William
Miller and Public Services
William
Miller was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, February 15, 1782, his parents being William
and Paulina Phelps Miller.
When
the boy was four years old his parents moved to the eastern section of New York.
Here William grew to manhood, received a limited education in the public school,
was married June 29, 1803, to Lucy Smith, became a soldier and served courageously in the
War of 1812, acquired two hundred acres of land and built a commodious home at Low
Hampton, New York, which was the family center until his death.
After
reaching maturity William became a Deist, thus joining the class of those who stood
opposed to Christianity. However, he was related to those who were consecrated
followers of Christ, and was thus held in close touch with the Church.
Elisha
Miller, and uncle of William Miller, was pastor of the Baptist Church in Low Hampton where
a house of worship was erected. In this church it was the custom at times of a
sermon to be read in the absence of the regular pastor. While reading a sermon on a
Lord’s Day in September 1816, a great conviction came upon Mr. Miller. “He
was overpowered by the inward struggle of emotion,” says Bliss, and took his seat.
Mr. Miller has described this experience in these words:
“Suddenly the character of a Savior was vividly impressed upon my
mind. It seemed that there might be a Being so good and compassionate as to himself
atone for our transgressions, and thereby save us from suffering the penalty of sin.
I immediately felt how lovely such a Being must be; and imagined that I could cast
myself into the arms of, and trust in the mercy of, such a One. But the question
arose, ‘How can it be proved that such a Being does exist?’ Aside from the
Bible I found that I could get no evidence of the existence of such a Savior, or even of a
future state. I felt that to believe in such a Savior without evidence would be
visionary in the extreme. I saw that the Bible did bring to view just such a Savior
as I needed; and I was perplexed to find how an uninspired book should develop principles
so perfectly adapted to the wants of a fallen world. I was constrained to admit that
the Scriptures must be a revelation from God. They became my delight; and in Jesus I
found a friend. The Savior became to me the chiefest among ten thousand; and the
Scriptures, which before were dark and contradictory, now became the lamp to my feet and
light to my path.”
Thus
at the age of thirty-four, William Miller was changed from an unhappy Deist into a joyful,
consecrated follower of Christ. He now erected the family altar, united with the
Baptist Church of Low Hampton and became active in the work of the church.
Mr.
Miller became a careful student of the Word of God. He thus writes: “The Bible
now became my chief study, and I can truly say I searched it with great delight. I
found the half was never told me. I wondered why I had not seen its beauty and glory
before, and marveled that I could have ever rejected it. I found everything revealed
that my heart could desire, and a remedy for every disease of the soul. I lost all
taste for other reading, and applied my heart to get wisdom from God.”
From
the time of his conversion until Mr. Miller entered upon his public labors there is a
period of fifteen years of patient study of the Bible with particular reference to the
doctrine of the second coming of Christ. In this study the following conclusion was
reached:
“While thus studying the Scriptures, I became satisfied if the
prophecies which have been fulfilled in the past are any criterion by which to judge the
manner of the fulfillment of those which are future, that the popular views of the
spiritual reign of Christ—a temporal millennium before the end of the world, and the
Jews’ return—are not sustained by the Word of God… I found it plainly
taught in the Scriptures that Jesus Christ will again descend to this earth, coming in the
clouds of heaven, in all the glory of the Father.”
In a
statement of his faith made under date of September 5, 1822, in Article XV, he says:
“I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, even at the door, even
within twenty-one years—on or before 1843.”
Gradually,
year by year, the conviction grew that he must make known to his fellow-men his belief
that the Lord would come personally not later than the year 1843.
Mr.
Miller began his public labors in the autumn of 1831. His first public lecture on
the second coming of Christ was delivered in Dresden, New York. Such was the effect
of his message on this day, which appears to have been the second Sunday in August 1831,
that Mr. Miller was requested to remain and lecture during the week. The people came
together in large numbers from the neighboring towns, a revival broke out, and in thirteen
families all but two persons were hopefully converted.
Other
invitations were received from the churches of Congregationalists, Baptists, and
Methodists, and in almost every place visited by Mr. Miller backsliders were reclaimed and
sinners converted. In the autumn of 1833, when Mr. Miller had reached the age of
fifty-one, he was licensed as a minister of Christ by the Baptist Church of Hampton and
Whitehall. During the years 1831-1839, Mr. Miller labored diligently lecturing in
the churches, chiefly in New York and Vermont.
