Holding Fast the Faithful Word: Sermons and Addresses by Samuel Miller

By Samuel Miller

With this commitment in place, Samuel Miller entered his career at Princeton Seminary determined not to allow his professorial duties to diminish his calling as a minister of the gospel. And with such conviction, Miller did, indeed, continue preaching unto the last days of his life. Holding Fast the Faithful Word collects a number of sermons Miller had published during his ministry. Miller’s sermons are models of organizational clarity. His main headings are easily discerned, and he always provides practical applications from the doctrines contained in his discourses.

Table of Contents:
1. Christ Our Righteousness
2. The Evidence and Duty of Being on the Lord’s Side
3. The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord
4. The Vision is Yet for an Appointed Time
5. The Difficulties and Temptations Which Attend the Preaching of the Gospel in Great Cities
6. Christ the Model of Gospel Ministers
7. The Sacred Office Magnified
8. Holding Fast the Faithful Word
9. The Duty of the Church to Take Measures for Providing an Able and Faithful Ministry
10. A Plea for an Enlarged Ministry
11. The Divine Appointment, the Duties, and the Qualifications of Ruling Elders
12. The Duty, the Benefits, and the Proper Method of Religious Fasting
13. The Importance of Domestic Happiness
14. The Means of Domestic Happiness
15. The Appropriate Duty and Ornament of the Female Sex
16. The Dangers of Education in Roman Catholic Schools
17. The Guilt, Folly, and Sources of Suicide
18. Theatrical Amusements
19. The Rejection of Revealed Truth Referable to Moral Depravity
20. The Importance of Gospel Truth
21. Opening of the New Presbyterian Church, in Arch Street

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: Sep 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781601786326

Samuel Miller

Samuel Miller is a novelist and screenwriter, made in South Dakota, based in Los Angeles. His most recent novel, Redemption Prep, was a New York Times and Indie bestseller and is in development for television with MGM. His debut, A Lite Too Bright, released to critical acclaim and has been translated into four languages and published in eight countries. Sam wrote his first novel in a fifteen-passenger van while touring with his alt-rock band, Paradise Fears. In addition to writing novels he coaches Little League Baseball, walks his dog, and works to dismantle capitalist systems of power. You can find him at samuelmillerbooks.com.

Book preview

Holding Fast the

Faithful Word

Sermons and Addresses by

Samuel Miller

Edited by Kevin Reed

Reformation Heritage Books

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Holding Fast the Faithful Word

© 2018 by Reformation Heritage Books

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following addresses:

Reformation Heritage Books

2965 Leonard St. NE

Grand Rapids, MI 49525

616-977-0889

[e-mail]

www.heritagebooks.org

Printed in the United States of America

18 19 20 21 22 23/10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Miller, Samuel, 1769-1850, author.

Title: Holding fast the faithful word : sermons and addresses by Samuel Miller / edited by Kevin Reed.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Reformation Heritage Books, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018038785 (print) | LCCN 2018039345 (ebook) | ISBN 9781601786326 (epub) | ISBN 9781601786319 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Miller, Samuel, 1769-1850—Sermons. | Presbyterian Church—United States—Sermons.

Classification: LCC BX9178.M475 (ebook) | LCC BX9178.M475 W67 2018 (print) | DDC 252/.051—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038785

For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above regular or e-mail address.

Contents

Publisher’s Note

Biographical Sketch of Samuel Miller

Bibliographical Notes

1. Christ Our Righteousness

2. The Evidence and Duty of Being on the Lord’s Side

3. The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord

4. The Vision Is Yet for an Appointed Time

5. The Difficulties and Temptations Which Attend the Preaching of the Gospel in Great Cities

6. Christ the Model of Gospel Ministers

7. The Sacred Office Magnified

8. Holding Fast the Faithful Word

9. The Duty of the Church to Take Measures for Providing an Able and Faithful Ministry

10. A Plea for an Enlarged Ministry

11. The Divine Appointment, the Duties, and the Qualifications of Ruling Elders

12. God’s Presence and Power at Houses of Public Worship

13. The Duty, the Benefits, and the Proper Method of Religious Fasting

14. The Importance of Domestic Happiness

15. The Means of Domestic Happiness

16. The Appropriate Duty and Ornament of the Female Sex

17. The Dangers of Education in Roman Catholic Seminaries

18. The Guilt, Folly, and Sources of Suicide

19. Theatrical Amusements

20. The Rejection of Revealed Truth Referable to Moral Depravity

21. The Importance of Gospel Truth

Scripture Index

Publisher’s Note

The discourses in this volume were published over a period covering the first half of the nineteenth century. Because of changing standards within both the language and the typography of this period, the original publications possess many irregularities of usage and typography. This publication brings greater uniformity in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and typography, but the doctrinal contents have been preserved from any intentional omissions or alterations. Most of the headings within the sermons have been furnished by the editor; this arrangement was made strictly for the convenience of modern readers.

Miller’s sermons were originally published without full references for numerous citations. Additionally, the preacher often resorted to paraphrase or mere allusions to Scripture, a practice common in homiletical delivery. While verifying Miller’s citations, the present editor also discovered some inaccurate citations that were most likely the result of printing errors. The editor has endeavored to identify all references accurately and to correct typographical errors.

Kevin Reed’s introductory essay provides helpful biographical context for these sermons and addresses. If reading it sparks greater interest in Miller’s life and ministry, see James M. Garretson’s An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2014). And if this volume generates an appetite for more messages by Miller and others associated with old Princeton, see Princeton and the Work of Ministry: A Collection of Addresses and Articles by Faculty and Friend of Princeton Theological Seminary, 2 volumes (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2012).

Biographical Sketch of Samuel Miller

Kevin Reed

Preparatory Years (1769–1792)

Samuel Miller was born on October 31, 1769, in a small home about four miles from Dover, Delaware. His family ties gave him some notable connections. He was a descendant of John Alden, a signatory of the Mayflower Compact who outlived all other male signatories of that document.1 Miller was also a third cousin to President John Adams.2

Samuel’s father was John Miller, the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Dover. Samuel was born into the household of Pastor Miller as the eighth child among nine. John Miller appears to have discharged his ministerial duties well, although he often labored under financial strain. He was a staunch Calvinist. He was twice elected as moderator of his synod, which was then the highest judicatory of the Presbyterian church within the United States.3

John Miller had a reputation for being studious, and he undertook the task of instructing his children in classical literature. From age twelve, Samuel studied Latin and Greek classics under his father’s instructions at home.

