CHAPTER III

Beginnings in America

THE outstanding pioneer in America of the doctrine of Christ's approaching second advent, was William Miller, a Baptist layman. The early life of this man throws so much light on his public career that it seems desirable to reproduce it in some detail.

Born at Pittsfield, Mass., Feb. 15, 1782, William was the eldest of sixteen children. Even in early childhood he gave promise of more than ordinary intellectual vigor, and as he advanced in years, his fondness for books and study asserted itself more and more. The district school was in operation only three months in the year; but the winter nights were long, and a pile of blazing pine knots in the spacious fireplace was no mean substitute for candles.

The father's circumstances improved in time, a good farmhouse took the place of the log cabin, and the eldest son had a room he could call his own, where he could read his favorite books by candlelight; but he failed to obtain the education that

his heart longed for. In 1803 he was married, and settled on a farm in Poultney, Vt., where his constant and assiduous use of the books in the village library soon brought him to the attention of the intellectually inclined citizens, his home also becoming a favorite resort of the young people.

Like other young men, William Miller had grown up in the midst of religious influences, but he had not experienced conversion. Nevertheless he continued, while in the home town, to associate with people of a religious turn of mind, and apparently felt himself in sympathy with their main beliefs. On taking up his residence at Poultney, Mr. Miller was thrown in with a different class of associates. They were considered men of good moral character, but lacked religious principle. They fed their minds with the writings of Voltaire and other authors of that class, and their finer spiritual sensibilities were blunted. Deists, they called themselves, and Mr. Miller, having no definite church connections and no personal experience in divine things, joined them.

Mr. Miller entered the army at the outbreak of the war of 1812. Army life is not calculated in most cases to draw a man nearer to God. With him, however, it meant taking him away from the intimate society of men steeped in skepticism, and throwing him among strangers, with the natural result of making him more thoughtful and introspective. In his "Apology and Defense," published in 1845, he has this to say of his feelings:

"In 1813 I received a captain's commission in the United States service, and continued in the army until peace was declared. While there, many occurrences served to weaken my confidence in the correctness of deistical principles. I was led frequently to compare this country to that of the children of Israel, before whom God drove out the inhabitants of their land. It seemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over the interests of this country in an especial manner, and delivered us from the hands of our enemies.

"I was particularly impressed with this view when I was in the battle of Plattsburg, when, with 1,500 regulars and about 4,000 volunteers, we defeated the British, who were 15,000 strong; we being also successful at the same time in an engagement with the British fleet on the lake. At the commencement of the battle we looked upon our own defeat as almost certain, and yet we were victorious. So surprising a result against such odds did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man.""Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller," by James White, p. 38.

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On retiring from the army, Mr. Miller removed to Low Hampton, N. Y., the home of his boyhood days, where he bought a farm of two hundred acres, built a comfortable house, and

settled down to country life. His leisure time he continued to devote to reading of a serious character. He had arrived at an age when ultimate things demand some attention. His deistic views gave him no real peace of mind, and no hope for the future. All was dark and uncertain before him.

Meanwhile he was outwardly cheerful, and his home in Low Hampton, as previously at Poultney, was a popular resort for the young people of the place, as well as the regular stopping place of the ministers who officiated in the little Baptist meeting house near by. In the absence of a regular minister, it was the custom to read a sermon, and on these occasions, Mr. Miller, at the request of the deacons, did the reading, they making the selection.

On a certain Sunday in September, 1816, it thus fell to Mr. Miller's lot to read a sermon on "The Importance of Parental Duties." He had been in an unusually serious frame of mind for the few days preceding this meeting, and there was deep feeling in the community, a stirring sermon having been preached during the week by a traveling evangelist. Soon after he had begun to read the sermon, he was overwhelmed with a flood of conflicting emotions, and had to take his seat.

"Suddenly [he afterward wrote] the character of a Saviour 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 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 Saviour, or even of a future state.

"I saw that the Bible did bring to view just such a Saviour 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 Saviour 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." - Id., pp. 43, 44.

Following this change of heart, Mr. Miller naturally made a corresponding outward change. He began to conduct family prayers in his home, made a public profession of his faith, and joined the little company of believers which had formerly been the object of his good-natured ridicule. He also began to consider what he could do to help his deist friends.

Shortly after he had taken his stand as a Christian, while telling a friend of his hope and belief in the merits of the Sav

iour, he was asked how he could even be sure of the existence of such a Being, and made the reply:

"It is revealed in the Bible."

"How do you know the Bible is true?" asked the friend, and went on to speak of apparent inconsistencies and contradictions in that book.

Mr. Miller felt the force of his friend's remarks, and was perplexed. He concluded, however, on reflection, that the Bible as a revelation of God must be consistent with itself, and having been given to man for his guidance and instruction, it must be intelligible to him.

He now gave himself to the study of the Bible with all the enthusiasm of a keen intellectual nature. He devoted whole nights as well as days to his investigations, being baffled now and then, only in time to rejoice over new victories, while the plan of salvation gradually assumed clearer outlines, and the love of God to man became more and more manifest. He says:

"I determined to lay aside all my prepossessions, to thoroughly compare scripture with scripture, and to pursue its study in a regular and methodical manner. I commenced with Genesis, and read verse by verse, proceeding no faster than the meaning of the several passages should be so unfolded as to leave me free from embarrassment respecting any mysticisms or contradictions. Whenever I found anything obscure, my practice was to compare it with all collateral passages; and by the help of Cruden, I examined all the texts of Scripture in which were found any of the prominent words contained in any obscure portion. Then, by letting every word have its proper bearing on the subject of the text, if my view of it harmonized with every collateral passage in the Bible, it ceased to be a difficulty."— Id., pp. 47, 48.

Mr. Miller followed this method of studying the Scriptures for a period of two years, by which time he had come to some fairly definite conclusions. He was led to reject, for instance, the then popular belief in a temporal millennium, and the return of the Jews to Palestine. He had adopted the belief in the premillennial advent of Christ.

"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 His Father; that at His coming the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven will be given unto Him and the saints of the Most High, who will possess it forever, even forever and ever; that as the old world perished by the deluge, so the earth that now is, is reserved unto fire, to be melted with fervent heat at Christ's coming; after which, according to the promise. it is to become the new earth, wherein the righteous will forever dwell; that at His coming the bodies of all the righteous dead will be raised, and all the righteous living be changed from a corruptible to an incorruptible, from a mortal to an immortal state; that they will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and will reign with Him forever in the regenerated earth."- Id., pp. 51, 52.