The Red Cloud chief., 1892-06-03

Tho Expression In the Book Of Habakkuk
~ Well ne the Psnlms-An Incentive to
Heroic Christian Escrtion-A skep-
ties Feeble Effort.
Rev. DR.. Talmage took for the subject
Of his sermon ut Brooklyn, N. Y, on
last Sunday a single word OF frequent
occurrence in the Bible, and whose
meaning Is but little understood. From
IL ne drew n profoundly impressive de-
scription Of the varied and majestic
purposes Of certain parts Of Scripture
and n practical lesson for Christians
generally. Tho text was Psalm Xxi. 4:
'Selah."
The majority of Bible readers look
upon this word Of my text as Of no i'm
portance. They consider it a superfluity,
y meaningless interjection, a useless re-
frain, IN underlined echo. Selah! But
I have to tell you that II is no
Scriptural accident. It 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 sevcnty-seven trivialities. Selah!
1t Is an enthroned word. II, according
to an old writer, some words are battles,
then this word Is a Marathon, u Their
mopyln, n Sedan, a Waterloo. 1t is n
word decisive, sometimes for poetic
beauty, sometimes for solemnity, some
times for grandeur and sometimes for
eternal import Through IL roll the
laundering chariots Of the omnipotent
God.
I take this word for my text because
nm so often asked what Is its mean
Ing, or whether it has any meaning Mt
all. 1t has an ocean of meaning, from
which I shall this morning dip up only
four or five bucketfuls. / will speak to
you, so far as I have time, Of the Sclah
OF poetic Significance, the Selah of inter-
mission, the Selah Of emphasis, and the
Selah Of ~perpetuity.
Arc You surprised that I speak Of the
Sclah of poetic significance? Surely the
God who sapphired the heavens and
made the earth n rosebud of beauty,
with oceans hanging to it like drops Of
morning dow would not make a Bible
without rhythm, without redolencc,
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. IL the
Bible Is TO be a successful book IL must
be adapted to the young. Hence the
prosody Of the Biblc-the drama of Job,
the pastoral of Ruth, the epic of Judges,
tho dithyrambic Of lIabakkuk, the
%threnody Of Jeremiah, the lyric of Solo,
mons Song, the oratorio Of the Apoc-
alypse, the idyl, the strophe, and anti
strophe and the Selah Of the Psalms
Wherever you find this word Sclah 1t
means that You are to rouse up TO a
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. II answer thee in the
secret place of thunder: l proved thee
at the waters Of Meribah. Selah."
"The earth and all the inhabitants
thereof arc dissolved; I bear up the
pillars of H. Selah." ''Who Is this
king Of glory? The Lord Of Hosts, lie
is the king Of glory. Selah." Thou
shalt compass me about with songs Of de-
l~iverance. Selah." Though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled, though
the mountains shake with the swelling
thereof. Sclah." ''The Lord of Hosts
Is with us, the God of Jacob Is our
refuge. Selah." ''Thou hast given n
banner to them that fear Thee, that II
may be displayed because Of the truth.
Selah." II will hide under the covert
Of Thy wings. Selah." 80 God, when
Thou wentest forth before Thy people,
when Thou did'st march through the
wilderness. Selah."
Next come to speak Of the Sclah OF
lntermissior. Gesenius, Tholuck, Heng-
stenberg and other writer's agree in
laying that this word Sclah means a
hcst in music; what the Greeks call a
dfapsalma, o pause, u halt In the solemn
march Of cahtillation. Every musician
knows the Importance of 1t. II you
ever saw Julien, the great musical
leader, stand before 5000 singers and
players upon Instruments, and with
one stroke Of his baton smite the multi
tudinous hallelujah into silence, and
then, o o after that, with another
stroke OF his baton rouse up the full
orchestra to a great outburst of harmo-
ny, then you know the mighty effect Of n
musical pause. 1t gives more power to
what went before; IL gives more power
To what Is to come after. So God
thrust the Selah into this Bible and into
n lives, compelling us to stop and
think, stop and consider, stop and ad.
mire, 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 MS intel
ligent in the Scriptures. We must
pause. What though it takes an hour
for one word? What though it takes a
week for one verse? What though II
takes n year to one chapter? We must
pause and measure the height, the
depth, the length, the breadth, the uni
verse, the eternity of meaning in ont
verse. l should like to see someone sal
around one little adverb in the Bible,
u little advcrb OF two letters,
during one lifctime-the word
so" in the New Testament passage