Samuel pursued his studies with many interruptions and with little zeal, he later said, owing to an expectation and desire of relinquishing the study of learned languages, and entering a counting-house, with a future view to merchandise as a profession. At about eighteen years of age, Samuel had a change of heart; he began to desire the further acquisition of knowledge, but he no longer held in view any particular profession. This outlook led to a period of perplexity and anxiety concerning the best means of completing his education. During this time, Samuel noted, I was brought under very serious impressions of religion, which I hope soon after issued in a cordial acceptance of the Saviour as my hope and life. Early in the Spring of 1788, I made a profession of religion in the church of Dover, under my father’s pastoral care.4

Shortly thereafter, Samuel moved to Philadelphia, residing with his sister and brother-in-law while attending school at the University of Pennsylvania. He suffered through a period of illness, which occurred while he was struggling over his future vocation. Nevertheless, he received the first honour in his graduating class.5

Having returned home, on August 20, 1789, Samuel set apart the day in prayer and fasting to seek the Lord’s direction in choosing his profession. When he became convinced that the Lord was calling him to the Christian ministry, he sought God’s strength in the undertaking.6

Miller began to study theology under his father’s direction, and he wrote to Dr. Ashbel Green, a minister in Philadelphia, for advice regarding his studies. An entry in his diary for October 8, 1789, notes: This day I set apart for solemn fasting, humiliation and prayer, in view of attending on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on the ensuing sabbath, and also to implore the blessing of God upon my theological studies.7 This practice of fasting at crucial times in his life is seen repeatedly in the years that follow. Moreover, Miller ordinarily spent his birthday, and the anniversary date of his ordination, in solemn contemplation, prayer, and fasting.

In 1791, Samuel Miller passed his presbyterial examinations and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Lewes. After licensure, Miller spent the winter of 1791–1792 studying under Dr. Charles Nisbet, the famous Scottish clergyman who came to the United States to serve as president of Dickinson College.

In April 1792, Miller received a call from the congregation at Dover, whose pastorate had recently become vacant upon his father’s death. But the young licentiate also received another call in the autumn of 1792 resulting from a visit to New York. Miller had gone to visit a church on Long Island, and on the way to his destination he stopped in New York City and preached there. After deliberation—including prayer and fasting, Miller declined the call in Delaware and accepted the call in New York.8

Pastoral Years (1793–1813)

Samuel Miller was ordained and installed to his New York pastorate on June 5, 1793. At that time, the Presbyterian church in New York City possessed a unique organizational structure. Earlier in its history (in 1768), the congregation had become so large that one building could not accommodate its services. Two meeting places were established, but the church remained one congregation, with one bench of elders; the two pastors alternated preaching in each location. Miller was brought into this collegiate pastorate with John Rodgers and John McKnight.9 In May 1798, a third meeting place was built for the New York congregation.

Soon after coming to New York, Miller detected shortcomings in this joint pastoral arrangement. He worked to establish the individual assemblies as separate churches. Eventually the church adopted measures that placed a separate pastor over each congregation.

The setting of Miller’s pastoral labors offered much diversity. He was involved in the formation of the New York Missionary Society, an organization comprising men from several Calvinistic denominations. He also assisted in the formation of the New York Bible Society.10 Throughout his life, Miller displayed a keen interest in, and support for, missionary endeavors.

Miller engaged in many cultural pursuits as well. He was a member of The Friendly Club, an organization that included statesmen, attorneys, and men of artistic talents. Further, he was among the founders of the New York Historical Society.11

From a pastoral standpoint, Miller had plenty of opportunities to gain experience in the oversight and care of the people of his charge. During the 1790s, New York experienced two epidemics. In that era, the city’s population was about 50,000. During the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1798, about half of the population fled the city, leaving 2,000 fatalities among the remaining 25,000. Among two Presbyterian congregations, 186 persons died. Miller was twice affected with the disease.12

The Presbyterian General Assembly of 1801 convened in Philadelphia, where Miller first met Archibald Alexander. There Miller also courted his future bride, Sarah Sergeant, whom he married in the autumn of 1801.13

The New York pastorate was only the beginning of Miller’s long public life in the Presbyterian Church. The importance of his life of service was stated by one of his contemporaries: Dr. Miller occupied a very prominent place in the Presbyterian Church in this country, so that his biography in his public relations would be, to a great extent, the history of his denomination, for more than fifty years.14

Throughout his ministry, Miller’s mind was teeming with projects of writing and publishing. He published a number of sermons during the time of his pastorate as well as a wide variety of books, including several biographical works.15

In January 1804, his Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century was published. This brief account was in two volumes, each over five hundred pages in length. The work covered eighteenth-century developments in science, art, literature, and philosophy. It was intended as the first part of a four-part work, but he never produced the additional material. Yet this work gained him a widespread reputation for his intellectual ability.

Miller’s controversial theological writings in this period grew out of a conflict with Episcopalians. Certain high-church Anglicans were making noisy and dubious claims: that the sacraments are necessary to salvation (i.e., baptismal regeneration), that a non-episcopal ministry is an invalid ordination, and that non-Episcopalians are excluded from the covenanted mercies of God.16

Miller responded to these preposterous claims in a number of his writings. In July 1807, he published Letters concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry, in which he refutes the claims of the high-church Episcopalians who attacked the validity of a Presbyterian ministry. In 1809, Miller published a second volume on the controversy. This dispute is also very much in the background of his later work, Presbyterianism.17

In chapter 5 of Presbyterianism, Miller explains Presbyterian worship in contrast to the liturgical elements of Anglican worship. Specifically, he covers Presbyterian rejection of practices such as prescribed liturgies, holy days, godparents, the sign of the cross in baptism, confirmation, kneeling at the Lord’s Supper, private administration of the Lord’s Supper, bowing at the name of Jesus, and the reading of apocryphal books in public worship.