In
nearly every place revivals attended and followed his series of lectures. Of one
period—August to December 1836—he writes: “I have not visited a place where
the Lord has not given me one or two souls for my hire.”
In
Lansingburgh, New York, where he lectured for nine days in January 1838 in the Baptist
Church, a powerful effect was produced. It was estimated that at least one hundred
persons who held infidel views were converted and brought to believe the Bible.
Such
work went on for this period of eight years, the meetings being held chiefly in Baptist
churches and confined largely to the territory adjacent to eastern New York. Sinners
were converted, believers edified. Practically every church where Mr. Miller
lectured was blessed with a gracious revival. In the period from October 1, 1834 to
June 9, 1839, he delivered eight hundred lectures.
Period
from 1839-1844
In
the year 1839, upon invitation of Baptist churches in Massachusetts, Mr. Miller visited
that state and conducted meetings in Randolph, Braintree, Lowell, Lynn, and other cities.
In
Exeter, New Hampshire, in November 1839, while lecturing there, Mr. Miller met Joshua V.
Himes of the “Christian Connection” who was pastor of the Chardon Street Church
in Boston. Mr. Himes secured Mr. Miller to deliver lectures in the church, which he
did December 8-16, 1839, to crowded houses, many being unable to gain admittance.
This
meeting of these two men, Miller and Himes, marks a new and important period in the life
and work of Mr. Miller.
Joshua
V. Himes really became the publicity man for Mr. Miller. He proposed the use of the
press. Five thousand copies of Miller’s lectures were printed and distributed.
A paper was started. The Signs of the Times was issued early in 1840.
This was published for about four years, and then continued for many years as the
Advent Herald. This period from 1840 to 1844 was marked by great gatherings. A
glance at a few many indicate their scope.
In
January 1840, Miller visited Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and lectured in the Christian
Church. A revival started during the meetings and continued after Miller left, and
this revival spread to every church in Portsmouth that believed in revivals. The
report reads:
“Our meetings continued every day and evening. Not unfrequently
from sixty to seventy would come forward for prayers on an evening. Such an awful
spirit of solemnity seemed to settle down on the place that hard must be that sinner’s
heart that could withstand it. Yet… not an appearance of confusion occurred,
all was order and solemnity… For weeks together, the ringing of bells, for
daily meetings, rendered our town like a continual Sabbath. Such a season of revival
was never witnessed before in Portsmouth by the oldest inhabitant. The number of
conversions is variously estimated at from five to seven hundred.”
At
Portland, a revival followed the Miller lectures. Take these items from the report
of the meetings: “A number of rum-sellers have turned their shops into meeting-rooms.
One or two gambling establishments are entirely broken up. Infidels, Deists,
Universalists, and the most abandoned profligates have been converted.”
In
Hartford, Connecticut, lectures were delivered for several days in the City Hall, where
from fifteen hundred to two thousand persons were in attendance every evening.
Several hundred people became favorable to the adventual views.
Campmeetings
In
June and early July 1842, the first campmeeting connected with the movement was held in
East Kingstone, New Hampshire, with some congregations estimated as high as seven to ten
thousand people. This was the meeting which the Quaker poet, John Greenleaf
Whittier, attended for one service, and of which he wrote as follows:
“Three or four years ago… I spent an hour or two at a campground
of the Second Advent in East Kingston. The spot was well chosen. A tall growth
of pine and hemlock threw its melancholy shadow over the multitude, who were arranged upon
rough seats of boards and logs. Several hundred—perhaps a thousand—people
were present, and more were rapidly coming. Drawn about in a circle, forming a
background of snowy whiteness to the dark masses of men and foliage, were the white tents,
and back of them the provision stalls and cook shops. When I reached the ground, a
hymn, the words of which I could not distinguish, was pealing through the dim aisles of
the forest. I know nothing of music, having neither ear nor taste for it—but I
could readily see that it had its effect upon the multitude before me, kindling to higher
intensity their already excited enthusiasm. The preachers were placed in a rude
pulpit of rough boards, carpeted only by the dead forest leaves and flowers, and tasseled,
not with silk and velvet, but with the green boughs of the somber hemlocks around it.
