_The secret of the Kingdom of God is therefore the synthesis effected by a sovereign spirit between the early prophetic ethics and the apocalyptic of the book of Daniel._ Hence it is that Jesus’ eschatology was rooted in his age and yet stands so high above it. For his contemporaries it was a question of _waiting for_ the Kingdom, of excogitating and depicting every incident of the great catastrophe, and of preparing for the same; while for Jesus it was a question of _bringing to pass_ the expected event through the moral renovation. _Eschatological ethics is transformed into ethical eschatology._ 4. The Secret of the Kingdom of God and the Assumption of a Fortunate Galilean Period. According to the secret of the Kingdom of God, the coming of the Kingdom is not dependent upon the broad success of Jesus’ preaching. Indeed, he expressly emphasises the fact that the limitation of the circle which performs the moral renovation stands in no [pg 116] relation whatever to the all-embracing greatness of the Kingdom which is to come about by reason of their conduct. It suffices that a scanty part of the seed falls upon good ground—and the overplentiful harvest is there, through God’s power. Not by the multitude but by the men of violence is the Kingdom compelled to appear. Hence the secret of the Kingdom of God makes the assumption of a fortunate Galilean period entirely superfluous. Jesus can enjoy the expectation of the speedy realisation of the Kingdom even when he experiences the greatest ill[ ]success and when whole districts close themselves against his preaching. They do not thereby delay the coming of the Kingdom of God but only deliver themselves to the judgment, for the Kingdom comes necessarily by reason of the moral renewal of the circle which gathered about Jesus. The justice of this interpretation of the secret of the Kingdom of God is shown therefore, in the fact that it renders unnecessary, as an explanation of Jesus’ life, an assumption which is otherwise absolutely unavoidable but cannot in any way be historically confirmed. [pg 117] 5. The Secret of the Kingdom of God and the Universalism of Jesus. So long as the moral renewal upon the basis of Jesus’ preaching is brought into relation with the realisation of the Kingdom through the modern thought of evolutionary development the factor correlative to the perfection of the Kingdom is likewise modern, that is, “humanity as a moral whole.” One attributes then to Jesus’ reflection upon the growth of the new moral community which he founded, foresight of its gradual extension till it embraces the whole of Israel—here, however, the thought of Jesus stops; one may not attribute to him universalistic ideas, for the commission to the Disciples shows that he did not reflect about a moral renewal beyond the borders of Israel. (Mt 10:5, 6): Go [not] into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.