The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 333

churches of nearly all denominations were thrown open to him, and
the invitations to labor usually came from the ministers of the several
congregations. It was his invariable rule not to labor in any place to
which he had not been invited, yet he soon found himself unable to
comply with half the requests that poured in upon him. Many who
did not accept his views as to the exact time of the second advent were
convinced of the certainty and nearness of Christ’s coming and their need
of preparation. In some of the large cities his work produced a marked
impression. Liquor dealers abandoned the traffic and turned their shops
into meeting rooms; gambling dens were broken up; infidels, deists,
Universalists, and even the most abandoned profligates were reformed,
some of whom had not entered a house of worship for years. Prayer
meetings were established by the various denominations, in different
quarters, at almost every hour, businessmen assembling at midday for
prayer and praise. There was no extravagant excitement, but an almost
universal solemnity on the minds of the people. His work, like that of the
early Reformers, tended rather to convince the understanding and arouse
the conscience than merely to excite the emotions.
In 1833 Miller received a license to preach, from the Baptist
Church, of which he was a member. A large number of the ministers
of his denomination also approved his work, and it was with their
formal sanction that he continued his labors. He traveled and preached
unceas ingly, though his personal labors were confined principally to the
New England and Middle States. For several years his expenses were
met wholly from his own private purse, and he never afterward received
enough to meet the expense of travel to the places where he was invited.
Thus his public labors, so far from being a pecuniary benefit, were a
heavy tax upon his property, which gradually diminished during this
period of his life. He was the father of a large family, but as they were
all frugal and industrious, his farm sufficed for their maintenance as well
as his own.

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