The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-17
TMEL TROTTER. EVANGELIST

One of the most arresting personal ities in the evangelistic world today is Melvin E. Trotter he is the. voice of disauiet and of challenge; he is the dis turber of our comfortable peace; he hur- ries with breathless eagernees from point to point-a human dynamo always in action; and he carries the lighted torch ever in his hand. the trail of con- flagration ever in his wake
 He follows no lead except that of his own urgent unquiet spirn, J1quiet be- cause he has the whole burden of hu- manitys salvation on his heart and mind. He drives straight forward deaf .o appeals from the right hand or the left; friends cannot persuade him; enemies cannot molest him; parties cannot hold him, and creeds cannot limit him; he is like the wind that "bloweth where 1t listeth."
 If stagnation is death and discontent- divine. then Melvin E. Trotter is one of the greatest assets of our time. he filings his bombs right into the stagnant par lours of our thought, and thrills the air with the spirit of unrest; acquiesence and content vanish at his challenge; the sleeper rubs his eyes, he is awake; the vision is before him. the air is filled with the murnur of many voices; he too. must be up and doing.
 That's what Mel Trotter, as he is fa- milarly known and beloved by thou sands of people all over the world-is do- ing by his marvellous message that he carries in trail of fire, burning at white heat and flashing through the in scrutable night to it's unknown goal
 Mel Trotter stands before his vast audiences a figure of singular fascina- tion-a symbol of the worlds passionate yearning after the dimly -apprehended ideal, of it's unquenchabie revolt against the agonies of men, the remedy, for which, he has found-and which in his turbulent, eager way, he is trying to give to men.
 Having heard the old and wonderful story of Melvin E. Trotter's life, the slSeptic would say that he was snatched from world of sinfulness and vice by a peculiar climax of events so unusual as to suggest an accident.
 Dogmatists greedy for controversy would argue for and against environ ment, meaning the power of surround ing and training, or their utter impo- tency to shape and direct human life.
 If John Calvin were alive he would aver that the case indisputably proved the doctrine of election-or the aristo- cracy of piety, as formulated by Paul ths tent-maker who studied law, became an evangelist while on the road to Damas- GUS under spectacular crcumStances-in to the Thessalonans.
 If you read my story-just little .'heart to heart talk I had few days ago with the world famous evangelist. Mel Trotter-you must judge of the matter yourself.
 I asked the evangelist for the view he took of his own case as we sat in the crowded foyer of the Tutwiler hotel with busy, energetic, bustlng, hustling people, moving hither and thither, with laughter and conversation pervading g the environment, pleasure seekers nov ing here and there, with no sugges- tion whatever of the potential and mysterious wretchedness and misery in which he grew up and lived as child and for moment he was silent.
 But all the while there was look in his expressive, sweet. gentle eyes that now 1 feel sure meant:
 Can't you see the finger of God in all of it?'
 Throughout the ''slums' of America, for this is his pet hobby" the name of Mel Trotter is loved and adored, for in nearly every place of this sort it has been heard that Mel Trotter, the once wild harum-scarum man of the world who turned preacher. is now try ing to take the name of Jesus Christ, which has done so much for him. to the sums, instead of attempting to har- poon or trap the slums and drag them into the church
 Even so, pen picture of Mel Trot- ter doesn't carry with it description of the upward slant of his eyes, nor the quiverings of his voice, nor the