SECOND READING.
"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.
QUESTIONS.
1. What was David's sorrow? 2. What did he do when his little boy was ill? 3. Did the little boy get better? 4. What became of him? 5. How did David bear his death? 6. What did he say? 7. Where did he hope to go to his little son? 8. When would his soul go to his child's soul? 9. When will their bodies rise? 10. What does David say of his flesh? 11. What is his flesh? 12. What hope does he rest in? 13. When will our flesh rest? 14. What do we hope to do? 15. Where in the Belief do you say we hope to rise from the dead? 16. What people will be happy then? 17. What are David's songs called?