Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 54:215 (Jul 1897)
Article: The Idea Of The Kingdom Of God
Author: Edward Mortimer Chapman

BSac 54:215 (July 1897) p. 525

The Idea Of The Kingdom Of God

Its Influence Upon The History Of The English-Speaking Peoples In The Present Century

Edward Mortimer Chapman

Opportunism has always been the rule of most lives, and the policy of most would-be leaders of men. We naturally are time-servers, taking short views of that which has been and that which will be, and striving to adapt ourselves as comfortably as possible to our immediate surroundings without overmuch thought as to the source or issue of them. Our efforts, our policies, and even our philosophies are scrappy. We have little time and less patience with the laying of deep foundations and the toilsome search after great principles.

In saying this, I am not bringing a railing accusation against the times. I am simply stating what is natural to us, as short-lived men of little faith, who are very conscious that the night cometh when no man can work. We are ever looking to see if we cannot cut our college courses down from four to three years; we insist upon a common-school education that shall be “practical,” that is to say, that shall aim as directly as possible at the getting of a dollar. We do this quite conscientiously often, and it is with a similar conscientiousness, that our historians devote a lifetime to delving among records, our scientists to the minutest specialization of research, our grammarians to a single case of the Greek article. But the result of it all is a

BSac 54:215 (July 1897) p. 526

sort of mental and spiritual shortsightedness or strabismus. We lose our taste and desire for the large and comprehensive view, or, when we attempt it, our squinting vision distorts it woefully.

I should like to speak of the danger that threatens us in the sphere of statecraft from the influence of little, prejudiced, ignorant, and sometimes debauched men who are ever putting politics in the place of statesmanship. But in this connection I can allude only to the almost boastful contempt in which the average politician holds the teaching and authority of history, and pass hurriedly on to mention the singular vogue of a certain class of historico-philosophical writing to-day. It is lugubrious, not to say pessimistic, in tone. It is sometimes quite sensational in its suggestions, if not in its definite conclusions; and its depressing influences reach a circle far wider than that of the mere readers of the volumes themselves.

The three instances that first present themselves are Nordau’s “Degeneration,” Pearson’s “National Life and Character,” and Brooks Adams’ “Law of Civilization and Decay.” It seems sometimes as though it were only necessary for a man to proclaim himself a pelican of the wilderness, or a watching s...