The man of thoughtful mind and contrite heart cannot fail to find inexpressible comfort and profound cause for devout thanksgiving and praise through contemplating God's infinite mercy in having made so simple and easy these indispensable conditions of salvation. Had the terms been such as only vast wealth could meet, or the requirements so intricate or strenuous that great physical strength or high intellectual ability were necessary to accomplish the feat of compliance, then indeed the mortal or fallen state of the race would be deplorable beyond conception; and, withal, justice would be eliminated from the category of Deity's attributes. But lo! The Gospel plan is so simple that the child may comprehend, and he that runs may read. -- 90 -- THE WILL OF GOD Though Opposed, Yet Eventually Supreme DO you believe that "whatever is is right"? I do not; I cannot believe it. If right means accordance with the will of God surely there is much wrong in the world. But, it is argued, God is omnipotent, and therefore has power to direct all things as He wills. Granted. Nevertheless both scriptural and secular history, as also the turbulent course of current events combine to show that transgression of Divine law is as old as the race, and as persistent. God has given to man agency and liberty of action. It is the will of God that this birthright of human freedom shall be inviolate; but it is contrary to the Divine intent that man shall abuse his agency, and misconstrue his liberty as license for wrong-doing. And as with the individual, so with communities and nations. In the course of Israel's troubled journey from Egypt, where they had dwelt as in a "hours of bondage," to Canaan the land of their promised inheritance, the Lord gave them many laws and established ordinances, with promise of blessing for compliance, and warning of calamity if they proved disobedient. As the sacred record progresses, the fact is made plain that Israel had chosen the evil alternative, forfeiting the blessings and reaping the curses. In the days of Samuel the Israelites clamored for a king. They were tired of the theo-democracy under which they had prospered, and wanted to be "like all nations," a monarchy, with a king wearing a crown, swaying a scepter, and sitting enthroned in state. Read 1 Samuel, chapter 8. This condition had been foreseen and foretold: nevertheless the people erred in their demand, and the Lord yielded under protest. There is real pathos in His words to the prophet: "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." They had their king, and a long succession of monarchs, some of whom proved to be veritable tyrants, and the people groaned under the oppression against which they had been forewarned.