now we promised to meet mother. Fool these people and let them see that
you are the man and father I love."

I straightened up, looked at the lad, and out went my hand. We shook
hands and I said, "Son, with the help of God I'll never drink again."
And there at the head of the coffin we knelt and asked God to help us
and make us men such as He would have us be; we asked it in the name and
for the sake of the Christ who died for us.

That was March 17, 1902, and we have kept the faith up to the present
time.

I'll never forget that prayer. Don't you think it pays to be on the
level with God? If you ask Him to help you He will. Just trust Him and
have a little backbone, and you will win out every time. I know now that
this experience was God teaching me a lesson and drawing me closer to
Him.

Things went differently now; I could not run the church very well alone,
so after a few months I handed in my resignation. The trustees wanted me
to stay, but I couldn't; sad memories would come up, and I simply had
to go. I left the old church where I had spent so many happy days with a
record of ten years that money could not buy. I go there once in a while
even now.

[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF SEA AND LAND.]

[Illustration: MIDNIGHT MISSION, CHINATOWN.]

CHAPTER VII

THE MISSION IN CHINATOWN

About two years previous to my wife's death a man, Mr. H. Gould, called
on me and asked me if I was the Ranney that was converted on the Bowery.
I said, "Yes, I was saved about ten years ago." He said, "I've a
proposal to make. I hear you are a natural-born leader of men, and I
think you look it. I'm one of the trustees of the Midnight Mission in
Chinatown. It's a hard place, but will you come and take charge of it? I
can't keep any one there longer than a few weeks; they get drunk or are
licked or done up some way. I want some one with backbone; will you take
it?" I thanked him. He had said enough to make any one refuse a job like
that, but I knew all the ins and outs of that quarter, and I thought
I'd like the work. I asked God's guidance, and I spoke with Mr.
Dennison, the pastor of the Church of Sea and Land, and he said it was
wonderful the way God was leading me. "Go and see what it's like," he
said. "Try it. You can run the church also, but if you see you can't get
along, give it up."

My wife and boy were planning to go on a visit to Ireland to see if it
would improve her health, and when I told her of Mr. Gould'