{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38818/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38818","id":"gutenberg_38818","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38818","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Ellis, Sarah, 1835-1885","Home missions -- United States -- Unitarian Church"],"text":"Produced by Roberta Staehlin, Mary Meehan and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nbook was produced from scanned images of public domain\nmaterial from the Google Print project.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nMISS ELLIS'S MISSION.\n\nBY MARY P. W. SMITH.\n\nBOSTON:\n\nAMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.\n\n1886.\n\n    _Copyright, 1886_,\n    BY AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.\n\n    University Press:\n    JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.\n\n\n                 TO\n    POST-OFFICE MISSION WORKERS,\n           WEST AND EAST,\n        AND TO EARNEST PEOPLE\n            EVERYWHERE.\n\n\n\n\n    \"_It was a very contemptible barley-loaf she had to offer, compared\n    with your fine, white, wheaten cake of youth and riches and strength\n    and learning; but remember she offered her best freely, willingly,\n    faithfully; and when once a thing is offered, it is no longer the\n    little barley-loaf in the lad's hand, but the miraculous satisfying\n    Bread of Heaven in the hand of the Lord of the Harvest, more than\n    sufficient for the hungry multitude._\"\n\n                     *       *       *       *       *\n\n    \"_'And so there is an end of poor Miss Toosey and her Mission!'...\n    Wait a bit! There is no waste in nature, science teaches us; neither\n    is there any in grace, says faith. We cannot always see the results,\n    but they are there as surely in grace as in nature._\"\n\n                                             MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION.\n\n\n\n\nMISS ELLIS'S MISSION.\n\n\nThis little sketch of Miss Ellis's life and work owes its first\nsuggestion to Rev. J. Ll. Jones, of Chicago, who soon after her death\nwrote: \"Why not try for a little memorial of her, to be accompanied with\nsome of the most touching and searching extracts from the letters both\nreceived and written by her, and make it into a little booklet for the\ninstruction of Post Office Mission Workers?... Can you not make it\nsomething as touching as 'Miss Toosey,' and far more practical,--that\nis, for our own little household of faith?... We do not want it\nprimarily as a missionary tool, but as a wee fragment of the spiritual\nhistory of the world,--something that will lift and touch the soul of\neverybody.... In short, give us an enlightened Miss Toosey; her mission\nbeing as much stronger as Sallie Ellis was more rational and mature than\nthe original 'Miss Toosey'!\"\n\nNo one knowing Miss Ellis could read the touching little story of \"Miss\nToosey's Mission\" without being struck by a resemblance in the\ncharacters, though a resemblance with a marked difference. As one said,\n\"I never saw her going up the church aisle Sundays, with her audiphone,\nher little satchel, her bundle of books and papers, and her hymn-book,\nwithout thinking of Miss Toosey.\" In both lives a seemingly powerless\nand insignificant personality, through the force of a great yearning to\ndo a bit of God's work in the world, achieved its longing far beyond its\nfondest dreams. As I read the many letters from all over the country\nthat have come since Miss Ellis's death, as I realize how the spiritual\nforce that burned in the soul of this small, feeble, seemingly helpless\nwoman reached out afar and touched many lives for their enduring\nennoblement, her life, so meagre and cramped in its outward aspect, so\nvivid and intense within and on paper, seems to me not without a touch\nof romance. To perpetuate a little longer the influence of that life is\nthe object of this sketch.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSALLIE ELLIS was born in Cincinnati, March 13, 1835. The old-fashioned\nname Sallie, at that time popular in the South and West, was given her\nin honor of an aunt. She disliked sailing under the false colors of\n\"Sarah.\" In letters she usually signed herself \"S. Ellis,\" because, as\nshe explained to one correspondent, \"I do not know myself as _Sarah_,\nand Sallie is not dignified enough in writing to strangers; so I usually\nprefer plain S.\" Late in life, however, for reasons of dignity, she\nsometimes felt forced to adopt Sarah as what she called her \"official\nsignature.\"\n\nHer father, Mr. Rowland Ellis, was born in Boston, but while yet young\nremoved to Cincinnati, where he still lives in a vigorous and honored\nold age. Although his mother, in all her later years at least, was a\ndevoted attendant upon Theodore Parker's services, Mr. Ellis in early\nlife was a Baptist. But when the Unitarian Church was founded at\nCincinnati, in 1830, his name appears among the organizers, of whom he\nis almost the sole survivor. Of that church he has always been a devoted\nsupporter and constant attendant. He was a leading banker of the West,\nand Sallie was born into one of the most elegant and luxurious homes in\nCincinnati. The Ellises kept open house, exercised the most generous\nhospitality, and made, as one says who knew them well then, \"such a\nbeautiful use of their money. The Ellises were just the people who\n_ought_ to have money.\" Mrs. Ellis is described as a woman of unusual\nloveliness of character. Out of the eight children, Sallie was thought\nto be the mother's favorite, because, it was supposed, she was always\npuny, shy, and delicate. \"Sallie shall always have what she wants,\" said\nthe mother, \"because she wants so little.\" But mothers _know_, and\nundoubtedly the mother saw deeper than others into the rare spiritual\nquality concealed from the world under her delicate child's quiet,\nreserved exterior. Her older sister remembers of Sallie's childhood: \"As\na very young child she exhibited strongly marked peculiarities of\ncharacter. Her affection, conscientiousness, piety, and love of duty\nmade her different from the rest of us as children. I remember well that\nat home or at school there were never any rebukes for Sallie. Though\nvery social by nature, as young as at five and six years of age she\nloved to be alone, and would sit in the corner of her mother's room,\nwith face turned to the corner, musing, and talking in a low tone to her\ndoll. When our father and mother would take the children to\nentertainments of various descriptions, such as children enjoy, Sallie\nwould invariably express her preference to remain at home. If she\nthought her parents wanted her to go, she went.\"\n\nFor some years Sallie attended the private school of Mrs. Anne Ryland,\nan English Unitarian (a former parishioner, I think, of Rev. Laut\nCarpenter, and connected by marriage with Rev. Brooke Herford), a lady\nof noble character, and a teacher whose culture and methods were in\nadvance of her age. In a volume of poetry presented Sallie by this\nteacher, is this inscription, whose old-fashioned quaintness of phrase\npictures for us the Sallie Ellis of thirteen, then, as always, faithful\nto duty.\n\n     \"Mrs. Ryland has been much gratified by the general deportment of\n     Miss Sallie Ellis since she has been under her charge. Miss Ellis\n     has evinced an evident desire to please, by a strict observance of\n     the rules of the school, and by assiduous and persevering attention\n     to all her studies. She has made improvement in them all fully\n     commensurate with her laudable endeavors, in Grammar, Geography,\n     and Orthography particularly. It is with unfeigned regret that Mrs.\n     Ryland has to add, to the foregoing expression of her approval of\n     her dear pupil's conduct, the last word,--Farewell.\"\n\nLater, she attended the private school of Rev. William Silsbee, who says\nof her, \"She was always studious and well-behaved, one of the most\nfaithful of all my pupils.\" Mr. M. Hazen White, for so many years\nsuperintendent of the Unitarian Sunday school, was also one of her\nteachers. When seventeen, she was sent to Mrs. Charles Sedgwick's\nschool, in Lenox, Mass. A schoolmate describes her then as a quite\npretty, black-eyed girl, of delicate physique, a good and studious but\nnot brilliant scholar, very quiet and retiring, and almost morbidly\nreserved. The few friends she made here, however, were life-long, and\nshe corresponded with some of the Lenox schoolmates until her death.\n\"She was a perfect dancer,\" says the schoolmate.\n\nTreasured among Miss Ellis's papers were found some pages of a\nschoolgirl's album, marked, \"At Mrs. Sedgwick's School, Lenox, Mass.,\nMarch, 1852.\" It contains verses descriptive of each pupil, written\napparently by Mrs. Sedgwick. The little pen-picture of the schoolgirl\npaints well the woman of later years.\n\n\n                       SALLIE ELLIS.\n\n    If device for an old Latin motto were asked,\n    No invention would need to be very much tasked;\n    For the \"multum in parvo\" _you_ safely might stand,\n    With book, needle, or pen, ever found in your hand.\n    A little, wee body with strong, earnest will,\n    That steadily works with the force of a mill;\n    A mind quite untiring, whatever it do,\n    Its manifold ends with good heed to pursue:\n    Hands busy and strong play deftly their part,\n    And these all controlled by a good, honest heart.\n\nBright indeed looked Sallie's future in those days. A year or two more\nat school, then a return to the loved mother and the beautiful home, and\na \"coming out\" into the brilliant world with all the advantages\nattending wealth and position. But the clouds were already gathering\nwhich in coming years were to darken for her in quick succession the\nsunshine of earthly prosperity. She was called home from school by the\nillness of her mother. The mother died, leaving Sallie the oldest\ndaughter at home, to fill her place as best she might to five little\nbrothers and sisters.\n\nHer sister says: \"Our dear mother's death was the turning-point in\nSallie's life. She was so shrinking, sensitive, and tender by nature, no\none could fully understand her but a mother who had watched the hidden\nbeauties of her character expand from infancy to girlhood.\"\n\nThe mother's memory was fondly cherished, her loss deeply mourned, all\nMiss Ellis's life. Over the dying bed of the worn and weary woman of\nfifty smiled down the radiant face of the mother, painted when a young,\nblooming girl. Among Miss Ellis's papers was found a manuscript volume\nof eighty-one pages of selections, copied in her clear, firm\nhandwriting, index of the spirit's strength. It is headed, \"Crumbs of\nComfort for the Afflicted.\" The selections are from the Bible, sermons,\nhymns, and poems,--all breathing of religious trust and help in\ngrief,--a beautiful and touching collection. The first page reads,--\n\n     \"Begun in Nov. 1870.\n\n     \"These selections are made in memory of my dear mother, who was\n     called away many years since, and through whose death I was led to\n     think of a higher life,--the _true_ life of the soul.\n\n     \"'Oh, I believe there is no _away_; that no love, no life, goes\n     ever from us; it goes as He went, that it may come again, deeper\n     and closer and surer, and be with us always, even unto the end of\n     the world' (_Patience Strong's Outings_).\"\n\nOne of the selections is an anonymous poem, \"The Strength of the\nLonely.\" On one page Miss Ellis had written (signed \"S. E.\"), \"I can but\nbelieve that God allows a mother still to watch over and care for her\nfamily when he takes her from this world, and in our affliction that he\ndraws us to himself, and to Jesus as our guide to him, through her\nspiritual influence, just as, while upon earth, he permitted her to be\nhis instrument to lead and guide us in all that is good. All children\ntoo, even the youngest, are God's instruments for good, and their\nministries cease not with their earthly life. The departed are with us\neverywhere, through our daily duties,--\n\n     \"In the loneliest hour, in the crowd, they are nigh us.\"\n\nA year or two after the mother's death Sallie joined the Unitarian\nChurch, being baptized by Rev. A. A. Livermore, of whom she writes in a\nletter: \"Rev. A. A. Livermore was settled here from the time I was\nfourteen to twenty-one, and he formed my religious character.\" Fitting\nindeed was it that he who has trained so many young men for the ministry\nshould dedicate to God's service this young woman, also destined to be\nhis minister to many souls. An old lady in the church remembers seeing\nSallie go up to be baptized, leading a little brother by each hand, all\nthe little children being baptized at the same time. To one of her\nnature, the vows then taken were a most sacred, real consecration of her\nwhole self to God,--vows to be nobly fulfilled in the life.\n\nMr. Livermore writes of her:--\n\n     \"During my pastorate of the Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, Mr. and\n     Mrs. Rowland Ellis were valued parishioners of mine, and their\n     children were all baptized by me. It was a lovely group of little\n     folks, and the spirit of that consecration has gone largely through\n     all their lives, and given them, I believe, the Christian flavor.\n     They have, too, been very warmly united as a family, and in health\n     and sickness, in life and death, they have borne strong testimony\n     to the blessed anchorage of a positive religious faith.\n\n     \"They were also diligent attendants on the Sunday school in the\n     basement of the old church. Sallie's bright face and upright\n     attitude was to be seen in her place as sure as the Sunday came.\n\n     \"After I left Cincinnati I saw her but seldom, but on those\n     occasions she always spoke of the earlier times in the church and\n     the Sunday school with a warmth and glow of memory that showed that\n     they had been real points of life to her mind and character. And\n     especially after her deafness became a chastening hand laid upon\n     her character, and family sorrows and bereavements followed in the\n     train, it was plain that she found her religious trust the one\n     thing needful.\"\n\nWithin another year business reverses swept away Mr. Ellis's entire\nfortune. As he had meantime married a lady who proved a most capable and\ndevoted mother to the younger children, Sallie, released from domestic\ncares, felt that she ought to do something to assist her father. \"She\nwas so modest,\" says a friend, \"I don't think it ever occurred to her\nthat she could teach school. But she said there was one thing she knew\nshe could do, and do well, and that was, to dance.\" So Miss Sallie\nbecame a dancing-teacher, having classes of children in their mothers'\nparlors.\n\nAnother friend (whose boys, now stalwart men in the church, were among\nMiss Ellis's pupils) says of her: \"She was a lovely dancing-teacher. She\nnot only taught the children to dance well, but she taught them such\ngentle, lovely manners. Indeed, the significant thing in Miss Ellis's\nlife, to me, was her faithfulness. Whatever her hand found to do, she\ndid, and did well. Because she had been so faithful at dancing-school,\nshe was able to be so successful a teacher. Because, when taught sewing,\nshe tried so hard to do her best, she became such a beautiful sewer, and\nwas able to teach sewing;\" for a sewing-class was another expedient of\nthose days.\n\nHer father moved to Chicago in 1851, where he resided three years. There\nMiss Ellis attended Mr. Shippen's church, taught a Sunday-school class,\nand had a class of newsboys evenings. After the return to Cincinnati,\nwhile Miss Ellis was at the sea-shore, she began to experience a painful\nroaring in the ears. Hearing, never quite perfect, was soon almost\ntotally gone. The following years are little, to outward sight, but a\nrecord of invalidism, of trying this or that doctor, but still ever\ndecreasing health and strength. Many dyspeptics, from Carlyle to lesser\nfolk, have felt their disease, like charity, a cover for a multitude of\nsins. Miss Ellis suffered from chronic dyspepsia of aggravated type,\nfrom catarrhal and other troubles which finally wore away the always\nfrail thread of life in consumptive decline.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The death of two brothers, of a dear little niece, and of a\nfondly loved sister,--a woman beloved by all who knew her, who died only\nabout a year before Miss Ellis, leaving five motherless girls--were\namong the trials of her maturer years.]\n\nBut through all these hard years Miss Ellis was doing what she could,\nand longing to do more. Until deafness prevented, she always taught in\nSunday school. She was a devoted attendant on all church services, and\nworker in all church causes. The perfection of her handiwork made it in\ngreat demand. Knowing now Miss Ellis's possibilities, one almost grudges\nthe Unitarian children, and the innumerable but beloved little nephews\nand nieces, the years of \"Aunt Sallie's\" life that went into dainty\nembroidery and perfect mittens for their wearing. The church fairs were\nalways liberally aided by her willing hands. Indeed, it is difficult,\nwithout seeming exaggeration, to express her passion of devotion to her\nchurch. It was literally her life. Outside her family, to which she was\nwarmly attached, everything centred for her there, and for many years\none of her heaviest crosses was her inability to render the service she\ndesired to her church and denomination.\n\nThe portrait prefacing this book was taken in 1871, when Miss Ellis was\nthirty-six years old,--perhaps the saddest period in her life. Youth,\nhealth, fortune, hearing, dear friends, had gone one after another. The\nfuture looked dark indeed. She felt within herself capacities for which\nthere seemed no earthly opportunity. The face wears a sadder expression\nthan that characterizing it in later life, when at last she had found\nher real work.[2]\n\n[Footnote 2: The kindness of Mr. Frank R. Ellis, of Cincinnati, Miss\nEllis's youngest brother, enables us to place the portrait in this\nbook.]\n\nRev. Charles Noyes was settled as Unitarian pastor in Cincinnati in\n1872. To him Miss Ellis always attributed her first missionary impulse.\n\nIn a letter to Rev. W. C. Gannett, July 28, 1885, she said:--\n\n     \"Yes, it is a _great_ source of comfort to have started the 'good\n     seed,' and now to see so many stronger people taking up the work\n     and doing so much better than I. A great deal is due to dear Mr.\n     Charles Noyes. He won me by his kind heart while here, and was so\n     kind in lending me his manuscripts always, and books, that he kept\n     me along with the religion of the day. Then Mr. Weudte furthered\n     the matter by putting me on the Missionary Committee, and finally\n     started me out with the 'Pamphlet Mission.' You know the rest.\"\n\nIn her diary was a copy of a letter written Mr. Noyes on his departure\nfrom Cincinnati, dated June 23, 1875, a portion of which is here given.\n\n     \"I cannot say 'so be it' to your departure without returning thanks\n     for the many pleasant hours you have afforded me through your\n     manuscripts, the books and papers you have so kindly lent me from\n     time to time. You have given me something to think about for a long\n     time, so I can do without any sermons for a while. I do not expect\n     to find so kind a pastor very soon.\n\n     \"From your first text, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Take\n     heed, therefore, how ye hear,' I accepted you as a teacher learning\n     more from God than from man. I have followed you from beginning to\n     the end, and I have worked _with_ you and _for_ you to the best of\n     my ability, my strength, and my means. Would I had been a more\n     efficient worker! I have taken heed as to how I have heard. You\n     have not changed my views so much as brought out more clearly what\n     was already in my own mind. The best lesson I have learned from you\n     is a firmer trust in God. You have brought me to the 'Source of all\n     Truth, whence Jesus drew his life.' Here you leave me. An essential\n     point to have reached, in my view; a firm rock on which to rest,\n     and one that can never be taken from me. Some people are not\n     satisfied with a faith so simple. They need more to rest on; as if\n     there could be a stronger, better support than the 'voice in the\n     soul.' From loss of hearing, the 'voice within' has spoken more\n     clearly to me perhaps.... It is a very great disappointment to me\n     to part with you and your family, for I have become very much\n     attached to you all; for even little G---- has learned to look upon\n     me as a friend. It is not every one who wins me; and when one does,\n     it is all the harder to separate from him. Still, we are often\n     compelled to give up our preferences, as I have learned before\n     now.... The benediction I ask is the one you have so often asked\n     for us (Mary----ears to me, and a reliable authority): 'May the\n     Heavenly Father bless, preserve, and guide you all. May he give you\n     wisdom to know and strength to do his holy will forevermore.'\"\n\nMr. Noyes, being asked for his recollections of Miss Ellis, writes:--\n\n     \"Sallie had a very true, deep, strong religious nature, and a\n     leaning to religious, not to say theological, studies. Alone in\n     Cincinnati when I first went there, I was often a guest at Mr.\n     Ellis's Sunday table. Sallie borrowed my sermons. She liked to talk\n     over the subject of the sermon, and this led to my recommending to\n     her many books for her reading, and loaning to her what I had in my\n     library. She became familiar with the writings of most of our\n     Unitarian writers,--with Channing, Clarke, Hedge, Dewey, Norton,\n     Furness, and many others. She was no careless reader, but a student\n     of the writer's thought.... She had great breadth of mental\n     outlook, and a great heart of charity and love for all. She admired\n     the diversity of opinion in our body, and had faith in the unity of\n     the Spirit that would fuse us into one.... If Sallie ever expressed\n     wonder and surprise, it was that Unitarianism did not grow as fast\n     as it ought, and that those who accepted its teachings did not\n     identify themselves with it. We had our Mission School of about\n     three hundred pupils, and our Sewing School.... The time had not\n     come for the Pamphlet Mission or the Post Office; yet Miss Ellis\n     was making the best preparation possible for her after-work, and in\n     due time the door of best usefulness stood wide open. You know, as\n     we all know, how well she filled her office.... Her letters were\n     sermons,--tracts in themselves, best adapted to her correspondents,\n     and, I am persuaded, did a grand work of their own. She heard with\n     difficulty, she was not an easy talker, but she wrote with great\n     clearness.... More than the books she sent out, she was to many a\n     one the blessed missionary of our faith.... In her early studies\n     the miracle question was a stumbling-block to Sallie. The old-time\n     interpretation of miracle she could not accept; neither could she\n     take up with the mythical theory of Strauss. Miracle must be in\n     harmony with law. Jesus must be to her the natural flower of\n     _human_ nature, the perfect blossom of _human_ development. Nature\n     and the supernatural must be in harmony. Hence the delight she took\n     in Dr. Furness's works. His works helped her, as they have so many\n     others, out of her difficulties about the supernatural. And more\n     than that, they fed her religious life, pure and simple, and let\n     her into the heart of Christ. She often alluded to her debt to Dr.\n     Furness, whom she admired and loved.\"\n\nMiss Ellis little expected or would have desired to figure as a\nUnitarian saint. Her estimate of herself was lowly. Whatever her faults\nand limitations, however, they were only those natural to a strong\nnature driven in upon itself, beating in vain against the stern walls\nthat everywhere surrounded it. Bravely did she strive to resist what she\nclearly perceived to be the natural tendencies of her peculiar troubles,\nand bravely did she succeed. The prayers, the tears, the struggles of\nthose lonely, baffled years are known only to God, and are only hinted\nat here and there in the diary kept during a large part of her life. An\nunique diary it is, showing, as nothing else could, the passion of\nreligious devotion which burned in her soul. Each day's record, no\nmatter how brief, ends with passages of Scripture, or sometimes a hymn,\nappropriate to the day's mood or experience. In reading it, one realizes\nafresh the richness of the Bible in comfort and strength. The diary\nfurnishes a complete history of the Unitarian Church of Cincinnati for\nmany years. All the individual joys and sorrows of its members, their\nbirthdays and their death-days, are here recorded with loving sympathy.\nAlso, a complete record of every Sunday's service for many years is\ngiven, with always a full abstract of the sermon, sometimes filling\nseveral pages of fine, close writing. Occasionally it happened that the\nminister failed to hand Miss Sallie his sermon after delivery,--a\ngrievous disappointment, almost too great to bear, as the diary\ntestifies. Each year the personal matter grows less, the religious\nmeditations and quotations consume more and more space, until of the\njournal in the last years her sister writes: \"It seems to have been kept\nmainly to give vent to her pure, spiritual nature, which was ever\nlonging for some expression of itself.\" A very few extracts are here\ngiven from the diary,--a glimpse only of the struggles and longings that\nunconsciously to herself were all fitting her for her work.\n\n\n\n\nDIARY.\n\n\n     1873. I have been too indolent for a few years. Now I must be up\n     and doing, with a heart for anything, and remember that these\n     clouds that overshadow us all are meant to make us look beyond for\n     the sunshine. \"No cross, no crown.\" I have a project in my head\n     that I wish very much to carry out. I am tired of my selfish life;\n     and all that reconciles me to it is, that I accept it as a\n     necessary discipline for my restless spirit, to teach me\n     submission, and help me to say, \"Thy will, not mine, be done.\" My\n     idea of a _true_ Christian is to be working for others always, and\n     not thinking of self. My desire is, to start a sewing-class from\n     the Mission School, to be kept up during the summer, if I can only\n     get the means of carrying out my plan, and find some one who is\n     willing to take charge of it in case I am not able to be there. I\n     would _gladly_ make the sacrifice of personal comfort.\n\nThe sewing-class was started, and Miss Ellis became one of its most\ndevoted teachers, though working often in great feebleness and pain.\n\n     Feel bluer, but I believe my deafness is bringing me truer faith,\n     and resignation.... Another very warm day, but I have managed to\n     get through the day cheerfully, thinking of heavenly things.... I\n     cannot understand what makes me so ugly sometimes. I pray that my\n     evil spirit may be subdued some day.... Do not know of anything I\n     have done to benefit others to-day, only I have been cheerful.... I\n     have felt pretty well, and this day went rightly with me, though I\n     do not know as I have advanced the cause of life very much.... How\n     I do long to live a perfectly unselfish life, and to be a blessing\n     to those around me, as my life was intended for!... Am reading \"Old\n     Kensington,\" by Miss Thackeray,--a real love-story; and it makes me\n     sad, as usual.... Still in the house, and feel poorly. Feel a\n     little dull this evening, and on thinking over my life, think that\n     I have had more than most people of my age to endure, and wonder\n     that I keep up my spirits as well as I have; and it is only that I\n     feel that all is the necessary discipline for me. \"Let us but be\n     genuine, honest, and true in everything, even in the smallest\n     thing, and we have in that the sign and the pledge of entire\n     consecration of heart and life to God\" (J. F. Clarke). \"Be faithful\n     unto death, and I will give you a crown of life\" (Rev. ii. 10)....\n     Gave up to a _terrible_ fit of the \"blues\" this afternoon and\n     evening. Am _so_ tired of suffering all the time, that I gave way\n     under my cross to-day. It seems as if I can't struggle to live\n     longer.\n\n     _Sunday._ A bright day; I was not able to go out, but felt that it\n     was good to remain at home to think over my blessings.... Attended\n     Bible-class this evening. I came home in rather a despondent mood.\n     I find my cross hard to bear, but must pray for more strength.\n\n     1874. Sent my old Bible to be bound to-day, which I have used\n     twenty-three years.... I have felt extremely favored to-day, in\n     that I was able to attend the Sewing School, which I feared all the\n     week I might be disappointed in. We closed the school to-day, after\n     twenty-four weeks' work. It has been time well spent, and I feel\n     particularly thankful to my heavenly Father in having heard my\n     prayer for health, strength, and good weather. One strong desire of\n     my life has been vouchsafed me, and I feel overpowered with joy\n     to-night.... I have felt to-day how much I need the assistance of\n     Christ, and may his religion help me to be victorious in the end.\n\nQuoting an extract from Miss Sedgwick's diary on the unmarried life,\nwhich ends, \"Though not _first_ to any, I am, like Themistocles,\n_second_ to a great many: my sisters are all kind and affectionate to\nme, my brothers generous and invariably kind; their children all love\nme,\" Miss Ellis adds: \"These _very words_ I can repeat as my\nexperience.... If I can only add a few _drops_ of happiness to his life\n[a brother's], I shall be too happy.\"\n\n     1875. Mr. Noyes called Monday to bring me his sermon, and it made\n     me very resigned. The text was from 2 Cor. xii. 10,--\"When I am\n     weak, then am I strong.\"\n\nPaul's \"thorn in the flesh\" was the topic of the discourse, and several\npages of extracts are copied in the journal.\n\n     It is one of the trials of my life not to assist in the church as I\n     desire to. I presume it must be because I neglect other duties, and\n     see but one thing before me, and that is, to give up the _idol_ of\n     my life, and do the duty that is nearest to me; but it is a sore\n     trial to me.... This has been an eventful week to me, for last\n     Sunday Mr. Noyes closed his ministry with us.... Now they have\n     really gone, it makes me feel rather despondent, though I know they\n     have left many blessings to me behind them.\n\n     I am beginning some fancy work, in hopes of brightening my life\n     somewhat. I am not reconciled to the hardships of life.... Am\n     anxious to learn wood-carving.... I try to have the faith _of_\n     Jesus more than that about him.\n\n     ... Went to see about trumpets yesterday, and came home greatly\n     disheartened, and shall have to submit with a good grace to the\n     cross.... Mr. Wendte lectures on the New Testament this evening. I\n     should be glad to hear him, but believe all is best as it is.\n\n     1877. We had a beautiful sermon to-day, which I took especially to\n     myself, on \"The Lonely Hours of Life.\" ... Am feeling better\n     to-day, and the sermon (on \"Be Strong, and of a Good Courage\")\n     roused my better nature, ready to go on courageously.... Lecture\n     this evening on \"Funeral Customs.\" I did not attend, for the sermon\n     to-day (on \"Prayer\") so exalted me that I didn't feel like\n     listening to things of the world.... Wakened feeling disconsolate\n     this morning, but resolved to bear the cross of life as trustfully\n     and cheerfully as possible, and lay up treasures during the summer\n     ready to \"give out\" when all return in the winter. Impressed two\n     little pieces on my mind,--one by Spitta, in \"Day unto Day,\"--\n\n        \"Glad with thy light and glowing with thy love,\n        So let me ever think and speak and move.\"\n\n     The other by Whittier,--\n\n        \"Lord, help me strive 'gainst each besetting sin.\"\n\n     Went to Madame Wendte's. Brought home, \"Ten Great Religions,\"\n     \"Reason in Religion,\" and \"Evolution in Religion.\"\n\nThus did Miss Ellis fortify herself for the summer vacation of the\nchurch. Emerson's \"Society and Solitude\" was another book read this\nvacation.\n\n     Have not lived up to my ideal the past week, and particularly\n     to-day. However, may the good Father pardon my shortcomings and aid\n     me to do better.... I feel that I have added something to my life\n     for the benefit of others by the rest and reading of this summer. I\n     hope to study up German a little, among my busy hours this winter.\n     I can retain so little in my head, it is discouraging to read. I\n     must work the harder, and believe \"all is for the best,\" and pray,\n     in faith, for patience.... Mr. Wendte's first sermon--subject,\n     \"After Vacation\"--made me feel somewhat depressed, for I feel so\n     anxious to do for _every one_, and have not the means or strength.\n     [She resolves to] do my little part and not discourage [the\n     minister],--do my part more by showing an interest than by the\n     amount of work I do.... I am miserable, dyspeptic, and\n     disappointed.... I have felt heartily discouraged this week in\n     every way, but the church did me good this morning.\n\nMr. Noyes was succeeded as pastor at Cincinnati by Rev. Charles W.\nWendte in the fall of 1875. The idea of preaching, of carrying to others\nthe blessed Unitarian faith which had been her joy and strength, now\nfilled Miss Ellis's soul. She discussed various schemes to this end with\nfriends who respected her and her earnestness too much to laugh at the\n(in worldly eyes) utter absurdity of her hopes, as futile as Miss\nToosey's desire to go as a missionary to Nawaub. Could she not go out\ninto Ohio villages and hold lay services, reading the printed prayers\nand sermons of our Unitarian ministers? Great must have been the\nyearning for the ministry consuming her soul, to tempt the reserved,\nfeeble little woman, with her deafness and dyspepsia, her incessant\ncough, her love of her own room and things, her exactness and exquisite\nnicety of habit, seriously to contemplate such a career. Yet, but for\nabsolute physical incapacity, and the dissuasions (on that account) of\nher family, she would certainly have made the experiment. Or might she\nnot open a reading-room in the church, to be kept open all the week,\nwhere the treasures of Unitarian literature could be dispensed? Even in\nher last years she seriously meditated going to the church every Sunday\nmorning during the vacation to open her library and meet those who might\nwant books, papers, or advice. The summer vacation was always a grief to\nher. She wished the church might be open every day.\n\nNov. 9, 1876, a rough draft of the following letter to Mr. Wendte\nappears in her diary:--\n\n     \"I cannot resist returning special thanks for your sermon of last\n     Sunday, 'To what end is your life?' I do not know when a sermon has\n     so fully aroused the will of my youth.... At twenty years of age,\n     'the object of my toil' was to live for the earthly comfort of the\n     family, for the good of society in general, so far as in my power,\n     at the same time keeping an eye to the higher interests of life by\n     working in and for the church.... 'The goal of my ambition' in\n     middle life is to labor for the spiritual welfare of those about\n     me; but I find myself without means to assist others.... My\n     preference is decidedly to labor for the higher natures of others\n     as well as for myself; therefore, remembering your kind offer in\n     your letter to me during the summer, I ask, can you suggest\n     anything for me to engage in, in the spreading of Christianity?