WHEN the children of Israel begged of Samuel that he would give them a king to reign over them, they gave as their reason for such a desire, "That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." Samuel warned them that if they insisted upon this they would eventually find themselves the servants of this king and that all they owned would become his property.
Ever since there has been a belief in a selfhood separated from God, there has been a frequent cry for a king. With a belief in the necessity for material thought-planning, mortals have had the desire to find some one to work out their problems, to fight their battles for them. Feeling their own incompetency and loath to take upon themselves any effort which would involve activity, there has been a reaching out for some one upon whom all responsibility might be placed and who might provide a ready way out of all difficulties. On the other hand, this has of course implied the necessity of sweeping to the other extreme, in that some one must be found willing to assume the role of king. Thus by attempting to govern and be governed by each other, mortals have forged their own chains and induced their own bondage and have found disappointment ever attending their efforts.
This seeking for a human king has seemed to produce two sorts of thinkers,—those who wanted others to think for them and those who have believed they could do the thinking for all men. When it is understood that such thinking is all from the basis of fallible human opinions and desires, it may be readily seen that nothing satisfactory or stable could result. More than this, the mistaken sense of kingship is associated with the belief that it is a fine thing to rule and—behold! a world, in which every man desires to be a king, since he imagines that thereby he may govern not only himself but every other man! All this has come about from the standpoint of minds many, and therefore has expressed concepts many, purposes many, wills many. These have been for the most part contradictory and antagonistic, and in consequence there have followed a mass of strange misconceptions and multiplied dissensions.
