January 5  Hopelessness Points To Hope

"When I realized that my fate's the same as the fool's, I had to ask myself, 'So why bother being nice?' It's all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they're both forgotten." "Humans die. . .We all end us as dust." Eccl. 2:14-16; 3:19, 20, Message

Miller's service as a captain in the second war against Britain(1812-1814) provided a turning point in his life. Even before the conflict he had begun to harbor doubts about the adequacy of his deistic belief. Part of the problem was that design promised an afterlife, but in actual fact Miller had concluded that it logically led to nothingness after death.

About the same time, Miller began to contemplate his own mortality and its meaning. On October 28, 1814, he wrote to his wife concerning a deceased army friend: "But a short time, and, like Spencer, I shall be no more. It is a solemn thought."

The hard facts of life were pushing Captain Miller toward the faith he had once so vigorously rejected.

But he still had one hope. If only he could find ture patriotism in the ranks of the army he would be able to conclude that his faith in deism was not in error. "But," he penned, "two years in the service was enough to convince me that I was in an error on this thing also." The negative biblical picture of human nature appeared to be more accurate than the deicstic perspective, which taught that  human nature was basically good and upright. But Miller could not find that verified in history. "The more I read," he wrote, "the more dreadfully corrupt did the character of man appear. I could discern no bright spot in the history of the past. Those conquerors of the world, and heroes of history, were apparently but demons in human form. . . .I began to feel very distrustful of all men."

Miller's final belief crisis in deism had to do with what appeared to be an act of God in history at the Battle of Plattsburg in September 1814. In that battle an American "apology of an army" defeated a superior force of crack British regulars, some recently having been victorious over Napolen.

America had been all but certain to lose. "So surprising a result against such odds," Miller concluded, "did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man."

Like the author of Ecclesiasters, Miller was being forced by the hard facts of life to take another look at God. The good news is that the ahrd facts of life are still in our day performing the same function.

The graceful forms and delicate hues of the plants and flowers may be copied by human skill, but what touch can impart life to even one flower or blade of grass?(TFMB 96).