Beryl's Triumph by Eglanton Thorne

BERYL had to wait for some minutes before she could speak to the stranger, whose words had so interested her.

The gentleman was not unaware of the little figure waiting patiently beside him; but many persons were just then claiming his attention, and he thought it best not to speak to the child till he was at leisure to hear all that she might have to say. One by one the strange congregation dispersed, and, having said the last good-bye, he turned to meet Beryl's upturned glance.

"Well, my dear," he said, noting with pleasure the pretty flushed face and soft blue eyes of the child; "I saw you listening to me just now. What is your name, if you do not mind telling me?"

"Beryl Hollys. We live at Egloshayle House. I dare say you know my papa," said Beryl, displaying some consciousness of her own importance.

"Yes, I have heard of your father since I have been at Egloshayle," the stranger replied. "So your name is Beryl-a precious stone. Well, my child, you must make your name good. You must be a precious stone in the living temple. I heard you say you were willing to be a child of the kingdom."

"Yes, if I can be; but I do not know how," said Beryl.

"No one can more easily enter the kingdom, my child. The kingdom is yours. Don't you remember that Jesus said, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven'? You have only to come to Jesus."

Beryl knew the words well. Lucy had taught them to her when she was a little girl; but now they seemed to her quite new, as their meaning suddenly flashed upon her mind.

"But how can I come? " she said.

"My child, you can come to Jesus at any moment. He is ever near you. He loves you even better than your father does. You can lift your heart to Him, and tell Him you will be His."

"But," said Beryl, with a touch of impatience in her tone, "there are so many things I want to know, and I have no one to tell me. I want to know what the resurrection means. I asked papa, but he only said I should understand when I was older. But I want to understand now."

The gentleman looked at her in surprise.

"What set you thinking about the resurrection, my dear? " he asked.

"It is on mamma's grave," said Beryl, "I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."

"Ah, to be sure," he replied, "I remember seeing those words in the churchyard. And that was your mother's grave, my little friend? You want to know what that long word resurrection means?"

"Yes; will you tell me? " asked Beryl eagerly, sure that he could tell her, if only he would.

The gentleman was silent for a minute, thinking how he could put in simplest words what he knew of the great mystery of the resurrection.

"Beryl," he said gently, "do you know that Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die'?"

"Yes," said Beryl, "I know; I found those words in the Bible."

"Well, my child, that word resurrection means life from the dead, a returning from the grave, as it were."