Miller, William A, Dd

Miller, William A., D.D.

a minister of the Reformed (Dutch) Church; was born at Albany, N.Y., in 1824; graduated at Union College in 1842, and at the theological seminary of the Reformed Church at New Brunswick in 1845. He was a grandson of the "Old Disciple," and nephew of Reverend John E. Miller, whom we notice above, and inherited the robust intellect, strong character, and religious peculiarities of his remarkable family. After a brief settlement as pastor of the Reformed Church of Glenham, N.Y. (1846-49). he became professor of languages, and subsequently principal of the Albany Academy, a celebrated classical and mathematical school (1849-56). From 1856 to 1859 he was the useful pastor of the Reformed Church of Rhinebeck when his health failed from pulmonary disease, of which he died in 1863. Dr. Miller was a highly-gifted man, a thoroughly accurate and critical scholar, an enthusiastic and competent instructor, a logical, practical, and profitable preacher, and a man who always devoted himself completely to his professional duties. He dealt much in careful expository preaching, for which his turn of mind, classical culture, and love of the truth admirably fitted him. Had his life been spared, he would doubtless have risen to higher positions in the Church which he so greatly adorned by his scholarship and services. He was "chosen in the furnace of affliction," and his graces were beautifully developed by the protracted trials of bereavement, disease, and suffering, and especially by being obliged to desist from all labor for Christ, just when he felt most anxious and best qualified for it. His Christian experiences during his last years and in death were delightful and impressive exhibitions of the triumphs of grace. (W.J.R.T.)