This catalog of rejections is more than a grocery list. Miller illustrates the danger of man-made ecclesiastical rituals:

If we once open this door, how or when shall it be closed? The church, we are told, has power to decree rites and ceremonies: that is, a majority of the ruling powers of the church have power at any time—as caprice, or a love of show, or superstition, or any other motive may prompt—to add rite after rite, and ceremony after ceremony, at pleasure, to the worship of God. Now if this power be really inherent in the church, what limit shall we put to its exercise?18

Miller also asserts the sole authority of Christ to establish the institutions of worship in the church:

Christ is the only king and head of the church. His word is the law of his house. Of course the church ought not to consider herself as possessing any power which that word does not warrant. If, therefore, she cannot find in scripture authority, either direct or fairly implied, to the amount contended for, she does not possess that authority.19

Miller’s role within the Presbyterian church became more prominent, and in 1806 he was chosen as moderator of the General Assembly.

Because of the shortage of ministers in the church, Presbyterians were discussing ways to train additional men for the ministry. Miller’s letters reveal this matter as a personal concern. Writing to Dr. Green in 1805, Miller remarks,

We have, if I do not mistake, a melancholy prospect, indeed, with respect to a supply of ministers for our churches. Cannot the General Assembly, at their next sessions, commence some plan of operation for supplying this deficiency? I know that there are difficulties to contend with: prejudices, narrow views, want of money, etc., etc. But it is of the utmost importance that something decisive should be done. Am I not right in supposing that, at least, two hundred more ministers might, at this moment, be advantageously employed, within the bounds of the General Assembly; and that near half that number are imperiously demanded? It appears to me that we ought, forthwith, either to establish a new theological school, in some central part of our bounds; or direct more of our attention to extend the plan and increase the energy of the Princeton establishment.20

At this time, the college at Princeton possessed no seminary; indeed, the Presbyterian church was not operating a seminary anywhere. Among the discussions related to a theological institution was the question of how many to create. Should one central school be established? Or should two be formed to minimize geographical distances between the northern and southern boundaries of the church? Or should each synod (there were seven) have a school? In the General Assembly of 1810, the reports regarding a seminary were referred to a committee of which Miller was the chairman. Ten presbyteries favored a single school, ten favored a school in each synod, six thought it inexpedient to attempt a school just yet, and nine sent no report at all. The committee finally recommended that the church proceed with a single seminary.21

Another question pertaining to the seminary was its location. Miller had earlier written in a letter,

As for the place of this school, I have no predilections—no anxieties. Feeling myself totally unqualified to take part in such a seminary, I really feel as if it were a matter of indifference to me where it may be located—within ten miles of me, or five hundred from me.22

In 1812, the General Assembly chose Princeton as the location for the new seminary and further resolved to elect a professor. The assemblymen decided to spend some time in prayer prior to the election, and no remarks were to be made, before or after balloting, regarding candidates. When the votes were counted, Archibald Alexander, then a pastor in Philadelphia, was declared elected. Dr. Miller rose and exhorted Alexander not to refuse the call, however reluctant he might feel, since he had been selected by the voice of the church.23

In the General Assembly of 1813, the assembly decided to add another professor to the seminary, and the selection process followed the same procedure by which Alexander had been chosen. When the ballots were counted, Samuel Miller had been elected. This call was unexpected by Miller, and he was apprehensive; he was humbled by the sense of responsibility involved and the qualifications necessary to perform the task. He must have also had time to reflect on his previous exhortation to Alexander not to disobey the voice of the church—an exhortation that now applied to himself. He submitted to the assembly’s call and accepted the position at Princeton. It brought an end to twenty years of pastoral ministry in New York and opened a new chapter in Miller’s history—as well as the history of the Presbyterian Church.

Princeton Years (1813–1850)

Samuel Miller assumed his position as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Seminary on September 29, 1813. In today’s language, he taught church history, ecclesiology, and homiletics.24

Upon entering his career at Princeton, Miller adopted a series of resolutions that he desired to keep, by God’s grace, in the fulfillment of his duties. Among those resolutions was one "to conduct myself toward my colleague in the seminary, as never to give the least reasonable ground of offence. It shall be my aim, by divine help, ever to treat him with the most scrupulous respect and delicacy, and never to wound his feelings, if I know how to avoid it."25 Apparently Alexander’s attitude was similar. Both men worked together in beautiful harmony for over thirty years, which was especially important in the formative years of the seminary.

From the outset, Miller perceived the necessity of training men in both the theological and practical aspects of the ministry. He saw the need to provide a pious example as well as orthodox doctrine. While at Princeton, Miller continued to fulfill ministerial functions by preaching in nearby churches and discharging pastoral labors. Repeated testimony is given of the solemn private exhortations he gave to students and of moving prayers that he offered for them. He did not simply instruct them; he shepherded them, providing crucial pastoral training by the example he provided.

This pastoral focus grew out of another resolution adopted by Miller upon taking his charge at Princeton:

Resolved, that, by the grace of God, I will not merge my office as a minister of the gospel, in that of professor. I will still preach as often as my Master gives me opportunity and strength. I am persuaded that no minister of the gospel, to whatever office he may be called, ought to give up preaching. He owes it to his ordination vows, to his office, to his Master, to the church of God, to his own character, to his own soul, to go on preaching to his last hour. Lord, give me grace to act on this principle!26

Holding these convictions, Miller did, indeed, continue preaching unto the last days of his life.27

Miller’s sermons are models of organizational clarity. His main headings are easily discerned, and he always provides practical applications from the doctrines contained in his discourses.

Most of Miller’s published sermons are topical in nature, taking their direction from small (sometimes isolated) portions of Scripture (one or two verses) while bringing in a multitude of secondary citations to expand the theme. This method may have arisen, in part, from the setting of these published discourses: most were delivered on special occasions that prompted the treatment of a specific topic. The reader should note, however, Miller’s own caution with reference to topical sermons:

The method of preaching on single, insulated texts, now almost universal, was scarcely known in the church until about the thirteenth century. The effect of this innovation has been to render the preacher more prominent than the faithful word that he professes to explain and, consequently, to diminish a taste for the study of the Scriptures in their connection.

What we style lecturing, or expounding large passages of the sacred text, was, undoubtedly, the primitive mode of preaching and, although certainly the most difficult of execution, yet when well conducted, by far the most profitable, both to the preacher himself and to his hearers.28

Thus, Miller’s published sermons may not be fully representative of his homiletical skills and methods. It would be interesting to examine his practice during the twenty years of his pulpit ministry in New York and see how his discourses were shaped when based on a more extensive exegesis of consecutive portions of Scripture.