\n     [She wishes] to devote the remainder of my life to the highest and\n     best I know. If you can put me in the way of assisting others as\n     well as myself in the highest and holiest way, I shall be ever\n     indebted to you. I shall be glad to so live that when I lay down my\n     life I shall in some measure have returned the many kindnesses of\n     parents, sisters, brothers, and friends, repaid the efforts of\n     teachers and pastors in my behalf, and proved myself a worthy child\n     to Him who gave me being.\"\n\nAt the end, however, she writes: \"Didn't send it. Concluded it was\nbetter to talk with him.\"\n\nThe same ideas in another form appear again in the diary as a letter to\nMr. Wendte. One of the burdens on Mr. Wendte's heart in those days was\n\"to find something for Miss Ellis to do.\" Partly to this end he devised\nSunday-school lessons in manuscript, which Miss Ellis copied each week\nfor all the teachers. In 1877 he appointed a Missionary Society with a\nformidable list of names, the significant one among whom events proved\nto be Miss Sallie Ellis, Treasurer,--she being, indeed, the \"society.\"\nThe little programme says:--\n\n     \"The object of the Missionary Society is to spread the knowledge\n     and increase the influence of Liberal religious ideas throughout\n     the city and State by publications, correspondence, and such other\n     means as may seem to it suitable and best.\"\n\nDuring the winter of 1877-78 Miss Ellis, aided by Mr. Wendte,\ndistributed 1,846 tracts and 211 \"Pamphlet Missions\" (as baby \"Unity\"\nwas called) in twenty-six States. Miss Ellis was always scrupulously\nsystematic, methodical, and exact in all she did, and a huge pile of\nclosely written blank books gives every minutia connected with the\nbusiness details of her work. In her diary was a copy of this letter to\nMr. Wendte, dated Feb. 21, 1878:--\n\n     \"Why not have a 'Mission Sunday' sometime soon? Do not announce it\n     previously, however; for some might feel inclined to remain at\n     home; but catch as many together as possible, and make them listen\n     to a rousing address from you,--a report of what you have done and\n     the letters you have received. It might not be as social or\n     interesting as a concert or something else; but it would not hurt\n     the people to listen to it, and would make the missionary work more\n     a reality to them, and I believe in the end an appeal from you\n     would bring in more money than anything else.\n\n     \"I have one request to make of you, however; and that is, that you\n     do not bring my name out in the pulpit, unless you have occasion to\n     mention the names of the Missionary Society. It is merely necessary\n     to mention you have been assisted by one of the 'Missionary\n     Committee,' not saying 'Treasurer,' man or woman. I have no\n     objection if any one asks you privately who has done the work, to\n     have you tell them. I love to do good work, but wish no other\n     praise than to know that the recipient of the act has been\n     benefited thereby. I act from the mere pleasure of doing good to\n     others and believing it to be right, therefore deserve no\n     credit.... The winter's work has brought out the desire of younger\n     days, when a Presbyterian friend used to tell me, 'You ought to go\n     as a missionary to China.' I then had five little brothers and\n     sisters to help care for, and considered that 'mission' enough.\n     Since they are grown my health has been too poor to undertake\n     anything, but now I should like a work in life. If I have a 'taste'\n     or 'talent' for anything, it is for the study and the spread of\n     religion.... All the family are only too kind to me, which only\n     makes me the more anxious to use my one talent to the utmost\n     extent. If you know of any work I could assist in, in our\n     denomination, East or West, I would be much obliged to you if you\n     would let me know.\"\n\nThe first mentions in the journal of missionary work are Nov. 25, 1877,\n\"Mr. Wendte came to me with missionary work to do,--five hundred tracts\nto distribute;\" and Dec. 9, 1877, \"Feel that I am doing good in lending\nbooks and papers and distributing tracts.\"\n\nSept. 5, 1880, while visiting her sister in Philadelphia she opens a\nnew volume of the journal as follows:--\n\n     Too warm to venture to church. The church in Cincinnati opens\n     to-day. Would I might be one of the congregation! I _am_, in\n     spirit! In opening this book on Sunday I would dedicate it to a\n     high use, and open it with ascription of praise to the Giver of all\n     good. \"Pray for us unto the Lord thy God, ... that the Lord thy God\n     may show us the way wherein we may walk\" (Jer. xlii. 2, 3).\n     \"Quicken thou me in thy way\" (Psalms cxix. 37).\n\nThe following prayers are then copied:--\n\n     \"My Father, may I ever humbly follow in thy way; may I ever trust,\n     with the full assurance of faith, that it does lead to thy heavenly\n     kingdom. It is often narrow and perplexed, and I cannot see where\n     it is leading me; yet, though the guiding light of thy holy word\n     may be half obscured by the mists of the valley, if I fix my eyes\n     steadily upon it, it will become brighter and brighter; I shall see\n     my way clearly in this seemingly intricate road, and discern, even\n     at the end of it, the entrance to thy heavenly mansion.\"\n\n     \"O God, may our souls be full of life. Save us from an inanimate\n     and sluggish life.... Inspire our sensibility to good; may we see\n     more and more its loveliness and beauty. And may all the varied\n     experience of life draw us nearer to thee\" (Channing).\n\nThen follows \"an abstract from Channing's Memoirs, showing how, by\nself-scrutiny, his character was formed, by many trials and denials.\"\nShe then copies eighteen pages from Channing's \"Rules for\nSelf-Discipline,\" at the end writing, \"All these pages from Channing are\nwritten from memory, not copied.\"\n\nThe second rule copied is, \"Let me not _talk_ of pains, sicknesses,\ncomplaints,\" etc.\n\nFollowing the rules is a poem copied from the \"Christian Register\" of\nSept. 4, 1880.\n\n\n                   WHAT OF THAT?\n\n            \"Tired?\"    Well, what of that?\n    Didst fancy life was spent on beds of ease,\n    Fluttering the rose-leaves scattered by the breeze?\n    Come, rouse thee! work while it is called day!\n    Coward, arise! Go forth upon thy way.\n\n            \"Lonely?\"    And what of that?\n    Some must be lonely; 'tis not given to all\n    To feel a heart responsive rise and fall,\n    To blend another life into its own.\n    Work may be done in loneliness. Work on!\n\n            \"Dark?\"    Well, what of that?\n    Didst fondly dream the sun would never set?\n    Dost fear to lose thy way? Take courage yet!\n    Learn thou to walk by faith, and not by sight;\n    Thy steps will guided be, and guided right.\n\n            \"Hard?\"    Well, what of that?\n    Didst fancy life one summer holiday,\n    With lessons none to learn, and nought but play?\n    Go, get thee to thy task! Conquer or die!\n    It must be learned! Learn it, then, patiently.\n\n            \"No help?\"    Nay, 'tis not so!\n    Though human help is far, thy God is nigh;\n    Who feeds the ravens, hears his children's cry.\n    He's near thee wheresoe'er thy footsteps roam,\n    And he will guide thee, light thee, help thee home.\n\nThen follows a selection from Emerson:--\n\n     \"The scholar must be a solitary, laborious, modest, and charitable\n     soul. He must embrace solitude as a bride. He must have his glees\n     and his glooms alone. Go, scholar, cherish your soul; expel\n     companions; set your habits to a life of solitude; then will the\n     faculties rise fair and full within, like forest trees, field\n     flowers; you will have results, which, when you meet your fellow\n     men, you can communicate and they will gladly receive. It is the\n     noble, manly, just thought which is the superiority demanded of\n     you; and not crowds, but solitude, confers this elevation.\"\n\nNext follows a page of \"Paragraphs for Preachers.\" Evidently this year\nsees the dying of the first hope to be a preacher, and the gradual dawn\nof her life's real mission. Seven pages follow of \"Prayers altered and\nrearranged for my own use, from 'Dairy Praise and Prayer.'\" Three or\nfour appropriate prayers are united in one, headed, \"First evening,\"\n\"First Morning,\" \"Second Evening,\" etc. These were apparently prepared\nfor the lay services she had dreamed of holding. A page or two more, and\nthis entry, October 17, marks the dawning of the new hope: \"Last week\nreceived a very kind letter from Mr. Wendte, in which he stated, 'We\nhave made you chairman of a Book and Tract Table in the church;\n'therefore I feel bound to return to attend to it.\" Further extracts\nfrom the diary are:--\n\n     Saturday evening, J---- accidentally broke my audiphone. I felt\n     _lost_ then, but wouldn't let them know how badly I felt about it,\n     and even went to church without it, for fear they would feel hurt\n     about it. It came home mended, this evening.\n\n     _October 31._ Finished G----'s afghan, also completed the\n     embroidery of fourth skirt for Mrs. ----, and first of baby C----'s\n     mittens. Was quite interested in a letter of Mrs. ---- in\n     \"Register\" of last week on \"The Woman's Auxiliary Conference.\" Hope\n     she _will_ succeed in establishing a Woman's Club for discussion\n     and debate in Cincinnati.\n\nMiss F. Le Baron, whose friendship with Miss Ellis dates back to the\nlatter's residence in Chicago, writes that she has several letters from\nMiss Ellis setting forth her desire to preach, but unfortunately they\nare in a totally inaccessible place. This allusion, in the diary,\nevidently points to the final renunciation of Miss Ellis's first\nmissionary impulse:--\n\n     _November 7._ A letter from Miss Le Baron, of Chicago, in regard to\n     my engaging in missionary work in the West. She finally closed with\n     the idea that I had come to myself. In a letter from A---- this\n     week she says to me, \"_Our_ lot in life appears to be that of\n     patience and submission,\" which brings to my mind quite a sermon,\n     in other's words, which I hope to write out to-day. It is time to\n     prepare for church.... The thought suggested by A----'s letter with\n     regard to submission to our lot called to mind the passage William\n     Ellery Channing wrote to his friend Francis. \"You seem to go upon\n     the supposition that our circumstances are determined by\n     Providence. I believe they are determined by ourselves. Man is the\n     artificer of his own fortunes. By exertion he can enlarge his\n     sphere of usefulness. By activity he can 'multiply himself.' It is\n     mind that gives him the ascendency in society; it is mind that\n     gives him power and ability. It depends upon himself to call forth\n     the energies of mind, to strengthen the intellect, to form\n     benevolence into a habit of the soul. The consequence I draw from\n     these principles is that Heaven, by placing me in particular\n     circumstances, has not assigned me a determinate sphere of\n     usefulness (as you seem to think), but that it is in my power, and\n     of course my duty, to spread the 'beams of my light' wider into the\n     'night of adversity.'\"\n\nMiss Ellis continues, apparently partly in her own words:--\n\n     With this idea, then, that we largely fashion our own lives, that,\n     \"working with God, and for him, our lives can know no true failure,\n     but all things shall contribute to our soul's true success,\" let us\n     take up our cross, and then we shall find\n\n                           \"The burden light,\n    The path made straight, the way all bright,\n            Our warfare cease;\n          So shall we win the crown,\n          At last our life lay down\n            In perfect peace.\"\n\nTwo pages more on the same topic, of original and selected matter\nskilfully blended (perhaps the whole a bit of one of the sermons never\nto be preached), end with the hymn, copied in full,--\n\n    \"I ask not wealth, but power to take\n      And use the things I have aright;\"\n\nand Miss Ellis finally sums all up, \"True submission, then, consists in\n_working_ out our own salvation, looking to God for strength wherewith\nto work.\" The only entry for the next day is part of the hymn,--\n\n    \"But God, through ways they have not known,\n                Will lead his own.\"\n\nNovember 11 she returned home.\n\n     _November 14._ Attended fair, and met many friends. Mr. Wendte\n     kindly set me to work at a Book and Tract Table, and I sold two\n     books and distributed a quantity of free matter.\n\n     _December 5._ Am thoroughly on the road to the Book and Tract Table\n     in the church. Hope it may prove a good thing, and that I shall do\n     it _faithfully_.\n\n     _December 12._ Have been miserable all the week, and quite sick two\n     and a half hours Thursday. Couldn't raise my head, and had to\n     pretty much give up all day. Had sociable this week, and I was on\n     hand to urge the book trade, and hoped to have a supply to-day, but\n     was disappointed in it. It was one of the unsatisfactory days to\n     me, for I have had such a tremendous noise in my head that I\n     couldn't hear at all.\n\n     _December 19._ Held a meeting at Mrs. ----'s on Friday, with regard\n     to the Woman's Auxiliary Missionary work. It has been decided that\n     I am to take charge of distribution of Liberal publications, also\n     to canvass for the \"Register.\" Had Mr. Mayo to preach for us\n     to-day. I was astonished to hear how well I heard him, and how\n     _natural_ it seemed. It made my cross all the heavier in contrast.\n     [The sonnet, \"Strength for the Day,\" by Rachel G. Alsop, is copied\n     to close this day's record.]\n\n     _Feb. 10, 1881._ Began committing \"A Statement of Unitarian Belief\n     in Bible Language.\"\n\n     _February 13._ I have felt rather depressed this week, and _needed_\n     the church to-day, which did do me good, as I heard more of the\n     sermon than I have heard for thirteen years.\n\n     _February 20._ Sermon to-day on \"Are ye good Hearers?\" I think my\n     remark to Mr. Wendte last Sunday must have called it forth.... Mr.\n     Wendte made the following beautiful tribute to the deaf.... I heard\n     just enough to overcome me, and thought two or three times that I\n     should break down. Have cried and laughed over the sermon.\n\nA long extract is copied into the journal, of which this is a portion:--\n\n     \"Blindness only separates a man from Nature, but the loss of\n     hearing also isolates him, more or less, from human companionship.\n     As a natural consequence, the deaf are apt to lose interest in the\n     social life around them, and to grow discontented, suspicious, and\n     morose. You and I know beautiful examples to the contrary,--persons\n     so patient, brave, and uncomplaining amidst their heavy\n     tribulation, so sunny of temper and full of human kindness, that\n     they are a constant inspiration and joy to us. Yet theirs is a hard\n     struggle, to remain true and sweet and Christian with such fearful\n     odds against them in the journey of life.\"\n\n     _February 27._ Am becoming quite interested in missionary work in\n     Ravenna, Ohio.\n\n     \"We scatter seeds with careless hand,\n     And dream we ne'er shall see them more;\n        But for a thousand years\n        Their fruit appears,\n        In weeds that mar the land,\n        Or healthful store.\"\n\n     _March 13._ To-day is my forty-sixth birthday, and I am about\n     ready, or rather have resolved, to open a Circulating Library in\n     the church, as quite a number are in favor of it. We organized our\n     Women's Auxiliary Conference last Tuesday, of a rainy day: Mrs.\n     Fayette Smith, President; Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton,\n     Vice-president; Fannie Field, Treasurer and Recording Secretary;\n     Miss Ellis, Corresponding Secretary; Executive Committee (with the\n     above), Mrs. Davies Wilson, Miss Elizabeth D. Allen.\n\nThe foundation of the Circulating Library was Miss Ellis's own\ncollection of religious books. Book lovers know what this sacrifice\nwould have been to a less generous nature, one less intent on helping\nothers. Additions were made by gifts from individuals and authors, and\nby Miss Ellis's occasional purchase of some book whose need she felt,\nuntil the library now numbers over one hundred and thirty volumes. These\nbooks were loaned at church, and by mail all over the country.\n\nA letter to Rev. A. A. Livermore reveals the brisk, happy, and\nbusiness-like Miss Ellis of the later years, with her hands at last full\nof work for her denomination. It also records the advent of her first\ncorrespondent, Mr. Julius Woodruff.\n\n                                             MARCH 10, 1881.\n\n     I have been better in health this winter than for many years,--for\n     a severe winter is all the better for me,--and have been able to\n     keep _very_ busy. Mr. Wendte has made me chairman of a Book and\n     Tract Table in the church, which has kept me very busy; and in\n     addition, the Unity Club made me Corresponding Secretary of their\n     Sunday Afternoon Lecture Committee, which involved distributing the\n     tickets (one thousand) and then collecting the money on them.... In\n     the mean time, too, I was agent here for the \"Register,\" had that\n     to attend to, besides attending to sale of books, paying for them,\n     and sending new orders, also \"Unity\" subscribers coming in, and\n     hunting up members for the Women's Auxiliary Conference, and\n     receiving their money. Now, do you not think for one who has always\n     been more spiritually inclined, that I have taken quite _too_ much\n     to money matters?\n\n     Well, in distributing \"Registers\" through the State I have come\n     across a very interesting, appreciative young man of twenty-one, in\n     Ravenna, Ohio, and I have reason to think we have created quite a\n     stir in the little town. Mr. Woodruff, my correspondent, writes a\n     very good letter, and is quite enthusiastic on the subject of\n     Unitarianism, and is willing to do missionary work, distributing\n     widely the documents I send him, and has recommended a young man,\n     formerly a student of theology, an intelligent, thinking man, who\n     is much interested in our views. He now works on a farm and teaches\n     school, in order to gain an education. On Wednesday last we\n     organized our Women's Auxiliary Conference, at which I read Mr.\n     Woodruff's letters, and the ladies at once moved that we should\n     propose Meadville to our young friend, whose name is ----. I am to\n     write and ask whether he would like to go to the college at\n     Meadville, and in the mean time am to find out through you the\n     conditions on which he could be admitted. I should be only too\n     happy if I prove the means of assisting one young man to the\n     ministry, and shall feel that all these many years of interest in\n     the church have not been lost, if we only succeed in doing this\n     much good. Besides all this other work, I find the ladies are much\n     in favor of a Circulating Library in the church, so I am going to\n     found my library soon.\n\nThe journal, March 20, shows the indomitable will that ruled the feeble\nbody:--\n\n     Yesterday [Saturday] I was at the church all day to get the library\n     in order. Was taken with vertigo, and for over an hour and a half\n     couldn't walk straight. J---- S---- happened to be at the church at\n     choir-meeting, and brought me home. By bedtime could walk alone,\n     and to-day have been attending to duties at church. Succeeded in\n     getting the Library settled to my satisfaction, and was glad there\n     was no one there. Opened my library March 19. Mr. W----announced me\n     \"Miss Sarah Ellis\" in the papers.\n\n     _March 28._ Have felt quite encouraged this week by applications\n     for documents. Have just mailed to Rev. ----, \"Statement of\n     Unitarian Belief in Bible Language.\" [This applicant is now in a\n     Unitarian pulpit.]\n\n     _April 3._ A beautiful sermon in \"Register\" to-day--\"Life's\n     Shadows\"--by Rev. J. Ll. Jones. [She copies two pages.]\n\n     _May 1._ Feel deeply interested in a correspondent we have in\n     Springfield, ... who confesses himself something of an atheist, and\n     I am hunting up all the convincing articles upon the subject of God\n     and Immortality that I can find, and came across a \"Unitarian\n     Review,\" of June, 1876, which seems to have been written for his\n     very case.... Hope these will be convincing to the Springfield\n     Club, which was formed last Sunday, with ten members to begin with.\n\n     _June 2._ Am now quite interested in trying to manage it so as to\n     keep the church open two hours Sundays during the vacation, for\n     persons to come and read and take home books. Hope I may succeed.\n\n     _June 12._ Have felt tired to-day, but enjoyed the day, for Mr.\n     Wendte and mother dined here. He tells me I may \"run the church\"\n     during the vacation, which will make me very happy.\n\n     _June 29._ The hottest day of the month for ten years, and the\n     hottest of the season so far. Intense. One hundred in the shade at\n     noon. Have been reading W. R. Alger's \"School of Life,\" from which\n     the following abstract....\n\nThen follow three pages of the \"abstract,\" in a close, minute\nhandwriting, ending this volume of the journal,--the last submitted to\nthe writer's inspection, because, as has been previously said, there\nwas almost no personal matter in the diaries of the remaining years.\n\nMiss Ellis's ardent desire to keep the church open during the summer\nvacation had to be abandoned, owing to the reluctance of her family to\nhave one so feeble at the church alone; and she went Saturday afternoons\ninstead, when the sexton was there.\n\nThe Cincinnati branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference, on its\norganization in March, 1881, looking about for work to do, remembered\noccasional letters received by Mr. Wendte in response to the documents\nsent out by him and Miss Ellis. These letters seemed to hint at a\npossible opportunity awaiting this Unitarian church, standing so\nisolated in the heart of the great rich West, where the multitude of\nIngersoll and Liberal clubs, and of intelligent people outside all\nchurches, seemed to indicate a want that the evangelical denominations\ndid not meet. It was therefore resolved to attempt extending the work\nbegun by Mr. Wendte, by advertising in the daily papers Unitarian\nliterature for free distribution,--an experiment never before tried.\nMiss Ellis entered upon her duties as Corresponding Secretary \"without\nmoney and without price\" (though later a small annual salary of one\nhundred dollars was raised for her), but with an immense zeal. The\nadvertisement's line or two of fine print, almost lost, apparently, on\nthe broad side of the daily paper, inserted only once a week,\nnevertheless soon began to bring Miss Ellis letters that equally\nsurprised and delighted us, showing that we had not over-estimated the\ndemand for Unitarian literature in the West.\n\nRev. J. Ll. Jones being in Cincinnati, the first bundle of letters was\nread to him, and his opinion, as an experienced Western missionary,\nanxiously awaited. It was given in these words:--\n\n     \"I think you Cincinnati women have got hold of the _little end_ of\n     a _big thing_, and if Miss Ellis's health and your enthusiasm hold\n     out, something is bound to come of it. Go on, by all means.\" He\n     added, \"I wish I knew that Miss Ellis had ten years more to live.\"\n\nFour years and a half, however, was the short term of service allowed\nher in her mission, found at last after years of longing and groping\ntowards it vainly. But now it was seen that all these years of suffering\nhad not been in vain. She who had endured so much was quick to\nsympathize with others. The religious studies undertaken for her own\nconsolation enabled her wisely to direct the reading of her\ncorrespondents. Even her deafness seemed specially to fit her for her\nwork. Shut apart from the din and bustle of modern life in a quiet world\nof her own, from its peaceful communings she sent out light and strength\nto others. The poor, denied life, like a plant severely pruned by the\ncareful gardener to insure a late, full bloom, now reached out and\ntouched many lives with a wonderful uplifting power.\n\nHer records of this four and a half years' work show that she received\n1,672 letters and postals, wrote 2,541, distributed at church and by\nmail 22,042 tracts, papers, etc.; sold 286 books, loaned 258 books, and\nobtained about sixty subscribers to religious papers.[3] Mere figures,\nhowever, but poorly tell the story. Several young men have entered or\nwill enter the ministry, as one result of her efforts. Many souls\nwrestling in utter loneliness with doubts they dared not confide to\ntheir nearest friends, received, from her wise sympathy and counsel,\nrestoration to religious faith, and strength to bear heavy burdens with\nrenewed courage, animated by trust in a loving Father hitherto concealed\nfrom them behind the outgrown phraseology of antiquated creeds,--creeds\nwhich their reason rejected. Many, indeed most of these correspondents,\noverjoyed with their new faith, hastened to share it with friends, and\nmany a little missionary centre began to grow in localities far from any\nUnitarian church, fostered by people who had never heard a Unitarian\nsermon. So the ground was being prepared for the State missionary. Her\nwork, too, opened the eyes of her denomination to its opportunities, and\ndid much to promote that missionary activity in which lies our brightest\nhope for the future. She is the acknowledged pioneer of the Post Office\nMission.\n\n[Footnote 3: Besides this, much reading matter was sent to the City\nWorkhouse, to the Old Men and Women's Home, and other institutions.]\n\nAs her work began to attract attention, many letters came from those\ndesiring to undertake like work, both East and West, asking advice, full\nand explicit accounts of her methods, etc.; and many long letters were\nwritten in reply. A Unitarian Club formed among the soldiers in the\nColumbus barracks was one of her interests, until its dissolution by the\nordering of its members to other posts. She supplied much reading matter\nto, and corresponded occasionally with, soldiers at the Dayton Soldiers'\nHome. A soldier in Wyoming Territory was for a long time a most grateful\nrecipient of reading from her, which he shared with his company. Small\nclubs in several localities were supplied by her with matter for\ndiscussion and study during their existence. Wherever she had two or\nthree correspondents, she always urged the formation of reading or Unity\nclubs. For some months she had an interesting correspondence with a\nyoung man of more than usual intelligence in our City Workhouse, loaning\nhim such books as Channing's \"Life and Works,\" Dewey's \"Human Nature,\"\nand Merriam's \"Way of Life.\" She never heard from him after he left the\nworkhouse, but always had faith that he was somewhere living up to, or\ntowards, the good resolves so often expressed to her. Through him, and\nMr. Beach, of Joliet, Ill., our attention was called to the need of\nsupplying prisoners with good reading matter, both religious and\nsecular. Correspondence was opened with the warden and chaplain at the\nState Penitentiary, Frankfort, Ky., which led to the sending of their\n\"Registers\" there regularly by two Boston ladies, and eventually to the\nsending of many barrels of reading matter both to Joliet and Kentucky by\nthe Women's Auxiliary Conference of Boston.\n\nA great pleasure of her last years was attending the Western Conference\nat Chicago in May, 1883. Published accounts of her work had made her\nwell known in the denomination; so that, as the Cincinnati party\nreported on their return home, \"Miss Ellis was decidedly the belle of\nthe Conference.\" Every one wanted to see and talk with her, ask her\nadvice, etc. It was an immense satisfaction to her to meet personally,\nto see and hear (for she almost seemed to hear through the eager eyes),\nmen and women whose fame and writings were so familiar to her. Every\nsession of the Conference saw Miss Ellis seated in the front pew,\naudiphone in hand, eagerly intent on the exercises. Social beguilements\nmight make other people late at the morning devotions, but never Miss\nEllis, who took her conferences, like all else, conscientiously.\n\nIn May, 1885, she again attended the Western Conference at St. Louis,\nthough in great feebleness of body. Rev. W. C. Gannett, in \"Unity,\" thus\nspeaks of her:--\n\n     \"A last summer's letter from the little mother of the Post Office\n     Mission, who has just died in Cincinnati, will be of interest now.\n     Some who were present at the last May Conference in St. Louis may\n     remember the pathos of the quiet figure sitting in the front pews\n     and trying on her echo-fan to catch the patter of the words said\n     round her. The wee, sick, deafened body in which she did her work\n     so strong-heartedly makes that work all the more an example and an\n     inspiration. Strange enough should it prove that this bit of a\n     lady, almost caged from the world by cripplings, had opened the\n     most effective channel yet made for carrying our liberal faith to\n     the world. Perhaps it _takes_ a thorn in the flesh to make a\n     missionary. She certainly has done more than many a stout _son_ of\n     the Gospel to keep her name remembered in our Western churches.\n     This letter hints her pluck and her joy in the work, and the\n     struggle of it. She had been urged to go into the country for a\n     short rest, but replied:--\n\n     The country is not the place for me to stay in any time. The\n     morning and evening air keep my head roaring so, and increase\n     catarrh. I have learned that to stay home during the summer, make\n     no special effort, and work on slowly, is the better plan. If I go\n     away, there is constantly an effort over something. I return tired,\n     work has accumulated. I have to work doubly hard, and soon use up\n     the little gained. I am too weak in summer to wish to come in\n     contact with people to whom I have to be agreeable. Another\n     difficulty,--the country is too _quiet_ for me. I am inclined to be\n     a \"hermit,\" and when I do go out, which I do daily, even now I am\n     so sick, I need the stir, bustle, commotion, and the stores to\n     change the thoughts. I loved the country before I was so deaf,--now\n     city life is better for me; but I love to refresh myself by a ride\n     into the country in the street cars, where I can study _human_\n     nature on the way.... I work on principle, and for the real love of\n     working. I am not happy unless at work, and can't bear to tear\n     myself away from my little congregation, my papers, books, etc.\n     _They_ suffer for it. The family do not wish me to keep so busy,\n     but I am better for it, and my physician is on my side. \"Keep up!\"\n     [The next few sentences have already been given, in reference to\n     Mr. Noyes.] Don't give me undue credit for my appearance at the St.\n     Louis Conference. I tried to kill three birds with one stone (I\n     don't wear bird's wings in my hat, however),--to attend the\n     Conference, visit a brother, and gain strength. The last I failed\n     in.... I have written this long letter in two sittings. I have\n     improved decidedly within the past few days, and with pleasant\n     rides and good food and care shall soon be better. Most sincerely\n     and cordially your friend,                   SALLIE ELLIS.\n\n     CINCINNATI, July 28,1885.\"\n\nStrangely enough, one's first thought of Miss Ellis was never as an\ninvalid. She so ignored the poor, weak body that she made you forget it\ntoo. She was always so _alive_, so full of interest and joy in her work.\nWith what delight would she say, \"This new tract is exactly the thing to\nsend ----,\" or announce, \"such a good letter from ----.\" Even during the\nlast months, when the ravages of disease could no longer be concealed,\nshe _would_ not be sick. She set aside your sympathy. She was always\n\"better,\" \"only my limbs are so weak to-day,\" or \"my breath is so\nshort,\" or \"it always makes me cough to walk,\" as if these were mere\ncasual incidents quite unworthy of notice.\n\nThe last of her life, it was pitiful to see her still clinging to her\nwork, still persisting in caring for her own room, declining all offers\nof help. She often rose at five o'clock Sundays, because obliged by\nweakness to work slowly, that she might reach church early, to prepare\nher Tract Table before the congregation arrived. When no longer able to\nremain to the services, she still came and ministered to her own special\ncongregation at the Tract Table, though obliged by weakness to sit. When\nshe no longer had strength to arrange her hair, she quietly cut it off.\nBut she went on with her work. To one offering help she said, \"When I\ncannot do my work, I don't want to live.\" Again, she said, \"There are\nmany who need me, and they keep me alive.\" To the last she declined\nbeing considered an invalid,--did not wish any one to walk out with her,\nalthough the family were very uneasy to have one so weak and so deaf on\nthe street alone. She walked out every day, until the last time she was\nforced to lean against the door-post and gain breath and strength to\ntake the final step up into the house.\n\nAll this time she was writing letters of cheer and strength, seldom\nintimating that all was not well with her. When finally obliged to keep\nher bed, she faded away rapidly, only living about two weeks. The last\npostal card to a correspondent was begun in bed, in a trembling hand,\nending abruptly, \"Too sick to write,\" and it was finished for her.\nAlthough at times she had a little of the consumptive's feeling that she\nmight possibly rally, and even recover strength to work again, yet she\nperceived, as she said to her mother, that \"the sands are running out\nfast,\" and made all her preparations for death in the quiet spirit of\none merely going on a journey into a familiar country. One who watched\nwith her one of the last nights spoke of a beautiful prayer she offered\nin the middle of the night. She was unable to turn herself in bed, and\nsaid to this friend with a smile, \"This body wants turning so.\" Poor\nbody! not much longer had she to endure its weaknesses. Her religion was\ntoo habitual, too much a part of her very soul, for many outward words\nor professions. It was her life, her self. Why should she talk about it?\n\nMr. Thayer had always given her a list of the hymns and the full order\nof service, and the sermon to read. The Sunday before her death the\nsermon was returned, with the message that Miss Ellis was unable to read\nit, but had asked her mother to copy the text for her. A week before\nher death a friend, finding that in her excessive conscientiousness she\nwas letting business details of the Women's Auxiliary Conference trouble\nher lest she should forget some item, went over all the books, wrote\nbusiness letters, and settled accounts, at her dictation. Speaking of\nher work, she expressed faith that \"God will raise up some one to do\nit.\" She said earnestly, \"I have always wanted to do something for my\ndenomination.\" It had evidently been a little of a struggle for her to\nleave the work she loved, just as it began to be so successful in many\nplaces, to die and be forgotten. In her modesty, she had no foregleam of\nthe afterglow of praise and public testimony to her worth that was to\nfollow the setting of her sun. Speaking once, near the end, with great\npleasure, of Mrs. Paine's successful work in Newport and New York, she\nadded, sadly, \"They must increase, but I must decrease.\" But at last she\nwas \"ready not to do,\" able to give all up and repose in perfect peace\nupon the Father.\n\nShe had always thought much of Christmas, always remembered her friends'\nbirthdays. Her skilful fingers and untiring industry made the slender\nmeans go a long way in devising innumerable tasteful presents on these\ndays for a large circle of friends. She loved children, and loved to\nmake them happy, and her little friends were always remembered. This\nyear, a day or two before Christmas, when so weak that only by the\nclosest attention could the feeble, broken utterance be understood, she\ndirected Christmas gifts, prepared long before, sent to all her friends.