The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-05-25
ONE LITTLE WORD.
Rev. DR.. Talmage breaches on the
Word "Selah."
It's Meaning and Application to the Life
of the Christian = Preachers and
Teachers Need More Dramatic
and Less of the Didactic.

bupJccO VI his recenJ sermon single
word OF frequent occurrence in the Bible
and drew an impressive and practical
lesson for all Christian workers. The
text was Psalms Xxi, A: "Selah." The
great divine spoke as follows:
The majority Of the Bible readers look
upon this word Of my text as of no inn
portance. They consider it superAui-
ty, mere filling in, meaningless in
PERFECTION, a useless refrain, an unde-
fined echo. Selahl But have to tell
you that 1t is no scriptural accident. 1t
occurs seventy-four times in the Book
OF Psalms and three times in the Book
OF HabaklSuk. You must not charge
this perfect book with seventy-seven
trivialities Selahl 1t is an enthroned
word. If, according TO an old writer,
some words are battles, then this word
is a Marathon, Thermopyle, Sedan,
Waterloo. 1t is word decisive, some
times for poetic beauty, sometimes for
grandeur and sometimes for eternal i'm
port. Through 1t roll the laundering
chariots of the omnipotent God.
] take this word for my text because
1 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. i will speak to you, so
far as have time, of the Selah of po-
etic significance, the Selah of intermis-
sion, the Selah of emphasis, and the Sc
lah Of perpetuity.
Are you surprised that speak Of the
Selah of poetic signifcanceP Surely
the 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 Bible
without rhythm, without redolence,
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 more than the average
of human life, II the Bible is to be
successful book II 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 dithy
rambic of HabaklSuk, the threnody of
jeremiah, the lyric of Solomon's song,
the oratorio of the Apocalypse, the idyl,
the strophe, and anti-strophe and the
Selah of the Psalms.
Wherever you find the 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 fight 81 answered thee in the
secret plac, OF thunder; proved thee
at the watersof Meribah. Selah." "The
earth and all the inhabitants thereof
are dissolved; bear up the pillars Of It
Selah." "Who is this King Of glory?
The Lord OF Hosts, He Is the King Of
glory. Selah.r 'Thou shalt compass
me about with songs of dcliverance.
'Selah." Though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the noun
tains shake with the swelling thereof.
Selah." 'rhe Lord of Hosts is with us
the God Of Jacob Is our refuge. Selah."
'Thou hast given banner to them that
fear Thee, that it may be displayed be
cause Of the truth. Selah." ~ will
hide under the covert of Thy wings.
Selah." 20, God, when Thou wentest
forth before Thy people, when Thou
didst march through the wilderness
Selah."
signal of warning hung out to tell you
10 stand off the track while the rushing
train goes by with It's imperial passen-
gers. Poetic words, charged with sun
rise and sunset, snd tempest and earth
quake, and resurrections and milenni
ums
Next come TO speak Of the Selah OF
intermission. Gesenius, Tholuck, Heng-
stenberg. and other writers agree in
saying that this word Selah means a
resL in music; what the Greeks call a
,diapsalma, pauss, n halt in the sol
,emn march of cantiliation. Every musi-
clan knows the Importance OF it. II
you ever saw Julien, the great musical
leader, stand before FIVE thousand sing
.ers and players upon instruments, 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 outburst OF har-
mony, then you know the mighty effect
OF a musical pause. Il gives more power
20 what went before; it gives more
power toafhnt is to come after. So God
thrusts the Selah into Ills Bible and
into our lives, compelling us to stop and
think, stop and consider, stop and ad-
mire, 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 as intel
ligent In the Scriptures. We must
pause What though II takes an hour
for one wordP What though It take a
week for one verse2 What though IL
take year for one chapter? We must
pause and measure the height, the
depth, the length, the breadth, the uni
verse, the eternity of meaning In one
verse. should like TO see some men
sail aroundu one little adverb in the
Bible, little adverb of two letters,
during one lifetime-the word 80" in
the New Testament passage, "God so
loved the world" Augustine made a
long pause after the verse, "Put We on
the Lord Jesus Christ" and 1t converted
him. Matthew Henry made a long
pause after the verse, "0pen Thou my
lips, and my mouth shall show forth
Thy praise" and IL converted him.