Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller

by James White

“‘Two things,’ says D’Aubigne, ‘are essential to sound Christian experience. The first is a knowledge of our condition as sinners; the second is a knowledge of the grace of God, in its manifestations to the soul.’ Mr. Miller, like most if not all others, had learned the first in his early life; but he had evidently not then attained the second of these elements of a true religious life. And, by not attaining that important position in the process of deliverance from our fallen condition, he became wearied of a sense of his need, if he did not lose it entirely. In the chosen employment of his intellect, with a more ample supply of books at command; in the midst of an admiring and merry social circle; in receiving the honors of the world from the hand of his superiors, and in reaping an honorable portion of the treasures of the world, why should he desire any other source of enjoyment—and one altogether unknown, unappreciated and unpopular, in the circle where he moved? What use had he for that religion he had seen verified and felt the need of, in the less cultivated family circle at Low Hampton?

“If those who never become acquainted with the lessons of truth may be satisfied without the consolation of which its lessons speak, with those who are made familiar with these lessons, it is generally very different. They can seldom feel satisfied with themselves without making a hearty surrender of life, and all God has given them, to his service. As they know this is their reasonable service, anything short of this, they know, must be unreasonable. But how few take this narrow path! How many turn away to join the multitude! The talent, however, is in their hands. They must dispose of that, if they will not submit themselves to the disposal of its Giver. Some make it the reason for entertaining and venting a more malignant and blasphemous form of hatred against everything which bears the name of God. This quiets all fear of being reproached as religious, and it is the awful snare into which many are led by the fear of man. Another class of these unfaithful recipients of the talent of truth try to get along with a popular external expression of respect for its claims; and thus they escape the dreaded reproach.

“A third class, naturally too frank even to appear to venerate what they do not heartily respect, and too deeply impressed with the goodness of the Deity to become blasphemers, but still too fearful of man to encounter his frown, seek to save themselves from it by making the defects of the humble but unpopular representatives of truth a subject of merriment. This course was taken by Mr. Miller. This is the class to which he then belonged. He banished from his memory the impressions of his early life, and must silence all fear of reproach on account of them; so he gave to his skeptical associates an assurance that he had mastered his superstition, as they deemed it, by performing, for their sport, the devotions of the worship to which he had been accustomed, and especially by mimicking the devotional peculiarities of some of his own family relatives.

“Among these pious relatives there were two, in particular, whose presence or names were calculated to remind him of his repudiated obligations, and whose influence over him he labored to repel, by making them the theme of his mirth. One of these was his grandfather Phelps, pastor of the Baptist church at Orwell; the other was his uncle, Elihu Miller, who was settled as the pastor of the Baptist church at Low Hampton, in 1812. These were men of unpolished exterior, but of decided character, strong voice, and ardent devotion. Men whose features were so strongly marked would make fine subjects for striking portraits; and if all their traits could be brought out, there would be found a large bestowment of the treasure of heavenly wisdom and virtue in the earthen vessels. It was the excellence of the heavenly traits, and the roughness of the earthly, which made them so desirable and so ready subjects of caricature.

“These humble ambassadors of Christ, and other pious relatives, often visited Mr. Miller’s house at Poultney; and, although he received them with affection and respect, and entertained them in the most generous manner, he was in the habit of imitating, with the most ludicrous gravity, their words, tones of voice, gestures, fervency, and even the grief they might manifest for such as himself, to afford a kind of entertainment for his skeptical associates, which they seemed to enjoy with peculiar relish.

“Little did he then think that he was measuring to these faithful men what was to be measured to him again, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. And probably it was not known to him that these praying men had already expressed the hope—almost a prophecy—that their prayers would be answered, and that he would some day be engaged in perpetuating the work they were endeavoring to advance.

“There was more than one heart that was almost inconsolably afflicted by this conduct of Mr. Miller. His mother knew of it, and it was as the bitterness of death to her. Some of his pious sisters witnessed, with tears, his improprieties. And when his mother spoke of the affliction to her father Phelps, he would console her by saying, ‘Don’t afflict yourself too deeply about William. There is something for him to do yet in the cause of God!’

“Although Mr. Miller avowed himself a deist, and was recognized as such by deists, this offense against all propriety, in trifling with what his dearest relatives regarded as most sacred, this thoughtless trifling with the humble messengers of the gospel was the darkest feature in his character. To him it was the most natural course which the circumstances of his position could suggest, and, undoubtedly, appeared to be the least violation of former convictions and educational proprieties which would allow him to stand as he did, in the favor and confidence of his unbelieving associates. He had not then become acquainted with the Source of strength by which he might have been sustained before the enemies of the Christian faith; he was unprepared to take the Christian position, and he became what the influence around him naturally determined. To give the true state of the case, the darker shades must appear with the lighter. He took the position of an unbeliever. But that he was not a deist of a rank type will appear more fully from his own statements.

“We have thus stated Mr. Miller’s social and public position, his worldly prospects, and his religious state. The longsuffering of God was still to be exercised toward him. He was to become satisfied with the insufficiency of the world. Then the light which had become darkness was to be revived within him; the breath of life from God would disclose the all-sufficient portion, and he would go forth to build again the faith he had destroyed.

“Many were the prayers that ascended in his behalf; and some of those who were the most deeply interested for him would pass away before their prayers would be answered. But the great lessons of longsuffering, of faithfulness, and of the power to deliver out of the most artful snare of the adversary, would be the more magnified, on the part of God; the praying, who were yet alive, would hail the answer with greater joy, and the delivered one would be the better prepared to take others, in the same fearful condition, by the hand, and lead them to Him who came to seek and save the lost!”