\nTo one whom she knew needed it, went \"Daily Strength for Daily Needs;\"\nto one, a teacher, the little \"Seed Thoughts from Browning.\" \"I thought\nit might help her in her work, tell her.\" Even her washerwoman and her\nlittle girl, and the postman,--\"he has brought me a great many letters,\"\nshe said,--were not forgotten.\n\nA friend took her a Christmas card sent by a little girl. Her feeble\nvision could barely discern the design. \"Birds and flowers,\" she said;\n\"what could be more beautiful? It cheers me so. Yet I hardly need that.\nI am very happy and cheerful. I feel that everything is right.\"\nAfterwards she spoke of the \"Happy, happy Christmas-tide,\" saying, \"We\nmust try to make it bright for the young.\" To the last, her thoughts\nwere of others.\n\nHaving closed all her earthly affairs, she lay awaiting the end in great\npeace. Sunday, Dec. 27, 1885, in the evening of the peaceful day she\nalways loved, just as her little clock was striking seven, she passed\ngently away in sleep. Well may we believe that hers was a joyful\nwakening into a bright New Year.\n\nHer funeral was attended in the Unitarian Church, December 30,--a\nservice of rare beauty and appropriateness. A thoughtful friend had\ncovered the Tract Table in the vestibule with moss, ferns, and flowers,\namong which were placed a few tracts. In the church, wreathed with\nChristmas evergreens, a large concourse of friends assembled. To the\nstrains of the Beethoven Funeral March, the coffin, nearly concealed\nbeneath emblematic palm branches and lilies, was borne by the brothers\nwhose loving-kindness had brightened all the life now ended, to its\nresting-place beneath the pulpit, close to the front seat where, for so\nmany years, Miss Ellis's familiar form had never been missing. The\nchoir, composed of young friends of hers in the church, sang the first\nthree verses of \"Nearer, my God, to Thee,\" and Whittier's appropriate\nhymn, \"Another hand is beckoning us.\"\n\nFrom the text, \"She is not dead, but sleepeth,\" Rev. George A. Thayer\npaid a just and beautiful tribute to the spirit passed from our midst.\nTo few, he said, could these words of Jesus be so fittingly applied.\nThough seemingly dead, she would live in ever-increasing power in the\ninfluence she had exerted over other lives. If, from cities and villages\nfar away, from lonely farm-houses, all could to-day be assembled within\nthese walls who had received help and strength from her, large indeed\nwould be the concourse. More truly of her than of most might it be said\nthat she had\n\n              \"joined the choir invisible\n    Of those immortal dead who live again\n    In minds made better by their presence.\"\n\nIt would be well could we all imitate her example in cultivating a love\nof religious reading, and that habit of religious meditation and\ncommunion which was the source of her strength. Her leading\ncharacteristic was conscience, an all-dominating power of conscience.\nWhatever she felt it her duty to do, that she did, at all costs. He\nclosed by reading Bryant's\n\n\n               THE CONQUEROR'S GRAVE.\n\n    Within this lowly grave a Conqueror lies,\n      And yet the monument proclaims it not,\n    Nor round the sleeper's name hath chisel wrought\n      The emblems of a fame that never dies,--\n    Ivy and amaranth, in a graceful sheaf,\n    Twined with the laurel's fair, imperial leaf.\n        A simple name alone,\n        To the great world unknown,\n    Is graven here, and wild-flowers, rising round,\n    Meek meadow-sweet and violets of the ground,\n      Lean lovingly against the humble stone.\n\n    Here, in the quiet earth, they laid apart\n      No man of iron mould and bloody hands,\n    Who sought to wreak upon the cowering lands\n      The passions that consumed his restless heart;\n    But one of tender spirit and delicate frame,\n        Gentlest in mien and mind,\n        Of gentle womankind\n    Timidly shrinking from the breath of blame:\n    One in whose eyes the smile of kindness made\n      Its haunt, like flowers by sunny brooks in May,\n    Yet, at the thought of others' pain, a shade\n      Of sweeter sadness chased the smile away.\n\n    Nor deem that when the hand that moulders here\n    Was raised in menace, realms were chilled with fear\n      And armies mustered at the sign, as when\n    Clouds rise on clouds before the rainy East--\n      Gray captains leading bands of veteran men\n    And fiery youths to be the vulture's feast.\n    Not thus were waged the mighty wars that gave\n    The victory to her who fills this grave.\n        Alone her task was wrought,\n        Alone the battle fought;\n    Through that long strife her constant hope was stayed\n    On God alone, nor looked for other aid.\n\n    She met the hosts of sorrow with a look\n      That altered not beneath the frown they wore,\n    And soon the lowering brood were tamed, and took,\n      Meekly, her gentle rule, and frowned no more.\n    Her soft hand put aside the assaults of wrath,\n        And calmly broke in twain\n        The fiery shafts of pain,\n    And rent the nets of passion from her path.\n      By that victorious hand despair was slain;\n    With love she vanquished hate, and overcame\n    Evil with good, in her Great Master's name.\n\n    Her glory is not of this shadowy state,\n      Glory that with the fleeting season dies;\n    But when she entered at the sapphire gate,\n      What joy was radiant in celestial eyes!\n    How Heaven's bright depths with sounding welcomes rung,\n        And flowers of Heaven by shining hands were flung!\n        And He who, long before,\n    Pain, scorn, and sorrow bore,\n    The Mighty Sufferer, with aspect sweet,\n    Smiled on the timid stranger from his seat;\n    He who returning, glorious, from the grave,\n    Dragged Death, disarmed, in chains, a crouching slave.\n\n    See, as I linger here, the sun grows low;\n      Cool airs are murmuring that the night is near.\n    O gentle sleeper, from thy grave I go\n      Consoled though sad, in hope and yet in fear.\n        Brief is the time, I know,\n        The warfare scarce begun,--\n      Yet all may win the triumphs thou hast won.\n    Still flows the fount whose waters strengthened thee,\n      The victors' names are yet too few to fill\n    Heaven's mighty roll; the glorious armory,\n      That ministered to thee, is open still.\n\nOn the pleasant slope of a lovely hillside in Spring Grove, where\neverything around breathes of Nature's peace and repose, among graves\nvery dear to her, the worn body was laid to rest, while the gentle\nwinter rain fell not unkindly into the open grave. Much seemed to have\ngone out of the world when the echoing clods covered that which was\n\"Miss Ellis.\"\n\nThe Sunday after her death, as some of her friends were sadly trying to\nreplace the tracts in the table drawer just as she would have liked them\narranged, a white dove flew down and rested on the window-sill outside.\nOnly a coincidence, but one that touched us, nevertheless. If the\nspirits of the departed ever revisit earth, surely Miss Ellis would\nreturn to the church she loved so much; and possibly it is not wholly\nfancy that still feels her in her old-time seat under the pulpit.\n\nAs soon as possible after Miss Ellis's death the Women's Auxiliary\nConference of Cincinnati prepared a four-page leaflet, containing a\nbrief sketch of her life and death, and sent it to all her\ncorrespondents, many of whom were ignorant that she was even in ill\nhealth. The little memorial's first page reads:--\n\n            In Memoriam.\n           SALLIE ELLIS.\n          DECEMBER 27, 1885.\n\n    So many worlds, so much to do,\n      So little done, such things to be,\n      How know I what had need of thee,\n    For thou wert strong as thou wert true.\n                            TENNYSON.\n\nIt reprinted from \"Unity,\" Jan. 9, 1886, this tender tribute from a\npersonal friend and a member of the Women's Auxiliary:--\n\n\n                SALLIE ELLIS.\n\n    She only did what lay at hand,--\n      Work that her own hand found to do:\n    With no thought of a  \"mission\" grand,\n      Yet, bit by bit, her mission grew.\n\n    She did--what others left undone;\n      She gleaned behind the harvesters:\n    The scattered ears of grain let stand\n      By careless ones,--all these were hers.\n\n    Patient, unresting, still she wrought,\n      Though life beat fainter and more faint:\n    And only as her soul took flight,\n      We saw--the aureole of the Saint.\n\n             ALICE WILLIAMS BROTHERTON.\n\n    CINCINNATI, OHIO.\n\nThe memorial closed as follows:--\n\n     \"At the regular monthly meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference\n     of Cincinnati, Jan. 12, 1886, the programme for this meeting was\n     omitted, and the afternoon devoted to tender recollection of the\n     dear friend and valued secretary so recently taken from us, to the\n     reading of many letters from East and West containing loving\n     tribute to her worth and sympathy for our loss, and to devising\n     such plans for continuing our work in future as should be our\n     friend's best commemoration, the tribute she would chiefly have\n     desired. Mrs. George A. Thayer offered the following expression of\n     the feeling of our Society, for entry on our records:--\n\n     \"'It is fitting that we should place upon the records of this\n     Association some words of grateful remembrance of our late\n     fellow-worker and Secretary, Sallie Ellis, who went up higher on\n     Sunday, Dec. 27, 1885.\n\n     \"'She was called to her office four years and a half ago, and took\n     up its work from the beginning as one who felt its consecration,\n     and saw the opportunity it offered of being a ministry of the\n     highest things to many souls yearning for a word of religion both\n     reasonable and spiritual.\n\n     \"'Her long and loving study of Unitarian principles gave her a rare\n     fitness for teaching others the _thought_ of our church. Her\n     personal faith in the deep things of God enabled her to speak ever\n     the needed word to inquirers of the _religion_ of our church. And\n     her sacred sense of duty, not only illustrated in every act of her\n     life, but shining always through her written words, made her an\n     admirable exemplar of the _moral quality_ of our church. So she was\n     all that we could ask as our missionary leader, for she not only\n     taught the stranger from afar of the surpassing beauty and\n     greatness of our Liberal Christianity, but she quickened in us at\n     home new love for its truths, and a deeper sense of our privilege\n     and obligations in being of its disciples.\n\n     \"'In her life she guided and inspired us, and being dead she abides\n     with us, ever a constant presence, to make us humble that we do so\n     little for our great work, and to stir in us desire to be more\n     faithful to our task in the Master's vineyard.'\n\n\"The following extract from a letter of directions left by Miss Ellis in\nthe event of her death was then read:--\n\n     \"'All the books in the loan library I bequeath to the use of the\n     church, and when not so used, my family shall have the disposal of\n     them.'\n\n    \"This library comprises over one hundred and thirty religious books,\n    chiefly by Unitarian authors. It was voted that this library 'shall\n    always be known as The Sallie Ellis Loan Library.'\n\n    \"Mrs. M. E. Hunert, 177 Betts Street, Cincinnati, was appointed\n    Corresponding Secretary. All communications may hereafter be\n    addressed to her. She will continue the free distribution of\n    Unitarian papers, tracts, and sermons, to any names furnished her of\n    persons desiring them. She will also receive subscriptions for\n    Unitarian publications and sell books, when desired, and will loan\n    the books of the Sallie Ellis Loan Library, the borrower paying the\n    postage only. It is earnestly wished to continue Miss Ellis's work\n    in her spirit, and it is hoped correspondents and friends will\n    co-operate with us in this effort.\n\n    \"Though saddened and greatly bereft, the Cincinnati Auxiliary would\n    still strive to 'look forward and not back,' working on in the\n    spirit of Whittier's poem,\n\n\n                OUR SAINTS.\n\n    From the eternal silence rounding\n      All unsure and starlight here,\n    Voices of our lost ones sounding,\n      Bid us be of heart and cheer,\n    Through the silence, down the spaces,\n      Falling on the inward ear.\n\n    Let us draw their mantles o'er us,\n      Which have fallen in our way:\n    Let us do the work before us\n      Calmly, bravely, while we may,\n    Ere the long night-silence cometh,\n      And with us it is not day!\"\n\n\nThe \"In Memoriam\" called out letters of deep regret--the regret of those\nwho mourn a personal friend--from every correspondent. A few of these\nletters appear in the correspondence, selected from many of similar\ntenor.\n\n\n\n\nCORRESPONDENCE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe letters of Miss Ellis's correspondents here given are selected from\nan immense number of like purport and interest. She had kept all the\nsignificant letters neatly filed in bundles, each correspondent by\nhimself. It has been a disappointment to receive so few, comparatively,\nof her own letters. Our busy age is not given to saving its letters. It\nis therefore all the more touching to know that so many of her\ncorrespondents have treasured even every postal card from her hand. Her\nletters given here, however, well illustrate her spirit and ideas on\nmany topics, also her method of work, and reveal something of the secret\nof her success.\n\nLiterary style and fine effects were the last things aimed at in her\nletters. Their characteristics are plainness, directness, intense\nearnestness to convince and impress, and a warm sympathy with people of\nall kinds and degrees. Strongly conservative in her own theology, she\nyet did not set up her views as a fixed standard for others, or assume\nto hold all truth. Some of her warmest friends were among our younger,\nmore radical ministers, whose purity and sincerity of life and faith\nquite offset in her eyes their theological vagaries.\n\nThe letters first given are to fellow-workers who had asked about her\nmethods, materials, etc. In an article which Mr. Gannett had asked her\nto write, and which appeared in \"Unity,\" March 1, 1884, she wrote:--\n\n     \"We keep a standing weekly advertisement in two of our chief daily\n     papers,--those which have the widest circulation, one Saturday\n     morning, and the other Sunday, under the head of 'Religious\n     Notices.' One of these papers advertises free for us.[4]\n\n     [Footnote 4: The advertisement read thus: \"Unitarian papers,\n     tracts, etc., sent free to any one addressing Miss Sallie Ellis,\n     Auburn Ave.\"]\n\n     \"On receiving an application we respond, being guided somewhat by\n     the style and character of the application, by sending one or two\n     tracts, with a copy of the 'Christian Register' or 'Unity.' [Many\n     people of the church, after reading their religious papers, handed\n     them to Miss Ellis for distribution.] After sending the papers and\n     various tracts for several weeks, we write a postal of inquiry as\n     to whether Unitarian literature is satisfactory; and if the person\n     cares to subscribe to either of the papers, _which_ he or she\n     prefers; which tracts have given the most satisfaction; and whether\n     they care to borrow any books by mail, paying the postage on them.\n     Frequently we receive no reply [in which case the name was\n     dropped], but mostly the answer is gratifying. If the person cannot\n     subscribe for the papers, but enjoys them, we continue to send\n     them.... In sending tracts, we begin with 'Unitarian Principles and\n     Doctrines,' by Rev. C. A. Brigham, the 'New Hampshire Statement of\n     Belief,' and 'What Do Unitarians Believe?' by Rev. C. W.\n     Wendte,--because we wish to show what our faith has grown from, and\n     what it is now. These we think fairly represent the denomination;\n     and we have found that they all give general satisfaction. Next,\n     'Why Am I a Unitarian?' by James F. Clarke, D.D., which is also\n     well liked, and 'Discourse on Distinguishing Opinions of\n     Unitarians,' by William E. Channing, D.D., as creating a thirst for\n     his 'Works.' Then we branch off from this into whatever we think\n     best.... _Promptness_ in replying and _regularity_ in sending\n     papers, etc., will do more towards showing our deep interest in the\n     work, and bring the individual seeking into vital connection with\n     the church sending the literature. A _little_ at a time frequently,\n     to insure _careful_ and _thorough_ reading. Recommend books\n     extensively.... We believe in loaning the books of the early\n     ministers of our denomination as a good stepping-stone to the\n     Unitarianism now taught in our pulpits.\"\n\nIn a letter to Miss F. L. Roberts, of Chicago, then Secretary of Western\nWomen's Unitarian Conference, March 14, 1884, she wrote:--\n\n     \"I agree with you that no _one_ tract or sermon will satisfy the\n     questions of inquirers. They have to 'grow into the light,' as we\n     all have done and still are doing. Did any one thing settle our\n     doubts or questionings? I think not.\n\n     \"'What is our _aim_ in the Post Office Mission Work?' It occurs to\n     me it should be to give inquirers the fairest statement of our\n     teachings, from Channing up to the present time. Not the thought of\n     any one man or woman, but that of the greatest number of our best\n     minds in the several eras of our denomination. In many cases ...\n     people have not the _slightest_ idea what Unitarianism is, farther\n     than that we do not believe Christ was God. They not only do not\n     know what we believe, but think us a kind of 'outcasts.' It almost\n     seems like being in the Dark Ages of the world to hear of such\n     ignorance as we _know_ exists with regard to our doctrines.\n     Therefore we are talking, as it were, to children. Let us then\n     begin at first principles, and send fair, clear statements.\"\n\nAfter alluding to several of her correspondents who were thinking of\nentering the Unitarian ministry, she adds:--\n\n     \"It seems to me the A. U. A. tracts, and the books, papers, etc.,\n     sent with them, have produced good results; have made deep,\n     earnest thinkers. It is through these very things our own ministers\n     have been made to think, and they have gone beyond these same\n     things; and so will our correspondents in time. But at present few\n     of them have access to books, or come in contact with people who\n     can converse on all these points with them; therefore it is well to\n     intersperse with our tracts on doctrines, good _practical_ sermons,\n     and the newer tracts occasionally, leading them up gradually to\n     Unitarian ideas, and showing them especially that while we _have_\n     doctrines in our church, character is the most important to us.\n     There is no one book that has done more effective work than Rev. J.\n     F. Clarke's 'Orthodoxy,' etc., which proves that we need good,\n     _clear_, strong doctrine. [The Post Office Mission, she adds] is\n     only a larger church, and we want to bring these people into vital\n     connection with us,--making not Unitarians of them, or merely\n     intellectual men and women, but practical Christians working with\n     us and for humanity. Rev. ---- is the prophet of his age. We shall\n     all _grow_ up to his ideal some day, and bring our Post Office\n     Mission members with us. Hope he will be willing to wait. 'It is\n     good that a man should both hope and quietly wait' (Lam. iii. 26).\"\n\nA bit from another letter to Miss Roberts is interesting as showing the\nuntiring industry which enabled Miss Ellis to accomplish so much:--\n\n     ... \"Next week we hold our fair, and I shall be very busy all the\n     week. Have had so many orders for mittens, that I am a perfect\n     knitting machine. I can knit and read, however, and therefore have\n     looked over many sermons for distribution in the mean time. Am\n     tired, and thankful for the blessed Saturday night followed by the\n     quiet of Sunday.\"\n\nIn answer to a letter of inquiry from Miss F. Le Baron when that lady\nfirst entered on her work as Secretary of the Western Women's Unitarian\nConference at Chicago, Dec. 2, 1884, Miss Ellis wrote:--\n\n     \"'How much time do you give to all this work?' Doing it at home, I\n     cannot calculate exactly, for there are many moments thrown in that\n     I cannot well count; but this much I _can_ say. I begin about 9 A.M.\n     Monday to collect my materials about me, and usually by\n     dinner-time (1 P. M.) I have put away all papers, etc., and have\n     ready my week's papers, etc., for the postman to take. Nearly every\n     evening I write an hour or more, excepting Sunday, when I won't\n     write business letters. This is all the work I can _calculate_; but\n     there are many moments spent reading my letters, assorting papers,\n     tying up books, setting down items, making purchases, etc., besides\n     the time spent Sunday and on Wednesday at the church, over the\n     library, etc. However, I am very systematic in everything, and\n     accomplish more in that way.... Of course, new applicants I reply\n     to at once; but every new applicant is then added to my Monday\n     list. Being at an office, you have more interruptions; and then\n     deafness has its reward, and one can pursue her work in peace many\n     times, whereas another would be disturbed.\"\n\nIn answer to another letter from Miss Le Baron, full of warm\ncongratulations on her success, she writes, Dec. 11, 1884:--\n\n     \"I am very much obliged for your high opinion of me. I read it to a\n     dear friend, who always sends me to the Conference at Chicago, and\n     she said, 'It's all true, but I hope you won't get so far above me\n     in the next world.' I never have stopped to 'understand' what I am\n     doing, or the 'name' I am making. To do the good comes from my\n     heart, and I leave the results to the Good Father, and know if I\n     merit a reward it will be given me. It is a pleasure in _this_\n     world, to feel I am giving satisfaction to so many in the\n     denomination. I am a thorough Unitarian, and have read our\n     denominational works more than anything else, which has prepared me\n     for this very work. I am an ignoramus in literature outside of\n     Unitarianism, only that you cannot be a Unitarian and not come,\n     more or less, in contact with general literature.... By the way, I\n     always read tracts, and M. J. Savage's and Chadwick's and Clarke's\n     weekly sermons, going to and from the city [Miss Ellis was living\n     at this time in Avondale, three miles from the city], and carry\n     _big_ packages of papers home on Sunday. Think the conductors must\n     know I am a missionary.\"\n\nRev. Joseph May, Rev. Charles Allen, and Rev. F. L. Hosmer sent Miss\nEllis many of their printed sermons for distribution, which did good\nservice. Rev. William C. Gannett early saw the possibilities of this\nwork, and has done much to systematize and further it in many ways. He\nchristened it the \"Post Office Mission,\" and, seeing the need of more\nfresh material for distribution, devised and edited the \"Church Door\nPulpit\" series of sermons, and has also been the chief promoter of the\n\"Unity Mission\" series of tracts. The following extracts are from Miss\nEllis's letters to him.\n\n                                                   SEPTEMBER 12, 1882.\n\n     Received to-day, from ----, your letter of September 5, asking\n     about our \"Missionary Work by Letter.\" ... I will very gladly\n     afford you my assistance in that respect. However, I am rather more\n     conservative than yourself,--rather of the E. S. Gannett\n     type,--still have visited Omaha, where I have had brothers settled,\n     and know some little of the style of religion which is requisite in\n     the Northwest.... Will give you a list of the tracts I have used\n     most profitably. Most people state, when they ask for literature,\n     \"Want something that teaches the _doctrines_ of the Unitarian\n     Church.\" Thereupon I have forwarded, from time to time, \"Unitarian\n     Doctrines and Principles\" (Brigham); \"Word of God\" and \"The Rising\n     Star of the Liberal Faith\" (W. P. Tilden); \"New Hampshire\n     Statement of Belief;\" \"Unitarian Belief in Bible Language;\" \"Why Am\n     I a Unitarian?\" \"Inspiration of New Testament,\" \"Revivals\"\n     (Clarke); \"Our Common Christianity\" (A. P. Stanley); \"Mission of\n     Unitarianism\" (Heber Newton); \"Spiritual Christianity.\" (Starr\n     King); and \"What Do Unitarians Believe?\" (C. W. Wendte).... The\n     serial sermons of Chadwick, Clarke, Hale, and Savage always gladly\n     received.... But do not be afraid of a little doctrine, Mr.\n     Gannett, for there are some people in Orthodox churches who are\n     hungering and thirsting for just our doctrines. They cannot do\n     without doctrine just yet, but want something better than they have\n     known, and think it a great blessing to find it. I try my\n     congregation to see what each requires, and lead them on and up. My\n     church is composed of a very mixed set.... I am deeply interested\n     in this work, and know we have done much good.... We keep books to\n     loan, and also recommend books from time to time, and ask our\n     correspondents to subscribe to the periodicals.... Dr. Dewey's\n     sermons on \"Human Nature\" and \"Human Life,\" and his \"Two Great\n     Commandments\" benefit some people very much.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                   March 11, 1883.\n\n     I never omit the \"Pulpit\" column [of the Register], and read\n     \"Wrestling and Blessing\" with much interest.... I set each\n     difficulty down as just suited for some one, or two, or three of my\n     correspondents. Of course, I _don't apply sermons to myself any\n     more_. It is a beautiful sermon; and this brings me to the point\n     we are all so interested in,--the wider circulation of the fresh\n     thoughts of all the pulpits. I surely think, with you, that it will\n     help the work to \"give it name.\" Am glad you are stirring them all\n     up. I do not, as you say, feel the need of it so much, but\n     occasionally do.... A new case in Tennessee, who never knew\n     _anything_ of the Liberal Church, till we sent him papers. Is much\n     pleased, and wants to read till he knows still more about us. He\n     writes, \"Not one per cent of the people here know there is such a\n     church. Tell me, do the majority of Unitarian ministers believe in\n     the resurrection of Jesus; that he healed the leper, cast out\n     devils, and raised Lazarus? I ask for information, and hope you\n     will reply at some future time.\" He is evidently in a benighted\n     region. Says he has \"heard nothing outside the Cumberland\n     Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist Churches, and am none of\n     these;\" and I presume is very little of anything yet, and is\n     longing for a nobler life than he has known, or sees about him. The\n     longer I go on, the more need I see of getting this work fully and\n     well organized. It will be brought about ere long. Even reading\n     over papers is beneficial. The publication of our hymns, the most\n     inspiring, will do a great deal of good. In several cases I have\n     copied them, and to good purpose.\n\nJan. 20, 1885, in answer to the question, what twenty names she would\nprefer in the \"Church Door Pulpit\" series the coming year, she wrote:--\n\n     \"Revs. Grindall Reynolds, Rush R. Shippen, J. F. Clarke, E. E.\n     Hale, Joseph May, Dr. William Furness, H. W. Bellows, T. Starr\n     King, J. Ll. Jones, J. T. Sunderland, George Bachelor, William C.\n     Gannett, F. L. Hosmer, David Utter, George A. Thayer, C. W. Wendte,\n     S. J. Barrows, Albert Walkley, J. C. Learned, James Martineau. Am\n     afraid I haven't left any room for those who do not bear the\n     'Unitarian' name, but feel that Unitarianism is so little known,\n     that I would first make our own best writers known, and then branch\n     out and take in others. All of the above names I should like to see\n     in 'Church Door Pulpit' for 1885-1886.... I think generally people\n     wish to become acquainted with the Unitarian pulpit. 'What do\n     Unitarians preach?' is the cry. 'I want to hear a Unitarian;'\n     'those who have been educated in that denomination.'\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                February 20, 1885.\n\n     Your article in \"Unity,\" February 16, on \"A Blessing on the Day,\"\n     pleased me very much.... We haven't quite the right book yet, and\n     with you I say, \"about twelve verses from the Bible well knitted\n     around some central thought,\" as we principally want to become\n     acquainted with the Bible as the \"Book of man.\" Think something\n     more like \"Daily Praise and Prayer,\" with different Scripture\n     selections, perhaps, and omitting most of the prayers. I would only\n     have a prayer to lead to a prayer of one's own,--that is, to\n     inspire one to pray in their own words. Have often thought I should\n     like to compile a book of \"Daily Worship\" from the Scriptures, our\n     Hymn Books, \"Daily Praise and Prayer,\" \"Day unto Day,\" \"Helps to\n     Devout Living,\" and the \"Responsive Service,\" and now, from \"Daily\n     Strength for Daily Needs,\" \"Aspirations of the World,\" and\n     \"Spiritual Life\" in the \"Register,\" but principally Scripture\n     selections.... \"Daily Praise and Prayer\" is doing much good in a\n     very troublesome family of one of my correspondents. I remembered\n     to have sent the lady \"Wrestling and Blessing,\" and wrote a short\n     time since to call her attention to the \"Inherited Burden,\" asking\n     if she still had the tract. This morning received a reply, in which\n     she wrote, \"Yes! I still have 'Wrestling and Blessing,' for it did\n     me so much good when I first read it that I felt as if I could not\n     part with it.\" Many, many homes need \"A Blessing on the Day\" to\n     create the true feeling.\n\nTo Miss Holmes, of the Davenport, Iowa, Post Office Mission, Miss Ellis\nwrote:--\n\n                                             August 20, 1884.\n\n     ... Yes, I do use the A. U. A. tracts freely, and more than any\n     others, those marked on our list herein enclosed, and also \"Word of\n     God,\" \"The Doctrine of Prayer,\" and \"Wrestling and Blessing,\"--the\n     latter to those who need encouragement particularly. I find\n     generally that people want to get at the first principles,--the A\n     B C of Unitarianism. We do not use Higginson's \"Sympathy of\n     Religion\" at all. Our aim is to make practical Unitarians, and let\n     doctrines and theory gradually fall into the secondary place.\n     Therefore I object to Mr. ----'s list of books, because they are\n     more historical and theoretical. They do well where one wants to\n     study religion; but where one wants a Christianity to live by, I\n     think something that comes down to practical life, or that is more\n     simple, better adapted to the generality of people. As knowledge of\n     Unitarianism spreads, they will naturally seek deeper works. But at\n     present, something as clear and concise as possible, with the\n     \"Christian Register,\" \"Unity,\" and the \"Dayspring,\" which further\n     illustrate our principles, we find very popular. The difficulty is\n     to get a large enough supply and variety enough. The A. U. A.\n     tracts only answer as an explanation, and we must have the sermons,\n     and papers, and books enough in addition. As I have been at the\n     work for three years, it is hard work to find sufficient supplies\n     for between thirty and forty every week, and these extending the\n     papers and tracts elsewhere.\n\n     I cannot think, with Mr. Judy, that it is the best method to divide\n     the work. It seems to me that causes confusion. It seems a much\n     better way that the person who sends the tracts and papers should\n     distribute the books too, as being better able to advise the books\n     to read; for he or she learns the \"bent of mind\" of the seeker. So\n     many different persons at work causes confusion and mistakes. I\n     mail papers, tracts, etc., attend to all the correspondence, to\n     loaning and mailing the books, to all printed matter received, to\n     all the advertising orders of every kind, to money received and\n     expended,--consulting the President frequently, and the details are\n     brought up before our monthly meetings. I do not believe the work\n     can be so well done as by one person; but of course no one could\n     devote so much time to it unless they have some compensation for\n     it. I took up the work at first voluntarily, but soon found there\n     was a great deal in it, and therefore wished to give it earnest\n     attention, and the ladies felt me particularly fitted for it, and\n     preferred to give me a small salary. It never is \"irksome\" to me,\n     but a work of real love to me. I have always been a\n     missionary,--distributing all the papers and tracts which contained\n     anything of a practical nature or of a pure Christianity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                         _To Miss Holmes._\n\n                                                     AUGUST 29, 1884.\n\n     Have just been re-reading \"A Little Pilgrim.\" To tell you the plain\n     truth, the ideas are beautiful, but I do not like prying into the\n     next world. No one really knows anything concerning it. I am\n     willing to rest where Jesus left us. He told us little of it, but\n     enough for the \"health of our souls.\" \"In our Father's house are\n     many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you;\" and I believe when\n     our friends leave us they go to another division of God's kingdom\n     and \"prepare a place for us,\" in that through their deaths we are\n     naturally drawn heavenward, and our lives are different from ever\n     before. I am not so much interested as to what the future world is.\n     It is enough to me, to know that it is, and that I am doing the\n     best I can while I am living here. The future world will be made\n     plain to me when my time comes to go there; and if I have only\n     lived rightly here, there will be nothing to fear.\n\n     I can trust in God. Still such books seem to be necessary to some\n     persons, but I do not consider them healthy reading. When you have\n     finished such a book the query comes, \"Is it fact?\" Who can say it\n     is? I feel that my friends are in the hands of a loving Father as\n     they were while on earth, and that he will still do for them what\n     is best, and their spirit and affection remain with us to comfort\n     and guide us. I never lose them. They are only \"gone before.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                       _Miss Ellis to Rev. A. A. Livermore._\n\n                                                   JUNE 2, 1880.\n\n     MY DEAR FRIEND,--Many thanks for your kind letter of Mar. 29th,\n     though I never saw the \"P. S.\"--which, as usual with all\n     postscripts, contained the best part of the letter--till a month\n     afterwards, when in house-cleaning I was assorting letters\n     received, I noticed the last page of your letter, which was like\n     receiving a new letter, and came in very opportune; for we have\n     had so much to depress us of late, that I was glad to have my\n     attention called to Philippians, which contains so much that is\n     cheering. There has been a good deal to occupy my time and thoughts\n     since your very kind letter reached me; but I will not allow your\n     college term to close without sending you my kind word, though I\n     cannot be personally present at the Ohio Conference and Meadville\n     exercises. May you have charming weather, and a satisfactory\n     gathering, is my sincere wish. Rev. William H. Channing's visit\n     here was highly appreciated by his old friends and the early\n     members of the church, and we all particularly enjoyed the\n     Communion. It was truly a communion with the departed, and very\n     beautiful to us. I did not have the pleasure of meeting Mr.