J.R. Miller D.D.

James Miller joined the Presbyterian Board of Publications and Sabbath School Work as an assistant editor in 1880. At that time the total annual circulation of periodicals was 9,256,386 copies. Seven years later J.R. Miller became the Editorial Superintendent and by the time he effectively retired in 1911, because of ill health, the total circulation had grown to 66,248,215 copies annualy.

John T. Faris tells us that in 1880 the board’s only periodicals were:

1. The Westminster Teacher,
2. The Westminster Lesson Leaf,
3. The Senior Quarterly,
4. The Sabbath School Visitor,
5. The Sunbeam, and
6. The Presbyterian Monthly Record.

During J.R. Miller‘s tenure at the board the following periodicals were added:

1. The Junior Lesson Leaf in 1881
2. The German Lesson Leaf in 1881
3. Forward in 1882
4. The Morning Star in 1883
5. The Junior Quarterly in 1885
6. The Lesson Card circa in 1894
7. The Intermediate Quarterly circa 1895
8. The Question Leaf circa 1996
9. The Blackboard circa 1898
10. The Home Department Quarterly in 1899
11. The Primary Quarterly in 1901
12. The Normal Quarterly in 1902
13. The Bible Roll in 1902
14. The Beginners Lessons — forerunner of the Graded Lessons — in 1903
15. The Primary Teacher in 1906
16. The Graded Lessons from 1909 to 1912,
    1. Beginners,
    2. Primary,
    3. Junior,
    4. Intermediate, and
    5. Senior
17. The Westminster Adult Bible Class in 1909

The Sabbath School Visitor — The Board’s oldest periodical — became The Comrade in 1909.

John Faris also reports that The Presbyterian Monthly Record became The Church at Home and Abroad, and was transferred to other hands by direction of the General Assembly and that The Junior Lessons, The German Lesson Leaf, The Question Leaf and The Blackboard were discontinued, when their place was taken by other publications.

Periodicals Online

The only periodical online at the moment is:

• Westminster Primary Quarterly
  Vol 10 No 3 1964 July, August, September

Possibly more than a billion, but definitely several hundreds of millions of periodicals were printed by the board during Dr. Miller’s mandate, However, we only have the one. If you have any that you would like to donate, please e-mail me, or at least put them up for auction on eBay.