Rev. Mr. Funcke relates how he on a certain occasion called upon Dr. Kögel in Berlin--a man who was paralyzed and unable to move. He pitied Dr. Kögel--regretted that this man, formerly so stately and erect, should sit thus crouching, but Dr. Kögel said: "Rejoice with me--God hath forgiven all my sins!" In a cemetery in Southern Germany there are two tombstones with strange inscriptions; one reads: _Forgiven!_ and the other, _In Vain!_ Beneath the former rests the dust of a woman who through her extraordinary beauty fascinated a number of admirers. They seduced her, made her run away from her husband and children, and when once she had entered the life of immorality, she went swiftly down the grade. She developed into a criminal and was imprisoned. In the penitentiary she came home by herself, and here Jesus found her. When she left the institution, she went back to her husband and children and proved a blessing to her home; as a humble, Christian woman she did not spare herself for the sake of those whom she loved. But when death drew near, she asked them to inscribe upon her tombstone that one word, Forgiven! This word was a world to her, was everything. Her sin forgiven by God, forgiven by mankind. Yes, when _everything is forgiven_ we can rejoice at being home by ourselves. But we need still one thing more before our joy is perfect. We want to be told _that we have not lived in vain_. Zacchæus knows how to appreciate salvation. In proof of his gratitude he gives half of his goods to the poor. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Formerly he had felt a certain joy whenever he could add a sum of a hundred to his fortune--but how paltry that joy was compared to the joy of giving! That could not possibly have been done in vain. Jesus said to His disciples: And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. No offering of thanks for salvation is in vain. It brings bliss. It will get its reward--from the greatest offer of thanks which we can afford to give, down to the smallest--a kind word, a friendly clasping of hands, a cup of cold water. Nothing of all this shall be in vain. But he who lives outside himself, absorbed by the cravings for ever more riches, lives in vain even though he may become a millionaire. Are you not in need of having written above all of your life and all your doings that one great word, _Forgiven!_ And are you not in need of being assured that you have not _lived in vain_? You may not have been able to bring the magnificent sacrifices which the world lauds in the newspaper columns, and you may easily be led into the belief that you have lived in vain; but then you shall know that the Lord who is the King of Kings and the Judge of all and everything, will reward also that which looks insignificant and small in the eyes of the world. Nothing of that which you do as His disciple, is done in vain.