Throughout Miller’s sermons we find his characteristic concern for Christian doctrine. In these messages, he makes repeated references to the minister’s role as a watchman on the walls of Zion (Isa. 62:6). And Miller seeks to discharge this duty faithfully by guarding the truth from the many assaults of error.

Miller’s pulpit manners are described by one of his contemporaries in the following terms:

We have already alluded to the fact that Dr. Miller early took rank with the best preachers of his day. His sermons were generally written, but in the earlier periods of his ministry, as we have heard him say, were almost always committed to memory, as the prejudice against reading in New York was so great, that it was at the peril at least of one’s reputation as a preacher that he ventured to lay his manuscript before him. At a later period, however, especially after he went to Princeton, he generally read his discourses, but he read with so much ease and freedom that, but for the turning of the leaves, one would scarcely have been aware that he was reading at all.

His voice was not strong, nor yet particularly musical, but it was pleasant notwithstanding; and so perfectly distinct was his enunciation that he could be heard without effort at the extremity of the largest church. His attitudes in the pulpit were extremely dignified, though perhaps somewhat precise; and his gesture, which was never otherwise than appropriate, was yet not very abundant. His utterance was deliberate, perhaps too much so to suit the mass of hearers; but it was marked by an evident sincerity and solemnity that were well fitted to make an impression. He would occasionally deliver a sentence with an air of majesty, and a degree of unction that would make it quite irresistible….

Still he could not be considered an impassioned preacher; and his manner was characterized rather by quiet dignity, and occasionally by genuine pathos, than by any remarkable versatility or vigour. But his discourses were decidedly superior to his manner of delivering them. He never shot at random; he always had a distinct object in view, and he went deliberately and skillfully to work to accomplish it. There was the same symmetry about his sermons as there was about his character; everything was in its right place. If you did not expect to be thrilled by such overwhelming passages as you might sometimes hear from Mason or Chalmers, you knew you would never be shocked by anything of doubtful propriety. You expected that everything in the service would be fitting and reverent, and every way up to the dignity of the pulpit; and you were never disappointed.

No man was farther than Dr. Miller from that miserable affectation that throws together dry and doubtful speculations, at best the refuse of philosophy, and then calls the heap of chaos that is thus produced a gospel sermon. While his preaching was not common place in any worse sense than the Bible is so, he had no ambition for originality that led him to stray beyond the Bible for the material of his discourses; and while he was satisfied with what he found there, his object seemed to be to work it up in a manner which should best subserve the great objects of his ministry.

We would respectfully suggest to some of our young ministers who, in their dread of being found in a beaten track, seem in danger of neutralizing divine truth, if not cutting a track for themselves outside of the Bible, that they had better gather up as many of Dr. Miller’s printed sermons as they can, and study and inwardly digest them, until they have learned from him that light is better than darkness, order better than confusion, and the simple verities of God’s word better than a dreamy philosophy.29

While Miller’s discourses cover the foundational tenets of Christianity, the faithful watchman also speaks against the social ills of his day. Two sermons on the sin of suicide, published in 1805, were instrumental in deterring one man from taking his life.30

In December of 1811, a Richmond theater caught fire, and seventy-five people died in the blaze. The public reacted with horror at this calamity; Miller provided further reflections by delivering a sermon against theatrical amusements.31

Preaching on the volatile subject of slavery, Miller made the following observations:

The history of slavery is one of the most melancholy chapters in the history of man. After all that poetry and oratory have done to portray its sin and misery, they are still far from having reached the enormity of the evil. To be adequately conceived, it must not only be seen, but experienced, in all its frightful realities. Let us try, for a moment, to make the case our own. Suppose the inhabitants of Europe to commence the practice of sending ships to our coasts, for the purpose of capturing and bearing away into slavery the citizens of this free and favoured land. Suppose that, by no law but that of brutal violence, they should seize our children, our brothers, and our sisters, and transport them in chains to their own shores, there to drag out life in hard bondage, and to transmit the same bondage as an inheritance to their children. With what feelings should we contemplate such a scene? Does the very thought fill us with horror? Does it rouse every feeling of virtuous indignation? Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matt. 7:12).

Even so, Miller continues, there is no advantage to be gained by indulging in contemptuous or acrimonious language regarding our Southern brethren.

We sometimes hear language in the eastern and middle sections of our country, in regard to the inhabitants of the principal slave states, as they are called, which is calculated deeply to wound feelings, and, of course, by no means adapted to the promotion of harmony. Is this fraternal? Is it wise? Is it politic? I really think not. I know not that we have any reason to consider our southern neighbours as more friendly to slavery, in theory, or as a system, than ourselves. They freely acknowledge the deplorable character of the evil, as it exists among themselves. They lament it; they mourn over it; and give every evidence that they desire, as sincerely as we desire, to apply some adequate remedy to the acknowledged calamity. Are they even essentially more to blame for the existence of slavery among themselves, than the inhabitants of the northern and eastern states? I apprehend they are not. For it was, perhaps, chiefly by the enterprise of eastern navigators that the slaves were transported from Africa, and landed on their territory….

The evil to which we refer is a national evil; and there ought to be a national feeling, and a national effort respecting it.32

Understandably, many of Miller’s discourses address the subject of ministerial training. Miller was conscious of the need for caution in ordaining men to the ministry. For an error it is, he said, "to imagine we really serve the church of Christ, under any circumstances, by giving her unqualified ministers. ‘Lay hands suddenly on no man; neither be thou partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.’"33 In Miller’s view, a candidate is not qualified for the ministry unless he possesses both piety and learning:

What do the pages of ecclesiastical history say on this subject? What description of ministers, in all ages, have been found most eminently useful to the church of Christ? Unquestionably those in whom eminent piety, zeal, talents, and learning were remarkably united. Let the history of the apostle Paul—let the character and services of Augustine, of Ambrose of Milan, of venerable Bede, of Wycliffe, of Huss, of Luther, of Calvin, of Knox, of Rivet, of Owen, of Baxter, of Doddridge, and to mention no more, of our own Dickinson and Edwards—be pondered well; and they will convince the most skeptical that, though men of piety may (and probably will be) the means of saving good to some souls; and though mere talents and learning may answer another very limited purpose; it is only the union of both, in an eminent degree, that can give a reasonable pledge of that deep, extensive, and permanent usefulness to the church of God, to which every man of the right spirit will not fail to aspire.34

