MEL TROTTER was a broken man, a drunkard and a dope addict. Penniless, hungry and cold as well, he had decided to end his life by jumping into Lake Michigan. He was on his way to the lake and was walking along State Street in Chicago. As he passed a Christian mission a friendly voice called to him, inviting him to come in.
Inside that mission Mel Trotter found a warm welcome. He was given a meal, which with the warmth from a stove, combined to fill some of his needs.
The kind folks who operated that mission were glad to do this for anyone but they had something even better. Mr. Trotter was invited to stay and during the evening he heard the story of God’s love toward wicked, lost sinners. He heard how to be saved by simply believing that Jesus had died on account of his sins.
When the preacher had finished the gospel story, here and there in the audience men stood up, and one by one they told what God had done for them when they had taken Jesus as their Saviour. Mel Trotter listened with amazement. One man, whom he later referred to as “a big Swede” told how the Lord Jesus had saved him from hell and saved him too from being a drunkard and a dope addict. This was just what Mel Trotter needed and he thought to himself, “If God can save a Swede like him, He can save an Irishman like me.” Then he cried out, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”
God heard that cry and right then and there Mel Trotter was saved. As with the Swede, the shackles of dope and drink fell from him too. Now all thought of suicide was gone. Joy and peace filled his heart.
Perhaps you feel that you are not so bad a sinner as Mel Trotter or the big Swede. Perhaps you feel that you don’t need a Saviour at all. But God’s Word, the Bible, speaks truly and it speaks to you when it says, “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23). At the same time the Bible says, “God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).
ML-10/21/1962