Miller, Samuel (2), a minister of the German Reformed Church, was born in Union County, Pa., March 23, 1815. He was licensed in 1842, and ordained the following year. He first labored in Dauphin, and then in Butler County, Pa. In 1852 he removed to Cham- bersburg. Pa., where he stood in connection with the publication office of the Keformed Church as associate editor of the Messenger and Kirchenzeitinifj. After la- boring in this capacity about six j^ears, he returned to the pastoral work, residing for several years in Lebanon, and afterwards in Pottsville, Pa. His health failing, he removed to Philadelphia, where he died, Oct. 11, 1873. ]Mr. ]\[iller was a man of decided talent, genial spirit, and indomitable energy, patience, and perseverance. He is the author of a work of some merit, entitled Mercers- burr/ and Modern Theology compared, and of quite a number of articles in the Mercersburg Review. — Ref. Ch. Mess. Nov. 5, 1873. (D. Y. H.)
Miller, Samuel J., an American divine of some note, figured lirst as missionary to Africa, and later as agent of the Colonization Society. He died in 1818. He was the editor of the celebrated Report of the Pres- byterian Church: The Commonivealth of Pennsylvania vs. Ashbel Green and Others (Phila. 8vo; new ed. 1855. 8vo, p. 596).
Miller, Thomas, one of the pioneer preachers of American Methodism, largely identified with the spread of Jlethodist doctrine in Maryland, was born about the year 1770, of Irish parentage, and was reared in the Presbyterian Church. About 1800 he joined the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and soon became an official mem- ber; in 1808 he was licensed to exhort and preach. His itinerant life commenced in 1809, under the elder Dr. Chandler, and continued till 1848, nearly forty years. In his early ministry he was healthy and strong, and never spared his strength ; in fact, his health and strength served him well through all his ministerial course. He was stationed for twelve years at different times in Philadelphia, and held other important charges. His early education was limited, but constant reading and close application, added to great natural abilities, made him an able minister of the New Testament. He was known by the title of '• Old Father Miller" far and wide, and he was loved and honored by all who knew him, both in and out of the Church. He was a good friend to the young, and took great interest in the Sab- bath-school. He took many a young man by the hand, and helped him into the ministry. He died in 1848.
Miller, Tobias Ham, a Universalist minister and journalist, was born about 1802. In early life he was settled in Maine as an orthodox clergyman, but later he became a firm Universalist. He was the original "Un- cle Toby" of the Boston Carpet Bag; was on the Chron- icle (Portsmouth) eighteen years, and the Portsmouth Journal twenty years. He died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, :March 30, 1870.
Miller, William, the founder of the Millerites
(q. v.), was bom at Pittsfield. Mass., in 1781. He en- joyed but slender educational advantages. During the war of 1812 he served as a volunteer with the rank of captain. About 1833, while a resident of Low Hamp- ton, N. Y., he began his career as an apostle of the new doctrine, which taught that the world was coming to an end in 1843. The main argument on which his be- lief rested was that relative to the termination of the 2300 days in Dan. viii, 14, which he regarded as j'ears. Then considering the seventy weeks in Dan. ix, 24, as i the key to the date of the 2300 days of the preceding I chapter, and dating the periods B.C. 457, when Artax- erxes, king of Persia, sent up Ezra from his captivity, to restore the Jewish polity at Jerusalem (Ezra vii), and ending the seventy weeks, as commentators gener- ally do, in A.D. 33, with the crucifixion of Christ, he finind the remainder of the 2300 days, which was 1810, would end in 1843. For ten years he held forth to this purport, and succeeded in gathering a large number of followers, which is said to have reached fifty thousand, who awaited, with credulous expectation, the appointed day. The result, however, turning out contrarj^ to the teaching of their apostle, the Adventists, as they are sometimes termed, gradually forsook Miller. He died at Low Hampton, Washington County, N. Y., Dec. 20, 1849. His followers esteemed him as a man of more than ordinary mental power, as a cool, sagacious, and honest reasoner, a humble and devoted Christian, a kind and affectionate friend, and a man of great moral and social worth. See Millerites.
Miller, ■William A., D.D., a minister of the Re- formed (Dutch) Church, was born at Albany, N. Y., in 1824; graduated at Union College in 1842, and at the theological seminary of tlie Reformed Church at New Brunswick in 1845. He was a grandson of the '■ Old Disciple," and nephew of Rev. John E. Miller, whom we notice above, and inherited the robust intellect, strong charicter, and religious peculiarities of his remarkable family. After a brief settlement as pastor of the Re- formed Church of Glenham, N. Y. (1846-49), he became professor of language s, and subsequently principal of the Albany Academy, a celebrated classical and mathe- matical school (1849-56). From 1850 to 1859 he was the useful pastor of tlie Reformed Church of Rhinebeck, when his health failed from pulmonary disease, of which he died in 1863. Dr. Miller was a highly-gifted man, a thoroughly accurate and critical scholar, an enthusiastic and competent instructor, a logical, practical, and profit- able preacher, and a man who always devoted himself completely to his professional duties. He dealt much in careful expository preaching, for which his turn of mind, classical culture, and love of the truth admirably fitted him. Had his life been spared, he would doubt- less have risen to higher positions in the Church which he so greatly adorned by his scholarship and services. He was " chosen in the furnace of affliction," and his graces were beautifully developed by the protracted tri- als of bereavement, disease, and suffering, and especially by being obliged to desist from all labor for Christ, just when he felt most anxious and best qualified for it. His Christian experiences during his last years and in death Avere delightful and impressive exhibitions of the tri- umphs of grace. (\V. J. R. T.)