The Kingdom of God is the highest good. The idea of God is the highest and most comprehensive conception in philosophy; the idea of the Kingdom of God is the highest and broadest idea in sociology and ethics. It is so high and broad that many find it hard even to grasp the idea. Just as a barbaric tribe of hunters or fishermen would find it impossible to comprehend the social coherence and the patriotism of a nation of a hundred millions; just as the narrow nationalist of today falls down intellectually and morally when he confronts world-forces and relations: so we who are trained to think in terms of family and State, give out when we are to treat the Kingdom of God as a reality. It takes faith of the intellect to comprehend a stage of evolution before it is reached. It takes faith of character to launch yourself toward a great moral goal before its tangible and profitable elements are within reach. It takes more moral daring today than for a century past to believe in the reemergence and final victory of God’s social order. But this is the time for all true believers to square their shoulders and say with Galileo, “And yet it moves.” Any man whose soul is kindled by the conception of the Kingdom of God is a real man. Whoever loves the idea, must turn it into reality as far as life lets him. Whoever tries it, will suffer. But even if he suffers, he will be more blessed and more truly a man than he would be if he did not try. In seeking the Kingdom he realizes himself. “He that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it.” III Jesus bade us “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and he obeyed his own call. The main object of his life was the ideal social order and the perfect ethic. Now if Jesus is our ideal of human goodness, is any goodness good unless it works in the same direction? If a man is of flawless private life, but is indifferent to any social ideal, or even hostile to all attempts at better justice and greater fraternity, is he really good? Even a strong desire for personal perfection, if there is no desire for a regeneration of society in it, must be rated as sub-Christian because it is lacking in the sense of solidarity and may be lacking in love. Suggestions for Thought and Discussion I. _The Power of a Great Idea_ 1. Did the idea of the Kingdom of God ever play a part in your religious education? 2. Did you feel any response to it in studying this lesson? Does it have reality? 3. Suppose an entire study group should fail to see anything in it, would that prove it valueless? II. _Historical Changes in the Kingdom Ideal_ 1. How did the Kingdom ideal take shape in the minds of the Hebrew prophets? 2. Explain the nature of the apocalyptic hope and its divergence from the prophetic ideal. 3. What passages seem to throw the most light on Jesus’ conception of it, and his feeling about it? What do you think about the Beatitudes from this point of view?