“‘It is a small thing to be judged of man’s judgment, says the apostle; so that you need not fear man. I have often been consigned to perdition, and yet I have a blessed hope. I often think, when I hear a brother judging and condemning another, what an excellent pope he would make. Therefore, fear them not; for if we judge and condemn our brother, we are making ourselves “judges of the law, rather than doers of the law.” ...
“‘Wm. Miller.’
We find in the Signs of the Times for March 12, 1845, a statement from Mr. Miller relative to himself and the Bible, taken from The Investigator, an infidel paper published in Boston.
“‘TO THE EDITOR OF THE INVESTIGATOR.
“‘Sir,—Your kind offer to publish all the letters from those who have been converted from infidelity to Millerism, prompts me to give you a short account of my own conversion, which may enable you the better to judge what Millerism is.
“‘When I was of age, I settled in a village where all the heads of the families were deists, as they were then called, and they put into my hands all the deistical writings of that age. I soon became one of them, and the consequence was, I denied the Bible being of divine origin, calling it a “book of priestcraft,” and argued that the professors of it themselves must, if honest, concede that it could not be from God; because it professed to be a revelation from God, and yet more than half was a mystery which could not be understood. And some went as far as to say we ought not to try to understand it. This, to my mind, was a plain and palpable contradiction. I therefore rejected the Bible, when I ought to have rejected the expounders of it. Thus, from 1804 to 1816, I was a firm, and, as I then thought, a consistent, opposer of the Christian faith. In 1816, by the grace of God, my eyes were opened to see the weakness and folly of my own faith, founded on nothing but the philosophy, assumptions and fancies of erring mortals. I saw a great want of evidence for a faith in these matters, more substantial and certain than anything I then had. I felt in my inmost soul that eternal consequences might hang upon my faith in these things, for anything to the contrary which I could show. I had often laughed at my Christian friends for having a “blind faith,” believing what they could not understand. I now saw that my faith was as blind as theirs, if not more so, for I could prove nothing hereafter, and of course I had no reasonable hope.
“‘This brought me to examine for myself the evidence of the Christian’s hope. I therefore laid by my former prejudices, prepossessions, commentators, writers, pro and con, and determined in my own mind to examine the Bible for myself. And if the Bible did prove itself to be of divine origin, I would believe it, let the consequences be as they might; but if it did not, then I would reject it and be a deist still. Then I began the Bible, determined in my own mind to know whether God or man was the author. I spent the greater part of two years in reading and comparing scripture with scripture, prophecy with history, and I had not gone half through with the reading of it, before I was perfectly satisfied of its divine origin. No mortal man, or men, could have written with such harmony, wisdom, and truth, without inspiration. The Bible answered all my inquiries, settled all my doubts, established my faith, and gave me hope which has been nearly or quite twenty-seven years an anchor to my soul. I have seen much of it fulfilled, since then, and I can truly say, If there is any one thing on earth which I love above all others, it is the Bible.
“‘And now, sir, let me tell you, Millerism is to believe, try to understand, love, and proclaim to others, the good news contained in the Bible. This is all I have ever done to call down the slander of the several sects which I have received. I can say, honestly, I have never designed to proclaim or publish any sentiment, word, or doctrine, but such as I found clearly taught in that blessed inspired volume. Let God be my judge, I know I believe it. And I pray God that you, my dear sir, may become a Millerite too.