The people said to Samuel, Who is he who said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death.
 Now, in looking at this chapter, nothing can be more striking than the manner in which God causes everything to further His own end. Man had expressed his guilty will. A trial is about to be made. God after due warning does not put difficulties in the way, but helps in every conceivable manner, that the trial of man's chosen king should have every advantage. Can anything of this sort be a more wholesome lesson for us, my brethren, let me observe, than this very principle on God's part? How often, when disapproving of a measure, are we not apt to try and counteract it in every possible way? We are unwise thus to press our wishes or judgments; and we show further how little faith we have in God's own will about it; for, if simply confident in His will, we may rest assured that He knows best how to reduce others to subjection, and carry out all to His glory. I am not supposing it to be a question of our own duty, but where others are in question. Possibly too we may ourselves be mistaken through one cause or another. But even granting that we have the certainty that we are not, we may but provoke the more where it belongs to others to act, and too keen an opposition might precipitate what we most desire to see averted. But it is best in any case to cultivate calm confidence in God. And if others will push a wrong measure, let it be allowed all opportunity, and its true character will only the sooner and the more plainly be shown out. On every ground therefore, as those having faith in God, and desiring not our own will, our wisdom is that we should commit things much more simply to God than we are apt to do.
