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, from which he was 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 above is a partial bio from Wikipedia, I was amazed at the list of books he wrote; I think his devotionals are wonderful, but have never read any of his books, to see the Wiki bio, click the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._Miller]
Devotional outline points:
- Christ has promised that He will never leave us
- The yearning for companionship is one of the deepest of all longings; it is one of the needs that God fulfills
- Christ experienced deep loneliness in His ministry and atoning work
- In a sense, we experience loneliness during all of our lives, even if we are surrounded by loving friends during much of it
- How so? Our inner choices, questions, battles, sorrows, burdens…are faced alone (unless one is born again, in that case, Christ is with him)
- He talks about several stages of life: the necessary struggles of youth; the loneliness of sorrow and loss; the loneliness of old age; and of death
This devotional is from the YouTube site, Christian Sermons and Audiobooks, the following link is to their devotionals:
https://www.youtube.com/c/stack45ny/search?query=devotionals