Ver. 6.-God's lcingdom 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 indivirlual. 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 SA Vl~G RET,IGION. 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 sinuer with any number of forgiven and regenerate people does not make him an accepted man. And yet, in various ways, we are yieldiog 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 driviag men out of this over- crowded" refuge or lies." Not to masses, but" to you," aad "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 oue 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 or 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.
Ver. B.-God's witness to his own rights. "There is no God; I know aot any." A most strikiog exclamation. God becomes a witness to his own claims, an,] the last, the supreme, witness. 'l'he thought here so grandly and sublimely expressed is one which occurs also in the sacred book of the Buddhists. In the address of Gotarna "Bhagavat," are the following sentences: "Even I was even at first, not any other thing, tlrnt which exists, unperceived, supreme; afterwards I am that which is, and he who must remain am I." 'l.'he exclamation sets us upon thinking what witnesses we have to the Divine rights. When all are carefully reviewed, it must be felt that, as all beings and all creation are really dependent on one great Being, the supreme witness must be that Being's witness to himself. Our sphere is strictly limited to the human and the earthly, and, so far as our experience goes, there may be some other God aw:\y in other sphere, which we caunot reach. No man can prove that there is no other Gou besiJe Jehovah. But Jehovah ,fills all spheres: he, and he alone, can tell us whether, in any sphere, there is any rival deity. In a truly sublime way, the prophet presents him as lookiag -with an all-searching eye-into every corner of unbounded space, and then turnin"' to us and saying, "'l'here is no God beside me; I know not any." The passag: stands in close relation with the supposed claims of idol-gods; and we should carefully note that the idol-figures are first of all representatious of qualities, or powers, which are supposed to exist, though unseen, and are usually personified or thought of as living beings. Only in the degraded stage are idol-figures treated 11s if they them- selves were gods. In this connection two points may be illustrated, and practical leasons from eaoh may he enforced. liO THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. XLIV. 1-28.