\n     Channing excepting a few moments at Mrs. Ryland's, which I\n     regretted exceedingly; but it was a disappointment I could not\n     alter.\n\n     ---- and wife moved to Mt. Auburn to-day, there to make a bright,\n     beautiful home for themselves, which is as it should be; but we who\n     are left at home feel rather sad. The last of my dear mother's five\n     little children has gone from me, and it is not so easy to enter\n     into their homes and have my brothers and sisters what they were to\n     me in our own family circle. Still all is right and best as it is;\n     and though clouds gather over our heads, the sunshine will at\n     length make itself seen, for \"all things work together for good.\" I\n     am going to be gay and spend the summer with ---- in Philadelphia;\n     and as we have not met for eight years, we shall enjoy a quiet\n     summer together.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                OCTOBER 1, 1884.\n\n     ... Thanks for your kind sympathy for us in our sorrow. Thanks to\n     you for the solid foundation you laid when our dear mother died,\n     which has given me a firm faith in the hour of trial. I firmly\n     believe that \"all things work together for good,\" and that dear\n     C----'s long sickness prepared her family, herself, and all of us\n     for her death. There was much in her sickness and death that was\n     beautiful and comforting. It was pleasant after so many days of\n     suffering to see her at rest; and we feel it must have been a happy\n     release to her too, for her face in death bore no trace of the pain\n     she had endured, of which we were glad, for she looked so natural\n     and sweetly that we could allow her two youngest children to look\n     at \"mamma asleep, to wake up an angel in heaven.\" C---- never\n     wanted her children to have a horror of death, and her desire has\n     been granted. They have no other idea than that the Good Father\n     released their dear mother from pain and she is an angel in heaven.\n     An Episcopalian minister officiated at the funeral, as C---- always\n     preferred that service. He was a personal friend of hers and my\n     brother E----'s. My brother's widow came from ----to attend the\n     funeral, and she requested that I select a piece to be read in case\n     they found no one to lead in a hymn. I selected your hymn,--\"A holy\n     air is breathing round.\" It was read in the middle of the service,\n     very impressively, and was particularly comforting to N----'s widow\n     and myself, as you had officiated at our mother's funeral and had\n     baptized C---- and N----. (Do you remember the day you baptized me\n     and my three brothers and C---- at the Masonic Hall?) The children\n     scattered flowers over the graves; A----, ten years old, said on\n     returning from the cemetery, \"Papa, it was all beautiful, no dread\n     or gloom about it. It was just as mamma would have had it.\" And so\n     it was. The children will always feel the life hereafter a reality.\n     \"More homelike is the vast unknown,\" since their mamma is there.\n     The piece \"At noontide,\" in last week's \"Register,\" applies to dear\n     C----'s death as well as if written for her. It is beautiful. I\n     want it in a leaflet to distribute, as I have opportunity\n     frequently for just such words. Yes! I help on \"Unity,\" the\n     \"Register,\" and \"Our Best Words.\"... Hope I am making Christians,\n     and not merely Liberals or merely Unitarians. Think we are gaining\n     ground with many; but the literature must be distributed with great\n     care, I feel with you.... We are glad to have the Thayers home\n     again, and will probably begin to work earnestly next week.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                 JANUARY 4, 1885.\n\n     ... Thanksgiving and Christmas were rather sad days to us this\n     year, without our dear C----, who always did so much to make the\n     days bright for all about her. Pa, mother, and myself dined both\n     days with C----'s family. Christmas was made a happy day for the\n     children by all our kind friends, and we could but feel their\n     mother was looking upon them, with a bright and happy face, in\n     gratitude to all those who had endeavored to make her dear ones so\n     happy. I have been very busy this winter, for the correspondents\n     still claim my time. Young ---- still appears interested, and I\n     hope he may be able to enter college this year, for he appears to\n     feel his isolation there much. No sympathetic person about him\n     nearer than Mr. Barnes of Montreal.... Unity Club flourishes, so\n     does the Day Nursery and Women's Auxiliary Conference. The fair was\n     a pleasant occasion, and now we are all feeling cheered in having\n     Mrs. T---- better again. I always see A---- at the window as I pass\n     there on my way to church. He is a lovely little boy. He looks as\n     if he _wanted_ to know \"Miss Ellis;\" but I doubt if he does,\n     without his mother to call attention to her. Hope you all passed\n     pleasant holidays at Meadville. I must close to write to Aunt ----,\n     who always looks for a Sunday letter from me. [This was an aged\n     blind aunt.]\n\nMiss Ellis's first Post Office Mission correspondent was a young man in\nRavenna, Ohio, Mr. Julius Woodruff. His first letter to her said:\n\n     \"Thank you for your kindness in sending me the 'Christian\n     Register.' I am much pleased with the paper, and may become a\n     subscriber at no distant day. I received copies of Mr. Wendte's\n     sermon, 'What do Unitarians Believe?' I have distributed them where\n     I thought they would do the most good, and have reason to think\n     that good was accomplished. Before long I will send to you for\n     more books; and if I can help you in obtaining subscribers to the\n     'Register' I will gladly do so. I am not a member of any church,\n     and stand almost alone in the church I attend [Methodist], in my\n     views. Our people seem to be almost entirely divided into three\n     classes; namely, the strictly Orthodox, the wholly indifferent or\n     non-thinking class, and the ultra Liberal. I am in sympathy with\n     neither; and I know of only a few, all young boys like myself, who\n     occupy middle ground. I can almost _fully_ indorse the views\n     expressed by Rev. C. W. Wendte in the sermon to which I have\n     referred; and believing his views to be right, I take pleasure in\n     giving them as wide a circulation as I can. In many respects I\n     admire Ingersoll; but I have no sympathy with the so-called\n     'Liberal League' with which he is connected, and which has an\n     auxiliary league in this county.\n\n     \"... If I understand the theory and purpose of your church, I shall\n     be glad to render the cause any service in my power; and if I can\n     be of any service as an auxiliary to your Missionary Society, I\n     have only to be instructed in the ways thereof.\"\n\nAs such auxiliary he acted, distributing tracts, papers, etc., with a\nzeal that might well shame some life-long Unitarians. In later letters\nhe wrote:--\n\n     \"Outside of all churches there is quite a number of men, mostly\n     young, intelligent men, who have cultivated an intense hatred of\n     certain doctrines and religious observances, and who have\n     gradually come to denounce and seek the overthrow of our whole\n     religious system. These are banded together as an auxiliary to the\n     'Liberal League' of America. In addition to these are a number of\n     young men, sons of Orthodox parents, who dissent from the religious\n     views and peculiar creeds which have satisfied their elders, and\n     yet have no definite faith of their own. I think that with these\n     two classes, as well as with those who have so far been indifferent\n     to the claim of religion, we have an excellent prospect of success\n     in introducing our views and extending the influence of Liberal\n     Christianity. I am very friendly to the Orthodox Church,\n     recognizing the noble purpose that animates them all, and the\n     invaluable services that they have rendered to mankind; and I have\n     less desire to draw upon their strength than I have to see the\n     Unitarian Church built up from material that has formerly been\n     identified with _no_ church organization. I was a Unitarian in\n     theory long before I knew anything of the Unitarian Church.... As a\n     rule, the young men of my acquaintance who are, either in theory or\n     practice, liberal Christians, are of the most intelligent order,\n     ambitious, progressive young men; and of _them_ what may we not\n     hope?\"\n\nHe went into business in Leadville, Colorado, and from there wrote Miss\nEllis (in 1881):--\n\n     \"Sunday is almost entirely ignored in the business portion of the\n     city, very few men closing their places of business. Every saloon\n     and theatre is open on Sunday, and brass bands fill the air with\n     their inspiring music. I attended the Methodist Episcopal Church\n     Sabbath School last Sunday, and found quite a respectable crowd in\n     attendance. I thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon; and when I saw\n     rough-bearded, grimy, slouchy-looking men and boys from the mines\n     and workshops taking part in the exercises of the school, I thanked\n     God for the influence his church and school had had upon the\n     largest, hardest mining-camp in the world.... If you have any more\n     of the documents referred to, I wish you would send me a dozen or\n     more, and a few of the pamphlets on 'What Do Unitarians Believe?'\n     It seems to me this would be a most fruitful field in which to\n     plant Unitarian ideas and principles. It seems to me no other\n     church would be so popular here. Of the party of ten young men who\n     board with me, I do not think that any one of them has been in a\n     church three times since he came to Leadville. In most respects,\n     all of them are fine young men; but Orthodox doctrines would never\n     gain any ground with them, while Liberal ideas might win the field\n     if the boys could be made to consider them.\"\n\nMiss Ellis, and all the ladies, indeed, of the Cincinnati Auxiliary,\nwere greatly interested in Leadville, and hoped to do a good work there,\naided by our enthusiastic young friend; but the above was destined to be\nour last letter from him. In September, 1881, came a postal card from a\nhotel clerk, saying, \"Mr. Woodruff wishes me to inform you that he has\nbeen unable to answer your letter on account of sickness, but will write\nyou as soon as able.\" A few days later came intelligence of his death.\nTributes to his character in the Ravenna newspapers, and his photograph\nsent Miss Ellis by his sister, only confirmed our opinion of this young\nman's noble character, and our sincere grief at his loss. Miss Ellis at\nonce wrote to his mother this letter:--\n\n                                             OCTOBER 17, 1881.\n\n     I shall be compelled to address the envelope containing this note\n     to your daughter, not knowing your husband's name. I presume you\n     are aware that Miss ---- informed me of your son's death, and she,\n     I presume, sent me so kindly the paper last week containing the\n     obituary on him which I read with much interest, as it was such an\n     opinion as I and all of us had formed of your son, Julius, from his\n     interesting letters. I assure you that our love and sympathy are\n     with you in the affliction, and would that we could soften the\n     severe loss to you; but that alone the good Father in time can\n     render less bitter. True resignation consists in enduring it as\n     God's will.\n\n     The ladies of our Missionary Society wish me to tell you how much\n     all were interested in Julius's letters, and how deeply they feel\n     with you, and at my request send you a book of consolation, \"Light\n     on the Cloud,\" as an expression of our real interest in your son.\n     It seemed to me that nothing could be so appropriate as the\n     literature he so learned to love. \"He being dead yet speaketh\"\n     (Heb. xi. 4); and such we deem would be his words to those who were\n     so dear to him. The President of our society marked one piece,--\"He\n     giveth his beloved sleep,\" and I have marked passages through the\n     book, particularly under the head \"Death a Blessing,\" and the last\n     poem in the book. If words can cheer you, it is our hope that this\n     little gift may serve the purpose. At least may it be a testimonial\n     to you of our deep interest in your dear boy.... Our ladies are to\n     hold the first meeting this season a week from to-morrow, when the\n     obituary notice of Julius R. Woodruff's death will be read, and\n     listened to with interest. He was my first correspondent, and his\n     letter from Colorado was particularly enjoyable. It grieves me to\n     think it was the last.... Hoping to hear farther from you, dear\n     friend, through your daughter or Miss----, and to have the pleasure\n     of becoming personally acquainted with you at some future day, with\n     a God's blessing on you one and all, far and near,\n\n     Yours in common sorrow,              S. ELLIS.\n\nThe correspondence was continued with Mr. Woodruff's sister as\nfollows:--\n\n                                        NOVEMBER 11, 1881.\n\n     ... Yes, you may call me your \"friend,\" for I truly feel that I\n     have lost a dear and true friend in your brother, and consequently\n     feel interested in all of his family, and do not wonder that your\n     mother and the whole family are heart-broken to be called to give\n     him up. Am sincerely glad that you felt free to express all your\n     feelings to me, for now I can sympathize more deeply with you. You\n     are just the age I was when my first sorrow came upon me,--the\n     death of my dear mother. As you say, I felt that I must keep up, to\n     cheer my father, who has ever been a domestic man, and the loss of\n     my mother was very hard for him to bear, and the five little\n     children to be cared for, I the oldest daughter at home, and had\n     been my mother's \"right-hand man\" in the care of the children. But\n     all our sorrows and trials are good for us to bear, and we need the\n     crosses as well as the joys of life to fit us for the life here and\n     for that which is to come.\n\n     It was hard to be reconciled to the death of one so young and so\n     good and true as Julius; but we must not be selfish, but think what\n     is our loss is the gain of those taken, many times. He may, through\n     his spiritual influence, still care for and lead you all nearer to\n     God. These \"dark hours of life\" bring us to know ourselves better;\n     they call out our sympathy for our fellow-men; and, what is more\n     than all, they bring us nearer to God, and thus they are not a mere\n     cross of agony; therefore let us not murmur at our affliction, but\n     still believe that God is good, and will so make our trials serve\n     us that they may become _good_ to us.... We must trust God, who\n     doeth all things for the best, and pray for strength and light to\n     be given us. Our prayers may not always be answered as we ask, but\n     they are answered in another way.\n\n    \"Pray, though the gift you ask for\n      May never comfort your fears,\n    May never repay your pleading;\n      Yet pray, and with hopeful tears.\n    An answer--not that you sought for,\n      But diviner--will come one day:\n    Your eyes are too dim to see it;\n      Yet strive, and wait, and pray.[5]\n\n    \"How shalt thou bear the cross which now\n      So dread a weight appears?\n    Keep quietly to God, and think\n      Upon the Eternal Years.\n\n    \"Bear gently, suffer like a child,\n      Nor be ashamed of tears;\n    Kiss the sweet cross, and in thy heart\n      Sing of the Eternal Years.\"[6]\n\n     [Footnote 5: A. A. Procter.]\n\n     [Footnote 6: Faber.]\n\nThe whole of Whittier's \"Angels of Grief\" and a poem by Ellerton are\ncopied in addition.\n\nThe correspondence was continued, occasionally, during Miss Ellis's\nlife. Aug. 11, 1882, she wrote:--\n\n     \"Young women, Miss----, have great influence over young men, and I\n     hope you struggle to improve all those whom you know. Have you\n     ever come across Frances Power Cobbe's 'Duties of Women'? It is a\n     remarkably sensible book, and I feel as if every young girl ought\n     to read it. I think you would do your young friends a service by\n     owning it and passing it around among them. You can get it in paper\n     for twenty-five cents. It is not a doctrinal work at all. She\n     delivered the lectures in London, to women. Neither is it a Woman's\n     Rights book altogether, but what any girl or young man, come to\n     that, ought to do and practise. Are you going to resume school\n     after vacation again, or what do you intend to turn your attention\n     to?\n\n     \"I have not been very strong since I was sick last August,\n     therefore have not done much this year. I go into the city every\n     two weeks on Saturday A.M., to be at the church to loan books to\n     any one who desires them. Was there last Saturday, and two strange\n     ladies came in who proved very pleasant; one a young girl. She came\n     after 'Helps to Devout Living,' for a sister who has gone out to\n     Nebraska for her health, and is miles away from any church and has\n     no companionable people about her. This young sister also selected\n     for herself 'Day unto Day,' as a book of daily study in an upward\n     path. It is such pleasant work to have it within my power to loan\n     and to recommend so many good books to those who have not read\n     them. They always enjoy them. Julius would have been so happy in it\n     out at Leadville.\"\n\nMr. Woodruff's sister wrote, Feb. 15, 1886:\n\n     \"Some one very kindly sent us the obituary of our dear friend Miss\n     Ellis. We were surprised and deeply grieved to hear of her death,\n     as we did not know that her health was poor even. She said so\n     little about herself, that we never thought of her as otherwise\n     than well and strong.... I enjoyed Miss Ellis's letters so much,\n     and we appreciated her kindness in writing to us after my dear\n     brother's death. He thought so much of Miss Ellis, and I know if he\n     had lived you would not have been disappointed in him. I cannot\n     thank you sufficiently for the little book you sent mother after\n     J----'s death. Truly it was a 'Light on the Cloud,' and it\n     comforted mother more than I can tell you. It is so full of\n     comforting words.\n\n     \"Though Miss Ellis is gone from us, she has left behind the\n     influence of a life so pure, so noble, and so grand, that we will\n     all be the better for having known her. As my brother once wrote in\n     a friend's album, 'God wisely wills that we may not know the number\n     of our years, and in view of the uncertainty which enshrouds each\n     to-morrow, let us so live that be our lives long or short, the\n     little home-world that surrounds us will be the better for our\n     having lived in it.' Can we not say that these two did not live in\n     vain? My brother had a great influence over young people and also\n     over some who were much older than he, and had he been spared, I\n     feel sure that he would have done a grand work for the cause of\n     Christianity. But their life work is ended only too soon; and why\n     they should be taken when they were doing so much good, and others\n     who are a burden to themselves and others are left, I suppose we\n     shall know sometime; and until that time we must believe that 'He\n     doeth all things well.'\"\n\nMiss Ellis's letters frequently express her joy in a young man who had\nbecome a Unitarian minister through her efforts. He was a Methodist\nminister in Ohio, but had grown unable longer to accept the creed of his\nchurch. Unhappy, unsettled, and adrift, not knowing where to turn for\nhelp, by the merest \"chance\" he picked up on a railroad car a Cincinnati\npaper, and his eye fell on the Women's Auxiliary Conference\nadvertisement. He wrote Miss Ellis a postal card, saying:--\n\n     \"I have seen your notice in the 'Commercial,' offering Unitarian\n     papers and tracts free to persons who may desire to read them. I\n     must confess to more ignorance in regard to Unitarian doctrines\n     than is seemly in a minister of the gospel, and will be thankful\n     indeed if you will kindly favor me with such papers and tracts as\n     may enlighten me ever so little.\"\n\nLater he wrote:--\n\n     \"You have helped me not a little in my search for truth. Before I\n     first wrote you for tracts, etc., I knew absolutely nothing of\n     Unitarianism beyond the term, and the fact that Unitarians did not\n     believe Christ to have been God.\"\n\nMiss Ellis corresponded with him from that time on, loaning many books,\netc. It was never her wish or aim to unsettle persons of a fixed faith.\nShe sought rather to reach and help those who, by reading and thinking,\nhad become dissatisfied with the only forms of religious faith known to\nthem, and were consequently drifting into scepticism. Mr. ----'s own\nletters best tell the story. After Miss Ellis's death, he wrote Feb.\n3,1886:\n\n     \"I had long been wondering why I did not hear from her, but\n     supposed that she found her time so engrossed with her chosen work\n     that she must defer writing until some more convenient season. She\n     had, it is true, hinted at her failing health, but I never dreamed\n     it was so bad. My first intimation of the real state of affairs was\n     the notice of her death. I need not say that I was startled, that I\n     regret our common loss; these are but feeble expressions.\n\n     \"Through all my life here at Cambridge I have been anticipating the\n     day when, returning West, I should meet her, and in some degree\n     thank her for the help and comfort she brought me in life. This has\n     become such a fixed idea with me, that it is hard to believe, as I\n     write this, that it can never be in this world. It seems very\n     strange that the one friend who did me such a supreme kindness in\n     life I shall never meet.\n\n     \"She was the very messenger of God to me, and is inseparably\n     associated with the most trying period of my life. The only\n     conceptions of religion I had ever had were proving unreal and\n     worthless, and no one offered anything as a substitute. As I look\n     back, the peril of my situation seems much greater than it did at\n     the time. I fear I should have become insincere, or, what is\n     perhaps almost as bad, should have fallen into a sort of despairing\n     scepticism. Heaven in mercy saved me from it; but I shall not\n     forget that even Heaven might not have found a way to do this, had\n     there been no Miss Ellis. It was but a little thing, a trifle, a\n     brief notice in a daily paper, that in some way caught a careless\n     reader's eye. But my whole life is changed in consequence.\n\n     \"And so, while you miss her in her place and in your work, in your\n     church and social life, I, too, here in New England miss her. I\n     feel as if something is gone out of my life and I have really one\n     less reason for returning West when my school work is done. But I\n     have if possible an additional incentive to a good life. I trust I\n     shall hear that your work is still going on successfully. I assure\n     you I shall never lose interest in your Mission, and shall never\n     cease to regard it as in some sense a home into which I was\n     adopted. I sincerely hope I shall never do it any discredit.\"\n\nIn a letter to Mrs. Hunert, Miss Ellis's successor, he says:--\n\n     \"Accept, please, my hearty congratulations, and my best wishes for\n     your very abundant success. It is a great work indeed, one that\n     cannot be easily over-estimated, and in which it seems to me you\n     can accomplish a minister's work even, and a very successful\n     minister's work at that. I wonder how large your congregation is\n     now; that is, how many persons are in communication with you and\n     your Mission.\n\n     \"Of Miss Ellis I shall always think as one of my greatest earthly\n     benefactors, and it will be a life-long regret that I never met\n     her.... I wish you would say to Mrs. Smith that I have by me here\n     in New England only the letters received from Miss Ellis since\n     coming to Harvard, and these I fear contain nothing she would like\n     to make use of. The really helpful letters, those that were of most\n     vital interest to me, were written while I was a Methodist preacher\n     in Ohio, and these are back there still, packed up among odds and\n     ends, and practically might almost as well be in the moon.... Again\n     accept my best wishes for your success in the new calling,--a\n     divine one in the truest sense of the word. I assure you I shall\n     always be glad to hear of the growth and success of your Mission,\n     all the more, perhaps, because I hold to it a sort of filial\n     relation. You know that in the Methodist Church each young convert\n     or young minister speaks of the minister under whose preaching he\n     was converted, as a spiritual father. So I think of myself now as\n     the spiritual child of your Women's Missionary Society in\n     Cincinnati. Would that Heaven might help me to be worthy of the\n     home, and justify in some sense their loving-kindness and help in\n     time of need.\"\n\nA gentleman in Kentucky, long a correspondent of Miss Ellis, who had\ntaken papers, bought many books, etc., through her, and who has recently\ndied, wrote of her, Jan. 22, 1886:--\n\n     \"Many souls will miss the modest, unassuming, faithful secretary,\n     but her silent labors will be followed by a rich reward. Her\n     memorial is in the hearts and minds of those who were led through\n     her efforts to freedom, fellowship, and character, in religion.\"\n\nThis correspondent was a farmer's wife in Ohio, who, after Miss Ellis's\ndeath, wrote:--\n\n     \"I have had much trouble in the last two years, and would have\n     given up to utter despair many times, if it had not been for her\n     kind letters and sermons. I made a confidential friend of her; so,\n     knowing my situation, she knew what sermons would serve most to\n     strengthen me, and sometimes she would come across sermons in\n     papers that she would cut out and send me. I have them yet, and\n     intend to paste them in a scrapbook. I thought of calling upon her\n     father to see if he had a picture that he would allow me to have a\n     copy from, so I am very glad her portrait will be in the book.... I\n     learned to _love_ Miss Ellis, and shall _never_ forget her.\"\n\nThere was a little family of step-children living on a remote Ohio farm,\nin whom Miss Ellis took a warm personal interest, advising as to their\nreligious training, sending them children's papers and books. \"Miss\nEllis\" came to be regarded as a dear friend by these children who never\nsaw her. March 16, 1885, she wrote to the mother:--\n\n     \"Your letter was received a week since, but I have been sick three\n     weeks with a very severe cough and cold. Have been up and about,\n     but could not accomplish much of anything, and especially writing,\n     and still had much of it to do.... Wanted to advise you about the\n     Sunday-school lessons. Order the lessons of 'Home Life' from\n     Chicago at present, and then next, if you can, 'Corner-Stones of\n     Character;' but do not get the 'Old Testament Chart,' for I have\n     some very good lessons on the Old Testament that you will like and\n     can have immediately.... Am so sorry you have so much sadness to\n     contend against. However, you must feel that all your sacrifices\n     are known by the good Father in heaven; so to him turn in your hour\n     of need. There is a hymn Mr. Thayer often selects for our opening\n     on Sunday. We sang it last Sunday,--'Daily Consecration,' by\n     Caroline Mason.\n\n    'Oh God! I thank thee for each sight\n      Of beauty that thy hand doth give;\n    For sunny skies, and air, and light,--\n      Oh God, I thank thee that I live!\n\n    'That life I consecrate to thee;\n      And ever, as the day is born,\n    On wings of joy my soul would flee\n      To thank thee for another morn:\n\n    'Another day in which to cast\n      Some silent deed of love abroad,\n    Which, greatening as it journeys past,\n      May do some earnest work for God.\n\n    'Another day to do, to dare;\n      To use anew my growing strength;\n    To arm my soul with faith and prayer,\n      And so win life and thee, at length.'\n\n     \"Let your first thoughts be turned to God in the morning, and in\n     the day's struggles believe that you are in his presence; and even\n     if your earthly life is not such as you may wish, you may rest\n     assured that your tears are counted above.... My own life is much\n     brighter than it was. My brother ---- has an only child, three and\n     a half years old, who is very cunning, and much company for us all.\n     On Friday I passed my semi-centennial birthday, which a number of\n     my friends kindly remembered.... I was not strong enough to enjoy\n     the occasion fully; but still on the whole it was a bright day to\n     me, and on Sunday I was glad Mr. Thayer selected the beautiful\n     hymn, 'Daily Consecration.' I am too weak to write longer.... May\n     God bless and strengthen you for your daily toils.\"\n\nOn the envelopes of all these letters was written, \"From my friend Miss\nEllis.\" To the oldest child, who was difficult to influence, Miss Ellis\naddressed this letter:--\n\n     MY DEAR M----: I wonder if you ever had any one write a letter to\n     you, and whether you can read a letter yourself. If not, your\n     mamma will read it to you. She has told me that you are having a\n     little Sunday-school of your own at home, and I feel quite\n     interested in it, and am going to have two of the lessons sent to\n     your mamma from Chicago, hoping you three children will feel\n     interested in them. One is a very simple thing to learn,--\"Rules to\n     make Home Pleasant;\" and I hope you will all try to learn them, and\n     try to keep them in your daily life.... If children do not learn to\n     keep such rules, they never can have happy homes, for they will\n     grow up into ill-natured, lazy men and women. The other lesson is\n     called \"Corner-Stones of Character,\" because it gives us true ideas\n     of what all children should learn in order to grow up into good,\n     truthful men and women.... Now I know you are studying together\n     Brown's \"Life of Jesus,\" and these lessons I am to send you will\n     help you to understand better what Jesus did to make himself, with\n     God's help, become so good a man. I know, too, that you, M----,\n     have a copy of \"Daily Praise and Prayer,\" which is a very good\n     book. It is pleasant to me as I read in mine to think that Mrs.\n     ---- and M---- are reading their lesson to-day, and I wonder if\n     they are thinking how beautiful it is, and that \"Miss Ellis\" and\n     many others are reading and asking God for the same goodness\n     to-day. It is so pleasant,--do you not think so?--to feel that our\n     good Father in heaven and all good, kind people are thinking of us\n     each day. It helps _us_ to be good, to know that others are trying\n     in the same way,--do you not think so? You are the oldest of the\n     three children, and I want to hear from you, that by studying our\n     Sunday-school lessons, and reading in sensible books, and playing\n     with well-behaved children, you are all becoming wiser and better,\n     and helping mamma and each other. I will also send you some verses\n     all the children in our Sunday-school learned one winter.... There\n     are many things I could talk to you about, but I must leave the\n     rest till another day. It will be sufficient for you to know that\n     some one on earth feels interested in your life at home, with a\n     kind mother to lead you so well.... I will say good-by now, and\n     hope you will learn to write to me. With love to all of you, very\n     kindly your friend.\n\nMiss Ellis corresponded frequently with a young man in Canada (living in\na city where, so far as known, he is the only Unitarian), beginning in\n1882, and loaning him many books. He, too, was in a state of religious\ndoubt and despair, when chance threw the little advertisement in his\nway. He intends to enter the Unitarian ministry, as is shown by the\nfollowing extracts from the correspondence. Miss Ellis wrote him Oct.\n21, 1882:--\n\n     Monday afternoon I mailed \"Religion in Evolution\" to you, and I\n     have imagined you eagerly poring over the book this week in high\n     ecstasies.... To me James F. Clarke's views and Dr. Furness's seem\n     more just and reliable. But Dr. Clarke says, \"What commends itself\n     best to our reason, must be the truth;\" therefore Mr. Savage may\n     benefit you more. If he rouses you to a deep faith and makes you\n     truly Christian, that is the point to be gained. Should like to\n     have you compare James F. Clarke with Mr. Savage, on the Humanity\n     of Jesus and the Miracles and the Resurrection, particularly.\n     \"Bible for Learners,\" Vol. III., takes the same view, about, of the\n     Miracles and Resurrection,--\"myths and legends,\" \"not an external\n     fact of history, but simply a form of belief assumed by the faith\n     of his friends and earliest disciples.\" James F. Clarke, in \"Truths\n     and Errors of Orthodoxy,\" in the chapter Miracles, says, \"The\n     resurrection may have been an example of a universal law.\" Dr.\n     Furness says: \"Till men know all the laws of God it is rather\n     presumptuous in them to set the resurrection aside as an\n     impossibility.\" These are not his exact words; but the purport I\n     have quoted from memory. To return to Dr. Clarke.... [Then follows\n     a long extract from Clarke, which is omitted here.] Dr. Clarke's\n     view is the most likely and rational to me; but all the more\n     radical men take the view of the German critics, and look upon it\n     rather as \"myths and legends\" arising from a simple faith of the\n     disciples. The only way is to read for yourself and compare,\n     forming an opinion of your own, while remembering that Christianity\n     does not rest on a certain belief, but on the life. \"What doth the\n     Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and\n     walk humbly with thy God,\" are the words of the prophet Micah.\n     James F. Clarke believes firmly in the simple, pure humanity of\n     Jesus, best shown in \"Steps of Belief,\" under the \"Historical\n     Christ.\" I have \"Steps of Belief,\" \"Truths and Errors of\n     Orthodoxy,\" also \"Bible for Learners\" and \"Talks about Jesus\" (M.\n     J. Savage), to loan you. You have only to say which you wish\n     first.... I am tired, and must rise early to be in the city in time\n     for Sunday-school, so I will tear off the paper here, or I shall go\n     on writing all night. Have more good sermons to send you. Wish you\n     could go to Boston, join the Young Men's Christian Union\n     (Unitarian), and be helped into what God means you and all to be,\n     by putting our faculties to the highest use we are capable of.\n     Hoping to hear further from you,\n\n                 Truly your friend,                  SARAH ELLIS.\n\n     _Sunday Evening._ Our sermon to-day was on the \"Effects of Modern\n     Scientific Thought upon the Essentials of Religion.\" If it is\n     published, will send you a copy of it.... I think the hymn will\n     meet your views, therefore copy it. Do you know it?\n\nThe hymn referred to is the one, \"God Ever Near,\" by T. H. Gill,\nbeginning:--\n\n    \"What secret place, what distant star,\n      O Lord of all, is thine abode?