"'If men loved men as eagerly as they love money the millennium would be just around the corner.
"'Wealth is a curse unless the owner of it blesses the world with it.
"'If any man hath the world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
"'Christian Socialism teaches a man to bear other people's burdens. The very first principle of Christian Socialism is unselfishness.
"'We shall never see a better condition of affairs in this country until the men of wealth realize their responsibility and privilege.
"'Christ never said anything against the poor. He did speak some tremendous warnings in the face of the selfish rich.
"'The only safe thing for a man of wealth to do is to ask himself, What would Christ do with my money if he had it?
"'Everything a man has is God's. On that profound principle the whole of human life should rest. We are not our own; we have been bought with a price.'
"It would be impossible to describe the effect of the Rev. Mr. Strong's talk upon the audience. Once the applause was so long continued that it was a full minute before he could go on. When he finally closed with a tremendous appeal to the wealth of Milton to use its power for the good of the place, for the tearing down and remodeling of the tenements, for the solution of the problem of no work for thousands of desperate men, the audience rose to its feet and cheered again and again.
"At the close of the meeting the minister was surrounded by a crowd of men, and an after meeting was held, at which steps were taken to form a committee composed of prominent church people and labor leaders to work, if possible, together toward a common end.