Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller : $b Gathered from his memoir by the late Sylvester Bliss, and from other sources
John Stuart Mill · en
“‘If I am rightly informed, the present season of religious
excitement has been, to a great degree, free from what, I
confess, has always made me dread such times, I mean those
excesses and extravagances which wound religion in the house
of its friends, and cause its enemies to blaspheme. I most
cheerfully express my opinion that there will be, in the fruits
of the present excitement, far less to regret, and much more
for the friends of God to rejoice in—much more to be recorded
in the book of eternal life—than in any similar series of
religious exercises which I have ever had the opportunity of
watching.’
“At the time of these lectures, Eld. D. I. Robinson was stationed in
Portsmouth, as the pastor of the Methodist church, and attended a part of
the course. He writes:—
“‘I heard him all I could the first week, and thought I could
stop his wheels and confound him; but, as the revival had
commenced in the vast congregation assembled to hear, I would
not do it publicly, lest evil should follow. I therefore
visited him at his room, with a formidable list of objections.
To my surprise, scarcely any of them were new to him, and he
could answer them as fast as I could present them. And then he
presented objections and questions which confounded _me_ and
the commentaries on which I had relied. I went home used up,
convicted, humbled, and resolved to examine the question.’
“The result was, that Eld. R. became fully convinced of the nearness of
the advent, and has since been a faithful preacher of the kingdom at
hand. Eld. Thomas F. Barry, also, at this time embraced Mr. Miller’s
views, and continued an able and consistent advocate of the same till his
death, at Oswego, N. Y., July 17, 1846.
“On the 30th and 31st of January, Mr. M. again lectured in Exeter, N. H.,
and from the 2d to the 6th of February in Deerfield, N. H., after which
he returned to Boston.
CHAPTER VII.
PUBLICATION OF THE “SIGNS OF THE TIMES”—VISIT TO WATERTOWN,
PORTLAND, NEW YORK CITY, AND OTHER PLACES—LETTERS OF ELDERS
MEDBURY, FLEMING, AND GREEN—HIS SICKNESS, RESIGNATION, ETC.
“From the 8th to the 29th of February, Mr. M. gave his third course of
lectures in Boston, in the Marlboro’ Chapel and other places, as the
doors opened. It was during this series of meetings that the publication
of a journal, devoted to the doctrine of the advent, was effected. Mr.
Miller (in 1845) thus narrates its origin:—