\"\n\nMiss Ellis copies it in full. In 1883 the young man wrote Miss Ellis:--\n\n     \"A year ago I was in the dreariest stage of agnosticism. I was in\n     despair at times, and sometimes my very soul seemed to be in agony.\n     Through reading scientific literature I had been convinced that\n     most of the religious teaching I had learned was false. The\n     flippancy and shallowness of Ingersoll and his school disgusted me.\n     I could not find rest in materialism; I considered it as far astray\n     from the truth as Orthodoxy. I was nineteen years old, and found\n     myself facing the most tremendous problems of existence. I tried to\n     tell myself to wait for maturer years to solve them, and to a great\n     extent that satisfied me. But I still yearned for\n     _something_,--simply this: 'My soul cried out for the living God!'\n     Alas! I could not find him. I looked around me for a little\n     sympathy or a kind word even, but I looked in vain. Every Sunday I\n     heard denunciations of such views as mine. I heard a great deal of\n     'blatant atheists,' 'infidel scientists,' etc., but no sympathy for\n     a despairing agnostic,--only scorn and ridicule. It pained me\n     intensely to be misunderstood by even those dearest to me on earth,\n     but I determined to stand firm for what I took to be the truth. Oh\n     for some men to preach a little charity for the views of others,\n     and to consider a man as not being necessarily worse than a\n     criminal because he cannot accept their own views! I owe you a\n     large debt of gratitude for being the means of lifting me out of a\n     state of misery and despair, in which I had no pleasure in life,\n     into a state of cheerfulness, happiness, hope, and peace; not\n     intellectual peace,--for I do not expect that,--but real 'soul\n     peace,' a calm trust and a real faith in a living God. I have been\n     surprised to see how largely Unitarian theology is based on\n     science. I owe it to science that my life is something more than\n     daily drudgery. The foundation of my scepticism was laid when I\n     learned the rudiments of natural philosophy in school. I was\n     astonished at what I read of Nature's wonders. Since leaving school\n     I have been an ardent reader of all kinds of scientific literature.\n     By means of the Mechanics' Institute I have the use of all the\n     magazines, reviews, etc., besides a splendid library. I have read a\n     great deal that I did not understand,--books which are beyond my\n     years; but I have a good idea of what is occupying the minds of the\n     world's thinkers in this nineteenth century. One of the best\n     lessons I have learned from the literature you have sent me is\n     faith,--a very different kind of faith from the mere credulity I\n     once knew by that name. At times I am dazed and confounded when I\n     think of the great mysteries surrounding us, especially of the\n     mysteries of death; but I feel that a good God is over all, and the\n     main thing is to do right, and all will be well. I cannot express\n     how much I owe you for the great good you have done me. You have my\n     heartfelt thanks.\"\n\nIn another letter he wrote:--\n\n     \"To say that I am delighted with 'The Religion of Evolution' is but\n     a poor way of expressing myself. You could not have sent me a more\n     timely book. I would like to get all of Mr. Savage's books. You\n     'wish I could go to Boston,' etc. Ah! you do not know how I\n     sometimes yearn for some such thing myself. I find my great\n     pleasure and recreation in intellectual pursuits; and of course I\n     have not nearly so great advantages in a small city as I would have\n     in a large one. But for meditation and communion with the Infinite,\n     communion with Nature and the incomprehensible God, I must have\n     solitude. It was a favorite dream of my childhood that I would be a\n     minister. But I have to work in another way. My father died when I\n     was six years of age, and my mother therefore had a struggle to\n     give us an education,--that inestimable blessing of a common-school\n     education. I feel that the highest work for me is to support her to\n     the best of my ability.... I value highly the sermons you send me.\n     Most of our churches here offer one 'dry bones' instead of the\n     living truth. Do you know of any low-priced publication which would\n     give me a fair sketch of Theodore Parker's life and thought? I\n     would like to know something of him. I am greatly pleased with the\n     'Register.' Mr. Savage's sermons are also a feast to me. The\n     sermons of J. F. Clarke you sent me in June have a ring about them\n     and a spirit in them that I find in few others.\"\n\nMiss Ellis wrote him, Dec. 29, 1883:--\n\n     Am glad to hear you have gained _something_ in the past year. Do\n     not be discouraged if you are not perfection at once. It takes\n     _years_ of struggle to become so. Read the lessons on \"Patience,\"\n     in \"Day unto Day,\" particularly \"Jan. 9--Parsons.\" You are quite\n     young, remember, and there are many years for you to improve in,\n     \"and room for improvement,\" as people always say.... I will not\n     allow _your_ want of time to keep me from writing you. It is my own\n     lack of time, and troublesome eyes. Have been very busy this\n     winter. Have a gentleman in Alabama who is becoming much interested\n     in Unitarian theology, and also one in Kentucky. It keeps my mind\n     at work to send just the right thing to each one. My eyes are\n     troubling me much this evening. Must close, to make some last\n     preparations for Sunday, as I have to start early in the morning to\n     be in time, and must also write a postal to a young nephew in\n     Philadelphia, who is very fond of me and remembered me Christmas\n     and always. Wishing you a bright, happy, and successful New Year,\n     in which all the ladies join me, with kind regards to your mother,\n\n                             Truly your friend,            S. ELLIS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                APRIL 15, 1883.\n\n     I must answer your question, \"Why no denunciation of sin (by\n     Unitarians)?\" In the New Hampshire \"Statement of Belief\" I first\n     sent you, if you still have it, you will find: \"(4) In Human\n     Nature, as not ruined, but incomplete. Man is not fallen from a\n     primitive state of holiness, but is imperfectly developed. Being\n     imperfect, he is liable to sin.... _The essence of sin is the\n     failure of the higher nature of man to rule his lower nature._\n     Human nature is made sacred by the indwelling presence of God.\n     Humanity is not tending downward, but is divinely guided from lower\n     to higher forms of moral and spiritual life.\"\n\n     Starting from such a high ideal of man's nature,--that he is\n     created in the \"image of God,\" and as found in the first chapter of\n     Genesis, I think, and in Psalms viii.: \"Thou hast made him a little\n     lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with honor and\n     glory,\"--we feel him capable of so much, that our ministers are too\n     busy talking concerning _being_ and _doing_ good to have any time\n     left for denunciation of sin. Our great concern is to raise man in\n     _every_ way. Teach him to be cheerful, looking _forward_ all the\n     time, moving onward and upward, and to find no opportunity to spend\n     in vain regrets,--only looking at his sins long enough to learn\n     lessons from the past, that he may avoid them in the future. Our\n     sins leave a deep stain that will affect us during our lifetime,\n     but the only way to overcome them is to be so engaged in right\n     doing that we rise above them. Now, do you not think this a far\n     higher way of converting men than by dwelling on their weaknesses?\n     Give the world something higher to do all the time, and they will\n     naturally rise to that level. We start from a higher standpoint\n     than the Orthodox, therefore our methods are very different. We\n     denounce sin by avoiding it whenever we come in contact with it, or\n     evil of any kind, and there is no more effectual way of overcoming\n     it. Do you not see why it is we have ceased to speak of it in\n     sermons? We are too busy with the good, the true, the beautiful, to\n     pay attention to the wickedness. Dr. Dewey wrote some stirring\n     sermons, on \"Human Nature.\" The topic of one is, \"On the Wrong\n     which Sin does to Human Nature;\"--text from Prov. viii. 36: \"He\n     that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul.\" That was the\n     former way of dealing with and denouncing sin; but the later way\n     is, to take care always to place the better in people's way, and\n     the sins will fall behind. Think you not so?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                    JANUARY 6, 1883.\n\n     ... We sometimes strain at _words_ when in reality we agree with\n     others. If we would only remember to strive to discover wherein we\n     agree, and not always be looking for divergence of opinion, there\n     would be more of practical piety in the world. Let us open our eyes\n     to the fact that _all_ denominations endeavor to make men better,\n     though they differ in methods; and see to it that we ourselves are\n     true to the highest and best as far as we know it, and the kingdom\n     of God will be hastened in everywhere. Do right for its own sake,\n     and not from fear or hope of punishment or reward. Let me give you\n     a hymn we sang after the sermon last Sunday. The subject was, \"This\n     life: why we are in it, and what we have a right to expect of it.\"\n     The hymn is one of Rev. Samuel Longfellow's, \"Life's Mission:\"--\n\n    \"Go forth to life, O child of earth!\n    Still mindful of thy heavenly birth.\"\n\n     [The whole hymn is copied] ... Methinks if one lives up to such a\n     mission he will be none the less Christian than if he can accept\n     the dogmas of churches.\n\nHe had consulted her about the propriety of his contributing to the\nsupport of the Methodist church when he no longer accepted its\ndoctrines. She wrote in reply, Oct. 6, 1884:--\n\n     ... \"There are two precepts which come to my mind when I am\n     perplexed as to what to do, which I will mention: 'What doth the\n     Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk\n     humbly with thy God?' (Micah vi. 8). The other: 'If ye have not the\n     spirit of Christ, ye are none of his,'-- from the epistles, but\n     can't recall it just now. If you conclude to contribute to the\n     Methodist church, you could tell Mr. B---- what your intention had\n     been, and how I reasoned upon the subject. However, act just as you\n     come to the conclusion. The thing is to do as you believe to be\n     just. I should think the church I attended had the first claim upon\n     me. 'Duty before pleasure' is true in any church. Am glad you think\n     so well of Unitarianism, and hope you may be able to work heartily\n     with us some day. Only be patient.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                       JUNE 7, 1884.\n\n     You speak of the \"loneliness\" of the position you are taking, and I\n     felt glad to find you so firm in the step you are taking.... It\n     will be a position full of self-denial many times, but on the\n     other hand will bring its own rich rewards, known only to the true\n     minister of God. To encourage you in the many hours of\n     discouragement, I advise Dr. Furness's sermon on the \"Solitude of\n     Christ,\" in \"Register\" of May 8,1884, I think, which I believe has\n     been sent you, but if not, will hunt it up and send it to you; and\n     besides that, the words of Jesus: \"He that hath put his hand to the\n     plough and looketh back, is not worthy of me;\" therefore have\n     firmly fixed in your mind the glorious hymn by Rev. Samuel Johnson,\n     \"The Conflict of Life.\"\n\nThe whole five verses of this hymn are then copied, followed by the\nwhole of Watts's\n\n    \"Awake, our souls; away, our fears,--\n    Let every trembling thought be gone;\"\n\nand Doddridge's\n\n    \"Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,\n    And press with vigor on!\"\n\nMiss Ellis saying, at the end, \"I have copied these, for they have more\nweight when written by those we know.\"\n\n                                                  JULY 5, 1884.\n\n     ... I will permit you to \"unburden yourself\" with as many pages as\n     you see fit, at any time you feel disposed to do so, and promise\n     not to be \"bored.\" I, in my deafness, understand what it is to feel\n     so utterly alone, though surrounded by dear, old, and tried\n     friends. This lack of one congenial person or thing no one can\n     appreciate but those who have experienced.... Remember, _opinions_\n     separate us, but kindly deeds and affection draw us close to one\n     another; and so pursue your studies patiently, striving to make\n     yourself the kind of man you think one ought to be, and in\n     attending church do it in the spirit of Jesus,--with the feeling of\n     worshipping God, and cast aside all other feeling, knowing that\n     those around you are doing what they feel to be best. Leave it to\n     the Good Father to judge them, and in time to help them to see\n     differently. We are judged by living up to the highest and best we\n     know, and if others have not been so far enlightened as we, or have\n     not been moved by the Spirit to seek higher light and truth, we\n     must work in patience and leave them in the hands of God.... Only\n     be true to your own convictions, and you will lead them by example\n     rather than precept, unconsciously to them. Work on patiently, and\n     God's promises will not fail you. It is a slow process to overcome\n     one's many failures; but we shall come out conquerors at the last\n     if we only will, and are earnest in our endeavors.... After two\n     weeks our churches will close for the summer, but _my_ congregation\n     will still be ministered to. I go to the church during vacation\n     every two weeks to lend books to any who desire them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                  NOVEMBER 16, 1884.\n\n     I feel for you greatly in your isolation; but comfort yourself in\n     the thought that the generality of Unitarian ministers are cut off\n     from all companionship with ministers of other denominations where\n     they are settled, and are seldom permitted to enter into charities,\n     where they are, with other ministers. It has been the case ever\n     since the days of Jesus, that those who really hold his views are\n     separated from others in the community. But as you say, and many\n     more say, \"if we have God alone, that is enough.\" I cannot consider\n     myself a \"theist\" entirely, but might call myself a \"Christian\n     theist.\" I have come to know God as manifested through Jesus, but\n     have as much respect for those who do as Jesus did, and who have as\n     firm a trust in the Father as Jesus had. Think that is what Jesus\n     taught, and labored to have no man worship him. \"There is none good\n     but One,\" he said; \"why callest thou me good?\" Though I value\n     Jesus, I do not worship him, or feel that he is my support in life.\n     I only look to him in difficulties and trials to show me the way to\n     the Father. I ask to worship and to live in his spirit and so gain\n     strength from the Father wherewith to do. You and others look more\n     to men of later date, who have learned from others nearer to them;\n     but if we trace it all back to the beginning, we will find it is\n     Jesus' spirit working through them. So one and all, whoever they\n     are, wherever found, who have the spirit of Christ, are the sons of\n     God, whether they call themselves merely theists, or Christian\n     theists, it seems to me. George Eliot was truly religious, though\n     perhaps not a Christian in the common acceptation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                              DECEMBER 27, 1884.\n\n     I do not know as I \"have ever realized the depths of absolute\n     negations,\" but I have realized the depths of absolute solitude,\n     and can sympathize with you in your loneliness, and \"think it a\n     good thing to keep the Eternal and Infinite always in view, and so\n     love quiet, solitude, and meditation. They strengthen me to do my\n     work in life.\" Do not despair, then, if you are despondent at\n     times. Every one is, and it is good for us to some extent to be\n     disgusted with ourselves; it makes us know ourselves. \"The dark\n     hours of life bring us nearer to our fellow-men, help us to know\n     ourselves and bring us nearer to God.\" God has put these\n     questionings into you for some wise purpose. Be true to your\n     highest and best self, and work them out by degrees. But remember\n     you are young yet, and there is time for you to solve all these\n     mysteries in. Do not try to solve all the great questions of life\n     at once. Be patient, and do not brood too much. Meditation and\n     solitude are good, but try to mingle somewhat with those around\n     you. See God in the world about you, as well as in the stars. I\n     would like to dwell longer upon your letter, but perhaps I shall\n     bring you out of doubt by giving you something to do. [She then\n     proposes a bit of work for him to undertake.] ... Our doubts and\n     mysteries are solved sometimes by setting to work on things we are\n     pondering over.\n\nHe wrote Miss Ellis, Aug. 24, 1885:--\n\n     \"A shadow has come across my way of late,--a great disappointment.\n     I think I mentioned it to you before. A doctor, an acquaintance of\n     mine, has often told me that I studied and read too much.... It is\n     hard for me to realize this, but he insists on a year's rest from\n     study. This will postpone my entrance to Meadville for two years, I\n     fear. I confess to great disappointment over this. I will be past\n     twenty-five when I get to Meadville; and yet there is another side.\n     I have often questioned my fitness for this great work. I wish to\n     be cautious. I do believe that I have a noble gospel to preach. 'To\n     preach,'--but first to live it. And, in shame I confess it, I have\n     not lived it. It will therefore be a good thing if in these two\n     years I give myself to growth in manhood. But enough of this. These\n     matters must be dealt with in the closet,--the soul's closet....\n     After my taste of Montreal fellowship I am sick with loneliness\n     here. It is fearful, at times, this longing for one friend even,\n     and finding none. But it must be borne without grumbling. And now I\n     must stop. The doctor would object to even this light piece of\n     writing. Thank you kindly for sending me the 'Register' and\n     'Unity.' It is very good of you to look after me so much. Be\n     assured that your kindness is giving great encouragement to a\n     lonely one who, amid much opposition and misunderstanding from his\n     dearest ones, is making at least a _little_ honest effort to be\n     true to himself and God. I would that I were fully faithful; but it\n     is not so. Still I think your seed will yet bear fruit, and spring\n     up in a life devoted to the uplifting of mankind. My deepest\n     prayer is for this. I trust your health will improve. Still more do\n     I trust that you may continue to grow nearer God, and help others\n     to do so, as you have helped me.\"\n\nMiss Ellis replied, Aug. 30, 1885:--\n\n     \"... I have neglected you of late, thinking you were soon to go to\n     Meadville, and that you were busy. We are sorry to hear of your\n     great disappointment. It is a disappointment to us as well,\n     particularly to me. However, we need the reverses and crosses of\n     life as much as the air we breathe, to strengthen our characters.\n     You have pushed yourself so hard with business and studies the past\n     two years, that you have not taken time to view the life around you\n     in the right light. Let the next two years be given principally to\n     building up your character individually and socially, and to\n     improving your health, as one of the first requisites of a minister\n     is a sound mind and a healthy body. Be social; take life\n     cheerfully; make those about you better for your company; and\n     mingle freely with your family and best friends, showing them you\n     are practising Unitarianism. Yes; make these two coming years tell\n     as a preparation for college in another way, and let them prove a\n     blessing to you, though a disappointment at first. Did you read\n     Rev. E. E. Hale's 'Methods,' in 'Register' a few weeks since? This\n     week's 'Register' contains an excellent sermon by Rev. John\n     Clifford on 'Spiritual Building.' Have a home worship of your own\n     sometimes. During the vacation, every Sunday I have had a regular\n     worship. For instance, to-day I read for sermon, 'Spiritual\n     Building;' opening hymn, 'Come, Thou Almighty, help us to praise;'\n     'Scriptures Old and New' (a compilation by Mr. Forbush and Mr.\n     Hosmer, from all religions, and an excellent thing to have), Lesson\n     27,--'The Kingdom within us;' prayer, followed by Scripture lesson,\n     Galatians iii., from which is taken text; then Wesley's hymn, 'The\n     whole armor of God;' sermon; closing hymn, Doddridge's 'Awake, my\n     soul, stretch every nerve,' etc. Have been interested during the\n     vacation in looking over Gannett's 'Childhood of Jesus' and\n     Carpenter's 'Palestine when Jesus lived.' Also bought 'Selections\n     from the Apocrypha,' compiled by Mrs. Tileston, who compiled 'Daily\n     Strength.' Readings from the Apocrypha are so common in Unitarian\n     pulpits now, that it is well to be familiar with the best portions.\n     Am not able to do much reading now. Am physically too weak. Never\n     was able to use my brain to its full extent,--feeble and nervous\n     all my life, but active otherwise.\"\n\nMiss Ellis's last letter to him was written but little more than a month\nbefore her death, when in the utmost weakness herself; but to this she\nmakes no allusion. It was a letter of consolation in bereavement, from\nwhich this is an extract:--\n\n                                            NOVEMBER 18, 1885.\n\n     ... The only way to reconcile ourselves to our sorrows is to think\n     of those who are worse off than ourselves. It makes us less\n     inclined to murmur in our own sadness. It is good for us to bear\n     the cross. If things were always as we would have them, many\n     virtues would never be developed. There are so many comforting\n     pieces in \"Sunshine in the Soul.\" Some I marked for a former\n     correspondent. Mr. Thayer read for his Scripture lesson last\n     Sunday, Job. iv. 5; and v. 6-11; 17 to end. I have no doubt your\n     sister knows many comforting passages; but the real comfort is\n     found in keeping ourselves busy for others, while at the same time\n     we lean and trust in God to give us peace of soul. We find it in\n     time as we go on patiently doing the duty just before us, and\n     loving the blessings which remain to us.\n\nOne of Miss Ellis's last thoughts was for this correspondent. When\nhardly able to speak, she requested a special \"Register\" sent to him. It\nwas sent, and a postal card informing him of her condition. He\nreplied:--\n\n                                              DECEMBER 25, 1885.\n\n     Your card came to me this morning. I am shocked at its sad message.\n     I was not in the least prepared for it. It seems to hold out no\n     hope. Though I have never seen Miss Ellis, she has been to me for\n     over three years a close friend. And now I must lose her\n     friendship, and her kind encouraging letters! But I am not\n     intending to complain of loss, but rather to be thankful for the\n     help I have received from her. I shall now have another motive to\n     work on, to be more faithful in life. That motive shall be the\n     memory of Miss Ellis's self-sacrificing life. I have a large\n     package of her letters which will be more valued now than ever\n     before. I do trust her work will go on; it ought to certainly. If I\n     can help I will gladly do so.\n\nLater, he wrote in reply to a letter announcing her death:--\n\n                                                   JANUARY 1, 1886.\n\n     I was very glad to hear a little of our dear friend who spends this\n     happy New Year's Day freed from all ills of the body. I can hardly\n     realize that she is gone. She never gave me a hint that she was\n     seriously ill, but always spoke cheerfully. It is such a short time\n     ago that I wrote to her as usual, not having the remotest thought\n     that she would never answer my letter. Her last letters to me are\n     dated Nov. 6 and 18, and, singularly enough, are almost entirely\n     taken up with remarks upon death and affliction. Not a word of\n     herself, however....\n\n     Miss Ellis wrote me two letters full of kindness and sympathy, and\n     sending cheering words to my sister; for she wrote, \"Though I don't\n     know her, I feel deeply for her.\" It really is hardly possible to\n     estimate the influence, both direct and indirect, which Miss Ellis\n     has had upon my life. It is a very long story, this of my inquiries\n     in religious matters. I have always looked forward to the day when\n     I should see our friend and speak to her of it, and make some\n     expression of my gratitude to her. But it is not to be,--not in\n     this life, at least. Hereafter her letters shall be a source of\n     constant encouragement to me. I have them all, and glad I am of it,\n     for through them she will yet speak to me. I often wished to have a\n     photograph of her, and I am very sorry now that I too long\n     hesitated to take the first step in making a mutual exchange. Often\n     when weary through the day's work I have been cheered by her kind\n     letters. But this is only one limited instance of her influence.\n     For years I went to my daily work sad and heavy of heart because\n     life was aimless, almost dead. By the printed page Miss Ellis\n     showed me God,--God living, working, right here now, daily\n     surrounding me and all men. And lo! life has an aim, is full of\n     beauty and goodness and joy.... All this I owe to her.\n\nIn response to a request for letters, he wrote:\n\n                                                 FEBRUARY 14, 1886.\n\n     In your card you speak of a book. I hope the pamphlet will grow\n     into a book. I was delighted to hear that it will contain a\n     portrait, for that will be just what I wish for. The letters I\n     sent, I had to just pick out hurriedly, as I had very little time.\n     If I had had more time, I might have made a better selection. I\n     will vouch for their quality, however. I have post cards\n     innumerable from her. Then again, once, when I was having a sore\n     mental struggle over the philosophy of prayer, in answer to my\n     inquiries Miss Ellis wrote out for me the greater part of Mr.\n     Chadwick's sermon on \"Prayer,\" in his \"Faith of Reason.\" This I\n     mention as one out of many instances of such work. She never tired\n     of trying to aid me. I sent you the last letter I received from\n     her, never having a thought, at the time I received it, of its\n     being the _last_ one. Perhaps Miss Ellis is aware of all this\n     afterglow, as you so well call it. I hope so. I believe so. How it\n     must gratify her to know what she accomplished!\n\n     In looking over these letters I am very forcibly reminded of the\n     last few years.... As you may suppose, Miss Ellis is much in my\n     thoughts. I looked forward to meeting her some day, and making\n     grateful acknowledgment of her influence for good on me. I would\n     not hide from you that I often regret that it is not to be so. But\n     every other thought is swallowed up in gratitude for her life and\n     for our meeting together.\n\nThe following is Miss Ellis's first letter from a farmer's wife a dozen\nmiles out of Cincinnati, who has this winter become a member of the\nWomen's Auxiliary Conference, and wishes, with her daughter, to join the\nchurch:--\n\n     \"I have frequently seen the item in the Sunday's paper offering\n     Unitarian reading to those who wish it, and have as often\n     determined to avail myself of the opportunity, but have so far\n     neglected it. I will say that I have been for a long time somewhat\n     of a Unitarian, without being sufficiently informed in the belief\n     openly to declare myself one. I would ask you to teach me from the\n     beginning the doctrines, so that I can understand and feel a safety\n     in embracing them. I have a daughter who will avail herself with me\n     of your kind offer. You are to be our teacher in the matter of\n     selecting the reading, and I will gladly pay postage on all books\n     sent.\"\n\nAs such teacher Miss Ellis acted ever after. She wrote in reply, Jan. 1,\n1884:--\n\n     Was very glad to receive your letter to-day, and hope I may prove a\n     successful \"teacher.\" Have always been a Unitarian, as my father\n     was among the first subscribers to the church, when it was\n     established in 1830.... Have sent you by this same mail three\n     tracts pertaining to our doctrines. Shall be glad to give you and\n     your daughter a weekly Sunday-school lesson for several weeks.\n     Began with statements of doctrine and Channing's famous Discourse.\n     On the list sent have numbered other tracts in the order in which I\n     shall send them,--leading you from Channing to Brigham and J. F.\n     Clarke, showing an advance in thought up to Mr. Wendte's tract,\n     \"What Do Unitarians Believe?\" which represents Unitarianism as held\n     by the _young_ men of the present time; and after you read these\n     tracts, if you wish more doctrine, will mention some books we can\n     loan you by mail. With the tracts will also send the \"Christian\n     Register,\" where you will see our principles carried out. It is a\n     very interesting, able paper. Perhaps after you have examined a\n     few copies you may like to become a subscriber to it. I usually\n     spend Mondays mailing papers to our correspondents, though they do\n     not all get off till about Wednesday. They will be in time for a\n     Sunday lesson, however, and I hope you may find some neighbors to\n     join you in your study. Hoping this is a beginning of another good\n     work for us, and to hear from you further,\n\n                          Respectfully yours,               SARAH ELLIS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                       JANUARY 26, 1884.\n\n     This leads me to your question, \"What do you do with the Immaculate\n     Conception? Why was that way employed to compel people to accept\n     the divinity of Christ?\" Ask as many questions as you please, and I\n     will answer them in letter, or send some sermon or tract to throw\n     light on the subject to you. Monday, will mail to you \"The\n     Incarnation,\" by Rev. J. W. Chadwick, wherein you will see that\n     many of the doctrines of the early times were invented by the men\n     of the day to suit some purpose of their own. Will shortly send you\n     a lesson paper by Rev. William C. Gannett, of St. Paul, Minn., on\n     \"The Christmas Story and the Christmas Fact.\" These stories or\n     \"legends\" concerning Jesus were written some time after his death.\n     \"Bible for Learners\" says--[Here is copied a long extract.] I have\n     said enough to let you know that we do not accept these \"legends\"\n     as literal truth; and you will understand, from \"The Incarnation,\"\n     that Jesus was not miraculously born any more than we all are.\n     Jesus never claimed it for himself, as you will find as you read\n     what I send you from time to time. It was a doctrine created by the\n     Church to suit later days. I was glad to have you speak freely of\n     yourself, and hope that we may make religion, the Bible, and Jesus,\n     natural, simple, true, and beautiful to you and your\n     daughter,--something that you can take hold of and live out in your\n     daily lives, and be thankful that you _live_. Hoping that you may\n     have further questions to ask, and wish to borrow books on subjects\n     of interest to you,\n\n                               Very truly your friend,      S. ELLIS.\n\n     There is a book that will throw much light on your question\n     concerning the early view of Christ, \"Orthodoxy and Heresy,\" by\n     Rev. E. H. Hall. We have it to loan.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                     MARCH 13, 1884.\n\n     It is with pleasure I sit down to reply to your last letter, and it\n     has only been from total inability that you have had to wait so\n     long. I wanted to sit down immediately to send you a few\n     sympathetic words, for your life must have been very similar to my\n     own. The best comfort for us is, to say to ourselves, Are not many,\n     _many_ others carrying the same burdens, disappointments, and toils\n     as we? How do they bear them, and where do they get their patience\n     and strength from? Only from studying the words and lives of those\n     who have had similar trials to bear; and no one bore the cross\n     better than He to whom the whole world has looked as a guide.\n     Therefore though you fall and fail often, be not in despair. All\n     you need is some one to speak with you who sympathizes with you;\n     and though they may not lighten your burden or change your\n     circumstances, they will lighten your heart and make the whole\n     world seem different to you, and full of work to be done, that will\n     take your thoughts out from beyond your own home, and yet at the\n     same time only make that all the more precious to you and just the\n     place you ought to be in. Am not fond of the country myself. Have\n     always lived in the city, and prefer to be surrounded by people and\n     life rather than trees and quiet of the country; still, I love to\n     visit in the country for a short time.... You ask how you can best\n     prepare yourself to become a member of our church. I sent you the\n     church programme, and Mr. Thayer says there, \"Those who present\n     themselves in an earnest spirit,\"--an earnest spirit to do all the\n     good you can, in every way, at home and to the world. It is\n     _character_, and _not_ belief, which makes the true Christian. And\n     if our conscience is right before God, let man say what he will; if\n     we are only sure ourselves we are doing our best according to our\n     circumstances and our health; if our motives are pure and our\n     conscience clear,--we shall feel a pleasure in joining in a\n     Communion service, though one can be a member of our church if not\n     a communicant. There are several books I wish to recommend to you.\n     The first is a great help to inward strength, and is a gem of a\n     book, \"Day unto Day,\" which consists of a passage or two from the\n     Scriptures, a selection from poetry, and one from writers, for\n     every day in the year.... The whole book is full of selections\n     which fit the needs of every day. I have two copies, and will loan\n     you one copy with passages I have marked as read, and which has\n     benefited several of my correspondents.... Another great help to a\n     good life is Merriam's \"Way of Life.\" \"Theodore Parker's Prayers\" I\n     can loan you too. Since I wrote you, have had presented to our\n     library Sunderland's \"What is the Bible?\" shorter than \"Bible for\n     Learners,\" and on the whole better to read first. I subscribed for\n     the Sunday-school lessons on \"The Life of Jesus,\" so any time you\n     are welcome to it. You will understand from what I have written,\n     that to strengthen the inner man is a good preparation for anything\n     and anywhere; and you will find a great deal among our books, and\n     in our papers, and in our religion, to help you and make life a\n     blessing, though under unfavorable circumstances, and enable you to\n     have the spirit and faith _of_ Jesus, if not so much _in_ Jesus,\n     which the Orthodox make most emphatic.