The Bossier banner., 1892-07-28
A SINGLE WORD
Furnishes Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage
with q Text.
Frequent Exclamation OF the Psalniist
and It's Significance. POLITICALLY
Speaking AID as p Sign of
Emphasis, Etc.

IN looking up a subject for sermon
recently Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage hit
upon the word ''Selah,' so frequently
used by the Psalmist David, on which!
to discourse. His text wass
Selah.-Psalms lix., l.
The majority of Bible readers look
upon this word of my text as of no i'm
portance. They consider it a superfiui-
ty, mere filling in, a meaningless in
terjection, 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
trivialities. Selah! 1t is an enthroned
word. If, according to an old writer,
some words are battles, then this word
is Marathon, a Thermobylm, a Sedan,
a Waterloo. It is a word decisive,
sometimes for poetic beauty, sometimes
for solemnity, sometimes for grandeur,
and sometimes for eternal import.
Through it roll the laundering chariots
of the Omnipotent God,
take this word for my text because
I am so often asked what is it's mean
ing, or whether it has any meaning at
all. 1t has an ocean of meaning, from
which 1 shall this morning dip up only
four or five bucketfuls. l will speak to
you, SO far as have time, of the Selah
of poetic significance, the Selah of in
termission, the Selah emphasis and the
Selah of perpetuity.
Are you surprised that speak of the
Selah of poetic significance? Surely
the God 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 redolenee,
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, if 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, the pastoral
of Ruth, the epic of Judges, the dithy-
rambic of Habakkuk, the threnody OF
jeremiah, the lyric of Solomon's song,
the oratorio of Apocalypse, the idyl
the strophe and antistrophe, and the
Selnh of the Psalms.
Wherever you find this word Seleh,
it means that you are to rouse up tc
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 Meribah. Selah.
'The earth and all the inhabitant.
thereof are dissolved; bear up the pill
lars of it. Selah." "Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the
King of glory. Selah." Thou shall
compass me about with songs of deliv
erance. Selah." Though the water
thereof roar and be troubled, though
the mountains shake with the swellins
thereof. Selah.' THE Lord of host
is with us, the God of Jacob is our re
fuge. Selah." "Thou hast given :
banner to them that fear Thee, that i
may be displayed because of the truth
Selah." 81 will hide under the cover
of Thy wings Selah." SO, God, whe1
Thou wentest forth before Thy people
when Thou didst march through tn
wilderness. Selah.'
Wherever you find this word it is
signal of warning hung out to tell yo
to stand off the track while the rush
ing train goes by with it's imperial pas
sengers. Poetic word, charged wit
sunrise and sunset, and tempest an
earthquake, and resurrections and mi
lenniums.
Next l come to speak of the Seah G
intermission. Gesenius, Tholucl
Hengstenberg and other writer's agre
in saying that this word Selah means
rest in music-what the Greeks call
diapsalma, a pause, a halt in the so
emn march of cantillation. Every mt
sician knows the Importance of it. ]
you ever saw Julien, the great musica
leader, stand before five thousan
singers and players upon instrument.
and with one stroke of his baton smit
the multitudinous hallelujah into 81
lence, and then, soon after that. wit
another stroke of his baton rouse n
the full orchestra to a great outburs
of harmony, them you know the might
effect of a musical pause. 1t give
more power to what went before: i
gives more power to what is to com
after. So God thrusts the Selah int
His Bible and into our lives, compellin,
us to stop and think, stop and consider
stop and admire. stop and pray, sto
and repent, stop and be sick, stop an
die. 1t is not the great number q
times that we read the Bible throug
that makes us intelligent in the Scri,
lures We must pause. What thong
it take an hour for one word
What though it take week fo
one verse? What though it take
year for one chapter? We must paus
and measure the height, the depth, tn
length, the breadth, the universe, th
eternity of meaning in one verse.
should like to see some one sail aroun
one little adverb in the Bible, a littl
adverb of two letters, during one life
time-the word 80 in the New Tests
ment passage, God so loved tn
world" Augustine made longe paus
after the verse, Put ye on the Lor