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T h e - K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
April 1932
A man may boast o f his faith, whereupon James will say, “ Can faith save him?” unless it represent something behind it, something of intrinsic and divine value. Much is mistaken for faith that is not faith—much that is mere intellectual assent or intellectual indifference. A man does not believe things which he simply names with his mouth, he believes only those things for which he would be willing to die. What havoc this makes in the professed beliefs of the church! Yet everything must be judged by the degree in which it realizes its own pretention. To pretend to have hands means power of handling or else the pretense is a lie. To profess to have feet and yet be unable to walk is to contradict one’s own statement. To have ears, though carved by an Angelo, which cannot hear a thunder burst, is to display visible falsehood. Where we find hands, we have a right to expect handling. Where we find faith, we have a right to expect morality or service or action. And if, with all our Christian profession of an. intellectual kind, we are not balancing that profession by actual living and useful service, then let all the mockers of the universe mock us, saying, “ They have hands, but they handle not.” “ 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.” hat is the secret of the strange power that makes Mel Trotter able to reach men at the two extremes of the social scale and all the way between? He has for thirty-eight years been the nation’s leading rescue mission specialist, continuously a superintendent of one mission at Grand Rapids, Mich., and in close, touch with sixty-eight others; and for seventeen years in suc cession he has been invited to address college students at the Moody Northfield conferences. Yet he has never had a formal college or theological training, often to his own regret. A short and true accounting is that God’s creative power thirty-eight years ago touched the life of a man in the depths of despair; and ever since, God has been re newing that power. Contributory sources may be observed as you see him in action on the platform. He wastes no time in getting started on his sermon, beginning to speak as he approaches the pulpit, Bible in hand. His voice is mellow, yet pene trating to distant corners, and his gestures are in keeping with the man and the message. His teaching is positive and constructive, rarely negative or controversial. You sense the fact that he has a firm grip on the essentials of the Bible and that he loves it. His theology is the experimental kind. He tried it out on himself, and then for long years tried it on thousands of desperate cases, high and low. Why should he care to try any other remedy for human sin ? The gospel of the grace of God works! As he speaks, you realize that he has not only looked into the Book, but into human hearts, hungry or self-satis fied, proud or stricken, broken, despairing. Every week he comes into close grips with human need. Out of all this experience comes illumination for his Bible texts— life stories that are thrilling, pathetic, humorous, and told, in perfect taste. He has learned that laughter lies very close to tears, that wholesome humor will relieve the strain of that pathos and tragedy that must be portrayed in any true presentation of human life. The sermons are interesting because God’s truth is illuminated by significant details Rev. Melvin E . Trotter The New Vice-President o f B .I.O .L .A .
of his own life or of thousands of other lives which have been laid bare to his keen but sympathetic observational powers. At the close, there comes the appeal to let Christ in —an appeal that is tender, natural, unforced, considerate. Mel trotter succeeds because he is himself, God’s man, ah imitator of none, a winner of souls in his own way. Mr. Trotter’s appeal is not alone to the underprivileged. His interest in young people is keen, and they respond in large numbers to his frankness and winsomeness. Mr. Trotter, after great success, was ordained a Pres byterian minister and is now a member of Grand Rapids Presbytery. I welcome him as my comrade and brother. I love him. We have both dedicated our all to be used o f God to carry on the work of the Bible Institute. Mr. Trot ter will direct great Bible conferences and evangelistic campaigns under the auspices of the Institute. He has just finished a three-weeks’ meeting in the Church o f the Open Door, March 20. Many were brought to Christ, and God’s people were greatly revived.
Thomas Corwin Horton is many friends scattered over the world will mourn when they hear o f the death of Dr. T. C. Horton, the Superintendent of the Institute for so many years when Dr. Reuben A. Torrey was the Dean, and when Mr. Lyman Stewart was the President. Dr. Horton died Feb ruary 27, at the age o f eighty-four, and the funeral was
held in the auditorium of the Bible Institute, attended by a large audience of loyal friends, with Rev. J. A. Vaus, Dr. Frederic W . Farr, and Rev. W . R. Hale as the speak ers. We cannot do better than to reprint an editorial from the Los Angeles Times of a recent date: “ After a life spent wholly and successfully in the ser vice of the Master, Dr. Thomas Corwin Horton has been called home from the scenes o f his earthly activities. The value of his work to this community will become ever [Continued on page 158]
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