\n\nThe following letter was written June 27, 1885. The unusual allusions to\nher own health are evidently in sympathy with the correspondent, who had\nwritten of ill health and heavy burdens to bear.\n\n     \"I have been most useless since the middle of February; but, weak\n     as I am, I have insisted on staying out of bed, waiting on myself,\n     and keeping my room in order, even to sweeping it, and keeping up\n     my missionary work slowly. I do dislike to be nursed and a care to\n     people. Sometimes it seems impossible for me to get dressed for my\n     breakfast, and it takes me about one hour and a quarter, I am so\n     weak. Last Sunday I could not get to church; but I spent the day in\n     resting,--spiritual rest. I had a service at home,--the responsive\n     service, the three hymns, the Scripture lesson, and read one of J.\n     F. Clarke's sermons, which I sent to another who needed consoling.\n     There is a favorite hymn of mine, which I will write out for you.\n     We often sing it for an opening hymn. [The hymn \"Daily\n     Consecration,\" by Caroline Mason, is here copied in full.] Excuse\n     the mistakes, for I have written it from memory. Work on, dear\n     friend, just where you are, and feel that there you are casting\n     silent deeds of love which no one knows but the good Father above,\n     but that they are none the less earnest work in his service....\n     Every other Saturday A. M. I go to the church to do up papers for\n     the Workhouse. Was there _this_ morning. Take heart, good friend,\n     and feel that nothing you do is lost, and that sometime your labor\n     will be appreciated. I must not write longer, for I want to attend\n     church to-morrow. They miss me when I am not at my post.\"\n\nAnother letter of this summer reads:--\n\n     MY DEAR FRIEND,--Your letter was duly received, and I wanted to\n     answer it immediately, but have been too weak to write _comforting_\n     letters.\n\n    Am so sorry to hear you are still sick, and wish I could help you.\n    Am still more sorry to hear you are \"dreading\" the summer; but I do\n    not wonder at it, for on a farm the labor required by the women in\n    the house must be incessant.... I cannot take the burden off your\n    shoulders; but perhaps a word of sympathy from another, and\n    something from her experience, may enable you to face the\n    difficulties.... My experience has been that when anticipating a\n    hard time, if I only accept it, and make up my mind that it _has_ to\n    be my part, half the burden is taken off, if I determine to go\n    through with it all, giving myself up to that work and thinking of\n    nothing beyond in the mean time. Take all the rest I can get,\n    instead of trying to do something else too. Rest will do you more\n    good than company or books, when you are so used up with real hard\n    work. Women all try to attend to too much outside of their\n    households, for the sake of company and variety; do you not think\n    so? Now, just take things as quietly as you can this summer, and\n    feel that in your home duties you have more than you can do, and\n    look forward to the time when summer will be over and you will have\n    less care.\n\nAfter her death, the lady wrote:--\n\n     \"I sent my letter to her home by a messenger who reported that he\n     understood at the door, as he handed it to the person who answered\n     the bell, that Miss Ellis was dead. I hoped that he was mistaken,\n     but your letter confirmed it. I knew she was very feeble. She\n     wrote me some two weeks before Christmas, saying she was very weak;\n     but I did not think for one moment that she was in danger, or I\n     would have hurried to see her. I shall miss her greatly, and her\n     dear letters to me, which I prized so highly; and you, who saw more\n     of her than I could possibly, will feel her loss greatly. I believe\n     there are few persons capable of entering so entirely into sympathy\n     with others who needed it as she was, and of giving such\n     consolation; at least, it has not been my good fortune to meet many\n     such. I will be glad to receive the memorial of which you speak. I\n     shall be very glad if your minister would write me on the subject\n     of joining the church, as I was depending on Miss Ellis to guide me\n     in the matter, which she was ready to do one year or more ago.\"\n\nIn 1884 Miss Ellis received the following letter from a young man, Mr.\nA. J. Beach, who had been one of her discouragements, because, after\nsome correspondence, she had ceased to hear from him. Mr. Beach was\nusher in the State Penitentiary at Joliet, Ill.\n\n     \"More than a year ago I wrote to thank you for papers which you had\n     kindly sent me. In answer, you sent me a very kind letter, and\n     named several books which I might read with profit. I procured a\n     number of Rev. James Freeman Clarke's works, which I read\n     carefully, and from which I gathered much of great value. I also\n     subscribed to two of the papers you named, to which I have become\n     so much attached that I could not possibly do without them.... Your\n     letter led me to a course of reading and investigation that has\n     proved a sun-burst to me. I have been in darkness. I am out of it\n     now. I am connected with the State Prison (as usher), not the\n     pleasantest position in the world; but I have tried to show many of\n     the poor convicts the better way of life, and to cheer them by kind\n     words and a showing of real interest in their unfortunate\n     condition, and I believe I have succeeded in making lighter many a\n     poor friendless fellow's load....\"\n\nThe following extracts are from others of his letters:--\n\n     \"I have read the sermons, and have handed them to a very\n     intelligent prisoner, who has become greatly interested in\n     Unitarian teachings, and requested him to pass the documents to\n     others, after reading them. He will do so, and will see that they\n     are kept moving. I am glad you are taking so much interest in our\n     prison. There is much need of genuine kindness here, and it cannot\n     be better shown than in a true and apparent desire to raise the\n     unfortunates to a higher plane of thought and action. These men and\n     women are in a sense left to themselves. They are not permitted to\n     talk to each other. They pass long hours in their cells either\n     reading or thinking. Is it not the very time to get them started\n     thinking in the right direction? You say, We shall write to the\n     Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary Conference in Boston, ... and\n     interest them in the Joliet prison. This is good news. The Post\n     Office Mission is truly a grand mission, and is doing more good\n     than you may think of.\"\n\nThe next letter says:--\n\n     \"The papers and tracts you have been kind enough to send me have\n     been given to prisoners, and they have been passed from hand to\n     hand until literally worn out. There are a great many very\n     intelligent men among the fifteen hundred and fifty convicts now in\n     our prison, and they (or many of them, at least) are very glad to\n     get such papers and tracts as you have sent me; and I am only too\n     glad to place such reading matter in their hands. You asked if old\n     'Registers' and 'Unities' would do any good. They would be\n     thankfully received by many of the unfortunate men, and would be\n     carefully read by them. Reading is one of the very few privileges\n     granted convicts.... I to-day received from Mrs. Thacher, of\n     Boston, a bill of lading for two barrels of papers and magazines\n     shipped for distribution among prisoners; also a kind and very\n     interesting letter from Mrs. Thacher,--for all of which I am\n     indebted to you. I am glad, indeed, Unitarian people understand\n     that convicts want and appreciate something more in reading matter\n     than chilling tracts. We are constantly receiving for distribution\n     the strongest kind of Orthodoxy, but the prisoners do not seem to\n     take kindly to it.... An old colored man, who was sent here eleven\n     years ago under life sentence, said to me yesterday, 'I tell yo',\n     sah, it seems mighty ha'd to sarve in hell all yo' life in dis\n     place, an' den have to take it for sartin' su'ah in de nex' worl'.'\n     He seemed to think that a sentence to the penitentiary was merely\n     carrying out a part of the divine plan; in other words, he was\n     foreordained to eternal suffering, and has got eleven years on his\n     way.... We found the books and papers to be all that could be\n     desired, and have taken great pleasure in distributing them....\n     Could you have heard the genuine thankfulness expressed by the\n     unfortunate prisoners as I passed along the galleries distributing\n     the reading matter, you surely would have felt amply repaid for\n     interesting yourself in them.... Many said, 'God bless the ladies\n     who thought of us!' with an earnestness and sincerity which\n     indicated clearly to me that they felt and appreciated the kindness\n     and the motives of the donors. My experience among convicts has\n     convinced me that kindness shown toward them is never wasted. There\n     are in this prison several noted criminals,--men who have the\n     reputation of being brutal desperadoes,--with whom I have\n     frequently talked, and have invariably found to be easily touched\n     by a kind word and act.\"\n\nLast June Mr. Beach dropped dead in a Chicago depot while on his way\nhome. It seems proper to copy here portions of a letter written to his\nfamily by the chaplain of the prison.\n\n                                                      JUNE 30, 1885.\n\n     ... As we roomed together, I was with him more than any one else;\n     and when not otherwise engaged, we read and talked together.... We\n     were very frank with each other, and last Sabbath eve we had a long\n     talk on religion. The reaction from a Calvinistic faith had\n     evidently left him somewhat adrift. We talked of the cramping of\n     creeds on the one hand, and the tendency on the other hand of\n     (so-called) Liberal views to produce loose morals, etc. He dwelt on\n     the fact that the perceptions of the mind were so much in advance\n     of the inclinations of the heart, that men knew better than they\n     did; adding, \"Oh, I have often come so near to the wonderful\n     process by which bad men are made good!\" I reminded him that Paul\n     said, \"It is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy\n     heart,\"--dwelling at length on the whole argument in Romans x. 6 to\n     13 inclusive. I remarked that my habit of urging these views\n     earnestly for forty-four years might have become obtrusive; but he\n     answered: \"No; if these things are worth anything, they are worth\n     everything. If duty here affects destiny there, these are matters\n     of primary and not secondary consideration.\" Little did I think\n     then that in twelve brief hours he would know their reality better\n     than I possibly could. In saying good-by [the chaplain adds], he\n     said he would write soon, was glad he had ever known me, but feared\n     he _would not see me again_; then walked off feebly but cheerfully\n     with ----, who carried his satchel, and to whom he was much\n     attached--though a colored convict, yet much of a man. At 7:30 A.\n     M. he went with Mr. L----, our purchasing agent, with whom he\n     talked freely _en route_ to Chicago, who carried his satchel,\n     helped him up the stairs in the depot, and at whose feet he\n     suddenly dropped dead. A physician was called at once, but\n     paralysis of the heart had stopped the wheel of life.... The boys\n     here loved him _much_. B----, a special friend, gave him a pretty\n     onyx cross for his little niece. I think he put it in his pocket.\n     Some Boston ladies sent him several boxes of pamphlets and books\n     for the library, advising him to keep certain volumes himself, and\n     I hoped he had written his name in them or set them aside; yet\n     C---- (colored) and T. J. D----, who aided him in the library (and\n     mourn him as a brother) think he read the volumes they recommended,\n     but made no further claim on them. Some prison employees, like some\n     physicians, find their sympathies decrease by constant use. _He_\n     was not so; for there was not a drop of tyranny or despotism in his\n     blood, and any one who used power simply to oppress another was\n     beneath his contempt. He could consistently say to the Recording\n     Angel, \"Mark me as one who loves my fellow-men.\" Oh! had I known\n     all he probably meant when he said so tenderly at parting, \"I fear\n     we will not meet again,\" I would have followed out the impulse of\n     my heart, clasped him in my arms, and then have said (as I did),\n     \"Yes, we will meet in heaven!\"\n\nThe following extracts are from Miss Ellis's letters to Beach:--\n\n                                               DECEMBER 23, 1884.\n\n     Your letter was received last Saturday afternoon, and was quite\n     encouraging to us, for we may do some good work in the prison with\n     one who feels interested with us. Your letter was particularly\n     welcome, as the same morning came a letter from Mrs. J. I. W.\n     Thacher, Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary Conference of Boston,\n     who responded promptly and satisfactorily to my letter, though she\n     was sick in bed. After the hurry of Christmas is over, they will\n     send you two barrels of literature,--\"Registers,\" \"Harpers,\"\n     \"Centuries,\" \"Atlantics,\" and some few other materials. I feel as\n     if this will be \"good news\" to you. Yes; it is a good time to turn\n     the minds of the men, women, and boys in the right direction. \"A\n     little kindness\" and good advice may help some of the poor\n     creatures to a better life. Think Orthodoxy takes a wrong\n     starting-point in teaching one that he is \"totally depraved,\" and\n     that he must wait for a sudden conversion in order to become good.\n     I feel as if Unitarianism is the better way, upholding that we are\n     \"not totally depraved, but incompletely developed,\" and that our\n     salvation depends greatly upon individual responsibility. That we\n     have it within ourselves to become what God intended we should be,\n     and what was possible with Jesus is with us,--that we may become\n     \"sons of God\" as he was. We are not to \"shift the responsibility\n     off on to some one else,\" as M. J. Savage says. These poor\n     creatures must be taught that the sin is greatly on their own\n     shoulders, and they are capable of overcoming if they only will.\n     Mr. Savage's closing sentence is fine,--\"Not to do wrong, one must\n     develop in himself the ability of magnificent self-control!\" That\n     is the starting-point of many of life's failures,--lack of\n     self-control. Teach these poor creatures that lesson, and some\n     trade by which they can support themselves when they leave the\n     prison. You wrote us word you subscribed to two of our papers. I\n     take it for granted they are the \"Register\" and \"Unity.\" If so,\n     will call your attention to a review of a book on \"Prison Reform,\"\n     in \"Unity,\" Dec. 16, 1884. I sent you yesterday a tract, \"Unitarian\n     Belief in Bible Language,\" marking several passages which I thought\n     might rouse some of the poor men and women and _boys_ (it is the\n     _young_ we must work on, and see to it that we are making better\n     men and women for the future) to a truer view of what sin is; also,\n     \"Wrestling and Blessing,\" by Rev. William C. Gannett. His first\n     section, on \"Inherited Burden,\" is capital, showing that in spite\n     of it we may come off \"conquerors.\" The whole of the tract is\n     good.... Hoping we may continue to aid you in the prison work, and\n     with the good wishes of the season from the Women's Auxiliary\n     Conference to you and all prison-workers and inmates,\n\n                    Cordially yours,                       S. ELLIS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                               FEBRUARY 5, 1885.\n\n     If we can only make men feel their bodies are temples of the Holy\n     Spirit, which they have of God, and that they are not their own,\n     and that in sinning they disgrace this holy temple, it seems to me\n     that there would be less crime in the world. It is the divine in\n     their own souls they defile. There has been a tract of Unitarian\n     hymns published. I will send you a copy next week, hoping that some\n     of our beautiful hymns may cheer the poor benighted prisoners.... I\n     have had people say to me, \"The Unitarian faith does very well to\n     live by daily; but when you are in trouble, or your friends die, if\n     you do not believe in the Trinity, what have you to comfort you?\"\n     My reply is, \"We have God, from whom Jesus received _his_ strength.\n     We have the faith _of_ Jesus, and not so much faith _in_ Jesus. We\n     can trust _God_ to help us in our hour of need; and if we have\n     sinned we know _He_ is ready and willing to pardon us. We know that\n     to live truly in this life will secure us happiness in the world to\n     come; and that while we are here there is time to repent and do\n     good, and we would not wish to feel that it was necessary for a\n     perfect being to die to spare us from our sins. We had rather\n     suffer on, if we have done the wrong, than see some one else suffer\n     for us.\"\n\nOn receiving the news of Mr. Beach's sudden death in July, 1885, Miss\nEllis wrote to his sister:\n\n     \"... I was much shocked and very sorry to hear the news your\n     letter, which was received this morning, contained, but was much\n     obliged to you for speaking so plainly of your dear brother, for I\n     was much interested in him. Not only I, but _all_ of our little\n     Women's Auxiliary Conference, and also the ladies of the Auxiliary\n     Conference in Boston. He was a noble fellow, and doing much good\n     there in the Joliet prison. I hope to transfer my esteem and\n     respect for him to his family in remembrance of him. How little it\n     ever occurred to me, when I wrote the letter to him on the 20th,\n     that the dear fellow was safe in his heavenly home. I am sure he\n     deserved a high place with the dear ones above, in whatever faith\n     he died. He used to write us such good, interesting letters, both\n     here and to Boston. We were always glad to get them.... I never\n     have known to what church he and his family belong, but have\n     imagined the Presbyterian.... What church do you attend, and how\n     old was Andrew? I am old enough to be his mother, I suspect, and\n     looked upon him and some few other of my correspondents as 'my\n     boys,' as one of my converts styles himself. My hope was that\n     Andrew would study for the ministry some day.... I know what sorrow\n     is, but must say yours is one of the most trying ordeals to pass\n     through,--an only son, and such a noble one, to die among\n     strangers. My heart aches sorely for you, and I do not wonder it\n     seems like a 'dream' to you. We do not know and cannot tell why our\n     dear ones are taken. We can only trust in God's love to lighten the\n     burden for us after a time, and accept our present trial. The\n     spirit of the dear ones will help us to be kinder and more loving\n     to those who are left with us; and gradually a change comes over\n     us, and as days roll on we find our lives are very different from\n     what they were before,--purer and holier, and we have been drawn\n     nearer heaven and been with our dear one all the time. I will copy\n     a beautiful poem of Whittier's, 'The Angel of Patience,' at the\n     close of this letter. 'Our earthly loss is our heavenly gain.' ...\n     Bear as bravely as you can, and the good Father will send peace to\n     your souls as the years roll on. 'We must through much tribulation\n     enter the kingdom of heaven.' We shall be glad to send papers to\n     _you_ now. I think in the 'Register' you will find many things to\n     comfort you often; and from time to time I will select something\n     especial for you. Let me know, please, by postal, if you prefer not\n     to have them. Shall be very glad to hear from you any time.\"\n\nThis letter led to a correspondence continued until Miss Ellis's death,\nand to the sending of much literature to the family. Further extracts\nfrom this correspondence follow:--\n\n                                             AUGUST 16, 1885.\n\n    ... I do not wonder you miss the dear brother, and feel grieved that\n    you may not see him again. I do not believe the good Father in\n    heaven is angry if we murmur some. He cannot be so harsh as to have\n    us cultivate family affections and friendships on earth and not have\n    any loving feelings left. No! It is right to mourn, but yet \"not\n    without hope.\" One of the most beautiful sermons I ever heard, and\n    the most comforting, was one from our pastor, Rev. C. W. Wendte, on\n    \"The Dark Hours of Life, and what they bring us.\"\n\nHere she copies the closing passages of the sermon, and also four pages\nof poems,--\"The Heart Prayer,\" by J. N. Spriggs; \"I am so Weak,\" Jennie\nE. McCaine, both from \"Unity Songs Resung;\" \"My Dead,\" by Rev. F. L.\nHosmer; and selections from \"Scriptures Old and New.\" So little did she\nspare the feeble remains of her strength in these last months. Sept. 27,\n1885, she wrote:--\n\n     \"... Not that I have so much to do, but this changeable weather has\n     unfitted me for work, and I have a good deal of extra work lately,\n     that has exercised my brain considerably and required _long_\n     letters. I was put on a committee of three at the St. Louis\n     Conference last May, for drawing up systematic Post Office Mission\n     methods. Rev. Arthur Judy, of Davenport, Iowa, is the chairman. He\n     has planned a circular letter and a book of records. It has taken\n     much of my time to read the long letters and give my opinion of\n     them.... We have to work very differently in this region....\n     However, in time we shall have more than one enlightened family in\n     a place. The way to overcome is to lend our papers, tracts, books,\n     etc., that the people may see we are Christians after all. We do\n     not want to convert them so much, but to make more sincere\n     Christians of them, and happier people in this world; and by\n     degrees they throw aside their old dogmas without knowing it. We do\n     have so many comforting books; so many good Sunday-school lessons\n     adapted to grown people even; devotional books, too, with\n     selections which fit each day; and also so many books containing a\n     true account of Unitarianism and of the Bible, that I feel every\n     one ought to read them, and own many; but of course they cannot....\n     I want to lend you a little daily book I have,--'Day unto Day.' It\n     is in rather a dilapidated state, because I have sent it by mail to\n     a number of persons. I have two copies, but both birthday presents,\n     and I do not like to part with either. The pencil-marks in it are\n     mine, as they have impressed me day by day. You may retain it three\n     or four months if you wish.\"\n\nThe sister wrote in reply:--\n\n                                                   OCTOBER 27,1886.\n\n    I wish to thank you especially for the loan of your book, \"Day unto\n    Day.\" It was very kind in you, and I have found it to be a perfect\n    mine of beautiful gems of truth and wisdom, and \"day unto day\" it\n    can furnish comforting thought for all occasions.\n\n    I was very much interested in your statement of your work as a\n    member of the committee you mentioned. Certainly, such an amount of\n    such elevating literature distributed so extensively must result in\n    much good. The literature that I receive from you we endeavor to\n    make the very best use of,--by first \"thoroly\" reading in our own\n    family, and then lending to those among our neighbors and friends\n    who will be most likely to give their attention to it. On one or\n    two occasions we have invited in, on Sunday afternoons, some of our\n    neighbors, and made them occasions for reading to them an especially\n    good sermon or article, hoping to awaken sufficient interest to\n    perhaps have frequent readings and talks. In our village there are\n    two churches only,--the Disciples and Presbyterian.\n\nThe date of Miss Ellis's last letter to this correspondent shows it to\nhave been written less than a month before her death:--\n\n                                           November 30, 1885.\n\n    Your letter was very welcome, and I intended replying sooner; but\n    for the last three weeks have been very miserable, though up, out,\n    and at work all the time, accomplishing little, however. We were so\n    glad to hear you were occasionally having Sunday readings and doing\n    the good you can. To-day I have mailed to you \"Songs of Faith, Hope,\n    and Charity,\" and the last Church Door Pulpit \"Channing,\" selected\n    by Mr. Gannett, whose father, Ezra S. Gannett, was Dr. Channing's\n    colleague for many years. It is an admirable compilation, and I wish\n    it were in small book form, for it would make a very beautiful\n    little Christmas gift. Even in this form I shall use it for such a\n    purpose. There are three books I would call your and your friends'\n    attention to as little gifts of value at this season; namely, \"Daily\n    Strength for Daily Needs;\" \"The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems,\"\n    by Rev. F. L. Hosmer and Rev. William C. Gannett, just published;\n    then there is a pleasant story-book for boys or girls published last\n    year, \"The Browns.\" ... All this may be quite contrary to your\n    feelings this year, and I presume you cannot enter into Thanksgiving\n    and Christmas with the real spirit of former days. But not as you\n    see the \"golden lining\" to all things can you give way to gloom.\n    There is always _something_ to be grateful for. How much worse\n    _might_ have happened to us. Then, too, we can feel thankful that we\n    had our treasures so long, and that they were such a pleasure to us.\n    Thanksgiving naturally makes us ask, \"What have I to be thankful\n    for?\" and makes us somewhat sad; but at Christmas we lay aside all\n    thought of self, and think of Him who was all unselfishness; and in\n    this thought we try to forget our sorrows in order to send gladness\n    thrilling through some other human soul, and thus forget our loss\n    for that day at least, though tears may come involuntarily. Hope the\n    Thanksgiving was as pleasant as it could be; that there was a\n    reunion of those of you who are still living, and that the spirit of\n    the dear one only drew you all together in stronger bonds of love.\n    We--father, mother, and myself--were invited to dine with my\n    brother----, there to meet my dear sister's husband and five\n    motherless children. It is the one pleasure to us to pass these\n    anniversaries together, and to feel all our dear ones are with us in\n    spirit, bidding us to be of \"good cheer,\" for they are not dead, but\n    with their love for us would guide us on to better things than\n    _they_ ever knew or could accomplish. All is well with them now, and\n    they look down smilingly upon our feeblest efforts to do the right\n    and be cheery.\n\nThe sister wrote, Feb. 7, 1886:--\n\n     \"... We were very much shocked when we heard of the death of Miss\n     Ellis. We had known that she was an invalid, yet, judging from her\n     letters, we had no idea of the great weakness she must have endured\n     physically in writing to her correspondents up to so recent a date.\n     Her letters to us in our great bereavement were so full of tender\n     sympathy with us, and were so comforting, we feel that we have\n     sustained a great loss, even though we had never seen her.... It\n     will be a pleasure to us to forward to you any letters of Miss\n     Ellis either to my brother or myself that will aid you in the\n     publication of a book ... that will extend and perpetuate the\n     influence of so useful and good a life.\"\n\nMrs. J. I. W. Thacher wrote:--\n\n                                              FEBRUARY 17, 1886.\n\n    You will be glad to know that we have had very grateful letters from\n    the several stations in Kentucky to which we have sent barrels of\n    magazines and papers. To Eddyville and Greenwood we have sent twice;\n    and Dr. R----(at the latter place) still says, \"Send more whenever\n    it is convenient;\" so that we feel that the very miscellaneous\n    collections have been really appreciated and enjoyed. In each barrel\n    we sent large numbers of \"Registers\" and some good tracts, and then\n    filled in with miscellaneous magazines,--chiefly the illustrated\n    ones. This is hardly Post Office Mission work, but I don't doubt it\n    accomplishes much good, and I am always grateful to you and Miss\n    Ellis for suggesting it to us.... Do you continue to be in\n    communication with the Joliet Penitentiary, and is any one keeping\n    on with Mr. Beach's work for the prisoners? It is a constant help\n    and inspiration,--the thought of Miss Ellis's devotion to her work\n    and her faithfulness to the end!\n\nA young Englishman in Frankfort, Ky., wrote Mrs. Hunert, in answer to\nher card of inquiry:\n\n     \"I do take the 'Register,' 'Unity,' and 'Unitarian;' I am almost\n     entirely dependent upon what I read here, as I can hear no Liberal\n     preaching, and meet with very few who have sympathy with Liberal\n     religious views. I did get the memorial of Miss Ellis, and will\n     prize it much, as I was better acquainted with her than any one\n     connected with the church at Cincinnati, and looked upon her as one\n     of my best friends, and a very noble lady. The day on which I\n     received your postal, I met the chaplain of the penitentiary here,\n     and he told me how much the Unitarian literature that was sent from\n     the East was liked by him; that it was all distributed, and enjoyed\n     very much by the inmates of the prison. If I had another copy or\n     two of Miss Ellis's memorial, I would give one to the chaplain, and\n     another gentleman,--about the only Unitarian I know here.\"\n\nThe following correspondence is with a workingman in Northern Ohio,--a\nyoung Englishman, whose letters tell his story. He once rose at four\no'clock to write Miss Ellis before going to his daily work. One of his\nfirst letters to her said:--\n\n                                                MARCH 16, 1885.\n\n    Now, that you may know in what walk of life I move, I must tell you\n    that I am a laborer. When working by the month, my wages never\n    exceeded twelve dollars a month. From such small wages I have built\n    up a small library of 155 volumes; have also 156 pamphlets. I take\n    unceasing delight in reading, and now that I have others dependent\n    on me, am not able to procure all the books I need. By some I have\n    been encouraged to prepare for the ministry. Such also is my\n    aspiration. It may be years before I shall become a minister,\n    because my preparation is not to be accomplished very quickly. Oh,\n    how I wish that some one from their abundance would forward me some\n    of the books and pamphlets they have cast aside, having no further\n    use for! They would be of great use to me. What are the\n    qualifications necessary for the Unitarian ministry? Will you please\n    tell me? If possible for you to do so, please send me a few more\n    sermons by Rev. G. A. Thayer, and I shall be greatly obliged.\n\nMiss Ellis forwarded this letter to Miss M. O. Rogers, Secretary of the\nKing's Chapel branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston,\nMass., who had written, offering aid in her work. As a result, the\nKing's Chapel Women's Auxiliary Conference sent this young man many\nUnitarian books of value, and the \"Unitarian Review\" regularly, for\nwhich his gratitude was great. He loans and distributes all matter sent\nhim, and has procured many tracts from the American Unitarian\nAssociation for distribution. A portion of Miss Ellis's reply to the\nletter given above is as follows:--\n\n                                                     MARCH 18,1885.\n\n    Your letter was read with much interest, and we are glad to know our\n    \"little society has done good work.\"... Don't be discouraged if you\n    cannot convert the world at once, but wait quietly till your time\n    comes to do more. You are young yet. Think I can spare a few more of\n    Mr. Thayer's sermons. He has only had four sermons on \"Reasonable\n    Religion\" published.... Will send you the Meadville catalogue next\n    week, and you can see for yourself, and afterwards write to\n    President A. A. Livermore, telling him I sent you the catalogue. He\n    can give you all further information. He was the pastor in\n    Cincinnati from the time I was fourteen to twenty-one, and knows us\n    well.... Hope to hear further from you occasionally. Work on\n    quietly, knowing the discipline will the better fit you for\n    ministerial labors. We can't jump into the highest calling on earth\n    in a moment, and now-a-days a man must be something of more than\n    ordinary ability to enter a Unitarian pulpit. It is not an easy\n    place to fill.\n\nHe wrote to her, June 14, 1885:--\n\n     \"Believe me, I am sorry to hear that you were 'too sick to more\n     than keep up' with your work. I know you must be busy at all times,\n     from the report of your work in the Conference 'Unity' you sent me.\n     That number of 'Unity' is very valuable to me, and will be kept for\n     future reference. The four sermons on 'Reasonable Religion,' by\n     Rev. George A. Thayer, have also been kept. I hope soon to see them\n     in a neat binding. They are worthy of the expense. Of the books\n     received from Boston, four have been read by me. Two of them were\n     mostly read as I walked to my work mornings. In the same manner\n     'Meditations on the Essence of Christianity' was read. This book is\n     very beautiful, its author, Robert Laird Collier. 'Channing's\n     Works' and 'Genuineness of the Gospels' cannot be carried about as\n     readily, so they are to be read and studied on lost days, when I\n     cannot work. The 'Reviews' received are very valuable; I would not\n     part with them for anything. The 'Register' is received regularly\n     from Philadelphia. The last one is very interesting, containing as\n     it does an account of the Festival. It must have been good to be\n     there. To you, and all who have aided you in your generosity to me,\n     I return my heartfelt thanks.\"\n\nAfter Miss Ellis's death, he wrote, Feb. 13, 1886:--\n\n     \"... With this I send you the whole of her correspondence to me,\n     hoping that you may find something that will be of use to you. I\n     cheerfully send you the letter and postals, knowing that my\n     treasures will be in safe keeping. Since Miss Ellis's death they\n     are doubly precious to me; I prize them very highly, because she\n     who wrote them proved herself to be a very dear friend to me,--a\n     laborer longing for more light. Whilst I live I shall never forget\n     how much I owe to her who labored so much in my behalf. It was the\n     one wish of my heart to have met Miss Ellis, and to have thanked\n     her for all that she had done for me; but it was to be otherwise.\n     When I meet her in the country of 'many mansions,' I shall have the\n     opportunity to do so. I believe I shall meet and know her there.