2 Chronicles 14:1-5 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

Rest on every side.

It is significant enough that the Chronicler considered it a noteworthy fact that "in his days the land was quiet ten years." It indicates very forcibly that the chronic condition of the country in those times was one of unsettlement and strife. We should think it strange, indeed, if the historian of our country thought it worth while to record that for ten years the sovereign "had no war" ( 2 Chronicles 14:6 ). But it is painful to think that for very many centuries, in many lands, if not in all, war was regarded as the normal condition; an attitude of armed hostility toward the neighbouring nation was considered the necessary and natural relation. History then was not the account of discovery, of invention, of achievement, of advance; it was the story of international or civil war. This was the rule which, we may thank God, is now the exception, and which, we devoutly hope, will soon be obsolete. But for ten years the land "was quiet;" it had "rest on every side." We may glance at—

I. THE NATIONAL ASPECT OF THE SUBJECT . A nation has "rest on every side" when it

To obtain and to preserve such a desirable condition, there need to be

II. THE INDIVIDUAL ASPECT OF IT . HOW shall we have "rest on every side"?

1 . Not by securing outward and temporal success. A man may clasp the goal of honour, or of wealth, or of affection, and may think himself possessor of complete and lasting rest, and he may awake any morning to find that all his pleasant conditions are disturbed, and that the prize of peace is snatched ruthlessly from his brow. The heavens may be cloudless and the sun be shining in its full light and warmth to-day; but to-morrow those heavens may be draped in gloom, and the rain may be pelting pitilessly upon us. Not that way lies "rest on every side."

2 . Nor by going down into the grave. The "rest of the grave" is only a false poetical metaphor. That is not rest which excludes all present consciousness and provides no refreshment and invigoration for the future. The darkness of death which the despairing suicide seeks and finds is not rest at all; it is entirely undeserving of the name; the word is a complete misnomer as thus applied. It is not rest on any side; it is defeat; it is loss; iris destruction.

3 . It is found in holy, filial service; in the happy, honourable, rightful service of a Divine Redeemer. There is