God's kingdom entered one by one.
Reference is probably intended to the coming of Gentiles, as proselytes, into the Israelite communion; and the point suggested is that they will come in "one by one," because the acceptance of the Jewish faith must be a matter of individual and personal decision. God asks for an intelligent worship. The true worship is the voluntary surrender of the will and life to God, and that each man must do for himself. We worship together; but there is no virtue in the numbers beyond the aggregate of the virtue in each individual. If we hold fast the truth of a saving conversion, a Divine regeneration, we must clearly see that men cannot flow by masses into the kingdom of God; they must come in one by one. The Greeks may be inquiring for Jesus; but each Greek will have to come, for himself, into vital and saving relations with him.
I. THERE IS A RELIGION OF ASSOCIATION—IT IS NOT SAVING RELIGION. We are Christians as citizens of a Christian country; as worshipping with Christian people; and as members of Christian families. But we are not saved men and women by virtue of that connection. The association of a diseased man with any number of men in health does not make him a healthy man. The association of a criminal with any number of honest men does not make him an honest man. The association of an unpardoned sinner with any number of forgiven and regenerate people does not make him an accepted man. And yet, in various ways, we are yielding to this self-deception, and satisfying ourselves with relations that are merely external, that are not vital. No greater work is demanded in this our age than that of driving men out of this overcrowded "refuge of lies." Not to masses, but "to you," and "to you," is "the word of this salvation sent."
II. THE RELIGION OF ASSOCIATION MUST BE MADE PERSONAL. It must become a direct dealing between each soul and God. Each one must be humble and penitent; each one must seek for the way of life; each one must believe and be forgiven; each one must make full consecration, presenting himself to God a living sacrifice; each one must take up the precise work God may entrust to his care. To stamp our absolute individuality in our soul-relations with God, he has ordered it that each of us shall come into the world "one by one," and each of us shall go out of the world "one by one." The gift of eternal life is made to us "one by one," and it must be accepted by us "one by one."—R.T.