The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-06-03
-SELAH SIGNIFICANCE.
DR.. Talmage Dlscourses on Pecu-
Liar Exclamation.
Ehe Expression In the Book of Habakkuk
as Well as the Psalms-An Incentive to
Heroic Christian Exertion-A Skep-
tics Feeble Effort.

last Sunday single worn u lFSluchS
occurrence in the Bible, and whose
meaning is but little understood From
1t he drew a profoundly impressive de-
.scription of the varied and majestic
purposes of certain parts of Scripture
and a practical lesson for Christians
generally. The text was Psalm Xxi. 4:
F'Selah"
The majority of Bible readers look
upon this word Of my text as of no i'm
portance. They consider it a superiority,
a meaningless interjection, q useless re-
fra;n. an underlined echo Selahl But
1 have to tell you that it is no
Scriptural accident. 1t occurs seven
-ty-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 Selahl
1t is an enthroned word. Ii, according
to an old writer, some words are battles,
then this word is a Marathon, Their
sy1cpylgc, 4 Sedan, Waterloo 1t is
word decisive, sometimes for poetic
beauty. sometimes for soiemnity, some
times 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 an so often asked what is its mean
ing, or whether it has any meaning at
all It has an ocean of meaning, from
which I shall this morning dip up only
-Four or five bucketfuls- l will speak to
you, 50 far as have time, of the Selah
OF poetic significance, the Selah of inter
EMISSION. the Selah of 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 a rosebud of beauty,
with oceans ha aging 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 ma
laria 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
aDe adapted to the young. Hence the
'prosody of the Bible-the drama of job,
the pastoral of Ruth, the epic of Judges,
the dithyrambic of Habakkulx, the
threnody of jeremiah, the lyric of Solo
mons Song. the oratorio of the Apoc-
-alypsc, the idyl, the strophe, and anti.
,st-ophe and the Selah of the Psalms
Wherever you find this word Selah it
means that you are to rouse Up to a
great stanza, that you are 20 open your
soul to great analogies, that you are to
spread the wing of your imagination
for great flight y answer 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 Selah-" ''Who is this
king OF glory? The Lord of Hosts, He
is the king of glory. Selah." Thou
shalt compass me about with songs ofGe-
liverance. Selah.- Though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled, though
the mountains shake with the swelling
thereof. Selah.'' The Lord OF Hosts
is with US. the God OF Jacob is our
refuge. Selah." Thou hast given
banner % them that fear Thee, that il
nay oe displayed because of the truth
Seiah." Il will hide under the covert
of Thy wings Selah." 20 God, when
Thou wentest forth before Thy people,
when Thou did'st march through the
Wilderness Selah-s
Next come to speak of the Selah of
irtermission. GeseniuS, ThOlucl. HcnG-
stenberC and other writer's agree in
saving Tat this word Sclah means n
rest in music; what the Greeks call q
diapsalma, a pause, halt in the solemn
march of cantillation Every musician
l.nowr the Importance OF it If YOU
ever saw Julien, the great musical
leader, stand before 5000 singers and
players upon instruments, and with
one stroke of his baton smitc the multi
tudinons hallelujlh into silence, and
then, soon after that with another
stroke of his baton rouse up the full
orchestra to a great out5urst of har,no-
ny, then You know the mighty effect Of a
musical pause. II gives more power to
what went before; 1t gives more power
to what is to come after. SO God
thrust the Selah into this Bible and into
our lives, compelling Us to stop and
think, stop and consider, stop and ad-
miro, 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 US intel
igeut in the Scriptures We must
pause. What though it takes an hour
for one word? What though i takes a
week for one verse? What though il
takes year to one chap%e-? 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 20 see someone sail
around one little adverb in the Dible,
a little adverb of two letters
during one lifetime-thn word
$50 in the New Testament passage,
"God so loved the world Augustine
made long pause after the verse: Put
We on the Lotd Jesus Christ" and il
converted him Matthew Henry made
e long pause sitter the verse; open thou
my lips and my mouth shall show forth
thy praise and 1t converted him VIII
liam Cowpcr made a long pause after
the verse: Being freely justified by His
grace and it converted him When
COD tell us seventy-seven times medi
tatiDely 70 pause in reading two Of the
books of the Bible, he leaves TO our
common sense to decide how often we
should pause in reading the other sixty
four books of she Bible
The Selah of Habskkuk and David is
q dividing line between the twc
anthems David begins his book with
the words: Blessed rs the man. and
after seventy-four Selahs, closes hi,
book with the words: Praise We the