One of them followed the music in an earnest exhortation on the duty of preparing
for the great event…
“To an imaginative mind the scene was full of novel interest.
The white circle of tents—the dim wood arches, the upturned, earnest faces—the
loud voices of the speakers, burdened with the awful symbolic language of the Bible—the
smoke from the fires rising like incense from forest altars—carrying one back to the
days of primitive worship when
“The groves were God’s first temples, ere men learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And stretch the roof above it.”
From
this date, campmeetings became one of the big agencies for promulgating the message.
A great tent was purchased and pitched by Joshua V. Himes in the city centers, and
thus many thousands were reached who might not have entered the churches.
From
January 21-29, 1843, Mr. Miller lectured in Philadelphia in the large hall of the Chinese
Museum, which was crowded to such an extent that the owners became alarmed for the safety
of the hall, and asked that the meetings be closed. At the last meeting in the
afternoon, to quote the words of Bliss: “Probably more than a thousand persons arose
to testify their faith in the truth of the Advent near, and three or four hundred of the
unconverted arose to request an interest in his prayers.”
Thus
the work went on until such cities as Albany, New York; Providence, Rhode Island;
Worcester, Massachusetts; and Washington, D.C., had been reached with the message of the
nearness of the Advent.
During
this period Joshua V. Himes, aside from preaching and lecturing, started and maintained a
numbers of papers. The Signs of the Times was published in Boston, The Midnight Cry
in New York, The Western Midnight Cry in Cincinnati. Towards the close of the period
The Midnight Cry was published in New York as a daily.
Mr.
Miller looked for the Lord not later than the spring of 1844. This date came and
went without bringing the expected end. Great was the disappointment. On the
second day of May 1844, Mr. Miller wrote as follows:
“To Second Advent Believers: Were I to live my life over again, with
the same evidence that I then had, to be honest with God and man, I should have to do as I
have done. Although opposers said it would not come, they produced no weighty
arguments. It was evidently guess-work with them; and I then thought, and do now,
that their denial was based more on an unwillingness for the Lord to come than on any
argument leading to such a conclusion.
“I confess my error, and acknowledge my disappointment; yet I still
believe that the day of the Lord is near, even at the door; and I exhort you, my brethren,
to be watchful, and not let that day come upon you unawares. The wicked, the proud,
and the bigot will exult over us. I will try to be patient. God will deliver
the godly out of temptation, and will reserve the unjust to be punished at Christ’s
appearing.”
The
summer of 1844 was spent by Miller, Himes, Litch, and others in preaching, chiefly to
encourage the believers to cling to their hope of the soon-coming of the Lord.
About
the middle of the summer—the month of July—S. S. Snow, who had been converted
from infidel views about four years before, began to advocate that the “tenth day of
the seventh month,” the Day of Atonement under the law of Moses, was the day on which
the Lord would come. According to the reckoning of the Caraite Jews, this day, in
the year 1844, would fall on the twenty-second of October. Thus October 22, 1844,
became a date of importance. Mr. Miller and those who sympathized with him did not
accept this date. But gradually as the weeks went by many came to favor it, and at
the beginning of autumn its acceptance spread like a prairie fire until the majority of
the believers set their hopes on this day. This is known as the “tenth day of
the seventh month movement.” On October 6, Mr. Miller was first led to favor
that date, and on the eleventh day of October he published in The Signs of the Times the
following:
“I think I have never seen among our brethren such faith as is
manifested in the seventh month. ‘He will come,’ is the common expression.
‘He will not tarry the second time,’ is their general reply. There
is a forsaking of the world, an unconcern for the wants of life, a general searching of
heart, confession of sin and a deep feeling in prayer for Christ to come. A
preparation of heart to meet him seems to be the labor of their agonizing spirits.
There is something in this present waking up different from anything I have ever
before seen… Our meetings are all occupied with prayer, and exhortation to love
and obedience. The general expression is, ‘Behold the Bridegroom cometh; go ye
out to meet him.’ Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus!”
October
22, 1884, passed without the coming of the Lord. The disappointment was great, more
so than in the spring of 1844. There came then a period of confusion, of
uncertainty, and of disorganization—a period which requires a special study by
itself, and which it is not within the province of this address to discuss.
Mr.
