| The Life of Dr. J.R. Miller |
Chapter 7 |
Page 12 |
One year many of this contributor’s manuscripts were returned as unavailable. The editor detected a note of despondency in a letter which came from him just then. So he wrote:
“You must not be discouraged because sometimes stories of yours are returned. If you knew how often we have to do this in the office with our very best work, you would not have a moment for such a thought. Furnishing articles for papers is a good deal like a salesman’s work in the stores – bringing goods down for the purchaser to look at. It is never expected that every piece taken down and exhibited will exactly meet the purchaser’s need.”
Again this contributor was despondent because friends had been condoling with him on account of his dwindling influence: they told him it was too bad he had to give up the work of the ministry to be a mere writer for the press. Dr. Miller had just the right message for this time also:
“The assurance that words of yours have touched two millions of lives this year is a very comforting one. Some day you will know what it all means. It is a great privilege to be allowed to put touches of beauty upon immortal lives, to start impulses toward higher ideals in human hearts.”
Letters from the editor brought him more than encouragement; they were full of kindly instructions for the new work for which the minister was in training. The appreciative recipient has said:
“Dr. Miller taught me to forget myself and to think only of my readers. He reminded me that perhaps a half or two thirds of the readers of the Board’s publications are in the country places, small towns, villages, or farming districts, where their opportunities are not large, where they cannot see much of the big world nor learn what is going on, nor what the openings may be for usefulness and activity. When I had in preparation a series for the Westminster Teacher, he asked me to remember in writing these that the great bulk of the Sunday school teachers who would read them would be plain people, not many of them college people, and that it was necessary, therefore, to write simply, and not upon too high a plane. He said that he had always tried to prepare all his work for persons of average intelligence, knowing that in doing this he would probably help most even those more intelligent.”
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