"This day is salvation come to this house." To Zacchæus this means:
_Your sin has been forgiven--all has been stricken out_.
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.
Above the life of the children of the world one might place the
inscription: _Nothing forgiven--everything in vain!_ Above the lives of
Christians: _Everything forgiven--nothing in vain_.
Isn't that so, then: Christians have glorious days!
_What terms do you choose?_