In this connection, he speaks of a very real problem: It seems to be the opinion of many that almost any young man who appears to be pious will do for a minister, whatever may be the character of his mind. Miller rejects that notion: In the days of Paul the scarcity of ministers, and the urgent demand for them, were far more pressing than in our day; yet, even then, the inspired apostle was very particular in prescribing qualifications, without which he decided that no one ought to be admitted to the sacred office. He continues by saying, The state of society calls more loudly every day for mature scholars, able divines, and powerful writers.35

Miller warns ministerial students of the miserable delusion that ‘the Lord hath need’ of but half qualified servants. He goes on to say:

The truth is, there are unqualified men enough in the ministry. Other denominations are furnishing them in abundantly sufficient numbers. The task seems to be incumbent on us, under God, to train up for the service of the church ministers of a more mature, scriptural, and elevated character; and if the proper qualifications are not insisted on, and provided for by our church; if the great mass of those sent by us are not able, as well as pious and faithful, ministers of the New Testament, I know of no denomination of Christians likely to supply the deficiency.36

During his service at Princeton, Miller’s influence was extended throughout the Presbyterian Church in many ways. His greatest contribution to American Presbyterianism appears to be in the area of church polity. Apart from the foundational Protestant Reformers (Calvin and Knox), it is questionable whether any other individual has ever had a greater impact on American Presbyterian church government than Samuel Miller. The following statement, penned by a contemporary of Miller, provides a summary of Miller’s many accomplishments in this field:

By his writings, and by his instructions, he became, perhaps more than any other man, the recognized authority of the Presbyterian church in all matters relating to her polity and order. His views on these and kindred topics have had an influence in the Presbyterian church as widely extended as it has been conservative and beneficial. He is probably our most voluminous author, while all his writings have been eminently judicious and practical.37

In 1816, the General Assembly placed Miller on a committee, with two others, to revise the Form of Government, the Book of Discipline, and the Directory for Worship. Amendments to these documents were ratified by the General Assembly in 1821.

During the summer session of 1824, Miller addressed students on the subject of creeds and confessions. This lecture formed the basis for his published work on the topic, The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions (1839).38 In his discourse, Miller not only argues for the necessity of creeds to guard against heresy but also demonstrates their function in promoting unity and order in the church.

Miller regards confessional subscription as a very solemn transaction which means much and infers the most serious obligations. An evasive subscription is described as solemn perjury. Miller notes that a relaxation of confessionalism leads to serious deterioration of the government of the church. Such confessional deterioration became a crucial matter during the controversies that rocked the church during the 1830s. Speaking of the Westminster Confession of Faith, he asks:

Will you suffer one article of it after another to be nullified, in fact, by reckless subscription, until its whole dignity and authority shall perish together? In other words, will you suffer men of coarse and ductile consciences, with the philosophy and the language of Pelagianism on their lips, to be guilty of the solemn, dishonest mockery of subscribing your Calvinistic creed, and entering your judicatories?39

In calling for adherence to Presbyterian order, Miller warns of ways in which Presbyterian government may be subverted. He specifically criticizes sessions that have admitted men into the eldership without proper subscription; many sessions allowed men to hold office while these officers adopted the confession with an avowed laxity of construction, or an evident mental reservation, altogether inconsistent with Christian probity.40

Miller’s call for confessionalism is especially timely today. In many Presbyterian churches, the Westminster Confession appears to be little more than window dressing that is used to claim links with the past; in the meantime, pastors and other officers may demonstrate little commitment to the truths embodied in the noble document. Oh! that Miller’s warning might be heard throughout the land.

Miller first published his Letters on Clerical Manners and Habits in 1827. His concern was to address matters of courtesy and etiquette for ministerial students. He wanted ministers who were both theologically educated and pious, but he also wanted men who were not boors in their manners. He wished them to be Christian gentlemen who adorned the gospel with simple and dignified behavior.

In these letters, Miller treats a wide range of topics: conversation, visitation, study habits, pulpit manners, clothing, style of living, and conduct in the various stations of a minister’s life. One chapter deals with offensive personal habits. He directs considerable fire to the practice of spitting on the floors and carpets of the apartments in which you are seated. This habit is filthy and peculiarly disgusting.41

Later, Miller mentions in a cursory manner some other bad habits to be avoided. Among them are

audible and uncovered eructation [belching]; picking the nose, and the ears, not in a guarded and delicate manner, with a handkerchief, but with the finger, and with full exposure to view; blowing the nose in a loud and disgusting manner…42

This is very practical advice that, unfortunately, is frequently neglected even in the twenty-first century.

In another down-to-earth section, Miller discusses female society and marriage. With reference to courtship, Miller cautions,

Be on your guard against the advice and interference of notorious matchmakers. There are such persons in every community. They are your forward, sanguine, and often well-meaning busy-bodies, who have a wife or a husband ready for almost every unmarried individual of their acquaintance; and who appear always willing to incur the responsibility of being the known contrivers of a match. Never court the assistance, or put yourself in the power, of such a pestiferous race.43

Other practical advice in the volume touches on matters of great spiritual importance. In counseling the spiritually inquisitive, Miller says,

Be careful to give clear doctrinal instruction concerning the plan of salvation to those who are anxious and inquiring. I have observed it to be the manner of some, in conversing with such persons, to deal chiefly in tender and solemn exhortation, under the belief that the grand object aimed at ought to be to impress the conscience and the heart, rather than to impart doctrinal knowledge. But it ought to be remembered that neither the conscience nor the heart can ever be suitably impressed but through the medium of truth. It is only as far as gospel truth is apprehended that any genuine scriptural exercises with regard to it can exist. Carefully study, then, to impart to every anxious mind clear views of the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. Not that, in conversing with such persons you are ever to perplex them with the metaphysical refinements of theology, which ought ever to be, as far as possible, avoided. But the course which I deem of so much importance is that you constantly endeavour to fill their minds with plain, simple, connected Bible truth; that you dwell on the scriptural character of God; the nature and requisitions of his holy law; the pollution, guilt and danger of all men in their natural state; the divinity of the Saviour; the efficacy of his atoning sacrifice; the unsearchable riches and freeness of his grace; the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and sanctifying the heart; and the utter helplessness, and, at the same time, perfect responsibility and blameworthiness of man. Just as far as these great doctrines are fastened on the conscience and impressed on the heart, and no further, may we hope to become the instruments of saving benefit to those whom we address.

