The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-05-24


decide how often we should pause IN
reading the other sixty-four books OF the
Bible.
GOD CALLS A HALT.
Wenust pause and ask for more light
We must pause and weep over our sins.
We must pause and absorb the strength
Of one promise. l sometimes hear peo-
pie Boosting about how many times they
have read the Bible through, when they
seem to know no more about 1t than
passenger would know about the state
Of Pennsylvania who should go through
it III a ST. Louis lightning express tram
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 tiIues the Bible 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 a 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 a sickbed, or COM
mercial disaster. or a grave. But. thank
God. it is not a 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 SeIah of Habakkuk and David is
ii 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 we the Lord" So there
are mercies behind US, and there are
going to be mercies before US. 1t 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
wr-ung your hands and said, Il 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
desoIate home! Oh, my broken hearth
You could not understand it. But it
was not a 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 a 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 d 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 10. after awhile the father found
a maiden with a scar upon her wrist.
She knew him not, but he knew her.
And Oh, the JOY of the reunion! 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. il is good that the Lord sometimes
halts us. David says, 1T is good that
| Eave been afflicted. Before l was
afiicted went astray, but now have
kept thy word" Indeed. we must al
soon stop Scientists have improved
human longevity, but none of them
have proposed to make terrene life per
petual But the Gospel makes death
only a 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 more laudanum
that | may not think of eternity arC
| what is to come" And dying Hobbies
said, II leave my body to the grave and
my soul to the great perhaps" 1t was
| the discord of an infidel's life breaking
4
down into the jargon of despair; but the
! Gospel makes the death of the Christian
Selah between redemption and en-
! thronement Almost well, said dying
Richard Baxter. almost we'll" play
| those notes over again-those note:
which have been so great delight anC
solace to me-" said the dying Christian
Mozart None but Christ, none bu
Christ" exclaimed dying Lambert.
Richard Cameron, the Scotch cove
nanter, went into the battle three time!
praying: Lord, spare the green ant
take the ripe. This rs the day | have
longed for. This is the day shall ge
my crown. Come. let us fight it to the
last Forwardl'' So you see there i
only short pause, a Selah of interlnis
sion, between dying consultations on thu
one side and overlapping raptures on thu
other.
| NV flesh shall slumber in the ground
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound
| Then burst the chains with sweet surprise
49, -, RI.