J.R. 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, Dr. Miller became assistant to the Editorial Secretary at the 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.