Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-05-26
A TREMENDOUS WORD.
SELAH" THE DIVIDING LINE
OF ANTHEMS.
DIR. Talmage Analyses Word Ere
quentIy Found In the Old Testament
Il VIII Hide Under the Covert of
Thy Wings. Sclah."

DR.. Talmage day took for the subject OF his
sermon single word OF frequent occurrence
in the bible, and whose meaning is but little
understood From it he drew profoundly i'm
pressive description of the varied and majestic
purposes of certain parts Of scripture, and y
practical lesson for christians generally. The
text was Psalms 81 4: "Selah."
Tic majority of bible readers look
upon this word of my text as of no i'm
portancc They considerit superflu-
! ity, a mere filing in, meaningless
| intcrjection. useless refrain, an unde-
| fined echo. Selah! But l have to tell
you that it is no scriptural accident.
1t occurs scventy-four times in the
| Book Of Psalms and three times in the
! Book of HabalilIuk. You must not
charge this perfect book with seventy
| seven trivialities. Selah! 1t is an en-
throncd word. If, according to an old
writer some words are battles, then
this word is Marathon, Thermopyl@,
Sedan, u Waterloo. IL is a word de-
/ risive, sometimes for solemnity, 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
am so often asked what is its mean
ing, 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 bucketfuls. | will speak
to you, so far as ! have time of the Sc
lab of poetic significance, the Selah of
intermission, the Selah of emphasis,
and the Sclah of perpetuity.
Are You surprised that speak of the
Sclah 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 bible without rhythm, without
rcdolcncc, without blank verse. God
knew that eventually the bible would
lie read by a great majority of
young people, for in this world
Of malaria and casualty an octoge-
marian is exceptional, and as thirty years
is more than the average of human life,
| if the bible is to be Il successful book
| it must be adapted to the young. Hence
| Ihc PloSpdy Oh VIC oIoic-Iic W.
of Job, the PASTORAL OF Ruth, the epic
of Judges, the dithyrambic of lIab-
alllluk, the thrcnody of jeremiah,
the lyric of Solomon's Song, the ora
torio of the Apocalypse, the idyl, the
strophe, and antistrophe and the Selah
OF the PsalmS.
Wherever you find this word Sclah,lt
means that you are to rouse up to
! great stanza, that you are to open your
soul to great analogles, that you are to
spread the wing OF your imagination
for great hight. Il answered thee in
the secret place OF thunder: | proved
thee at the waters OF Merlbah' Selah.
| "Ihe earth and all the inhabitants
| thereof are dissolved; | 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
shait compass me about with songs
Of deIiv"rance. HeIah' 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 tod OF Jacob is
| our refuge. Nclah. Thou hast given
a banner to them that fear thee, that 1t
may be displayed because OF the truth.
Selah' Il Will hide under the covert
OF thy wings. SeIah. 80, tod, when
thou Wcntcst forth before thy people,
when thou dld st march through the
wilderness. Selah.'
Wherever You lind TINS word 1T IS Il
signal OF warning hung out to tell you
to stand of the track while the rush
ing train goes by with its imperial
passengers. Poetic word, charged with
sunrise aud sunset, and tempest and
earthquake, and resurrection and
millenniums.
Next | come to speak Of the Selah of
intermission. Gesenius, Tholuck,
/ Hcngstenhcrg, and other writers agree
in saying that this word SClah means
a rest in music; what the Greeks call
diapsalina, pause, a halt in
the solemn march of camilla
ton. Every musician knows the
Importance Of it. If you ever saw
Julien, the great musical leader, stand
before five thousand singers and play
ers upon instruments, and with one
stroke of his baton smite the multitu-
dinous hallelujah into silence, and
then, soon after that, with another
stroke of his baton rouse up the full
orchestra to great outburst of har-
mony, then you know the mighty
effect of a musical pause. 1t gives
more power to what went before; it
gives more power to what is to come
after. SO God 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 number OF
times that we read the bible through
that makes us intelligent in the script.
ures. We must pause. What though
it take an hour for one word? What
though it take week for one verse?