Associations with the Land Beyond
2 Samuel 12:23
But now he is dead, why should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.


On a narrow, rugged ledge of rock, called Chicken Rock, a lighthouse has been built. But in consequence of the lack of space there is no accommodation for other than the actual keepers themselves. Their wives and families have therefore to live in cottages on the mainland, separated from the lighthouse. But these people have a pretty custom by which the fathers and children keep in touch with one another. On Sunday mornings, after they have dressed the little ones all in their best, the mothers take them down to the edge of the sea, and they all stand there, looking and waving towards the lighthouse out on the rock. And there high up in the lighthouse stand the fathers, and through their telescopes they look down to the little bay oil those whom they love dearest in all the world. And as I read this story, I thought how it was a picture of those who, doing their duty from day to day, look through the telescope of faith to that pleasant shore where their loved ones have gone before, and go bravely on with their work till the time when they not only see them, but will be with them.

(Alexander Smellie.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

WEB: But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."




A Father's Thought Over His Child's Grave
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