Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-05-23

decide how often we should pause in
reading the other sixty-four books Of the
Bible.
GOD CALLS A HALT.
| Wemust 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 hear peo-
pie boasting about how many times they
| have read the Bible through, when they
seem to know no more about it than a
passenger would know about the state
of Pennsylvania who should go through
! it in n st. Louis lightning express train
and in a Pullman sleeper" the two
characteristics Of the journey, velocity
| and somnolence. 1t is not the number
Of times you go through the Bible, but
the number of times the Billie goes
through you Pause, reflect. Selah!
So also on the scroll of your life and
mind. We go rushing on in the song Of
our prosperity from note of joy to note
of joy, and it is long drawn out legato,
and we become indifferent and unappre-
ciative when suddenly we come upon a
blank in the music. There is nothing
between those bars. A pause. God
will fill it up with sickbed, or a COM
mercial disaster, or grave. But, thank
God, it is not q breaking down 1t is
only pause. 1t helps us to appreciate
the blessings that are gone. 1t gives us
higher appreciation of the blessings that
are TO come.
The Selah of Habakkuk and David is
a dividing line between two anthems.
David begins his book with the words,
blessed is the man." and after seventy
four Selahs he closes his book with the
words, Praise ye the Lord" So there
are mercies behind us, and there are
going to be mercies before us. It is good
for us that God halts us in our for
tunes, and halts us with physical dis
tress, and halts us at the graves of our
dead More than once you and have
been halted by such a Selah. You
wrung your hands and said, 81 can't
see any sense in this Providence; can't
see why God gave me that child, if he is
so soon going to take it away Oh, my
desolate homel Oh, my broken hearth
You could not understand it. But it
was not q Selah of overthrow. 1t gave
you greater appreciation of the bless
ings that have gone; it will yet give you
greater appreciation Of the blessings
that will come.
HISTORICAL CITATIONS.
When the Huguenots were being very
much prosecuted in France father and
mother were obliged to fly from the
country, leaving their child in the pos
session of comparative stranger. They
did not know whether they would ever
return, or returning, if they would be
able to recognize their child, for by that
time she might be grown. The mother
was almost frenzied at the thought Of
leaving the child, and then, even if COM
ing back again, not being able to know
her. Before they left the father drew
his sword and he marked the wrist Of
that child with deep cut. 1t must
have been a great exigency to make a
father do that
Years of absence passed on and after
awhile the parents returned, and their
first anxiety was to find their lost child.
They looked up and down the land, ex-
amining the wrists of the young people,
when lo after awhile the father found
u maiden with II scar upon her wrist.
She knew him not, but he knew her.
And oh, the Joy Of the reunionl So it is
now. "Whom the Lord loveth he chas-
teneth." He cutteth, he marketh and
when he comes to claim his own the
Lord will know them that are his; know
them by the scar of their trouble, know
them by the stroke of their desolation
Oh, it is good that the Lord sometimes
halts us. David says, "It is good that
| have been afflicted. Before was
afflicted | went astray, but now have |
kept thy word" Indeed, we must all
soon stop. Scientists have improved
human longevity, but none of them
have proposed to make terrene life per-
petual But tho Gospel makes death
only Selah between two beatitudes-
between dying triumph on the one side
of the grave, and celestial escort ON the
other side of the grave. Going out of
this life, to the unprepared, is a great
horror.
"Give me more laudanum," said dying
Mirabeau; give me moro laudanum,
that / may not think of eternity and
what is TO come" And dying Hobbies
said, 81 leave my body to the grave and
my soul to the great perhaps" 1t was
the discord of an inhdel's life breaking
down into the iargon Of despair; but the
Gospel makes the death of the Christian
a Selah between redemption and en-
thronement. Almost well, said dying
Richard Baxter. "almost we'll" "Play
those notes over again-those notes
which have been so great delight and
solace To me, said the dying Christian
Mozart. "None but Christ, none but
Christ" exclaimed dying Lambert
Richard Cameron, the Scotch cove
nantor, went into the battle three times
praying; Lord spare the green and
take the ripe. This is the day have
longed for, This is the day shall get
my crown, Come, lot us fight il to the
last. Forward SO you see there is
only a short pause, Selah of intermis-
sion, between dying consultations ON the
one side and oyertopping raptures ON the
other.
My flesh shall slumher In the ground
Till tho last trumpets joyful sound;
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise,
And in my Sayiour's image rise.
As AN EMPHATIC WORD.
next speak of the Selah of emphasis,
Ewald, the German orientalist and theo-
logian, says that this word means to as
cendi and wherever you lind it, no says,
you must look after the modulation Of
fha xoica and Won Vnnet mt mora forea