Miller also warns against being too ready to speak peace or to administer consolation to those who are in a serious, anxious state of mind…. Indeed I have often thought it is very seldom proper for a minister (or any other pious man), in conversing with an anxious person, to be forward to pronounce a favourable judgment with respect to his state.44 Miller’s words are especially needful, since the twenty-first-century church is plagued by a gospel of easy-believism, whose advocates race listeners through a shallow presentation of their message, lead converts in the quick recital of a prescribed prayer, pronounce them saved, and seek to administer words of assurance—all in the space of about ten minutes.

In 1829, Miller preached at the pastoral installation of William B. Sprague. In his message, Miller spoke of the deplorable lack of doctrinal information among the mass of the people. He notes one reason for the lack of theological knowledge within the church:

the light and ephemeral character of what we may call the religious literature of the day. Have not religious newspapers, and other light periodical publications, in a great measure taken the place of the larger and more instructed works before alluded to? publications which, by their number, have left little time for other reading; and by their superficial character, little taste for reading of a more deep, solid, and connected kind.45

In light of this observation, Miller’s concern about the need for good Christian literature may have been a contributing factor in his motivation to write and publish so much material.

In 1831, Miller produced what is perhaps his most significant work: An Essay, on the Warran and Duties of the Office of the Ruling Elder, in the Presbyterian Church. This book contains an extensive scriptural and historical presentation on the eldership, and the work is the starting point for subsequent nineteenth-century discussion on the topic.

Miller asserts the biblical warrant for Presbyterian government, by treating passages in both the Old and New Testaments focusing especially on the office of elder. He discusses the governmental structure of the Jewish synagogue and shows how certain elements were carried over into New Testament church government. He then provides a historical treatment of the elder’s office—traced from the church fathers, through the Reformation, and up to contemporary practice. Next, he gives a section of tremendously practical material on the qualifications of elders, the duties of the office, and the procedures for removing men from the eldership.46

During the 1830s, the Presbyterian Church was rocked by the intense disputes of the Old School/New School controversy, which revolved around doctrinal deviation from the confessional standards, governmental irregularities within presbyteries, and the spurious revivalism conducted in the fashion of Charles Finney.

Within this setting, Miller published a series of letters designed to address many of the issues producing the escalating tensions in the church. These letters were first published in The Presbyterian during a period of five months in 1833; the epistles were later reprinted as a book, Letters to Presbyterians on the Present Crisis in the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

In these letters, it is apparent that Miller possesses a great desire for peace and unity in the church. Nevertheless, he recognizes that such peace and unity cannot come at the expense of fundamental truths. Topics receiving detailed discussion include voluntary associations (parachurch organizations), church boards, adherence to doctrinal standards, revivals, and adherence to Presbyterian order.

Miller is critical of the new measures employed in Finney revivalism. Among such measures is the anxious seat, commonly known today as the altar call or invitation. Miller states that it is a dangerous practice to call on men to rise in an assembly as a sign of commitment, to register their anxious concerns, or as a signal that they have obtained a hope. Miller says, Of all methods yet devised, this appears to me most directly adapted to fill the church with rash, ignorant, superficial, hypocritical professors—instead of solid, intelligent, truly spiritual and devoted Christians. He issues a further warning:

I feel constrained to add, that when this highly excited system of calling to anxious seats, calling out into the aisles to be prayed for, etc., is connected (as to my certain knowledge, it often has been) with erroneous doctrines: for example, with the declaration that nothing is easier than conversion; that the power of the Holy Spirit is not necessary to enable impenitent sinners to repent and believe; that if they only resolve to be for God (resolve to be Christians), that itself is regeneration, the work is already done; I say, where the system of anxious seats, etc., is connected with such doctrinal statements as these, it appears to me adapted to destroy souls by wholesale!47

In tracing erroneous practices to defective theology, Miller is not at a loss to describe the faulty doctrine. It is Pelagianism:

Let me entreat the friends of Bible truth, then, to beware of those who talk of Calvinistic facts explained by Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian philosophy. It is an utter and ruinous delusion. The Pelagian philosophy never fails to transform all the facts, which it perverts and tortures, into Pelagian facts—with this dangerous circumstance attending them: that they are really Pelagian under a deceptive name and false colours.48

Miller extends no ecclesiastical toleration to Pelagians. In personal correspondence, he indicates that open and thorough Pelagians should be barred from the Communion table: I must say, with the excellent Dr. Witherspoon, that I cannot consider them as deserving the name of Christians at all.49 The Pelagian movement was temporarily expelled from the church, with decisive actions taken in the General Assembly of 1837. After this expulsion, both the church and Miller enjoyed some less turbulent years.50

Perhaps the reader would appreciate a description of Miller’s general appearance. He was about five feet nine and had fair complexion, blue eyes, and in his later years was bald (although he had white hair on the sides of his head). He employed a couple of habitual mannerisms when speaking, such as a peculiar bending of his head to one side, and a gesture with his right hand. Possessing a natural social temperament, he loved to converse and tell anecdotes, but he was noted for his constant engagement in religious conversation. In his manners, he was described as the perfect model of a Christian gentleman. His mind was retentive, marked by clear thought and organization. He required every night, eight hours of sleep, well rounded out at both ends. In sum, he was said to display an overall symmetry of character.51

As his professional career advanced, Miller still maintained his pastoral focus. As noted, he had early on resolved not to allow his ministerial office to become eclipsed by his position as a professor of theology. Therefore, he continued to preach in neighboring churches. He also took seriously his duty to admonish men concerning their faults, whether they were students, or even public figures outside of the church. Such reproof seems to have been given in a courteous manner with a genuine concern for the spiritual welfare of the recipients. In his private meetings with students, he prayed with them and for them.52

Throughout his life, Miller retained a zeal for missionary endeavors and benevolent activities. As many others in his day, Miller had a missionary vision that was governed by a belief in scriptural promises of a latter-day glory in the church, when the world would be conquered by the gospel. Many references to this eschatological hope are scattered throughout his writings, although this theme is most clearly expounded in a mission sermon of 1835, The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord, based on Numbers 14:20–21. Miller looked for the universal spread of the gospel; the grace of God would not only touch individuals but also simultaneously produce a social transformation among the nations. Moreover, the law of God is viewed as an integral part of the gospel. Wherever the gospel reigns, it is visibly demonstrated by an outward obedience to the Scriptures, as exemplified by sabbath-keeping and by upholding the laws of Christian marriage.53

