"He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up." John 4:47
It was a hard place for Him to visit and to preach in. He had lived there from infancy. The young people knew Him as schoolmate and playfellow, and then as the village carpenter. One day He went away from home, and soon strange reports about Him came back. Up in Jerusalem and in other places, it was said, He was performing miracles and preaching with wonderful power, and people everywhere were thronging to hear Him, and bringing out their sick to be healed by Him.
It requires no deep insight into human nature, to know how His neighbors would regard all this. In their envy they would sneer at the reports about Him. He was only a carpenter!
Then one day, He came home again, and went to the village church and preached. But they could not endure to hear His words, and they were filled with wrath, and rose up and cast Him out of the town, and tried to hurl Him over a precipice to kill Him!
There are some lessons which we ought to gather from this visit of Jesus to His old home. One is that we ought to seek the salvation of our neighbors and friends, not turning our back upon our old home, though we may have grown great and famous elsewhere.
Another is that as young people, we ought to live so carefully that when we grow up we may be able to stand up in the midst of those who have always known us, and bear testimony for Christ. There are some good men now whose preaching would have but little effect where they were brought up — because of the way they lived when they were at home in youth. But Jesus' life had been so pure and blameless, that he had no need to blush when he looked His old neighbors in the face and began to preach to them. Every young person should so live, that he will never be ashamed to hear again of anything he has ever done.
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J.R. Miller (1840 - 1912)
Prolific author and pastor of Presbyterian churches in Pennsylvania and Illinois, Rev. James Russell Miller served the USCC as a field agent in the Army of the Potomac and Army of the Cumberland.J.R. Miller began contributing articles to religious papers while at Allegheny Seminary. This continued while he was at the First United, Bethany, and New Broadway churches. In 1875, Miller took over from Henry C. McCook, D.D. when the latter discontinued his weekly articles in The Presbyterian, which was published in Philadelphia. J.R. Miller D.D.'s lasting fame is through his over 50 books. Many are still in publication.
James Russell Miller (March 20, 1840 - July 2, 1912) was a popular Christian author, Editorial Superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and pastor of several churches in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
In 1857, James entered Beaver Academy and in 1862 he progressed to Westminster College, Pennsylvania, which he graduated in June, 1862. Then in the autumn of that year he entered the theological seminary of the United Presbyterian Church at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Mr. Miller resumed his interrupted studies at the Allegheny Theological Seminary in the fall of 1865 and completed them in the spring of 1867. That summer he accepted a call from the First United Presbyterian Church of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. He was ordained and installed on September 11, 1867.
J.R. Miller began contributing articles to religious papers while at Allegheny Seminary. This continued while he was at the First United, Bethany, and New Broadway churches. In 1875, Miller took over from Henry C. McCook, D.D. when the latter discontinued his weekly articles in The Presbyterian, which was published in Philadelphia.
Five years later, in 1880, Dr. Miller became assistant to the Editorial Secretary at the The Presbyterian Board of Publication, also in Philadelphia.