"What will your friends say?" there was the old Devil saying. "Get out
of this place, and don't be a fool; be a man."

I stood there listening to the tempter, when the young fellow said,
"Dave, what are you going to do now that you have taken Jesus?"

I said, "I've knelt here and asked God for Christ's sake to make me a
sober man, and I fully believe that He will. Drink has brought me down,
and I'll die before I'll take another drink." And at this writing I'm
over seventeen years off the stuff.

I asked the young fellow what his name was, and found that he was
Alexander Irvine, lodging-house missionary to the Bowery under the New
York City Mission of which Dr. Schauffler is the head. We shook hands,
and before we parted we made a compact that we would be pals.

Isn't it wonderful what God can do? I don't believe there's a man or
woman, no matter how wicked, no matter what sin they've done, but God
can and will save, the only conditions being: Come, believe, and trust.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life."--John 3:16. But you have to have some sand of your own.

[Illustration: READING-ROOM IN A LODGING-HOUSE.]




CHAPTER V