Miller kept his balance, and so far as possible, considering the condition of his health,
continued to preach and write, and thus help the thousands of followers who had accepted
his views. On the tenth of November 1844, he wrote to Himes from his home in Low
Hampton:
“Dear Brother Himes: I have been waiting and looking for the blessed
hope, in expectation of realizing the glorious things which God has spoken of Zion.
Yes, and although I have been twice disappointed, I am not yet cast down or
discouraged. God has been with me in spirit, and has comforted me. I have now
much more evidence that I do believe in God’s Word. My mind is perfectly calm,
and my hope in the coming of Christ is as strong as ever…
“Our duty now is to comfort one another with the words of Christ’s
coming, to strengthen those who are weak among us, to establish the wavering, and to raise
up the bowed down, speaking often one to another. Let our conversation be in heaven,
from whence we look for the Saviour; for the time has not come for us to live by faith, a
faith that is tried like gold seven times purified.”
Last
Days
William
Miler died in December 1849. The five years from 1844 to the time of his death were
years of decline and increasing feebleness. The first part of the period was devoted
to lectures in churches, attending conferences, and correspondence.
In
Albany, New York, in April 1845, a conference of Advent believers was held, attended by a
large number of the leading ministers who had been associated with Mr. Miller. At
this history conference, the condition of the cause was studied and discussed, a statement
of faith was prepared and published, and a plan for future work was formulated.
The
statement of faith reaffirmed the belief of the delegates in the near advent of the Savior
and the evangelical faith. The plan for future work called for activity on the part
of all, especially in preparation to meet the Lord by holy living.
The
majority of the Advent believers were pleased with the action taken at the Albany
conference, but others were greatly displeased, and this led to the advocacy of various
doctrines which tended to divide and disrupt.
After
attending a conference in Boston, and a visit to Portland, Maine, where he preached to
large audiences, Mr. Miller retired to his home in Low Hampton. He considered it his
duty to make a personal statement to the Christian public, inasmuch as he had been the
author of the movement which apparently had ended in disappointment, and in disaster to
some. This “Apology and Defense” he dictated to Sylvester Bliss, and it
was published in a tract of thirty-six pages by Joshua V. Himes.
The
Defense shows that two hundred ministers had embraced his views, six thousand had been
converted from “nature’s darkness to God’s marvelous light,” the
result of his personal labors alone. More than seven hundred infidels had abandoned
their unbelief for the blessed hope. Five hundred public lectures had been
associated with him in preaching the near-coming of Christ.
In
the autumn of 1845, Father Miller, as he was now called, visited New York City,
Philadelphia, and many towns in Vermont, lecturing and laboring to stabilize the work.
A digest of his messages is expressed in his words:
“I would exhort my Advent brethren to study the Word diligently…
Avoid everything that shall cause offense. Let your lives be models of goodness and
propriety. Let the adversary get no advantage over you. We have been
disappointed; but disappointments will work for our good, if we make the right use of
them. Be faithful. Be vigilant… Avoid unnecessary controversy and
questions that gender strife. Be not many masters; all are not competent to advise
and direct. God will raise up those to whom he will commit the direction of his
cause. Be humble, be watchful, be patient, be persevering. And may the God of
peace sanctify you wholly, and preserve you blameless unto the glorious appearing of the
great day of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”
In
January 1848, the loss of eyesight came. In the autumn of 1849 his health failed
entirely. In his home on the farm at Low Hampton, in the presence of his family with
his intimate friend and co-worker by the bedside, on the twentieth of December, he
peacefully fell asleep in Christ. The funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Himes from
Acts 26:6-8, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible to you that God should
raise the dead?” The services lasted for three hours. And then the
valiant warrior was laid to rest in the little burying ground near Low Hampton. On
the tombstone these words are inscribed:
“At the appointed time the end shall be.”
WILLIAM MILLER
Died
December 20, 1849
in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
“But go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy
lot at the end of the days.”
An
Appraisal of William Miller
Various
opinions have been held in regard to this remarkable man. In his lifetime he was
called by his enemies a monomaniac, a fanatic, a liar, a speculating knave, a deluded old
fool.
But
now, after the passing of nearly a century since he was here on the stage of human
history, sober inquiry is seeking a proper estimate of the man and his work. It is
believed that the following brief appraisal will stand the test of the most careful
scrutiny:
1.