How will this glorious gospel victory be accomplished? While Miller connects true revivals with the millennial hope of the church, he tends to emphasize the ordinary work of the church as the means of conquering the world:

There will be no need of miracles (in the ordinary sense of that word) to bring about the accomplishment of the promise before us. Only suppose the genuine power of the gospel (which we see reigning in thousands of individuals and families now) actually reigning in all hearts, and to pervade the world, and the work is done.54

One of the cautions Miller urges in connection with revivals is that we must not undervalue the ordinary means of grace, which include sabbath exercises, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and prayer meetings.55 A neglect of the routine work of the church militates against those features that typify the latter-day glory. For example, Miller cautioned his students against the short-term thinking that is often exhibited by an impatient desire to plunge into ministerial activity without adequate preparation:

For my part, so long as I see so many candidates for the holy ministry contenting themselves with superficial and totally inadequate preparation for their exalted and arduous work; and so many actually venturing forth to that work with qualifications which fit them to be only transient meteors, and very humble ones too, rather than bright and steady luminaries in the church of God; I cannot suppose that the millennium is very near. I believe that that time will be as much distinguished for mature ministerial preparation, as for ministerial holiness, zeal, fidelity, and activity. If you desire, then, to hasten on that glorious period; if you desire, each one of you, to contribute as much as possible towards preparing the world for its arrival; then give all diligence to imbibe the spirit, and rise to something of the elevation, which that period will assuredly put in requisition.56

The way to foster the millennial hope is to believe the promises of God, encourage an enlarged vision in the church, and labor diligently in the means ordained to spread the gospel and build the kingdom of Christ. Thus, Miller’s eschatological expectations gave a strong impetus to missionary efforts. His beliefs were backed by his generous contributions to various missionary enterprises. His wife also assisted in missionary and benevolent activities, including a program to provide education for needy children.57

Another long-standing concern of Dr. Miller was for the children of the church. This theme is frequently treated in his writings and made the subject of exhortations to his students. Take care of the children of your charge, he said; they are the hope of the church. Miller also recommended that every minister take care to attract and bind to his person (and ministry) promising young men who come his way.58

In 1835, Miller published four discourses on baptism, defending the practice of infant baptism and the mode of sprinkling (or affusion). At the outset, his position is based on the essential unity of the people of God in the Old and New Testaments. He points to Jeremiah’s description of Israel as an olive tree (Jer. 11:16). He then compares it to Paul’s use of the olive tree in Romans 11, wherein the church is described. This comparison reveals the unity of the people of God before and after Christ’s incarnation.59 A related comment is found in Miller’s correspondence:

I consider the visible church as having been founded in the family of Adam, and as beginning as soon as man was placed under a dispensation of mercy. It is wholly incredible in my view that there should be no visible church in the world until the call of Abraham. Can it be imagined that, during these two thousand years, there should be pious people—a people professing the true religion, a people worshipping God by sacrifices, etc., in the way of his own appointment—and yet no church? What is a church, but a body of people, professing the true religion, together with their children? Surely, there was such a body in the family of Adam.60

This doctrine of the unity of the people of God, extending in the church back to Adam, has a twofold importance today. First, it still remains foundational to the doctrine of baptism. Second, it destroys the foundational presuppositions of modern dispensationalism.

In 1843, Miller marked the fiftieth year since his ordination. He also published another book, Letters from a Father to His Sons in College, which treats such topics as obedience to laws, manners, morals, religion, health, patriotism, general reading, studies, friendships, dress, and expenses.

In 1849, at the age of seventy-nine, Miller published his final book, Thoughts on Public Prayer. It contains a history of public prayer that gives attention to praying to the east, prayers for the dead, prayers to saints and Mary, prayers in an unknown tongue, responses in public prayer, and posture in public prayer. The chapter devoted to the claims of liturgies favors extemporaneous prayer instead of written prayers or prescribed forms. The book concludes with a large section of practical material aimed at correcting faults in public prayer, and there are also recommendations on measures to engender excellence in prayer.

Miller’s contemporaries state that he excelled in this aspect of corporate worship; it was certainly no accident, since Miller labored to develop his abilities in public prayer. Therefore, his volume on public prayer has the benefit of mature thought and many years of practical experience.

It was characteristic of Miller to give attention to details that others often overlooked. For example, in Thoughts on Public Prayer, Miller criticizes the practice of sitting during prayer: "The posture of sitting in public prayer has no countenance either from scripture, from reason, or from respectable usage in any part of the church’s history." Miller points to biblical practice in this matter, and he notes the irreverence displayed by sitting during corporate prayer.61

His admonition did not go unnoticed. In 1849, the same year that Miller’s book was published, the General Assembly passed the following resolution:

While the posture of standing in public prayer, and that of kneeling in private prayer, are indicated by examples in scripture, and the general practice of the ancient Christian church, the posture of sitting in public prayer is nowhere mentioned, and by no usage allowed; but on the contrary, was universally regarded by the early church as heathenish and irreverent; and is still, even in the customs of modern western nations, an attitude obviously wanting in the due expression of reverence: therefore this General Assembly resolve, that the practice in question be considered grievously improper, whenever the infirmities of the worshipper do not render it necessary; and that ministers be required to reprove it with earnest and persevering admonition.62

The spring of 1849 brought a decline in Miller’s health. That year he resigned his post at Princeton, bringing to an end his lengthy career as a professor. After hearing of Miller’s resignation, a struggling missionary church wrote to inquire if Miller would consider a call to labor among them. The congregation was apparently unaware that Miller’s deteriorating health, which kept him mostly confined to his home, rendered such a proposal completely out of the question.63

Although Miller’s physical and mental strength diminished, he was prepared for death. Accounts of those last few days testify of how he ministered to the visitors who had come with the purpose of encouraging him.64

Samuel Miller died on January 7, 1850, shortly after a visit from Archibald Alexander. During that visit, after offering prayer, Alexander said, You are now in the dark valley.

Oh yes, was Miller’s only reply.

