy trivialities.
Selahl 1t is an enthroned word II, accord.
ing TO an old writer, some words are battles
then this word is a Marathon Thermopy.
lac, Sedan, a Waterloo. 1t is a word de
clslVe, sometimes for poetic beauty, some
tunes Tor grandeur, and sometimes for
eternal import Through it roll the thun.
dering 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 It ha.
an ocean OF meaning, from which l shall
this morning dip up only four or five buck,
etfuls. | will speak to you. so.far as hav,
time, OF the Selah of poetic significance. tn,
Selah OF intermisson the Seah Of emphasis
and the Selah OF perpetuity.
| Are You surprised that | speak or the
Selah of poetic significance Surely the Col
who sapphired the heavens and made the
earth 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
De read by great ma jority OF young peo.
! pie, for in this world Of malaria and casualty
an octo9enarian is exceptional, and as thirty
| years is more than the average OF human
| life, II 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, this
| pastoral of Ruth, tho epic of Ju iges the
dithyrambc of Habakkuk, the threnody Of
Jere miah, the lyric of SoIomon's Song, tho
oratorio OF the Apocalypse, the idyl, tho
strophe and antiStrophe, 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 anaiogies, that you are to spread the
wing OF your imagination for great flight.
u answered thes in the secret place of thun-
! der; proved thee AT the waters OF Meribah.
Selah." "rhe earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are dissolvei; | bear up the pillars
Of it, Seiah." "Wno is the King OF Glory
| The Lord of Hosts He is the King Of Glory.
Seah." 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
with us the God Of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah." Thou hast given banner to them
that fear Thee, that it may be displayed
because of the truth. Selah." II will hide
under the covert Of Thy wings. Seiah."
"Oh God, when Thou wentest forth before
Thy people, when Thou didst march through
the wilderness. Selah."
| w mower you llnu TINS WOTI IL Is u sign AZ
OF warning hung out to tell you TO stand oif
the track while the rushing train goes by
with its imperial passengers, Poetic word,
| charged with sunrise and sunset and tempest
and earthquake, and resurrectiOns and
millenniumg.
Next come to speak of the Selah Of In
Permission. Gesenius, Tholuck, Hengstou-
berg and other writers agree in saying that
this word Selsh means a rest in music; what
LII. H.. l..., hale
In tho solemn march Of cantlllation.
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, AMI
with one stroke of his baton smite the multi
tudinous hallelujah into sience, 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; it gives
| more power to what is to come after.
SO God thrusts the Selah into His Bible
and into our lives, compelling us to stop AMI
think, stop and consider, stop and admire,
stop AMI pray, stop and repent, stop AMI be
sick, stop and die. 1t is not the great num-
Der of times that we read the Bible through
that makes US intelligent in the Scriptures.
We must pause What though it take an
week for one verse? What though it take
year for one chapterH 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
one little adverb in the Bible little adverb
of two letters, during one lifetime the word
$50" in the New Testament passage, "God
so loved the world" Augustine made long
| tha M Nra tina ord
Jesus Christ" and it converted him. Mat
thew Henry mace 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 long
pause after the verse, Being freely justified
by His grace and it converted him. Wh?n
God tells us seventy-seven times meditativeiy
to pause in reading two books of the Biole
He leaves to our common sense to decide
how often we should pause in reading the
other sxty-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, sometimes hoar people boastlns
about how many times they have read the
Bible through, when they seem to know nc
more about it than passenger would know
about the State of Pennsylvania who should
90 through it in st. Louis lightning ex-
| u L
two characteristics of the journey, velocity
and somnolence. 1t is not the number OF
of times you 60 through the Bible, but the
number Of times the Bible goes through you.
Pause, reflect. Selahl
So also on the scroll of your life ana mind.
We go rushing ON in the song OF our pros.
perity from note OF Joy to note OF Joy aud 1t
is long drawn out legato, and we become
Indifferent and unappreciative when SUD
denly we come upon q blank IN tne music
There is nothing between those bars. a
pause. God will fill it up with sick bed
or a commercial disaster, or grave. but'
thank God. it is not breaking down. 1t ID
only A pause. 1t helps us to appreciate the
BLESSINGS that are gone. 1t gives us higher
Appreciation of tho blessings that are to
come.
dividing line between two anthems. DAVio
begins his book with the words, "Blesseu Is
the man" and after serenty-four Selahs lie
closes his hook with the words Praise ye
the Lord u So there are mercies behlnd us,
and there are going to be mercies before US
IT, &c GOOD for Us that God halts us in our TO r
times and halts US with physical distress,
and halts us at the graves OF our dead. Mor'
than once YOU and | have been halted by
such Selah. You wrung your hands an,
said: Il can't ses any sense III TINS FtoVl
dence; can't see why God gave me Una
child, IL He is so soon going TO take it away
oh. nv desolate home, Oh, my broker
hearth You could not understand 1t, Bu
II was not u Selah Of overthrow. IL CAV
greater apPTe5Gas0at 5 9st GIVE oE sHS You US Srsate
appreciation of the blessings that will come
When the Huguenots were being yer
mucb persecuted in France tatner an
mother were obliged TO fly from the countr y
Having their child in the possession, OF
nomnarative stranger. They did not know
whether they would ever return, or re!urn
inc, il they would be able to recoynize thel
child, for by that time she might % grow VI,
thopoht of leaving the child, and then, eve
K coming back again, not being able to knS