Practical Lessons from the Story of Joseph

PREFACE

  James Russell Miller was born near Frankfort Springs, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Big Traverse, which according to his biographer, John T. Faris, is a merry little mill stream which drains one of the most beautiful valleys in the southern part of Beaver County. His parents were James Alexander Miller and Eleanor Creswell who were of Irish/Scottish stock.

  Miller was the second child of ten, but his older sister died before he was born. James and his sisters attended the district school in Hanover Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania until, when James was about fourteen, his father moved to a farm near Calcutta, Ohio. The children then went to the district school during the short winters and worked on the farm during summer.

  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.

The Christian Commission

  The Christian Commission was created in response to the disastrous First Battle of Bull Run. On 14 November 1861, the National Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) called a convention which met in New York City. The work of the United States Christian Commission was outlined and the organization completed the next day.

  In March 1863, Miller promised to serve for six weeks as a delegate of the United States Christian Commission, but at the end of this time he was persuaded to become an Assistant Field Agent and later he was promoted to General Field Agent. He left the Commission on 15 July 1865.

The Pastorate

  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 11 September 1867.

  Rev. Miller held firmly to the great body of truth professed by the United Presbyterian Church, in which he had been reared, but he did not like the rule requiring the exclusive singing of the Psalms, and he felt that it was not honest for him to profess this as one of the articles of his Christian belief. He therefore resigned from his pastorate to seek membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA). In his two years as pastor, nearly two hundred names were added to the church roll.

  The Old and New School Presbyterian Churches were reunited as the Presbyterian Church (USA) on 12 November 1869, and Miller became pastor of the Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia just nine days later. When he became pastor at Bethany the membership was seventy five and when he resigned in 1878 Bethany was the largest Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, having about twelve hundred members.

Rev. Miller then accepted the pastorate of the New Broadway Presbyterian Church of Rock Island, Illinois.

In 1880 Westminster College, his alma mater conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity and later in the same year came the invitation to undertake editorial work for the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia. Hence Dr. Miller had to resign the Rock Island, Illinois pastorate.

  In Philadelphia, Miller became interested in the Hollond Mission and eventually became its pastor. During the sixteen months of the pastorate the church membership grew from 259 to 1,164 and Sunday School membership climbed from 1,024 to 1,475.

  On 29 October 1899, St. Paul Church in West Philadelphia was organized with sixty-six members. Miller was chosen temporary supply and became pastor in 1906. Miller remained pastor until the year of his death, 1912. The church at that time had 1,397 members.

Family

On 22 June 1870, Miller married Miss Louise E. King of Argyle, New York, whom he had met two years earlier. They had three children,

• William King,

• Russel King, a fairly well known music teacher and composer, and

• Mary Wannamker Miller who married W.B. Mount.

Editor and author

  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, Miller became assistant to the Editorial Secretary at the Presbyterian Board of Publication, also in Philadelphia.

  When Dr. Miller joined the Board its only periodicals were

• The Westminster Teacher

• The Westminster Lesson Leaf

• The Senior Quarterly

• The Sabbath School Visitor

• The Sunbeam

• The Presbyterian Monthly Record

  During his tenure at the board the following periodicals were added:

• The Junior Lesson Leaf in 1881

• The German Lesson Leaf in 1881

• Forward in 1882

• The Morning Star in 1883

• The Junior Quarterly in 1885

• The Lesson Card circa in 1894

• The Intermediate Quarterly circa 1895

• The Question Leaf circa 1996

• The Blackboard circa 1898

• The Home Department Quarterly in 1899

• The Primary Quarterly in 1901

• The Normal Quarterly in 1902

• The Bible Roll in 1902

• The Beginners Lessons (forerunner of The Graded Lessons) in 1903

• The Primary Teacher in 1906

• The Graded Lessons from 1909 to 1912

• for Beginners

• Primary

• Junior

• Intermediate

• Senior

• The Westminster Adult Bible Class in 1909

The Sabbath School Visitor the Board's oldest periodical became The Comrade in 1909.

From 1880, when James Miller first joined the Board to 1911, when he effectively retired because of ill health, the total annual circulation grew from 9,256,386 copies to 66,248,215 copies.

Dr. Miller's first book, Week Day Religion, was published by the board in 1880, the year he joined the Board.

Practical Lessons from the Story of Joseph

There are many ways of reading the Bible. One of the most helpful, is to read it to learn from it how to live so as to please God, attain the highest beauty of character, and leave the largest blessing in the world.

There have been many lives of Joseph written. Some of these are very valuable because of the knowledge of ancient Egypt and the Egyptians which they impart in the telling of the story. Nothing of this is attempted in the present chapters, the author's desire being only to find and interpret some of the lessons in life which the narrative has for its earnest readers.

Joseph and His Dreams

Joseph as a Slave and in Prison

From Prison to Palace

An Interpreter for God

Joseph and His Brothers

Joseph and His Father

Joseph in Old Age and Death

JOSEPH AND HIS DREAMS

They said one to another, Behold, here comes that dreamer! Genesis 37:19

When a story of providence beginswe never know what the end will be. In seven chapters will be retold the story whose beginning we have here a boy coming across the fields carrying a basket. God wanted the family of Israel down in Egypt for a few hundred years. Why? Was not Canaan promised to them as their own land? Why not keep them there? Several reasons may be given.

Canaan was filled with warlike tribes. While there were only a handful of the Israelites, these tribes let them alone. But they were now to grow rapidly, and as soon as they began to be a multitude, war would be waged against them and they would have been exterminated. God's plan, therefore, was to take them away to a place where they could live securely, and grow into a nationand then to bring them back, able to conquer the hordes of Canaan.

There was another reason for getting them away from Canaan. They must grow up separate from the world. They were to be God's people. They were to receive God's Law and God's Word. From them were to come teachers, singers, prophets. By and by the Messiah, the world's Redeemer, was to be born of this nation. They must be a holy people, with unmixed blood. If they grew up among the Canaanites, this could not be. These tribes would mingle with them. They must be taken to some place where there would be no temptation to inter-marriages and social commingling. The Egyptians were proud and exclusive. They would have no associations with any foreigners. In Goshen, then, while under the favor and protection of the kingthey were effectually shut up by themselves. They were