Revival, Regeneration, and Reform: Samuel Miller and 19th Century Evangelicalism

               

In Reverend Samuel Miller’s sermon, The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord, hopeful goals of global mission work and worldwide redemption are interwoven with themes American millennialism, political progress, and cultural reform.  Written and preached in 1835, Miller’s message to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions undoubtedly resounded with the members present.  From the pulpit, Miller uniquely blended Christian evangelicalism with national activism, a perfect representation of mid-19^th century spiritualism.  Characteristic of many Protestant leaders at the time, he zealously invoked his listeners to not only pray for the “spreading of the holy, life-giving religion of Jesus Christ” and “world conversion,” but practically engage their warped and backslidden culture.  The full consummation of Christ’s glory, Miller states, will only be manifest when both revival in personal souls and reform in the public square transpire.  Specifically, temperance, the “ceasing of wars,” abolition of tyranny, “extended commerce,” and the purging of “sectarian feuds” are all evidenced by Miller as sure signs that our nation would be progressing towards the goal of “evangelizing the whole world.”[1]  Interestingly, all of these external “measurements” Miller cited are distinctly political in nature, coupling the civic and the sacred in an effort to achieve the end goal of “the whole earth being filled with (God’s) glory.”[2] 

(American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions)

                Paralleling Miller’s sermon, many other evangelicals of the 1800s used religious revival to initiate and catalyze reform movements as a conduit to arriving in the post-millennial age.  Charles Finney, Jedediah Burchard, and Lyman Beecher all sought to stir and excite individual conviction with a greater aim of collective purity and moral perfection.  In one of Beecher’s “Six Sermons on Intemperance,” he presents the negative spiritual and social ramifications accompanying this “mischievous” evil.[3]  Dramatically, he states that “of all the ways to hell…that of the intemperate is the most dreary and terrific.”[4]  Not only was intemperance a personal sin and “moral agony which convulse the soul…,” but further a public, political, and economic matter as “an inventory of national loss…that defeats the energies of commerce…cuts the sinews of industry…(and) produces a class of worthless consumers.”[5] 

"The Demons of Alcohol"

             

                Like many of the “heroes of the faith” in Scripture, Miller explains that although they are called to diligently plant seeds of repentance, redemption, and reform, the desired harvest of worldwide evangelism and widespread reform might never come to fruition in their age.  Throughout the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11, the author affirms this principle by referencing Noah, Abraham, and Sarah who, being obedient to God, lived lives characterized by ardent faith, present obedience, and humble trust.  Hebrews 11:13 says that “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from afar…”[6]  Likewise Miller, Finney, and Beecher were never “permitted to witness…the complete development of "the latter day glory."[7]   Living today amongst unregenerate people in a corrupt society, we too can join with these men, “rejoicing in the assurance that it will come in due time.”[8]

Works Cited

Miller, Samuel. The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord. Baltimore: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1835.

Beecher, Lyman. Six Sermons on Intemperance. Boston: T.R. Marvin, 1828.

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[1] Samuel Miller, The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord, Baltimore: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1835, par 6.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Lyman Beecher, “Six Sermons on Intemperance,” 1828, par 5.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., par 8.

[6] Hebrews 11:13

[7] Miller, The Earth Filled with the Glory of the Lord, par 25.

[8] Ibid.