He was a man of absolute sincerity and honesty. For the first five years of his
ministry he met his personal expenses and traveling costs from his own funds. In
Canada, where he was on a lecturing tour, a woman placed two half-dollars in his hand,
which was all the money he received previous to 1836.
2.
He was a devoted follower of the Lord Jesus. I quote from a letter of Miller’s
written in 1834:
“Give me Jesus and a knowledge of his Word, faith in his name, hope in
his grace, interest in his love, and let me be clothed in his righteousness, and the world
may enjoy all the high-sounding titles, the riches it can boast, the vanities it is heir
to, and all the pleasures of sin; and they will be no more than a drop in the ocean.
Yes, let me have Jesus Christ, and then vanish all earthly joys. What glory
has God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ! … In him all power dwells. He is
the evidence of all truth, the fountain of all mercy, the giver of all grace, the object
of all adoration, and the source of all light; and I hope to enjoy him to all eternity.”
Such
words can only spring from the heart of one who is in fellowship with God, who has been
with Jesus and learned of him.
3.
He had a passionate love for the Word of God. He thus writes of his attitude towards
the Bible at the time of his conversion. “The Bible now became my chief study…
I searched it with great delight.”
In
his Creed, Article XVI, he says: “I believe that before Christ comes in his glory,
all sectarian principles will be shaken, and the votaries of the several sects scattered
to the four winds; and that none will be able to stand but those who are built on the Word
of God.”
Again:
“I am more and more astonished at the harmony and strength of the Word of God…
Let us be determined to live and die on the Bible.”
His
lectures, sermons, articles, letters, and all are saturated with the Word of God.
4.
He was a great winner of souls. All the preaching of Mr. Miller had for its object
the reformation, the regeneration of the hearer. His aim was to convert the unsaved.
He loved the book of Daniel; and in that book he had read: “They that be wise
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars for ever and ever.”
There
are thousands now awaiting their reward of whom this preacher of righteousness will be
able to say: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even
ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?”
Helpers
and Hinderers
Of
helpers, we may mention:
1.
Churches and pastors. For a decade or more it was a movement in the churches—Baptist,
Episcopal, Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Christian. Several
hundred able, scholarly, godly pastors, and thousands of holy men and women gave
wholehearted and enthusiastic support to the movement.
2.
Joshua V. Himes. He was the remarkable publicity man, who was able to found and
maintain papers, publish books and tracts, and send broadcast millions of pages carrying
the good news of the kingdom of God.
Mr.
Himes came in for his share of misrepresentation and abuse, but of him, Mr. Miller writes:
“I cannot here withhold my testimony to the efficiency and integrity of my Brother
Himes. He has stood by me at all times, periled his reputation, and by the position
in which he has been placed has been more instrumental in the spread of these views than
any other ten men embarked in the cause.”
Of
hinderers, we may mention:
1.
The denominational and secular press, in many cases, misrepresented, maligned, and opposed
the work. This is sad in view of the fact that in practically ever place where Mr.
Miller delivered his lectures there followed a revival in which there were many additions
to the churches.
2.
Fanaticism. Although it did not appear in any marked degree until after 1843, yet it
was part and parcel of the same brand that did injury to the reformation in the time of
Luther, and which brought disrepute upon the adventual preaching of the eloquent and
remarkable Edward Irving.
Our Heritage
Out
of this movement there has come to the Advent Christian people and to the church-at-large
a great heritage. William Miller and his fellow workers brought to the forefront of
Christian teaching the blessed hope, the doctrine of the appearing of the great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. Their emphatic insistence upon the coming of the eternal
kingdom of God was but the resurrection of a vital gospel truth which today is preached
with power in every part of the earth.
And
we must not forget that at the same time that Mr. Miller was preaching the coming of the
Lord, such men as George Storrs were proclaiming the good news of life in Christ.
And these two doctrines—the coming of the Lord and life in Christ—place
before us the goal of a world in which moral evil is ultimately to be destroyed. The
late Joseph Parker of the City Temple in London, in speaking of the destruction of evil
says: “And by destroying evil I do not mean locking it up by itself in a great moral
prison which shall be enlarged from generation to generation, until it becomes the abode
of countless millions of rebels; but its utter, final and everlasting extinction; so that
at last the universe shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—the pure home
of a pure creation.”
________________________
