Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-05-26
A TREMENDOUS WORD
POWER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
SINGLE WORD "seLAH."

tural Accident. as minimizing People
suppose-Through 1t II oil the Thunder
ing Chariots of the Omnipotent God.
BROOKLYN, May 22.--Rev DR.. Talmage
today took for the subject of his sermon
single word of frequent occurrence in the
Bible and whose meaning is but little I'M
derstood. From it he drew profoundly
impressive description of the varied and
Majestic purposes Of certain parts of Scrip
ture and practical lesson for Christians
generally. The text was Psalms Xxi, 4,
"Selah."
The majority of Bible readers look upon
this word of my text rs of no Importance.
They consider it n superiority, mere fill
ing in, IL meaningless interjection, a use
less refrain, an underlined echo Selah!
But | have to tell you that it is no Scrip
tural 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
scventy-scven triviaities. Selah! 1t is an
enthroned word. If, according to an old
writer, some words are battles, then this
word is Marathon, a Thermopyle,
Sedan. II Waterloo 1t is a word decisive;
sometimes for poetic beauty, sometimes
for solcmnity, sometimes for grandeur and
sometimes for eternal import. Through it
roll the laundering chariots of the Omnip-
otent God.
] take this word for my text because
nm so often asked what is its meaning or
whether it has any meaning at all. 1t has
an ocean of meaning, from which l shall
this morning dip up only four or five
buckctfuls will speak to you, so far as
| nave time, Of the Selah of poetic sig
n.licance, the Selah of intermisson, the
eeah of emphasis and the Seah of per
pctuitF.
Are you surprised that | speak of the
Seah of poetic significance? Surely the
God who sapphired the heavens and made
the cart h a rosebud of beauty, with oceans
hanging 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
lie read by great ma jOrty OF young peo-
pie. for in this world of malaria and cas-
uaity an octogenarian is exceptional, and
rs thirty years is more than the average of
human life, if the Bible is to be a success
full book it must be adapted to tire young.
Hence the prosody Of the Bibe-the drama
of job, the pastoral of Ruth, the epic of
Judges, the dithyrambic of Habakkuk
the thrcnody of jeremiah, the lyric of
Solomon's song the oratorio of the Apoc-
Rlypse, the idyl, the strophe, and anti
strophe and the Selah of the Psalms.
IT'S sUGGEsTIvENEss.
Wherever YOU find this word Selah it
means that You are to rouse up to great
stanla, that YOU are to opsn your soul to
great an0losies, that you are to spread the
wing of Your imagination for great flight.
.lt,. 4rs.I l,.n in, h,a .F
thunder. | proved thee at the waters of
Mcribah. Selah." The earth and all the
inhabitants thereof are dissolveI,> | 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 of deliver
ance. Sclah, ~ Though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the noun
tains shake with the swelling thereof
Sclah" The Lord of hosts is with us
the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah. y
Thou hast given banner to them that
fcar thee that il may be displayed because
Of the truth, Selah.' Il will hide under
the covert of thy wings. Selah." 80,
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 he track while the rushing train
goes by with its imperial passengers Poetic
word, charged with sunrise and sunset, and
tempest and earthquake, and restrictions
md millcnniums.
Next | come to speak of the Selah of in
Permission. Gesenus, Thouck, Hengstcn-
berg and other writers agree in saying that
this word Selah means a rest in music; what
I, COLL Ito, l,1t
II the solemn march Of cantillation.
THE sI.LAH OF INTERMIssIoN.
Every musician knows the importance of
It. If you ever saw julien, the great mu-
steal leader, stand before five thousand
singers and players upon instruments, and
with one stroke of his baton smitc the null
titudiuous halielu jah into silence, and then,
soon after that. with another stroke of his
baton rouse up the full orchestra to Il great
OUtbUrst 81 harmony, then you know the
mighty effect of musical pause. 1t gives
more power to what went before; it gives
more power to what is to come after. So
liod thrusts the Selah into his Bible and
into our lives compelling us to stop and
think, stop and consider stop and admire,
stop and pray, stop and repent, stop and be
sick, stop and die. 1t is not the great num-
Der Of times that we read the Bible through
that makes us intelligent in the Scriptures.
We must pause. What though it take an
hour for one word? What though it take a
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 eter-
nifty of meaning in one verse.
| should like to see some one sail around
one little advcrb in the Bible, little ad-
j, ,,Ft l.tt