Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-05-26
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
POWER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE WORD "SELAH."
Or. Ta'maSe Says "Seiah"I Is No Scriptural
Accident, as Unthinking People Sup
posc-Through 1t Roll the LAUNDERING
Chnriois of the Omnipotent Cod
"A Tremendous Word.

Rev. DR.. Talmage to-day took for the
subject OF his sermon q single word
OF frequent occurrence in the Bible and
whose meaning is but little understood.
From it he drew a profoundly impressive
description of the varied and majestic
purposes OF certain parts of Scripture
and q practical lesson for Christians
generally. The text was Psalms Xxi,
''Seah.'
The majority of Bible readers look
upon this word of my text rs of no i'm
portance. They consider it super
fluffy, mere filling in, meaningless
interjection, useless refrain, an unde-
fined echo. Selah! But have to tell
you that it is no Scriptural accident 1t
occurs seventy-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 trivial
ties. Selah! 1t is an enthroned word.
If, according to an old writer, some
words are battles, then this word is q
Marathon, q Thermopyln, Sedan,
Waterloo. 1t is a word decisive; some
times for poetic beauty, sometimes for
solemnitv, sometimes for grandeur and
sometimes for eternal import. Through
it roll the numbering chariots of the
Omnipotent God.
l take this word for my text because l
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 /
shall this morning dip up only four or
five bucketfuls. | will speak to you, so
far as l have time, of the S1lah Of poetic
significance, the Selah of intermssion,
the Selah Of emphasis and the Selah of
pcrpetuity.
Are you surprised that / speak of the
Sclah Of poetic significance? Surely the
God who sapphred the heavens and
made the earth rosebud of beauty,
with oceans hanging to it like drops Of
morning dew, would not make q Bible
withou5 rhythm, without redolence, with
out blank verse. God knew that event.
ually the Bible would be read by great
majority of young people, for in this
world Of malaria and casualty an Octo-
gcnarian is exceptional, and as thirty
years is more than the average of human
life, if the Bible is to be q successful
book it must be adapted to the young.
Hence tho prosody of the Bible-the
drama Of Job, the pastoral Of Ruth, the
epic of Judges, tho dithyrambic of Ha-
bakkuk, the threnodv of jeremiah, the
the Apocalypse, the idyl, the strophe,
and antistrophe and the Selah of the
Psalms.
Wherever you find this word Selah 1t
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. 81 answered thee in the secret
place of thunder. proved thee at the
waters of Mcribah. Selah." 1.-The earth
and all the inhabitants thereof are dis
solved. l bear up the pillars Of it. Sc
lah." "Who is this king of glory? The
Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory
Sclah." "Thou shalt compass me about
with songs of dcliverance. Seah."
Though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah." 1.-THE
Lord of hosts is with us, the God of
Jacob is our refuge. Sclah." ''Thou
hast given q banner TO them that fear
thee, that it may be displayed because
of the truth. Sclah.'' Il will hide
under tho covert of thy wings. Selah."
30, God. when thou wenteSt forth before
thy people, when thou didst march
through the wilderness. Selah"
Wherever you find this word it is sig
nal of warning hung out to tell you to
stand off the track while tho rushing
train goes by with it's imperial passen-
gers. Poetic word, charged with sun
rise and sunset. and tempest and earth
quake, and resurrections and millen-
NUNS.
Next come to speak OF the Selah Of
intcrmisslon. Gesenius, Tholuck, Heng
stenberg and other writer's agree in say
ing that this word Sclah means 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. If you ever saw Julien, the great
musical leader, stand before five thous-
and singers and players upon instru-
ments, 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 Il great ontburst of har
mory. then you know the mighty effect
of musical pause. 1t gives more pow
err 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 and
think, stop and consider, stop and ad-
mlre, Stop anu pray, sup anu ltpeli1,
stop and be sick, stop and die. 1t is not
the great number Of times that we read
the Bible through that makes us ntell-
gent in the Scriptures. We must pause
What though it take an hour for one
word? What though it take q week for
one verse? What though it take year
for one chapter? We must pause and
measure the height, the depth, the
length, the breadth, the universe, the
eternity of meaning in one verse.
l should like to see some one sail
around one little adverb in the Bible, n
little adverb Of two letters, during one
lifetme-thc word $50" in the New Tes-
lament passage, God so loved the
world" Augustine made long pause
after the verse "Pnt ye on the Lord Je-
sus Christ" and it converted him. Mat
thew Henry made long pause after the