a different way from that by which he came. He started to obey, but sat
down to rest by the wayside. While he was here, another prophet came and
persuaded him to go back and dine with him. Then, as he went upon his way,
a lion met him and slew him.

The lions of these stories may be likened to our trials. We meet trials
every now and then in life, and some of them seem very much like lions.
They seem very threatening and very dangerous. Sometimes we try to run
away from a trial, but as surely as we do, we meet another in the pathway
in which we go. We are certain to have trials. The important thing is that
we meet them properly. Some people imagine that if they live as they
should they ought not to have trials. But trials often come when it is no
fault of ours. Daniel was not thrown into the lions' den because he had
not lived right or because he had been unfaithful in something. No; it was
his faithfulness that resulted in his meeting the lions. It will be that
way in our lives. If we are true and loyal to God, that very loyalty is
sure to bring us trials sometimes. Daniel had his choice in the matter. He
could have been disloyal and escaped the lions, but he chose rather to be
loyal and take the full consequences, whatever they might be. God wants
you and me to dare to be Daniels too. He does not want us to swerve an
inch from the truth in order to evade any sort of trial. If we are true,
and as a result of that trueness a great trial like being thrown into a
den of lions comes upon us, and every earthly hope seems shut off, and
there is no help from anywhere, what shall we do? Despair? Ah, no. God
will send his angel and shut the lion's mouth for us, just as he did for
Daniel. Dare to be true. God will stand by you even in the most trying and
desperate hour.

It was not a test of his standing true that brought Samson face to face
with the lion. He met the beast just by accident. He got into the trouble
unwittingly. He had no expectation of it whatever, but the first thing he
knew, he was face to face with it. That is just the way it happens with us
sometimes: we get into a trial without any seeming reason for it; we are
not expecting anything of the kind.

If the prophet in Samaria had gone in the way that God commanded him, he
would not have met the lion that slew him. It was his disobedience that
caused the trouble. Sometimes when we are in trials, we realize that it is
our own fault that we are tried. Sometimes w