In the world of business, men who go along with poor methods, lack of punctuality, slovenliness and all kinds of slipshod ways are regarded as “out of it,” but that idea is not so prevalent in the religious world, possibly because so many religious world workers unconsciously use these methods.
Miss Frances Miller, the director of business women’s work in the central district, uses no slipshod methods. One could scarcely meet a more hustling person in religious work than Miss Miller, excepting, of course, “Billy” himself. Some think that long association with his work has moulded Miss Miller’s naturally active temperament into the form that it now has.
Miss Miller is the youngest and oldest member of the Sunday party. Youngest in the point of years, but oldest in the length of time that she has been a member of the party. For 11 years she has been doing the work for business women that she is doing today and in that time she has become an authority in her line.
Born in the great northwest, where people just naturally have a swing and vim which those in the East don’t seem to have, she grew up in this atmosphere, and has developed all of the hustling qualities of a true Westerner.
From the standpoint of training Miss Miller is surely equipped to carry on the work which she has in charge. “I studied at the Presbyterian College in Cedar Rapids, and later graduated from the Congregational College in Fargo, North Dakota. From there I went to the Moody Institute, in Chicago,” she recently said.
There’s a kind of open secret about Miss Miller. She is an ordained minister, but she doesn’t always tell it because she thinks that if people knew that they they won’t warm up to the things that she wants them to, because they are afraid that she will preach to them. Don’t worry, Miss Miller’s preaching is something to listen to. It is her own individual brand, with a little of “Billy’s” thrown in.
After completing her religious education, Miss Miller was sent to the frontier by the Home Missionary Society, where she remained for two years. And those two years on the frontier were no joke. She had two parishes 12 miles apart from each other and each Sunday, in clear or stormy weather, she would drive from one in the morning where she preached to the other, where she would preach in the evenings.
That’s a wild black country out there, and many times she would drive for miles and never see a creature. The hardships, too, in that little circuit of hers were very severe, almost more than she could bear. After finishing two years as a preacher she came home, discouraged and feeling that the religious calling was a pretty hard one.
She hadn’t been home very long, when Dr. R. A. Torrey wanted her to assist in his evangelistic work. She refused, however, feeling that it was too much. Dr. Torrey knew a good thing when he saw though, and was not to be put off, and one day he wired to her: “Come tomorrow. I have you on the program for tomorrow morning,” and she went.
Just about 11 years ago she joined the Sunday party and has been helping business women and girls ever since. In this she has been very successful, due to the fact that she has a real message to give to the women and girls, and because of her splendid personality.
Miss Miller has a hobby. She love’s horses and almost every day in Syracuse one could see her out for her morning’s canter. Since she has been in Trenton she has not been riding, although she hopes for a gallop or two before she goes from here to Baltimore, the place of the next campaign.
The Times (Trenton, New Jersey) · Sun, Jan 16, 1916 · Page 6 Downloaded on Mar 10, 2026
Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935) 