Dialogue on "The Tragedy of American Compassion" PART 8

Kit Burn's Rat Pit......sounds like a great family friendly establishment...right?  Probably not at the top of your list of weekend activities...especially in the late 1800s.  The
Rat Pit was a center gathering place for the Water Street district in New York.  A district which was known as the epicenter of addicts, prostitution, and crime.  It was the worst of the worst when it came to rough neighborhoods.

The Rat Pit is not named for some kind of creative metaphor...it was a Rat Pit.  People came to bet for or against dogs who would fight rats.  As I mentioned earlier it wasn't a family friendly event. 

Kit was a typical American business man....money talks.  So when some bold clergymen approached him in 1868 to rent his stage to they could preach to the sinful masses.  Kit gladly allowed them their one hour each month for $150 and quickly rushed them out when their time was up...so that business could continue as normal.

If you look into the history books there is something called a "Water Street Revival"  Do you think that the revival had anything to do with those preachers who rented out the space and preached at the crowds?

No....instead it was one of "them"  It was Jerry McAuley, a well known criminal who was among the worst of the worst.  After multiple stints in jail....McAuley heard about the good news of Jesus and read the Bible....and felt that there was so much more purpose for his life.

He tried different kinds of ministry....but it wasn't until he realized that he related best with those people from the Water Street District that he found his place of peace.  It was McAuley who was at the center of the revival....because he had common ground with the people there.  He was open and transparent and he called others to open up about their poor choices and hurtful lifestyles.  He said "I washed and cleansed them outside and the Lord cleansed them inside."

McAuley didn't preach at the people....but he didn't leave them where they were.  What was so profound about the movement he helped start was that he "challenged them to change" and that captured the inner depths of mankind that yearn for greater purpose and meaning.

By the time he died he had inspired hundreds...and you can even trace the impact of those lives that he helped transform down through the years...because transformed lives transform.  At his funeral a Reverand commented about McAuley: "Jerry believed in hand-picked souls.  The best fruit is not shaken from the tree, but picked by hand, one by one."

Who are we?  Who do we connect with?   Are we a transformed life that is trasforming others.  As admirable as it was for those preachers to rent the space in the dirtiest of places...was it effective.   Do we look for those "hand-picked souls" that may be crossing out path every day?