Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-05-23
.SELAH!STOP!THINK!
Avery ENTERTAINING SRRMON ON an ODD
SUBJECT DELIVERED
Yesterday 81 the Rev. Dr. Talmage at His Biz
Brooklyn Tabsrnacls-A Word Much
Used and htts Understood
Furnishes he Text

BrooKLrv, n. Y, May 22.-Rev.
DR.. Talmage to-day took for the subject
Of his sermon p single word of frequent
occurrence in the Bible, and whose
meaning is but little understood. From
st be drew profoundly impressive de-
scription OF the varied and majestic
purposes OF certain parts Of Scripture,
and practical lesson for Christians
generally. The text was Psalms 81: 4;
sSelah.n
The majority Of Bible readers look
upon this word Of my text as OF no I'M
portance. They consider it a Supertu-
ity. q mere filing In, . meaningless IN
PERFECTION, a useless refrain, an unde-
fined echo. Selah. But l have 70 tell
Won that 10 Is no Scriptural accident. II
occurs sevcnty-fOur times In the BOOK
Of Psalms and three times In the BOOK
of Habakkuk. You must not charge
this perfect book with Seventy-Seyen
trivialties. Selahl IL is an enthroned
word. IT.. according 20 an old writer,
some words are battles, then this word
Is Marathon, a Therm0pyl9, q Sedan,
a Waterloo. 10 is o word decisive, some
times For poetic beauty, sometimes Tor
solemnity, sometimes for grandeur, and
sometimes for eternal import. Through
A roll the laundering chariots Of the
Omnipotent God.
take this word for my text because
] am so often asked what IS It's mean
ing. OF whether 70 has any meaning at
an. 10 has an ocean OF meaning, from
which / shall this morning dip up only
four or five 0ucketfulS ] will speak 10
YOU. so far as I have time, Of the Selah
of poetic significance, the Selah OF IN
termisSiOns the Selad or emphasis ana
the Selah of perpetuity.
ARE YOU SURPRISED
that speak OF the Selah Of poetic sig
niflcance? Surely the God who sap
phired the heavens and made the earth
\ rosebud Of beauty, with oceans hang
Ing 20 il like drops Of morning dew,
would not make Bible without
rhymth, 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 octo-
genarian is exceptional, and as thirty
years is more than the average OF
human life, il the Bible is to be sue
cessful book 10 must be adapted % the
young. Hence the proSOdy Of the Bible
the drama Of job, the pastoral OF
Ruth, the epic OF judges, the dithy-
ramblc Of Habakkuk, the threnody Of
jeremiah, the Iyric of Solomon's Song,
the oratorio OF Apocalypse, the idyb
the strophe, the antisJrOphe aud the
Sclah of the Psalms.
Wherever you find this word Selah, il
means that you are 10 rouse up to great
stanza, that you arctic open your soul
TO great analogieS, that you are TO
spread the wing OF your imagination for
great fight Il answered thee In the
secret place of thunder; ! proved thee
at the waters.of Meribah. Selah." The
earth and all the inhabitants thereof are
dissolved: I bear up the pillars Of It,
Selab." "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 noun
Gains shake with the swelling thereof
Selah." THE Lord Of Hosts Is with Us,
the God OF jacob is our refuge. Selah.
"Thou hast given q banner 10 them that
fear thee, that it may be displayed be-
cause of the truth. Seiah." Il will
hide under the covert Of thy wings.
Seiah." 20, God, when thou wenteSt
forth before thy people, when thou
did'St march through the wilderness.
Selah."
WHEREVER YOU FIND
this word it is a signal OF warning hung
out to tell you TO stand of the track
while the rushing train goes by with
It's imperial passengers. Poetic word,
charged with sunrise and sunset. and
tempest and earthquake, and resurrec-
tiOns and millenniumS.
Next ] come 20 speak Of the Selah Of
intermissiOn. GeSenius, Tholuck, Heng-
stenberg, and other writer's agree in
saying that this word Selah means q
rest in music; what the Greeks call
diapsalma. a pause, halt In the solemn
march Of cantillatiOn. Every musician
knows the Importance OF it. IL 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
multnudinOus halleluiah into silence,
and then, soon after that, with another
stroke of his baton, rouse up the full
orchestra TO a great Outburst of har-
mOny, then you know the mighty effect
Of q musical pause. 10 gives more pow
or 20 what went before; it gives more
power 20 what Is 90 come after. So
God thrusts the Selah into His Bible
and into our lives, compelling up TO stop
and tbink, stop and consider, stop aud
admire, stop and pray, stop and repent,
stop sand be sick, stop and die. IL
is not the great number OF times that
we read the Bible through that makes
Us intelligent In Scriptures. We must
pause. What though ia take an hour
for one word? What though I take
week for one verse? What though it
take year for one chapter? We must
pause and measure the hight, thedeDth,
the length, the breadth, the universe,
he eternity OF meaning in one verse.
should Ike % see some one sail
md one little adverb in the Bible, a
gdyerb of two letters, during one
the word $50" IN the New
ca passage, 'God 50 loved the
Augustine made long pause
the verse, Put ye on the Lord
Christ, AID il cOyerted him.
,hew Henry made a long pause
the verse, "Open thou my lips,
my mouth shall show forth thv
Sc, and 10 converted him. William
ar made n long pause after the
being freely justified by his
and 10 converted him. When
Is seventy-Seven times medita-
pause IN reading two OF the
Bible, he leaves to our
to decide how often we