The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 71

inheritance from him. Even that which may, at first sight, seem to disconnect it from him, viz. the element of national courage, energy, industry, struggle, suffering,-this also is " of the Lord." III. NATIONAL Acn'IVITY. Solomon prayed (ver. 84) that, when God's people" went out to war," their prayers for victory might be heard, and that God would "maintain their co.use." He could offer this supplication with a perfectly clear conscience. Neither .ss a spirit. nor as e. sentiment, much less as a religious conviction, had pooce entered mto the minds of men as it has now. He had not been born who came to be the Prince of peace, and whose advent was to be the beginning of the era. of" peace on earth.'' War was then regarded as a rightful, honourable, commendable activity-a. field of enterprise and capacity which soy one might desire to enter. There may still be found a place for it, as a sad and deplorable necessity. Under the sway of Jesus Christ, it can hold no larger or higher position among national activities than that. But a.s it was right that prayer should be offered for God's blessing on national wars, more certainly is it right that his Divine blessing should be continually sought on all peaceful industries; that is to say, on all those peaceful industries which make for the comfort, the enrichment, the well-being of the world. There are activities on which the pure or kind heart must shrink from invoking the blessing of God. And what we cannot conscientiously ask him to bless we should refuse to promote or to entertain. Surely, however, it is a very large part of national piety that prayer should be made continually, in the church and in the home, that, in every path of honourable and esti- mable industry, the people of the land may walk before God, and fulfil in this respect his holy will; that they may also receive his sanction and his blessing. IV. NATIONAL MISFORTUNE. (Vers. 24, 26-28.) Solomon anticipates the hour of national misfortune--defeat in battle, drought, pestilence, locusts, etc. He regards this conceivable calamity as the consequence of national sin and the sign of Divine dis- pleasure (vers. 24, 26), "because they have sinned against thee," and he prays for mercy and for the removal of the stroke of penalty. It is a. question of great impor- tance whether this view is to be taken under all circumstances whatever. We must remember that the way in which the favour of God was manifested in Old Testament times was the way of temporal prosperity, and (conversely) the form of Divine dis- approval was that of temporal adversity. But we are living in a period when the spiritual and the future are the prevailing elements; and what was a certain conclusion then may be only a possibility or a probability now. 1. It may be true that national calamity speaks of national delinquency, and calls for national repentance. It is not only possible, but even probable, that this is the case. For national sin is commonly show- ing itself in guilty indulgence, and that leads to weakness, to exposure to the enemy, to misfortune of many kinds. 2. It may be that national calamity is Divine discipline. It is quite possible that God is testing, is purifying, is refining the nation as he does the individual, is intervening to save it from sin and shame, is working thus for its moral elevation and enlargement. And therefore it may be that the question to be asked is-What have we to learn? what is the peril to be shunned? which is the way God desires should be taken ?-C. Vers. 29-31.-God and the individual soul. Not only during the time of national calamity (ver. 28), though especially then, do families and individual men find them- selves in sore need of Divine succour. There is never any considerable congregation which does not include at least a. few hearts that come up in hope of comfort and relief from Heaven. I. THE BURDEN wmcH IS BORNE BY EACH HUMAN HEART. With our complex nature, and our many human relationships, we lie open to many ills and sorrows. 'fhese may be : 1. Bodily; pain or weakness, or threatened serious disease. 2. Tem- poral; some difficulty or danger connected with "our circumstances." 3. Sympathetic; some trouble of heart we are suffering by reason of our strong attachment to others who suffer and are in distress. 4. Spiritual ; heart-ache, disappointment, compunction, doubt, anxious inquiry after God. "Every one knows his own sore and his O'WD grief." II. THE APPEAL OF THE souL TO THE SUPREME. Trouble does lead men to the God of their life, to the Father of their spirit. "Men say, 'God be pitiful,' who ne'er 72 THE SECOND BOOK OF TRE CIIRONICLES. [oa. vt. 1-42,