"I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."--_2 Samuel 12:23._
KING David had a little son, a baby, whom he loved very much; and this
child fell sick. While it was sick King David grieved for it, and
prayed that it might be made well. But it was not God's will to make
the little boy well, and he died. And then David was patient, and knew
it was God's will; and he said, "I shall go to him, but he shall not
return to me."
For David meant that one day he should die, and then his soul would
go to be with his little son's soul in the happy place of rest; and
by-and-by their bodies will rise again out of their graves, and be
joined to their souls again, and live for ever and ever.
King David used to sing the Psalms to praise God; indeed, he first made
most of them; and in one he says, "My flesh also shall rest in hope."
That was, the hope that he should rise again from the dead, and always
live in God's holy home in heaven. Heaven is the happy place where we
all hope to meet and live by-and-by, and that is the comfort that good
Christians have when death takes away friends whom they love.