August 20

"David, My servant, may have a lamp alway before Me in Jerusalem."—I KINGS xi. 36 (R.V.).

So David lived after he was dead. Death was powerless to end his history and to blot out his name.

He survived in the work for God which he achieved. It was not wholly overturned. It had its fruitage and harvest. And my work for my Lord, if only it is faithfully discharged, cannot be fulfilled in vain. Even if it is far from being resplendent like David's, it will leave my generation better than I found it.

He survived in the example which he set. With all his errors and failures, he was a man of faith, of fearlessness, of prayer, of thanksgiving and praise. If these traits are found in me, these fruits of God's own presence, then others will say, when I am gone, "He lives still amongst us; he is not dead; he speaks to us who come after him."

He survived in the Saviour whose human ancestor he was. Jesus was David's Son. Jesus was born of the house and lineage of David. And would that by God's grace I may so live and speak and toil, that many shall see the intimacy of my connection with Christ, and shall remember me as one who diffused my Master's perfume and reflected His glory!

He survived in the love of God which he enjoyed. That love did not end when David's earthly life was past. It went with him through death. It brought him into the Palace of the King on the other side. It enriches and crowns him still. And mine, if I am Christ's by faith and by obedience, will be the love of the Father and the Son and the Spirit to all eternity.

He that believeth in Me, said Jesus, shall never die.