For years friends who looked on as Dr. Miller did the work of three men expressed the fear that he would break down long before he was seventy. As the years passed without the fulfillment of their prophecies they marveled. They saw no appreciable difference in his strength until 1909, when he suffered a slight stroke of apoplexy. The effect of this seemed to pass off very soon, and for two years he was as active as ever, at his desk, in the homes of the people and in the pulpit. His physician urged him to spare himself – but he never knew what it meant to spare himself.
On his seventieth birthday his office was a bower of bloom, and his mail was burdened with greetings from those whom he had cheered and helped by his personal words, his articles, his books, his sermons. They welcomed the opportunity to tell him what his life had meant to them.
One of the first messages to reach him was this, from Rev. C.R. Blackall, D.D., and Editor of Periodicals of the American Baptist Publication Society:
“You see that I have beaten you ten years in the life race, and feel my importance in dealing with my junior brother. I send loving congratulations. You don’t belong to one church, or to one denomination; you belong to all churches of all denominations! Who ever heard the faintest suggestion by you, with pen or voice, to crucify or ostracize somebody who dared to speak or to believe differently from yourself? You believe in a square deal with your brethren; that is one reason why I love you so much. My love for you has grown deeper and deeper as the years have rolled on. God bless you. Your shadow will abide in the years ahead when the Master calls you to higher and more extended service with himself.”
Page 1