Dave Ranney: Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An AutobiographyRanney, Dave
Religion
Dave Ranney: Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An Autobiography
Ranney, Dave
American Tract Society
"'Lead, Kindly Light,' was the song; I'll never forget it. I heard it on
the Bowery fifteen years ago. I was passing a Mission, and hearing it I
went in--I don't know why to this day. After the singing some one
prayed, and I started to go out when the leader of the meeting called
for testimonies for Christ. I waited and listened, and I heard a voice
that made me sit down again. I shall never forget the man that was
speaking. What he said sounded like the truth. It was the greatest
sermon I ever listened to. He was telling how much God had done for him,
saved him from drink and made a Christian man of him. I knew it was the
truth. I went home that night to wife and children, and told my wife
where I had been. She laughed and said, 'Dan, you are getting daffy.'
From that night on I have been a better husband and father.
"I left home one night about six o'clock and went down Cherry Street to
a saloon where the gang hang out. I had been telling the boys about the
things I had heard at the Mission. A young man said, 'Sullivan, there
was a young preacher down at my house and asked me to come to a young
people's meeting at the Sea and Land Church. I promised I would go, but
I haven't got the courage.' In a moment I got churchy. I had never been
in a church in New York. I said, 'Come on,' and we went to that meeting.
I am glad I did. That night I met my friend Ranney. As I was passing out
of the meeting he greeted me--he was the sexton--with a handshake and a
'Good-night, old pal; come again!' There is something in a handshake,
and as we shook I felt I had made another friend. I'll never forget that
night. We became fast friends. There is no one that knows Ranney better
than Sullivan. I have watched him in his climb to the top step by step
to be in the grand position he fills, that of Lodging House Missionary
to the Bowery under the New York City Mission and Tract Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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