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It was on September 29, 1813, that Dr. Samuel Miller was inaugurated as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary. His inaugural discourse was never published, but it was summarized briefly by his son in The Life of Samuel Miller, Vol. 1 (pp. 358-359).
That address was known as a Sketch of the Characters and Opinions of Some of the More Conspicuous Witnesses for the Truth During the Dark Ages. Perhaps one day this discourse, which resides in manuscript form at the Princeton Theological Seminary Archives, and which needs further editing, as Miller himself acknowledged in a letter, will be published after all. We are given a taste to whet our appetite for it with these powerful lines as recorded by Dr. Miller’s son:
Paul is no more! Claudius is no more! Wickliffe, Luther, Calvin, are gone! But the kingdom of Christ did not die with them! It still lives; and it will live forever!
His son observes that we are hereby taught not to despair or be discouraged, even in troublous and perilous times. God has his faithful witnesses even in the darkest of periods, but whether times are good or bad, his kingdom endures through all. Jesus Christ reigns in both the midst of his enemies as well as his willing subjects (Psalm 110:1-3). Faithful witnesses we must be in whatever age of history we are called to serve, yet we are but servants of the Most High King, and the kingdom we serve will never disappear from the earth, but rather, as Miller himself once later preached in 1835, “the earth will be filled by the glory of God!”