I shall soon be after you! answered Alexander.65

Miller lived for only about six hours more. Alexander delivered a funeral address, based on Hebrews 11:13, These all died in faith. Charles Hodge prepared the epigraph for Miller’s monument, which reads, in part,

SAMUEL MILLER, D.D., LL.D.,

Born at Dover, Delaware, Oct. 31, 1769

Died at Princeton, N.J., Jan. 7, 1850

For twenty-one years Pastor of the First Presbyterian

Church in the city of New York,

For thirty-six years Professor of Ecclesiastical

History and Church Government in

the Theological Seminary

in this place,

In both callings, faithful and edifying;

An acceptable and evangelical preacher;

A learned and assiduous teacher

A voluminous and celebrated author;

Firm in adhering to truth, and bold to maintain it;

Revered in the Councils of the Church

which he loved and served,

And of whose ministers he was among the

most distinguished and beloved

Through all its extent.

---

1. Samuel Miller (the younger), The Life of Samuel Miller, D.D., LL.D. (Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger, 1869), 1:13–14. Cf. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1952), 443.

2. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:306–7; 2:49–51.

3. William B. Sprague, ed., Annals of the American Pulpit (New York, 1868; repr., New York: Arno Press, 1969), 3:169–72. Records of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Embracing the Minutes of the General Presbytery and General Synod, 1706–1788 (Philadelphia, 1904; repr., New York: Arno Press, 1969), 341, 486.

4. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:33.

5. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:34–41.

6. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:43.

7. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:45; cf. 1:54–55.

8. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:62–68.

9. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:81–82.

10. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:104–5, 276.

11. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:110–11, 276.

12. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:118.

13. Sprague, Annals, 3:602.

14. James Carnahan, cited in Sprague, Annals, 3:607.

15. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:136. Of Miller’s biographical writings, see Memoirs of the Rev. John Rodgers (1813), The Medical Works of Edward Miller (1814), Life of Jonathan Edwards (1837), and Memoir of the Rev. Charles Nisbet (1840).

16. See Miller, Life of Miller, 1:206–7; and Samuel Miller, The Primitive and Apostolic Order of the Church of Christ Vindicated (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1840), 5–33.

17. Samuel Miller, A Continuation of Letters concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry (New York, 1809); cf. Life of Miller, 1:278–80. See also his Presbyterianism the Truly Primitive and Apostolical Constitution of the Church of Christ (Philadelphia, 1835).

18. Miller, Presbyterianism, 66; cf. 65.

19. Miller, Presbyterianism, 66.

20. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:192.

21. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:280–87.

22. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:281.

23. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:333. For the events surrounding Miller’s call to Princeton, see pp. 347–51.

24. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:356; 2:408–10, 415.

25. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:10.

26. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:10.

27. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:398–402.

28. See pp. 185–86 below.

29. These remarks were probably written by William B. Sprague. They appear in a Biographical Notice of Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., in The Presbyterian Magazine, 2 (1852): 516–17. Some of these comments are reproduced, with additional material, in Sprague’s entry on Miller in Annals, 3:600–612.

30. See Miller, Life of Miller, 1:186–88.

31. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:321–22.

32. Samuel Miller, A Sermon, Preached at New-Ark, October 22, 1823, before the Synod of New-Jersey, for the Benefit of the African School, under the Care of the Synod (Trenton, N.J.: George Sherman, 1823), 3, 5–6.

33. Miller, Life of Miller, 1:289.

34. Samuel Miller, The Importance of Mature Preparatory Study for the Ministry (Andover, Mass.: Mark Newman, 1830), 27; cf. Samuel Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, on the Present Crisis in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Philadelphia: Anthony Finley, 1833), 234–36.

35. Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, 230–31, 249.

36. Miller, Importance of Mature Preparatory Study, 29, 21.

37. Dr. Leroy J. Halsey, cited in Life of Miller, 2:507.

38. See Miller, Life of Miller, 2:96–102, 112.

39. Letters to Presbyterians, 159–60, 149. Cf. below, The Importance of Gospel Truth, pp. 585–86, 589–90.

40. Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, 205.

41. Samuel Miller, Letters on Clerical Manners and Habits, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1852), 49.

42. Miller, Letters on Clerical Manners, 66.

43. Miller, Letters on Clerical Manners, 318.

44. Miller, Letters on Clerical Manners, 124–25.

45. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:145.

46. The precursor to this book was a sermon on the ruling elder, preached in 1809; see pp. 237–61 below.

47. Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, 163–65. Miller urges that those under conviction of sin be directed to private pastoral counseling, calm self-examination, and much serious retired closet work (172). Miller gives similar and related remarks in his letter contained in the appendix of William Sprague’s Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1832; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1978), 22–44.

48. Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, 103.

49. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:352.

50. See Miller, Life of Miller, 2:325–47.

51. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:384–85, 530, 397, 387–88, 382, 390, 395.

52. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:10, 399, 401, 463–64, 414–15.

53. See Samuel Miller, The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord, in The American National Preacher 10, no. 7 (December 1835): 291–92. See below, pp. 41–61.

54. Earth Filled with the Glory, 97; cf. Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, 152.

55. Miller, Letters to Presbyterians, 174.

56. Miller, Importance of Mature Preparatory Study, 28.

57. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:419.

58. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:416, 502; cf. 458–59.

59. Samuel Miller, Infant Baptism Scriptural and Reasonable: and Baptism by Sprinkling or Affusion, the Most Suitable and Edifying Mode (1835; repr., Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1840), 9–12.

60. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:530–38.

61. Samuel Miller, Thoughts on Public Prayer (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1849), 116–30.

62. Cited in Samuel J. Baird, ed., A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances, and Testimonies of the Supreme Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1858), 255.

63. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:516–17, 527.

64. Miller, Life of Miller, 2:530–38.

65. Alexander died on October 22, 1851. The account of Miller’s death is found in Life of Miller, 2:539–42; see p. 548 for the inscription by Hodge, printed at the conclusion of the essay.

Bibliographical Notes

Christ Our Righteousness was originally published as sermons 230 and 231 in The American National Preacher 11, no. 7 (December 1836): 99–114.

The Evidence and Duty of Being on the Lord’s Side was printed as sermons 8 and 9 in The National Preacher 1, no. 7 (December 1826): 97–112.

The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord appeared as sermon 205 in