Dave Ranney eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 142 pages of information about Dave Ranney.

Dave Ranney eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 142 pages of information about Dave Ranney.

The night came on which I was to take the meeting—­that eventful night in my life.  I got on the platform, took the papers out of my pocket, and opened the big Bible at the chapter I was going to read, and laid out the talk just as I thought a minister might do.  I read the chapter, then we had a song, then it was up to me.

Do you know I made the greatest mistake of my life that night!  I went on that platform trusting in my own strength and not asking God’s help.  I got a swelled head and imagined I was the real thing.  But God in His own way showed me where I was standing and brought me up with a short turn.

I began reading the article written, and was getting on well, as I thought, taking all the credit myself and not giving God any.  I read three pages all right, when some one opened the window.  It was a March night, very windy, and when the window was opened something happened, and I thank God that it did.

The wind came directly toward me and took the sermon I was preaching and scattered it all over the room.  I didn’t know what to say or do.  I forgot everything that was written on the papers, and I knew if I tried to get them back I would make a fool of myself.

There was a smile on every face in the congregation.  There I stood, wishing the floor would open and let me through.  I certainly was in a box!

Just at this moment God spoke to me and said, “David, I did that, and I did it for your own good.  Now listen to me.  You were not cut out for a minister.  Just get up and tell these people how God for Christ’s sake saved you, and I’ll be with you.”

I listened to the voice, bowed my head in prayer, and it seemed as though the Lord put the words in my mouth.  I told that roomful of people of my past life and how God saved and had blessed me for four years.  We had a grand meeting and a number were saved that night, and, above all, I received one of the greatest blessings of my life.

On his return the minister said, “I hear you had a great meeting.  How did the reading go!” I told him what had happened, and he was astonished, but saw God’s hand in it, and said so.

From that night on I never wrote up anything to read to my audience, and I have spoken all over within a circle of fifty miles of New York, and even farther away, including Boston, Philadelphia, Albany, and Troy.  I tell the Bowery boys I’m what is called an extemporaneous talker.  I don’t know the first word I’m going to say when I get on my feet, but God never leaves me:  I just open my mouth and He fills it.  Praise His name!

It was a lesson to me and I have never forgotten it.

THE TESTIMONY OF A GAMBLER

While I was sexton of the old Sea and Land Church I met among other men one who came to be a great friend.  We called ourselves pals and loved each other dearly, and yet I have never been able to bring him to Christ.  When I told him I was writing the story of my life he said he wanted to add a few lines to tell, he said, what I could not.  This is what he wrote: 

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Dave Ranney from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.