Josiah Strong was an American clergyman and social reformer born on April 14, 1847. He is best known for his advocacy of social justice and his writings on the importance of moral and ethical values in society. Strong was a prominent figure in the Social Gospel movement, which sought to address social issues through religious principles. His influential book, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis, emphasized the need for social reform and the role of Christianity in improving society. Strong's legacy includes his commitment to social justice and community service.
"We have seen... that, although England is by far the richest nation of Europe, we have already outstripped her in the race after wealth, and we have only begun the development of our vast resources."
"If I read not amiss, this powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And can any one doubt that the results of this competition of races will be the "survival of the fittest?""
"The time is coming when the pressure of population on the means of subsistence will be felt here as it is now felt in Europe and Asia. Then will the world enter upon a new stage of its history - the final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled."
"It is not necessary to argue to those for whom I write that the two great needs of mankind, that all men may be lifted up into the light of the highest Christian civilization, are, first, a pure, spiritual Christianity, and second, civil liberty."
"Here, also, has been evolved the form of government consistent with the largest possible civil liberty."
"The city has become a serious menace to our civilization... It has a peculiar attraction for the immigrant."
"Our fifty principal cities contain 39.3 per cent of our entire German population, and 45.8 per cent of the Irish. Our ten larger cities only nine per cent of the entire population, but 23 per cent of the foreign."
"It may be easily shown, and is of no small significance, that the two great ideas of which the Anglo-Saxon is the exponent are having a fuller development in the United States than in Great Britain."