BIOGRAPHY
ANDREW MILLER was born in the village of Kilmure,
Ayrshire, on 27th January, 1810. As a young man he entered the firm of Smith,
Anderson & Co., in Glasgow, eventually taking up the London Branch of the
firm, afterwards changed into Miller, Son & Torrance of Cannon Street.
Whilst supervising a large London business Mr. Miller was for a
considerable time the voluntary pastor of a Baptist Church in William Street.
As light from the Word of God was followed the sectarian principles were left
behind, and the believers gathered on Scriptural lines; Mr Miller continued to
labour as an honoured brother amongst them. As a warm-hearted Evangelist the
best of the man was ever visible. He was greatly used in the conversion of
souls, both amongst old and young. It was no uncommon thing for the preacher to
bathe his impassioned appeals with tears, as he pleaded the claims of the
Master he loved. In fact he was called by many "the Rutherford of brethren."
As an Author his name will be remembered as long as his valuable
"Papers on Church History" continue to be read. If they were more known they
would be more valued. He encouraged the writing, wrote the introduction, and,
we understand , largely helped to finance the issues of CHM.s notes on Genesis,
Exodus, etc , the most popular, and extensively circulated of all the varied
volumes connected with what is known as the "Brethren movement"
In one
of the unfortunate early divisions under the respected leaders, J.N.Darby and
W.Kelly, C. H. Mackintosh went with the former and Andrew Miller with the
latter. The grace of his heart and vividity of his spirit is well told forth in
the following reminiscences of Andrew Miller:
Mv first meeting with Andrew
Miller is still fresh in my memory, although many years have since passed away.
It was my privilege in those early days to hold an open-air Bible reading near
the sea front at Eastbourne, which was attended by a large number of Christian
visitors belonging to various denominations . On this special occasion the
subject loud been "The Personality and Work of the Holy Spirit." Towards the
close of the meeting I noticed a gentleman listening very attentively. After a
time he said, “May I ask a question?" "Certainly," I replied, "the meeting
is open for questions." He than asked, "What place is given to this Divine
Person, - and what liberty is given for Him to work in the churches to-day?"
After concluding with prayer, Mr. Miller came up to me and asked me where
I went on Lord’s days. I told him it was my privilege to gather with a few
of the Lord’s people around the Lord’s table to remember the Lord,
and, to show forth His death in His own appointed way. He at once replied, "But
there can only be one Lord’s table in any given place, and that the
Lord’s table was spread week by week at —." I answered, "But I have
not a shadow of a doubt as to the Lord being verily present at His own feast at
where I attended; I had been so conscious of His presence that I had at times
been constrained to weep tears of gratitude and joy while He so graciously
manifested Himself unto me." He said, "I would like to have a further
conversation with you," very kindly gave me his card, and asked me to call and
see him at his apartments. This I did, as I felt he was a man of God, and knew
much of God’s Word and ways.
It was during one of these visits
that he told me how he had been led to cast in his lot with those who thus
gather to the Name of the Lord Jesus, and to break bread every Lord’s day.
He had been a member of a Church for some time previously, when one day he was
invited by a Christian gentleman to attend a Bible reading winch was held in
his drawing-room each week. "I accepted the invitation," he said, "and went,
but such a stranger was I to that kind of thing that I went in full
evening-dress, and found myself the only one so attired, which made me feel
very uncomfortable. We were invited into the dining-room for refreshments, and
then adjourned to the drawing-room for the Bible reading. After prayer a
passage of Scripture was reverently read, and a deeply interesting convetsation
followed. As I listened to the unfolding of the Inspired Volume I began to
discover that the Bible contained such wonderful truths, to which I was an
entire stranger, that I soon forgot my evening dress, making up my mind to
attend the next weekly Bible reading if the host would invite me.
This
he did and I attended, weekly learning more and more the wonderful truths of
God, and becoming better acquainted with the great purposes of redeeming love
and grace. Thus I was led to cast in my lot with the so-called
‘brethren.’"
On another occasion he told me how he was led
to begin to preach and to speak publicly. Having to visit the North of Ireland
in connection with business matters during the Revival of 1859-60 he had been
an eye-witness of some of those wondrous scenes of spiritual blessing when many
men and women were stricken down to the ground under the convicting power of
God’s Word, and were constrained to cry out publicly for mercy. Souls were
saved, backsliders were restored, and believers were revived and blessed. On
returning to London Mr. Miller could not help but tell his friends what he had
seen and heard. These friends at once said, "We must not keep these good things
to ourselves, hut we must invite our friends and neighbours together that they
also may hear of this marvellous work of grace." Drawing-room meetings were
convened, and Mr. Miller was invited to give an account of the Revival work in
the North of Ireland. In this way he was led out into public service for his
Lord.
He had a passion for souls, and was a true Evangelist, as well
as a spiritually qualified teacher. He saw the multitude, and his soul was
stirred. His heart was fired with yearning compassion for the lost, his lips
were filled with God-given messages, and words of life and love, tenderness and
truth, flowed from him as rivers of living water. Rarely ever did he preach the
Gospel without tears, and he told me how it grieved him to his heart to find
the growing apathy in Gospel work among the saints in the different assemblies
he visited. Many were SO occupied with "Church Truth" and with "Dispensational
Teaching" that they were losing sight of a perishing world and becoming
indifferent to Gospel work.
At my last visit to him we bowed our knees
in prayer, and he pleaded with God that I might be preserved from this
condition of things, and that my soul might be kept "as a watered garden, and
like a spring of water, whose waters fail not," to which I added my "Amen."
"In labours more abundant" for half a century, in suffering suffering
scarcely less so near the end, Andrew Miller fell asleep on 8th May 1883. In
the eventide of retirement, as he looked back upon the past, around on the then
present, and forward to the future, he exclaimed with great emphasis of soul
"Nothing counts but Christ"