When Jesus began to speak, he instantly commanded attention on account of his quiet but amazing knowledge of the most intricate transactions on the street. I saw man after man glance at his neighbor with jaw-dropping wonder as Jesus, in a few short, clear sentences, revealed the very inner dealing of the speculative heart of America.

And then, before anyone could tell where the transition had taken place, he was talking about the little girl and her artificial flowers.

The flowers, he said, were made in a tenement room, and he named the street where the tenement stood, then gave the owner’s name. The little girl, by working all day, could make 540 of these flowers, for which she was paid 5 cents. A list of figures followed as to the profit made by the dealers of these flowers.

And then, the whole figure of the Man seemed to undergo a marvelous change. He grew suddenly taller and larger. His voice rang out over that mass of money-getters like a trumpet of God. It seemed to me, as I listened, that he was speaking to all New York. And he was. The men around him, their faces blanched with fear and self-condemnation, represented money-worshipping New York in its entirety. The little girl, whom he passionately held up high for them to gaze upon, represented humanity, worth more in her little self than all the money in the city, worth more than the city itself, worth more than the entire world. And yet she was being exploited in order that men who already had millions might grasp millions more. She represented the greed which lay like a canker at the heart of a country’s financial scheme, which trampled on worn-out women and defenseless children to keep up its luxuries and indulge in its selfish habits regardless of the precious humanity it trod into the grave.

That voice of Jesus! How tender, and how stern! Tender to sinful women and little children! Stern to scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, no matter in what age of the world they live. I could not help thinking, as I listened to its fascinating strength, of other times when in Palestine he must have astonished wonderful mixed audiences of Roman soldiers, Greek philosophers, Jews, Asians, Africans, traveling merchants from various lands—the miscellaneous horde of all languages and pursuits that gathered in Jerusalem who must, on more than one great occasion, have fallen under the indescribable charm of his words.