256 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



method of securing the ultimate triumph of that civilization 

 which would bring maximum well-being to all individuals, — or 

 in religious terminology, the triumph of the kingdom of God. 

 Most sociologists accept as inevitable the historic cycle of the 

 rise and fall of nations. Passing from a pain to pleasure economy, 

 to use Professor Patten's phraseology, consumption comes to be 

 regarded as an end and the nation thus worshipping at the shrine 

 of pleasure, falls a victim before a powerful group still struggling 

 in the productive stage. The nation that would become im- 

 mortal and carry its civilization with its government and religion 

 to the farthest parts of the inhabitable globe, must accept the 

 gospel of the productive life, grow in population and wealth, 

 win the markets of the world, colonize, take possession of un- 

 occupied territory, force back the social laggards and ultimately, 

 and by sheer force of efficiency, possess the earth. 



Religious sanction for such a program is claimed from the 

 teachings of Jesus. 



The perception of this great economic principle of valuation, and the 

 application of it to non-commercial objects, such as mental and moral quali- 

 ties, is the leading characteristic of Christ's teaching respecting the Kingdom 

 of God. He who gives much and takes little, whose service exceeds his 

 demands by the largest margin, is greatest in the Kingdom. The Kingdom 

 of God, as set forth by its greatest expounder, is nothing more nor less than a 

 kingdom in which this principle of valuation prevails. That is the only 

 objective characteristic of the Kingdom which he ever emphasized. The 

 nation which adopts the same principle of valuation as its basis of selection 

 will approximate as nearly to the ideal of the Kingdom as is possible in a 

 world of physical reality. 



This is the only conception of a Kingdom of God on earth which is possible 

 to a person who believes that this physical world is God's world and that the 

 laws of selection now in operation are God's laws. If that be true, the kind of 

 a group which best meets the conditions and requirements of this struggle 

 and survival, and which can therefore win the world in competition with all 

 other forms and types of social organization, must, of logical necessity, be 

 God's Kingdom. That group will survive which evaluates most accurately 

 the fitness of its men to help in the struggle, and which distributes power and 

 responsibility on the basis of that fitness. 1 



As to the psychical factors involved in the historical and present 

 process of passive social adaptation, our author has not contrib- 

 uted anything new. In this field he has followed, in general, the 



1 The Religion Worth Having, pp. 76, 77. 



