Thoughts on Public Prayer

Samuel Miller (1769-1850), was a faithful pastor, who became a founding father and a professor of Princeton Theological Seminary. He had a deep commitment to the church and an abiding interest in seeing ministers trained ably for her service -- an interest which led to him writing this book. As Dr. Jonathan Master notes in his Foreword to this edition of Miller's work, 'public prayer is the priority on Paul's mind when considering public worship.' Despite this priority, today public prayer has in some churches a diminishing place in corporate worship. Ministers especially need instruction in public prayer -- Samuel Miller understood this need in his day, and so much of what he wrote remains pertinent to the practice of an edifying ministry in the present. This volume is replete with insights into the vital place of public prayer in worship, and of sound advice as to how progress may be made in this aspect of pastoral ministry. This edition includes a Foreword by Dr. Jonathan L. Master, President of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylors, South Carolina, USA.

Samuel Miller was born in 1769 in Dover, Delaware. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, he continued training for pastoral ministry and subsequently served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in the city of New York. From 1813 to 1849, he served as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary, of which institution he was a principal founder.