\n     Your offer of help is very kind; my greatest drawback is lack of\n     books by Unitarian writers. I buy when I can, but being out of\n     work--that is, steady work--since last September makes it very hard\n     work to get a book very often. If you can help me in this way I\n     shall be very thankful, and if you cannot, I shall be just the\n     same, because I feel that you would if you could. I have much\n     opposition to overcome, standing alone in my belief in the truth of\n     Unitarianism. I have great need of more books. My preparation for\n     the ministry must necessarily be slow, because I can never attend\n     Meadville Theological College. But I am reminded that your time is\n     precious, and so I will close. Mrs. ----, will you at the next\n     meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference thank all the dear\n     friends who have done so much for me? If I ever amount to much in\n     life I shall owe it all to the Cincinnati branch of the Women's\n     Auxiliary Conference. Hoping that you will not forget me when\n     sending out literature, I remain, etc.\"\n\nIn another letter he wrote:--\n\n     \"My object in fitting myself for the ministry is to be able to\n     carry the message of Unitarianism to my brother-laborers, because I\n     believe it will make better men--and women too--of them.... I began\n     to work when I was but a little more than eleven years old, and\n     since that time I have been my own teacher.\"\n\nA lady in Ohio sends her \"Register\" regularly (the arrangement being\nmade through Miss Ellis) to the correspondent who wrote her this letter\nof thanks:--\n\n     \"I have long postponed the note of thanks I have meant to send you.\n     But when I tell you that I am a dressmaker, you will pardon me, I\n     am sure. This is my harvest season, and I am extremely busy. Being\n     one of the class of work-women who put _themselves_ into what they\n     do, I am exhausted at night, and forced to make Sunday a day of\n     rest indeed.\n\n    \"The papers do come regularly, to my great joy. I assure you that\n    the pleasure and spiritual strength I get from them, if you could\n    realize it, would compensate you for the trouble an hundred-fold. My\n    business, showing me so plainly the small foibles and weaknesses of\n    human nature, and necessarily binding one's thoughts in large\n    measure to 'band, gusset, and seam, seam, gusset, and band,' or\n    their equivalents of flounces and gores, tends to a wearisome\n    narrowing of the mind; a half-hour spent after work is done, with\n    the 'Register,' opens a window, as it were, into heaven.\n\n    \"I live alone. At times my isolation is hard to bear; but having\n    seen better days, as the saying goes, to me my deprivations are but\n    part of the discipline that God saw was needful for me. I am shut\n    off, by reason of serving the public, from the society of my equals\n    in education and breeding, and for that of my equals in station I\n    have no taste. _Pardonnez-moi_ these personal details; I give them\n    that you may know how much good you are doing. Long may you be\n    spared the power and the will to do such kindness to those who need.\n    We may never meet on earth, but I trust we shall in heaven.\"\n\nTo Miss Ellis, Aug. 20, 1885, she wrote:--\n\n     \"I receive the papers, and not only read and enjoy them, but give\n     and send them to others. I am surprised to find 'unconscious'\n     Unitarians wherever I go. I hope you may be well by this time. Do\n     not tire yourself to write. Others need you more than I.\"\n\nAfter Miss Ellis's death, she wrote acknowledging the memorial:--\n\n     \"Many thanks. I was so glad to receive it, and prize it as one of\n     my treasures; also for the welcome tracts and papers. They are like\n     the shadow of a great rock in a weary land to me, and are given\n     away to others.\"\n\nA woman in a small Indiana village wrote Miss Ellis:--\n\n     \"I understand you have Liberal literature that you send gratis to\n     hungry people who are not able to gratify their appetite in that\n     direction. It would be greatly appreciated by me, and after reading\n     I would put it where I thought it would do the most good.\"\n\nLater, she wrote:--\n\n     \"I have received a paper and often something else every other week.\n     These I have accepted as a kind of trust; and when there has been a\n     favorable opportunity, given them away to friends and\n     acquaintances. I do not press them on any one, nor talk about it\n     much. I have not the courage of a reformer. When I speak to friends\n     (that are kind every other way) of a broader religious belief, they\n     meet me with coldness and distrust. It chills me, and I am silent.\n     Yet I believe, with Helen Williams, if any one is brought to face a\n     great truth, if they accept it, yet do not speak or act upon it,\n     there is retribution, barrenness, for them,--a plunging in the\n     whale's belly, as Jonah was,--a figure so many have laughed at, yet\n     significant for all that. I wonder now at my struggles in former\n     years; am happier since the tangled skein is partially\n     straightened. Still I am not fully in accord with the Unitarians.\n     Miss ---- [another correspondent in the same village] spoke to me\n     some time ago of your desiring us to form a reading circle. I do\n     not know what she said to you. I will give you the situation. I\n     live in a small village of about one hundred inhabitants, and Miss\n     ---- lives about two miles away. I cannot call to mind a woman that\n     would take any interest. They would go to sleep over their\n     knitting, or want to use the time for social chat, as they do not\n     meet day after day at the village store, as the men do (I speak of\n     winter). True, there are a few that would enjoy the reading, yet\n     are so severely Orthodox they could not comprehend a new truth\n     outside of _their_ church. That is the dark side. Now I have often\n     thought if we had a place of meeting, where we could seat a small\n     audience (which we have not), and a good reader (ditto), we could\n     call them together Sunday afternoons and read some of the beautiful\n     sermons you have sent.\n\n    \"Your work is grand,--the elevation of the human race. The ones that\n    _will_ read, will become better, kindlier, more patient with\n    ignorance; and while they yearn to give every soul a chance, will\n    naturally throw out a better influence and teach a broader religion.\n    As to your paper, not now. It is midwinter; husband, carpenter, out\n    of employment. Intend to take one of your publications after a\n    while.\"\n\nAbout two weeks after Miss Ellis's death she addressed this letter to\nher:--\n\n     MY DEAR FRIEND,--I received a \"Register\" yesterday, directed in a\n     different hand. Are you sick? I hope not. I should grieve indeed if\n     I knew that physical pain had stopped your work. These lines come\n     to my mind:--\n\n    \"Only a woman, and I could not find\n    The quiet household life that women know;\n    So too, my part where there were sheaves to bind,\n    Not much, perhaps, but more than I could do.\n    My tired feet failed me in the harvest lands,\n    My ripened grain but half-way reaped across;\n    And, where it dropped from over-wearied hands,\n    My best sheaf lies half bound for winds to toss.\"\n\n    Instead, may you continue your work till eventide.\n\n    Who can tell, when a mind gives up its beliefs, where it will stop?\n    I seem to believe nothing, unless it is in the Supreme Good,\n    whatever that is,--and my religion, to live the best life I know.\n    The Orthodox preachers say if one strays from the \"path,\" or\n    \"back-slides,\" they are always uneasy and unhappy. How different my\n    experience is! How glad I am to have escaped the little enclosure of\n    dogma, and to stand \"far indeed from being wise, but free to learn\"!\n\n    Hoping this will find you in good health and spirits, I remain\n\n                                 Your friend            A---- C----\n\nAfter hearing of Miss Ellis's death, she wrote:\n\n     \"Received your postal. Have also received Unitarian papers, and\n     Miss Ellis's memorial, which last I will store among my treasured\n     mementos. How beautiful her life was! Though never having seen her,\n     she will be treasured in my memory as a dear friend. She has sent\n     me almost all the pamphlets, I suppose, that have been written for\n     the purpose of distributing. Having a large family, they have been\n     read and reread, and handed to neighbors and friends. One has no\n     idea how many they will reach, or how much they influence; and yet\n     there is so much prejudice against Unitarians among Orthodox\n     Christians, some would take it as an insult to offer them one of\n     the pamphlets. In our little village the 'United Brethren' have\n     been holding meetings day and night for three weeks, and oh! how\n     they do preach hell, and pray publicly for 'that lady that is\n     leading her daughters down to hell,' simply because she does not\n     believe as they do. I have more tolerance for them than they have\n     for me. I think there are some people they will reach and do good,\n     as I presume the Rev. Sam Jones is doing in Cincinnati.\"\n\nThe following letter to Miss Ellis from a poor old woman to whom she\nwrote, sent papers and other aid, for several years, is given\n_verbatim_, to illustrate the range of her sympathies. This letter was\nalso written after Miss Ellis's death:--\n\n     \"I wish I could come and see you, but I cannot afford to go up and\n     down on the Trains. I have to send by someone, now Miss Ellis you\n     have been a sending me good Papers to read and now you must not\n     think I mean to beg but you sent me a New years Card it was a Rose\n     now I would not take anything for it I am as Foolish as Littel\n     Children is about Pictures the Rose I have is in my Album and if\n     you got any one by you to part With Will you send it to me for this\n     New year I feel more than thankful for the Papers you have sent\n     me.... Well I will close Write to me soon I am alone day and night\n     So goodbye from a Dear Friend to one I Love.\"\n\nA young man in a State Normal School in Indiana long corresponded with\nMiss Ellis. He has been an enthusiastic distributor of our literature,\nand instrumental in procuring Unitarian preaching in his city. Extracts\nfrom his letters are here given.\n\n     \"The papers received are read by myself and others. There are few\n     here who know anything of what Unitarians believe.\"\n\nA second letter says:--\n\n     \"The matter sent to me is read by several persons. I think of one\n     young man now who asked me to send you his name. He said he would\n     like to read literature made by persons who are independent of\n     creeds. I gave him Wendte's 'Statement' and Chadwick's 'Art of\n     Life.'\n\n     \"I am grateful to you for your kindness, and shall be glad to\n     receive what you may send. I read the sermons by Savage with\n     interest. They were the only ones of his I ever saw. I have given\n     and shall continue to give the matter sent me wider circulation.\n     [Mentioning a rebuff recently received, he continues:] This little\n     experience, while not pleasant, is valuable to me. I see that the\n     spirit of the Middle Ages is not entirely dead yet, and that one\n     better not be too hasty. My convictions are just as strong as\n     before.\"\n\nAnother letter says:--\n\n     \"I know something of what it costs to break away from old\n     associations. I was brought up in the Baptist Church. All my family\n     were of that faith.... My relatives all look upon me as one lost to\n     all true belief, because I cannot see my way clear to go with them\n     in the traditions of the fathers. Still, I feel that to be true to\n     the light I have is better than to have the sanction of those who\n     are simply following what their creed teaches, asking no questions.\n     I do not care to argue with them, and so follow that life that\n     gives me the greatest comfort and satisfaction.\"\n\nFeb. 11, 1886, he wrote Mrs. Hunert:--\n\n     \"Miss Ellis was a very dear friend (although I never saw her), and\n     it was a great shock to learn of her decease. The first intimation\n     I had of her death was the article in the 'Register' headed 'A\n     Candle of the Lord.' Whatever literature you may send me shall be\n     given circulation after I have read it. I now supply some\n     half-dozen persons by mail with the tracts sent me. As I know the\n     personal peculiarities of all these parties, I can adapt the matter\n     to each. You will see, therefore, that I am a sort of branch\n     'mission.' In addition to this, I occasionally write a short\n     article to a local paper in Wayne County upon subjects of\n     interest.\"\n\nHe encloses one of these articles,--subject, \"Future or Everlasting\nPunishment: Which?\"\n\n     \"... Mrs. Smith wrote to me in regard to Miss Ellis's letters. I am\n     very sorry not to have any of them. During the last three years I\n     have moved so frequently, being sometimes in this State and\n     sometimes in W. Virginia, that they were lost, and I am unable to\n     find them. Some of them I carried for a long time in my pocket\n     until they became so worn as to be scarcely recognizable. The form\n     of them has vanished, but the kindness and sympathy they breathed\n     is with me still. The spirit of that sainted woman cannot wax old.\n     I humbly trust that I may be imbued with something of the calm and\n     trust and purity which her letters always suggested. There was,\n     too, an enthusiasm which was untiring, and withal a modesty that\n     never was absent from her utterances. There was ever the absence of\n     anything like dictation in her advice. It was the gentle monition\n     of a friend, never the pompous dictation of conscious superiority.\n     Rev. J. T. Sunderland, of Chicago, is to preach in our city March\n     21. I have never heard him, and am looking to his coming with\n     expectation.\"\n\nA young woman who is working out a Homestead and Timber Claim in\nNebraska, and has been for several years supplied with much reading\nmatter by Miss Ellis, which she has circulated so zealously as to have\nbecome one of the \"branch missions,\" writes:--\n\n     \"When I was about seventeen years old I joined the Baptist Church\n     in Newport, Ky. (where at the time I was residing, and teaching in\n     the public school in that city); and I was sincere in what I did,\n     only I had so many doubts about many things that they taught, and\n     hesitated from the beginning of the revival until the close before\n     I could decide. Then my decision was made on this, that there were\n     older persons belonging to the church that said they believed the\n     teachings and doctrine, and I thought when I grew older and had\n     more experience that I would understand, and I had a delicate fear\n     to converse with the older members about my doubts for fear of\n     their opinions of me; so I quietly stayed with them for a number of\n     years, when an old friend, a good woman, now gone from among us,\n     induced me to attend your church, Mr. Wendte then being the pastor.\n     The subject he was to speak about was 'the Christ we know.' I\n     remember my thoughts then were about these,--'Christ they know? I\n     don't believe they know any,' and thought I should like to hear\n     what he would say, any way. I well remember that sermon; not one\n     sentence he uttered jarred me in the least; and, strange to say,\n     they were my own thoughts on the subject; but I dared not, even if\n     I could, have expressed myself. I thought over that sermon the\n     whole week every spare moment I had, and even took some that did\n     not justly belong to me. I shall never forget that week. The next\n     Sunday his text was, 'the God we love.' For all I enjoyed the\n     previous sermon, I still thought, 'They love God? Impossible!' and\n     as my friends invited me to go over with them again, I accepted the\n     invitation. I never had God represented to me before as now,--more\n     like a kind father than an austere judge; yes, kind, compassionate,\n     and loving us all alike, condemning only our evil actions. This\n     suited me exactly; so another week was spent in thought. I would\n     think, 'How can I conscientiously be a Baptist and believe this\n     way?' Yet how I disliked leaving the church where many things were\n     endeared to me. It seemed as if I was in a sea of trouble and\n     doubt, not knowing whether to go on or halt and turn back. The next\n     Sunday the subject was, 'the Bible we revere.' I was more than\n     anxious to hear this one, for it seemed to me that on this I would\n     have to decide. I went, and decided. I broke off gradually from my\n     old associations, and attended the services in the Unitarian church\n     from that time until I came West. I never joined the church, but it\n     suited my views best of all churches, and to-day I cannot go in any\n     of the Orthodox churches and feel at home. Now as regards this\n     mission work that you wish me to engage in, I could devote half an\n     hour each day, and am willing to do all I can for the advancement\n     of the cause. My health became very poor, and I went West thinking\n     it would be beneficial. I must say I succeeded, for I am not\n     compelled to stay now for my health, but business keeps me here....\n     My homestead is three miles from the town, and I go out quite often\n     and stay over Sunday. My house is a very small dug-out. I raised\n     about ten bushels of potatoes, some beans, and a few squashes; have\n     done work I never thought of doing,--that is, planting vegetables,\n     made my own bedstead, put a floor in the house, and lined it with\n     sacking. Some of my lady friends assisted me when they came to see\n     me, and gave me ideas about my new kind of work. Now last, but not\n     least, in regard to Miss Ellis. I wrote to her directly after\n     coming West, and told her I felt isolated from church attendance,\n     but was pleased to find so many people with whom I could converse\n     on Liberal thought. Since that time she had kindly furnished me\n     with reading matter which I have again sent on its errand of peace\n     and joy. I looked over a bundle of letters and can only find this\n     postal card from her.... This card I send you is one she sent me in\n     reference to Mr. Copeland. I wrote her for his address, which she\n     gave me, and I requested him to come to our town and speak to the\n     people here. He kindly consented to come, and spoke on 'Into the\n     Light.' The majority of the people that heard him were well\n     pleased, and he promised me that whenever he passed our town on his\n     way to or from Denver he would stop over and speak. Would like to\n     have the card returned, as I want it for a remembrance.\"\n\nIn her first letter written after Miss Ellis's death she said:--\n\n     \"Imagine how I felt when I came to your letter, and read the sad\n     news of Miss Ellis's death. I feared the worst when I did not hear\n     from her, for a friend had written me of her decline; but Miss\n     Ellis herself never referred to her illness but once to me. She\n     certainly must have been a patient and uncomplaining invalid, and\n     I, with many others no doubt, feel as if I had lost a dear friend,\n     and would be pleased to receive one of the memorials as a\n     keepsake.... I can assure you that I do all I can towards building\n     up a religion that all could conscientiously embrace. ... All the\n     reading matter sent to me I distribute to the best of my ability,\n     and hope that as it goes on its mission good seed will be sown.\n     There are numbers of Liberal people here who do not belong to any\n     church; and then I find a number of Liberals belonging to Orthodox\n     churches. I will subscribe for Mr. Savage's sermons, for I like his\n     sermons best of all.\"\n\nMiss Ellis numbered several physicians among her correspondents. One\nliving in Alabama writes:--\n\n     \"Your Conference speaks truly when it says, 'Many of Miss Ellis's\n     correspondents had come to regard her as a dear friend, though\n     never having seen her face.' I feel that I too may have the\n     privilege and the honor of being enrolled among the number of her\n     unseen friends. I hope some of the good seed she sowed has fallen\n     in good ground, even at this distance from the kind hand that\n     scattered them, and that their fruit may not\n\n    'Appear in weeds that mar the land,\n      But in a healthful store.'\n\n     I am a regular subscriber to the 'Christian Register' and the\n     'Unitarian,' all through the influence of Miss Ellis.\"\n\nA man on a remote plantation in Georgia, who has been most zealous in\nspreading the new light around him, writes:--\n\n     \"Please accept thanks for papers and memorial of Miss Sallie Ellis.\n     She has been a good and a kind friend to me, has supplied me for\n     over two years with the best of literature, something new, so\n     different from what we are used to, something that lifts me above\n     myself and gives me new views of heaven and immortality, makes me a\n     better man to wife, family, neighbors, stock, and fills my heart\n     with that new love, the divine brotherhood of all mankind. I deeply\n     lament her loss. I do wish she could have lived a little while\n     longer, for my sake. I do feel so thankful for the papers, and\n     Channing, from Mrs. ----, God bless her!... Any books or papers\n     sent me will be used to the good of the community. The Post Office\n     Mission is doing a good work.\"\n\nA young German in Tennessee to whom she sent much reading matter wrote\nher:--\n\n     \"I am a German by birth, and received my education at German\n     universities. I devoted many years to the study of the chief\n     philosophical systems, and had in consequence of the results\n     derived from the latter for a long time little or no connection\n     with any church whatever. But during the last four or five years I\n     became more and more convinced that no school of thought possesses\n     so glorious a light as is emanating from the life and lessons of\n     Jesus Christ. So when I became acquainted with Channing's Works,\n     seeing that it is possible to reconcile with every scientific\n     discovery and with every logical conclusion all that is special in\n     Christianity, I knew I had found what I want and wherein to rest.\n     From my own standpoint, and remembering the religious\n     indifferentism which is now general in my native country and in\n     France, I regard Unitarianism as the principle which is to save the\n     Christian Church from ruin, and which will be an indestructible\n     bulwark against Nihilism and materialism. I still believe there is\n     a great future before the Unitarian Church.\"\n\nFrom a lady in Alabama to Miss Ellis:--\n\n     DEAR FRIEND,--For such you have been to me, and it is to you I am\n     indebted for the papers, tracts, and sermons that I have received\n     and enjoyed so much. I have derived genuine comfort from them, and\n     sincerely thank you for thinking of one so unhappy and so tossed\n     about for a haven of rest. Truly yours is a heavenly mission,\n     answering the needs of many like myself afflicted beyond human aid.\n     The sermons of James Freeman Clarke are peculiarly comforting; and\n     indeed I have read all you sent me with the deepest interest and\n     benefit. How I wish I might in some way recompense your Society as\n     it deserves! And you individually have my deepest gratitude, which\n     is so little for such thoughtfulness as yours.\n\nA second letter says:--\n\n     \"Your papers, sermons, etc., are regularly received, and I wish I\n     could make you understand the great comfort they are to me,\n     particularly the sermons. Anything pertaining to the future life\n     holds me spell-bound till the last word is read. The Unitarian\n     ideas and beliefs, so far as I know, find echo in my heart; and I\n     always feel comforted and soothed, as it were, with all I have read\n     and understood. I attend the Presbyterian Church here, because I\n     think it is better to attend some church regularly; and I am very\n     fond of this minister socially. There has been for ten days or more\n     an evangelist holding a union meeting in our church, and a night or\n     two ago I went to hear him. The only feeling excited in my heart\n     was one of pity that all persons could not be taught the love of\n     God instead of being frightened into a nervous fear. I assure you,\n     I feel it a privilege to correspond with you, and find myself\n     wishing in my heart that you knew me thoroughly, what I have been,\n     and what I am by nature, education, and social standing. I feel\n     that we women of the South are to be seen at home and known to be\n     understood by our Northern sisters.\"\n\nThe following are some of Miss Ellis's letters to a radical of the\nradicals, an old gentleman in Boston, one of Theodore Parker's old\ncongregation, who sent much literature out under her direction, and\ncontributed Theodore Parker's \"Prayers,\" and his new volume of sermons,\nto her loan library.\n\n                                                      JULY 2, 1883.\n\n     Your letter was received on Thursday, and, contrary to your\n     expectation, was read with a great deal of interest, for I always\n     admire to have every one speak with perfect freedom, and I am very\n     glad you wrote as you did, and feel honored by having so old a man\n     for a correspondent.... You and I won't quarrel on the Bible\n     question. Rather think I should come up to your expectations on\n     _that_ point.... I do not consider Mr. C---- or Mr. S---- authority\n     any more than I consider the Bible so; I read for myself and settle\n     the question as best I can. Am I not right? I have not read Colenso\n     on the Pentateuch, nor Davidson's \"Introduction to the New\n     Testament,\" but _have_ read \"Canon of the Bible,\" Knappert's\n     \"Religion of Israel,\" Stanley's \"Eastern Church,\" Higginson's\n     \"Spirit of the Bible,\" Dr. Noyes's Translation of Prophets,\n     Psalms, Job, and Canticles, and lastly, \"Bible for Learners.\" I\n     merely mention these to let you see I have been a student of the\n     Bible. Will also add Alger's \"Future Life,\" J. F. Clarke's \"Ten\n     Great Religions\" and \"Thomas Didymus,\" Savage's \"Talks about\n     Jesus,\" and his sermons this winter on the Bible.... I think of\n     heaven and hell as you do; but having always been fed on Unitarian\n     teachings, am not so \"bitter\" in my feelings as those who have had\n     the \"Assembly's Shorter Catechism\" to overcome. In short, if people\n     only _live_ truly from day to day, I will excuse their view of the\n     Bible, and of God, and Christ, as long as they do not wish me to\n     think the same as they do, for I decidedly think they are wrong....\n     I shall be very much pleased to have a copy of Theodore Parker's\n     \"Prayers,\" and shall gladly accept a copy for my circulating\n     library; for, but with the exception of a few donations, the books\n     loaned have been those I put in it.\n\nAfter receiving the book, she wrote:--\n\n     \"First, I must tell you how much I am enjoying Theodore Parker's\n     'Prayers.' They are suitable in most instances to the present day,\n     and for all ages and times, and one rises from reading them with\n     kindlier, broader thoughts, and renewed in strength. Am very glad\n     to have the book. Shall endeavor to sell copies of it this\n     winter.... I cannot _exactly_ agree with all you said in your\n     letter, for I think it is not necessary yet to give up all\n     theology, though it should not be the main thing in religion. The\n     chief thing is to _do_ right, and people arrive at that by\n     different methods. They will inquire and discuss theology, and\n     therefore it is necessary as yet that ministers should preach it,\n     and I do not believe that Orthodox ministers have arrived at Mr.\n     Savage's or Mr. Chadwick's views exactly, or they would come out\n     and say so. As for myself, I still enjoy the Communion service,\n     partaking of the bread and wine, and cannot agree to casting aside\n     Jesus as a helper to a better life, though I neither worship him\n     nor think that he redeems us in any other way than as by following\n     his example we become one with him and God. He 'died for us' in no\n     other sense than as a soldier dies for his country. Then let\n     theology continue, for the world is fast becoming better and better\n     in spite of it, and the time _may_ come when we shall need it no\n     longer. We are gradually coming to the point. I do not regret the\n     time 'lost' I have spent on theology, for it has fitted me for just\n     the work I am engaged in, and many are the questions I am called\n     upon to answer, either by letter or printed matter; therefore I am\n     glad to know where to send perplexed minds. As a friend wrote me\n     from the South, 'Your papers are a great help to me. You are doing\n     more good than the women did in the days of our Saviour. They\n     clothed the body and you are feeding the souls.' Both acts are\n     needed, but in different directions, and some people can better do\n     the one, and others the other. I am cut off from active benevolence\n     from want of health for it, and am glad to know there are souls\n     needing nourishment. Do you not take this view too?\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                 DECEMBER 20, 1883.\n\n     Your kind letter awaited my return from the city last evening, when\n     I returned at ten. It grieved me to think that possibly I had\n     wounded your feelings, for your \"heresies\" have not been \"too\n     tough\" for me, as you fear. One's religious belief never troubles\n     me as long as they do not force me into the same belief. Should be\n     sorry if I had not \"charity\" enough to see the good in one, and not\n     look at the outside merely. Your last letter reached me September\n     28, and I replied by postal October 19, as there did not appear to\n     be anything especial to require a letter; and as my eyes were\n     troubling me much at the time, I was compelled to desist from all\n     but necessary letters. Am still as much interested in the good\n     cause as ever, and we still have new applications constantly. We\n     are gaining ground in the South. One gentleman in Alabama is much\n     interested in Unitarianism, and wrote, asking me for Mr. Savage's\n     address, whereupon he wrote to Mr. Savage himself, who is sending\n     him \"Unity Pulpit\" present series. I am subscriber to it myself,\n     and never can keep a sermon. I subscribed for the benefit of\n     others. In Independence, Ky., a gentleman lately wrote, asking for\n     Unitarian papers, etc. He is highly satisfied. Has been groping in\n     the dark a long time, and wrote me, \"When I read the pamphlet,\n     'What Do Unitarians Believe?' by C. W. Wendte, I shouted 'Eureka!'\n     Like it so well that I shall not part with it.\" So it goes on all\n     the time. Some one finds just what they have been in search of for\n     some time.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                              FEBRUARY 19, 1885.\n\n     Am much obliged to you for sending matter to Mr. ----. He is\n     extremely radical, a farmer, with a large family to educate, and\n     cannot get such religious matter as he needs. You might, if you\n     choose, send the Chadwick sermons to him too, or, if you prefer\n     they should go elsewhere, address them to me, and I will send them\n     where they are needed.\n\nHer last postal card to this correspondent, dated about a month before\nher death, says:\n\n     \"Thanks for the six 'Unity Pulpits' received. I have been too busy\n     to reply before, and my health still feeble, though not confined to\n     the house or bed at all. I'm not one of that kind until necessary.\"\n\nSince her death, the farmer referred to above has written:--\n\n     \"I want to pay my humble tribute to the departed Miss Ellis. I\n     never met her; but she was my friend, because she was the friend to\n     all struggling humanity. She sent me sermons, etc., but above all,\n     _kind words_. I had pictured her in my mind as a strong, robust\n     person, and hoped at some future time to meet her. I now fear that\n     I may have wounded her refined soul by some things I wrote to her.\n     I am somewhat 'agnostic;' but I love to think of heaven if such as\n     Miss Ellis preside there and give tone to the surroundings.\"\n\nThe old gentleman in Boston wrote:--\n\n     \"With this please receive eight letters and seventeen full postals\n     from our dear departed friend, Miss Sarah Ellis, of your city,\n     whose face I never saw, but whose correspondence was to me a great\n     pleasure. Her personal friendship must have been a real blessing to\n     you and her immediate friends. She was able to be a very active\n     worker for the cause which lay so near her heart, and was at the\n     same time so perfectly willing to let others believe what they can.\n     I will send all I have of hers and let you select what you desire.\n     There is not even a postal card among them on which there is not\n     some small or large trace of her noble, generous, kindly nature.\"\n\nA young man in Ohio, writing Miss Ellis about some revival scenes in his\ntown, makes this comment, which is good and true enough to settle the\n\"leaven\" idea once for all.\n\n     \"If you had seen all this as I have, you would hardly think it time\n     for a civilized organization like the Unitarians to cease fighting\n     the great evil and wait for the leaven to work.\n\n     \"_The Unitarians are themselves a portion of the leaven, and unless\n     they work there is so much of the leaven idle._\"\n\nA Christian minister with whom Miss Ellis has corresponded two years or\nmore, and who expects to enter Harvard Divinity School, in sending her\nletters writes:--\n\n     \"... I send such as I can get at, preferring to let you make any\n     suitable selections or extracts they may offer. I shall be pleased\n     to have them returned, as you mention, when you have used them. I\n     may add that my correspondence with Miss Ellis on all matters\n     connected with religion, Unitarianism, etc., was in all respects\n     most pleasant, satisfactory, and profitable to me. The careful\n     skill with which she divined the exact want of a correspondent and\n     sent the appropriate word by tract or letter to supply it, bespoke\n     a wisdom and experience deeper than casual letters may reveal. And\n     continued correspondence served thus to inspire a greater esteem\n     and confidence in the judgment expressed.\"\n\nThe following extracts are from her letters to this minister:--\n\n                                            NOVEMBER 12, 1883.\n\n     Your letter was received a week since, and read with interest. What\n     you said of our teachings, of course, was light and just. We do not\n     expect ministers of other denominations to accept our views\n     altogether, for if so they would _be_ Unitarians. Your view\n     concerning studying the Bible agrees with mine. Still, it is well\n     to know the latest view of the Bible, although we cannot accept the\n     teaching at first. In time the way is made clear to us. Have\n     mailed to you to-day two more good tracts and our church programme\n     for this year. After Wednesday will mail to you \"Positive Aspects\n     of Religion,\" by English leaders. We will agree to let you have any\n     book at just what it costs us, you paying postage on it....\n     Theodore Parker's \"Discourses Pertaining to Religion\" is a good\n     book for you to read,--usual price, $1.00. But first, \"Orthodoxy;\n     Its Truths and Errors,\" J. F. Clarke; and a new book just out,\n     \"Orthodoxy and Heresy.\" ... \"Bible for Learners\" is by three German\n     divines, translated by an Englishman, and gives the latest German\n     views concerning the Bible.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                            DECEMBER 23, 1883.