“‘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.

“One day we were going up the Bowery and passing a Mission went in.  We heard the testimonies, and I turned to Ranney and said, ’Are you a Christian?’ He said, ‘I am.’  I said, ’Get up, then, and tell the men what God has done for you.’  Now here I was a gambler telling this man to acknowledge God, and I did not do it myself!  Ranney rose and turned all colors.  He finally settled down to that style of talking which he alone possesses.  He told his story for the first time.  I have heard him hundreds of times since, but to me that night fifteen years ago was the greatest talk he ever gave, telling how God saved him from a crooked and drunken life.  It had the ring!  I loved him from that night on.  When he got through I said, ’Dave, God met you face to face to-night.  You will be a different man from now on.  God spoke to-night, not you.  It was the best talk I ever heard.  It took you a long time to start, but nothing can stop you now.  One word of advice, pal, I’ll give you:  Don’t get stuck on yourself.  God will use you when He won’t others among your own kind.  He will make a preacher of you to men of your own stamp.’  And Ranney is to-day what I said and thought he would be.