\n\n     ... At the time your letter reached me we were holding our annual\n     fair, and since then I have been much occupied with preparing for\n     Christmas. To-day am home-bound by the snow,--it being knee-deep\n     between our front door and the gate, and as I have to walk half a\n     mile to take the street cars to the city, and as it is raining on\n     top of the deep snow, concluded it was really too bad for me to\n     venture. Have read myself out, and being very much occupied during\n     the week, will take advantage of the holy-day to speak on a holy\n     topic. You suggested that we send \"papers representing Unitarian\n     ideas rather than tracts;\" but papers do not contain our doctrines\n     so explicitly. Since your last letter, have mailed to you two\n     tracts on \"Inspiration\" and \"Incarnation\" which I thought well\n     answered the thoughts expressed in your letter.\n\n     You will see from them that Unitarians are little troubled about\n     Inspiration and the Divinity, or the Deity of Christ as we prefer\n     to state it. We do believe in his divinity, for we hold that all\n     men are divine, while we deny his being Deity. We lay greater\n     stress on the divinity of human nature, and therefore we do not\n     feel that Jesus is degraded by calling him man, for we exalt man.\n     If we considered man totally depraved, then to call Jesus a mere\n     man might seem to lower him; but when we think of the possibilities\n     of man, and that he has it within himself to reach up to the\n     highest manhood, and to become in a measure a saviour of the world,\n     then to compare him with Jesus--the most glorious of men--is not\n     lessening the divinity of the Christ, it seems to me. Or, if we\n     held Jesus to be God, a being different from man, and so far\n     superior to us that we never could attain to his goodness, then we\n     never could compare the two. Jesus is an example to us because we\n     also are divine as he is; for he prays \"that they all may be one,\n     as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in\n     us.\" If man had not been of the same nature as himself, would he\n     have thus spoken? I advise you to send to the Western Unitarian\n     Sunday School Society for Rev. William C. Gannett's Sunday School\n     Lesson, \"The Christmas Poem and the Christmas Fact,\" if you wish to\n     understand how Unitarians of the present day understand Christ.\n     Though you may not accept, you will have our idea of the birth\n     legends in our Gospels.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                DECEMBER 24, 1884.\n\n     My reply to your letter, by postal, was written before talking with\n     ----. She tells me that Harvard will be decidedly the better place\n     if not too expensive. Meadville has the advantage in that\n     respect,--less expensive; but being near Boston, Cambridge offers\n     better opportunities for students to engage in work by which they\n     can support themselves in the mean time. A correspondent of ours\n     went to Harvard a year ago last September. Had a scholarship\n     promised him. He found a set of books to keep, and studied.... I\n     tell you of this case, as it may help you in your decision.\n     Meadville is very thorough, but think the younger men all give\n     preference to Harvard; I presume as much as anything on account of\n     the opportunities which being near Boston affords them. I have\n     written to Professor C. C. Everett of Harvard to please send you a\n     catalogue and answer your inquiries. We shall be very glad if our\n     little Cincinnati branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference is the\n     means of securing them another Divinity student. With many good\n     wishes of the season from the Women's Auxiliary Conference,\n\n                           Very truly yours,         S. ELLIS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                 JANUARY 14, 1885.\n\n     Have been obliged to change my residence, and, temporarily, am with\n     another brother. Just came here to-day, and, not having my things\n     about me, have not your last letter to refer to, but having\n     received a letter from our Harvard Divinity Student this past week,\n     wish to tell you what he says of his surroundings, and his\n     impression of Professor Everett. He writes as follows: \"I enjoy the\n     work of the Divinity School more than I had ever hoped. We have a\n     noble corps of professors eminently fitted for their special\n     departments, and personally most eminent examples of Nature's\n     noblemen. In the light of what I am now learning, I consider my\n     former ignorance phenomenal. Thanks to Professor Everett, my faith\n     in God is clearer and stronger than ever before. He has enabled me\n     to reduce my chaotic philosophy to something of a system, and has\n     helped to furnish a steadfast basis for faith. His lectures are\n     simply invaluable. To my mind he is not only the greatest man in\n     the Divinity School, but the greatest man in Harvard University;\n     and not only the profoundest thinker in the Unitarian Church in our\n     country, but the profoundest thinker to be found in any American\n     church.\" ... I feel that this will be of interest to you, who are\n     contemplating going to the Divinity School. There is another thing\n     I wish to speak of; that is, we have quite a valuable book, \"The\n     Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity,\" by Hugh H. Stannus, of\n     England, showing how much greater cause there is for believing in\n     the Unity of God than in the Trinity. You can have the book any\n     time you wish, though I have just mailed it to a lady in this\n     State. By the way, the daughter of James F. Clarke, with others,\n     has planned a course of \"Unitarian Studies at Home.\" The first\n     year's course includes: 1. \"The Unitarian Doctrine of Prayer,\" by\n     J. F. Clarke; 2. \"The Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity,\" by\n     Stannus; 3. \"Jesus and His Biographers,\" by Dr. W. H. Furness; 4.\n     \"Christ the Revealer,\" by Thom; 5. \"Religious Duties,\" by Frances\n     Power Cobbe. We have first, second, and fourth,--at least, are to\n     have the latter. \"Jesus and His Biographers\" is out of print; but\n     we are to have that loaned to us for two months, as three ladies\n     here, with myself, are pursuing the course, and I have also induced\n     a lady in this county to join us. We have received quite a number\n     of encouraging letters from our correspondents lately, and have\n     every reason to believe the Post Office Mission work is doing good.\n     I mailed to you this week some arguments against the Trinity. Rev.\n     C. W. Wendte's sermon, \"Encouragement for Unitarians,\" in\n     \"Register,\" January 8, I read with much interest. We have such an\n     interesting young convert, a Methodist, in Canada. His intention is\n     to study for the Unitarian ministry, we having brought him out into\n     the light. I thought with how much interest he would read that\n     sermon of Mr. Wendte's.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                                APRIL 19, 1885.\n\n     Was glad to hear from you again, and find you are in a larger\n     field. [He had gone to a Pennsylvania city.] Perhaps you may draw\n     into your church--take it for granted you have gone there to\n     preach--Universalists and Unitarians.... We shall be glad to loan\n     you books again as soon as you are ready for them. Have had added\n     to the library lately \"The Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity,\"\n     by Hugh H. Stannus; \"Christ the Revealer,\" by Thom (both English\n     works), \"The Power of the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth\" and \"The\n     Story of the Resurrection,\" both by Dr. W. H. Furness, of\n     Philadelphia,--the latter just published, and he presented the two\n     to us. Am not quite ready to loan the latter, as I've not read it\n     myself. If you know or meet with any Germans in your vicinity, we\n     are soon to have some Unitarian tracts in the German language....\n     Hope you read with enthusiasm the earnest appeal for ministers at\n     the East, and also at Meadville, in the \"Register\" of April 9. We\n     hope to have two of our correspondents go to Meadville in\n     September, and hope you may succeed in your desire to get to\n     Harvard. We had a very pleasant letter from one of our \"boys,\" as\n     he styled himself, a week since. He is still enjoying his\n     privileges there.... Hoping to hear from you again, and wishing you\n     success in your new position, whatever it may be, in which the\n     Women's Auxiliary Conference join,\n\n                          Yours truly,               SARAH ELLIS.\n\nA gentleman in Mississippi, superintendent of schools in his county,\nwrites of Miss Ellis as\n\n     \"... One whose memorial I read with a saddened heart. A single\n     request to her consequent upon an advertisement which I saw in a\n     paper commenced a correspondence which continued uninterruptedly\n     till the time of her death. Though just from the side of a dear\n     sister whom she had left destined to a glorious immortality, she\n     found time to write to us a letter of condolence on the great loss\n     that we had sustained in the death of our son,--a young man just of\n     age,--in which she blended submission to Him 'who doeth all things\n     right,' with such words of comfort as could emanate only from a\n     good, earnest, self-sacrificing instrument of our Heavenly Father.\n     Than in her life of trials and troubles there has never been a\n     greater instance of the victory of mind over matter. I am afraid\n     that I do little good with the sermons, etc., among the people\n     here, who, although they use the beautiful hymn, 'Nearer, my God,\n     to Thee,' at their funerals, still look upon Unitarians as cultured\n     heathens.\"\n\nA lady in Ohio, who became a regular correspondent and bought many\nbooks, wrote Miss Ellis:--\n\n     \"The lectures and papers you have sent have been, and are, the\n     source of much pleasure to me; and I have given them to some of my\n     friends, who also seemed pleased with them. I had thought for a\n     long time that the Unitarian faith would be my idea of true\n     religion, and now I feel _sure_ of it. I knew nothing about its\n     creed, or whether it had one, but had had a desire for several\n     years to know something of it. All my friends and acquaintances\n     were as ignorant as myself, and the most definite idea I had been\n     able to gain concerning it was through James Freeman Clarke's\n     'Self-Culture.' When I found your little notice in the newspaper,\n     it was just what I most desired. I have always wished to be\n     religious; but there are things in the Bible which my reason\n     repels, and the Orthodox way of teaching them became at last so\n     abhorrent to me that at one time I just gave it all up and ceased\n     to try to believe any of it; though I am sure I always felt the\n     beauty of Christianity as taught by Christ, and would be glad now\n     to be a Christian, if not compelled to believe him the miraculous\n     Son of God.... We like the 'Register' better and better all the\n     time, and I have no doubt shall subscribe for it regularly. I\n     consider it exceedingly high-toned as a moral and religious\n     teacher, and also in a literary point of view. The sermons and\n     lectures supply for us a long-felt need. I intend sending a list of\n     names of friends and acquaintances to the publishers soon. My\n     sister-in-law has become a convert to the Unitarian faith through\n     the medium of the 'Register' and the tracts you have sent me from\n     time to time. She is quite an enthusiast, and feels that\n     Unitarianism is a great boon and comfort to her now in the midst of\n     her troubles. [The sister had recently lost her husband.] She, like\n     myself, could not conscientiously subscribe to the old Orthodox\n     creeds and requirements, and so remained outside the Church; but\n     now she feels that she may be a Christian without stultifying her\n     sense of reason. When she returns home, she expects to subscribe\n     for the 'Register.'\"\n\nAfter Miss Ellis's death she wrote:--\n\n     \"I received the memorial of Miss Ellis. I thank you sincerely for\n     sending it. It is very touching and beautiful, and delineates just\n     such a character as I conceived hers to be. I had received the sad\n     intelligence of her death through the 'Christian Register' before\n     the memorial reached me, and it was like the shock of learning of\n     the death of a personal friend. I have great reason to be grateful\n     to her and to cherish her memory; for through her I have been led\n     to embrace and to love the broad and charitable Unitarian belief.\n     My reason had struggled for years against the great--to\n     me--stumbling-blocks of Orthodoxy, and had finally abandoned the\n     conflict and settled down into a kind of unthinking unbelief,\n     feeling that it was no use to try to subscribe to any Orthodox\n     creed, and not knowing where to look for any more hopeful, helpful,\n     or reasonable spiritual aid. About four years ago, I think it was,\n     I saw the notice in the paper which is referred to in the memorial,\n     and Then ensued a very pleasant correspondence ... wrote Miss Ellis\n     asking for Unitarian papers, etc. much like that with a dear\n     familiar friend, and she grew to be like one to me, or rather was\n     that almost from the first. She put so much of her real self into\n     her letters that they were like a living presence. So full she was\n     of true Christian love and feeling, so ever ready to forget her\n     own sorrows and sufferings in her sympathy with the sorrows of\n     others, that thus unconsciously truth and love and\n     self-forgetfulness were stamped upon every line that came from her\n     mind and hand. Truly she was 'A Little Pilgrim,' bearing good\n     tidings to the fainting and weary, and lifting them up with her own\n     heavenly strength. Sacred be her memory! Through her I became a\n     subscriber to the 'Christian Register,' which is to me a standard\n     of excellence in a religious, moral, and intellectual point of\n     view. I do not want to be sectarian, as that is not my ideal of a\n     good Unitarian,--I mean in an 'offensive' light; but it really\n     seems to me that even Unitarian wit and fun have a refinement and\n     exquisite touch of humor which cannot be equalled among Orthodox\n     publications. The 'Register,' however, is the only Unitarian paper\n     that I am well acquainted with. A widowed sister-in-law who is with\n     me also became a Unitarian through Miss Ellis. She is a subscriber\n     to 'The Unitarian.' We also have Channing's Works and the 'Oriental\n     Christ,' which I bought through Miss Ellis, and some of Freeman\n     Clarke's books; so that we have the companionship of much of the\n     best Unitarian thought, although we are denied the privilege of a\n     personal ministry.\"\n\nFrom Springfield, Ohio:--\n\n     \"I have been greatly benefited by the papers, sermons, etc., you\n     have so kindly sent me. Hope to have them continued. Will try to\n     have some Unitarian volumes put in our public library. After\n     reading the papers I loan them out to others. Some sermons thus\n     pass into six or eight homes. They set people to thinking. I thank\n     you, and your good Society, for the broad Christian education you\n     are giving me. Will do all I can as your missionary here.\"\n\nRev. Samuel May, Leicester, Mass., having offered to send his \"Register\"\nto some one, Miss Ellis arranged that it should go to the writer of the\nabove, who acknowledged it as follows:--\n\n     \"Your postal received. I am very grateful for this kindness, and,\n     as I read the 'Register' this morning, I resolved to use it for\n     others also.... Can't your Association give the ball a push at this\n     place?\"\n\nThe following extract is from the first letter of a new correspondent,\ndated Dec. 8, 1885. To him was begun the last postal card, which she was\nunable to finish. She was so eager about it, dictating faster than one\ncould write. \"Tell him I think he will like us when he knows us better,\"\nshe said.\n\n     \"Your postal came all right, also copies of several tracts, and\n     specimens of 'Register' and 'Unity.' They are mainly in lines of\n     thought which I have been working on for some years. I am at one\n     with the authors in main points, but not prepared to accept all of\n     the so-called advanced or radical expressions. My own experience,\n     observation, and reflection seem to show that they have swung too\n     far from Orthodoxy, and the truth lies between; but I am not fit to\n     decide yet. From the pamphlet of selections of Channing's writings,\n     with which I am particularly pleased, I have derived some ideas\n     which inspire me for a greater activity, and I hope a more\n     effective activity, in my work of teaching.... I have a friend who\n     also feels dissatisfied with current Orthodoxy. If you see fit, I\n     wish you to send him some of those tracts. I wish to use my copies\n     here, or I would send them.\"\n\nThe estimation in which Miss Ellis was held by some of her\nfellow-workers appears in the following extracts from letters and\npapers.\n\nAt the conclusion of a letter, a part of which is given elsewhere, Rev.\nA. A. Livermore, President of Meadville Theological School, says:--\n\n     \"But though disinterested and devoted to family interests and\n     helpful to the growing households of her brothers and sisters, the\n     crowning interest that came to absorb and inspire her advanced\n     Christian life was the propagation of her own Unitarian faith,\n     early learned, later disciplined, and mellowed and sanctified by\n     trial and years. What had been a stay and staff to her own mind and\n     heart she was anxious to communicate to others. Hence she sought\n     the instrumentalities of the pen and press, and the Post Office\n     Mission sprang into being,--the invention of a Christian woman's\n     heart, bent on doing good spiritually. The zeal, fidelity,\n     sympathy, and adaptation with which she developed and pursued this\n     work have been told elsewhere. It is another lesson to teach us\n     that ever new means will arise, as time and opportunity serve, for\n     the faithful in heart and life to hasten the coming of the Master's\n     kingdom of righteousness and love. Miss Ellis infused a sweetness\n     and sympathy all her own into her mission. To her it was no task,\n     but a delight, as her letters show,--her meat and drink to help\n     struggling souls to light and Christian faith. Peace to her\n     beautiful and saintly memory!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n           (From Rev. S. J. Barrows, editor \"Christian Register.\")\n\n                           A CANDLE OF THE LORD.\n\n     It was a feeble socket that held it. It was a constant surprise\n     that so small a candle could give forth so much light. But its\n     special mission was not so much to illumine the world with its own\n     light as it was to ignite other minds and hearts from its own\n     flame. \"Behold how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!\" says\n     the apostle. Nothing is small, it has been said, which is great in\n     its consequences. It does not need a stroke of lightning from\n     heaven to raze Chicago to the ground: a little lamp-flame near a\n     pile of hay is sufficient. We forget sometimes the power of a\n     single humble life to extend and duplicate its influence. We have\n     never learned yet how far the little candle can throw its beams,\n     when its waves of light and heat come in contact with minds and\n     hearts that are prepared for the illumination it may give. The wire\n     and the battery have not entirely superseded the torch-bearer. The\n     lamps in the house may have been filled, the gas may be ready to\n     turn on; what is needed is for some one to go about with match or\n     torch or candle, and tip the burner with its flame.\n\n     So, as we have said, it was the mission of this candle of the Lord\n     to ignite other minds and hearts. She had discovered that the vast\n     system of intercommunication established by the post-office might\n     be used for moral as well as for commercial means. In connection\n     with a faithful co-worker, she devoted herself to the dissemination\n     of kindling literature. Set like a luminous panel amid a great wall\n     of advertisements was a brief notice, in some of the large Western\n     dailies, that those who wished Liberal religious literature might\n     have it for the asking, and by sending to the Cincinnati Post\n     Office Mission. In the columns of this paper, from time to time, we\n     have shown what a wide-spread influence these little notices had.\n     They opened avenues of communication to many hungry souls. The\n     confidence of many in doubt and perplexity was secured. The lady\n     who was called to this special work had a keen intuition as to what\n     was needed in each special case. It was not only that she sent the\n     right tracts and the right books, and thus set up guide-posts for\n     groping men and women; not less prized by many of her\n     correspondents was the simple, earnest faith and cordial sympathy\n     which she expressed in her own letters. Many are grateful to her\n     for pointing out the way and giving the right impulse at the right\n     time. Prevented by deafness from taking an active part in social\n     intercourse, she yet found an opportunity to unstop the deaf ears\n     of others and to open their blind eyes. In this Post Office Mission\n     work was a channel for her faithful and consecrated endeavors.\n\n     We cannot estimate the radiating influence of such a life. Its\n     quickening flame has gone from heart to heart, and it is destined\n     to go still further. Her devoted example has given an impulse to\n     many other women in the Unitarian body, who are sowing in the same\n     field the seed for an abundant harvest. It is now seen that this\n     diffusion of our literature is one of the mightiest means for\n     propagating our faith. If such a devoted woman, working\n     independently, could accomplish so much, how much more might be\n     effected by thorough organizations and wide co-operation for the\n     same purpose!\n\n     Her best monument will be the prosecution and extension of the work\n     to which she gave her life. It was but a pair of lines in the\n     \"Deaths\" of the last week's \"Register\" which told that the candle\n     had gone out, but its flame is still propagated in the lives it has\n     served to kindle. The great work of her life was done far beyond\n     the circle of her immediate influence; and there are many who have\n     never seen her in the flesh, who will still feel that the name of\n     Sarah Ellis represents an abiding spiritual reality.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n             (From Rev. George A. Thayer in \"Unity,\" Jan. 23, 1886.)\n\n                                 SARAH ELLIS.\n\n     Sarah Ellis, the faithful organizer of the Cincinnati Post Office\n     Mission, and the pioneer in that admirable form of the ministry of\n     Unitarian doctrine through the writing of letters and the\n     circulation of religious literature, \"went up higher\" from her\n     sick-bed, on Sunday evening, December 27. There are many, East and\n     West, to whom her wise guidance in spiritual perplexities has been\n     as a strong hand lifting them from confusion and doubt concerning\n     all religion, into tranquil joy, who will read that she is dead,\n     with the shock which comes with an unforewarned calamity. For\n     almost up to her last hour she was carrying on her correspondence\n     with the wide circle of men and women to whom she periodically sent\n     glad tidings of a reasonable faith, and never giving intimation to\n     the most regular of these correspondents that she was any less\n     vigorous of health than usual. For many months her friends had seen\n     the end approaching, and very likely she herself had understood\n     that \"the task was great, the day short, and it was not incumbent\n     upon her to complete the work.\" But her inexorable conscience,\n     blended with her delight in having found at last, within this\n     recent five years, a work needing to be done, and calling into use\n     her store of admirable wisdom for such business, kept her at her\n     duty until the body ceased to obey the will.\n\n     Only the people who knew Miss Ellis well could understand her rare\n     fitness for her office, through long and ripe study of Unitarian\n     religious literature, and through her genius for apprehending at\n     once what special reading and counsel her various applicants for\n     light upon their darkened ways of the spirit needed to\n     receive,--only those to whom she spoke the word in season, or those\n     nearer home to whom she was a quiet exemplar in holy things, can\n     appreciate the quality of virtue enclosed in that fragile and\n     infirm body, which shines on earth only \"in minds made better by\n     its presence,\" but shines with renewed honor elsewhere in the house\n     of many mansions.\n\n            *       *       *       *       *\n\n     It was not my good fortune to know Miss Ellis personally, but her\n     works have praised her East as well as West. Her death is a great\n     calamity to the cause, as well as a great sorrow to her friends;\n     but she has put life and power into a good instrument of influence,\n     and it will live.\n\n                                     REV. GRINDALL REYNOLDS,\n\n              _Secretary American Unitarian Association, Boston, Mass._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                             LEICESTER, Mass, April 10, 1886.\n\n     ... Her communications made no mention of her infirmities or\n     illness; and her death was a great surprise. I had become quite\n     interested in her manner of doing her work; the perfect\n     intelligence, good sense, and self-reliance she manifested.-----of\n     Springfield, Ohio, has written to me in the highest appreciation of\n     her helpfulness to him.... I enclose three of her postal cards,\n     which, if quite convenient, may come back to me. [On one of these\n     postal cards Mr. May has indorsed, \"Miss Ellis lived but about a\n     month after this was written. Her death was a great and immediate\n     loss to the cause of a wise and large Christian faith in the\n     West.\"] She was eminently worthy of a special commemoration and\n     canonization.\n\n                 Respectfully yours,          Samuel J. May.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     I have thought of you often since the \"Christian Register\" brought\n     the news of Miss Ellis's death, and am moved to express my sympathy\n     for the loss you have met,--a loss which all of us share indeed. I\n     suppose it was very good to _her_ to be summoned from a state of\n     feebleness; but it will not be easy, I believe, to fill the vacant\n     place. Perhaps her own inspiration will rest upon her successor,\n     and so she will indeed help to carry on the work which she has done\n     so beautifully.\n\n     I suppose the time will come, some day, when the loss of a good\n     worker in our Conference will not be felt so seriously as now; but\n     we are far too few as yet.\n\n                                              MISS ABBY W. MAY,\n\n                   _President Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, Mass._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     Though I had had but comparatively little correspondence with Miss\n     Ellis, that little had made me regard her as a personal friend, and\n     I felt especially drawn towards her after I learned about her\n     deafness, for that was my own mother's trial for many years. It is\n     a comfort to think that all suffering and weakness are over for\n     her; and so we can but rejoice that she has entered upon the\n     blessed life, although the feeling of loss must be very great. I\n     have thought often of Mr. Beach's sudden death last summer, during\n     the last few weeks, and I was glad to tell our friends, at the\n     meeting the other day, of Miss Ellis's tender, helping sympathy for\n     his mother and sisters at that time. I think one can hardly help\n     feeling that perhaps Miss Ellis and the young friend whom she had\n     led to a bright and happy faith may already have met and rejoiced\n     together in the heavenly life. Much sympathy has been expressed\n     here for Miss Ellis's father. I hope that the thought of all that\n     she has gained is a constant comfort and help to him.\n\n                                       MRS. J. I. W. THACHER,\n\n                _Secretary Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, Mass._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     The news of Miss Ellis's departure from among us filled us all with\n     grief and regret; and yet we feel she is so sure to continue her\n     good work there, that we ought not to _regret_. What a delightful\n     awakening for her when, with no feeling of weakness or pain, she\n     opens her eyes to find herself surrounded by those who have gone\n     before, whose lives she had gladdened here, and to learn that part\n     of her mission there is to meet and welcome her host of friends,\n     personal and parochial, as they follow her over there! How many\n     people will miss her here! Ten times one is ten. Their number\n     cannot be estimated.\n\n                                         MISS F. LE BARON,\n\n                _Sec. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     I want to express my great sympathy for you and your Society in the\n     loss of your friend Miss Ellis.\n\n     Although I knew she had been an invalid for a long time, the news\n     of her death was a great shock to me. She has been so kind in\n     helping me to get started in the Post Office Mission, and made me\n     feel so truly that she stood ready to help always, that I cannot\n     but feel that I have in her death lost a good friend, which must be\n     the case with many others all over the country. She has left us all\n     the memory of a brave example, which ought to fill us with the\n     desire to carry on the good work by her begun, more faithfully than\n     ever.\n\n                                       MISS ELLEN M. GOULD,\n\n                      _Sec. Post Office Mission Committee, Davenport, Ia._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     I have just heard of the death of Miss Ellis. How great a loss it\n     is to all of us, but how great a _gain_ to all of us that she has\n     lived, and illustrated the possibilities of a life lived under even\n     so many limitations as hedged her about! Will you not send me a\n     sketch of her life and work for the next number of the \"Unitarian\"?\n\n                                    MISS ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND,\n\n                           _Assistant Editor \"Unitarian,\" Chicago, Ill._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     I had heard from time to time that she was feeble, but her fragile\n     frame held so strong a spirit, that I hoped she would triumph over\n     bodily weakness for many years to come. The world can ill spare\n     such as she. Each time I saw her I was impressed more and more with\n     the strength of her character and the clearness and directness of\n     her mind. Upon meeting a stranger of whom one has heard much there\n     is almost always a little period of bewilderment before the ideal\n     and real can be harmonized, even where there is not disappointment;\n     and at first I was at a loss how to reconcile the strong,\n     well-balanced mind, with its keen insight,--as revealed in her\n     letters,--with the delicate, dainty, sweet-looking little woman,\n     shut out from her kind to so great a degree by her affliction. Yet\n     when her tiny hand grasped mine so firmly at our first meeting,\n     there was that in the clasp that reconciled and united my ideal\n     with the actual; they were only two sides of the same nature. She\n     was so strong, too, in being so genuine and so full of faith. In\n     these halting, doubting times, a faith in the eternal verities so\n     strong and unwavering as hers is like a rock to many a tossed and\n     uncertain soul. Such people do not know their own power of helping.\n     I can never refrain from questioning _why_ those who are so needed\n     in the world must be taken, when the useless and worthless are\n     left, unless it is that they go that they may leave the _spirit_ of\n     their service to do a larger work as a heritage to all who will\n     accept it. Though dead, they speak with many tongues.\n\n                                          MISS FRANCES L. ROBERTS,\n\n             _Ex-Sec. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     A Union Meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference for Suffolk\n     County, which includes all the branches of the Conference in the\n     Unitarian churches of Boston, was held at Arlington Street Church\n     on Thursday, Jan. 21, 1886.\n\n     At this meeting was officially announced, with the most profound\n     regret, the death of Miss Ellis, of Cincinnati. A brief account of\n     her life in connection with the work of the Conference was given by\n     Mrs. J. I. W. Thacher, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, and Miss Abby W.\n     May, and it was unanimously agreed that there should be entered on\n     the records of the meeting, and transmitted to the friends of Miss\n     Ellis, an expression of our fullest appreciation of her beautiful\n     and self-sacrificing character, our high estimation of the work in\n     which she had already accomplished so much, and our deep and\n     earnest sympathy for those who have suffered an irreparable loss.\n     Our sorrow is not without the hope that the tender memory of a life\n     so pure and unselfish, and such earnest devotion to all the\n     principles of our religious faith, may influence for good the lives\n     of each and all of us, and prove an incentive to every member of\n     our Conference to further activity in the work we are trying to do.\n\n                                EMILY A. FIFIELD, _Director_.\n\n    _For the Suffolk County Branches of the Women's Auxiliary Conference._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                                  PORTLAND, ME., Jan. 17, 1886.\n\n     MRS. FAYETTE SMITH, Director of Women's Conference:\n\n     At a recent meeting of the Portland branch of the Women's Auxiliary\n     Conference, an article in the \"Christian Register,\" entitled \"A\n     Candle of the Lord,\" was read; and on motion of Mrs. Dr. J. T.\n     Gilman, the Secretary was requested to express to your Conference\n     the sympathy of our little band in the death of Miss Sarah Ellis.\n     While we cannot have the sense of personal loss that you feel in\n     the extinguishment of that light, we have the highest admiration\n     for the work she accomplished under such limitations, and trust\n     that her example will be an incentive to every Unitarian woman to\n     do something to continue it, till the flame she kindled may become\n     a glorious light, glowing in every hamlet of our common country.\n\n                    Very truly,            MARY R. MCINTIRE.\n\n     TO THE WOMEN'S CONFERENCE, CINCINNATI, OHIO..\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                     57 HAWLEY ST., SYRACUSE, N.Y., Feb. 7, 1886.\n\n     DEAR MRS. SMITH,--As I have had the pleasure of a little\n     correspondence with dear Miss Ellis, our Society have asked me to\n     express to you our deep sympathy in your loss. She must have been a\n     remarkable woman to have accomplished so much when so feeble. Her\n     warm heart spoke plainly in her letters, and we shall regret more\n     and more, as time passes, that we shall receive them no more. Let\n     us believe that her freed spirit is not far off, but is still\n     interested, and far more able to help in the work she loved so\n     well. Her sphere is only larger. Our branch of the Woman's\n     Auxiliary Conference resolved to incorporate in its minutes a\n     resolution of regret at her death, and sympathy with you, and to\n     preserve the \"In Memoriam\" you so kindly sent, among its papers.\n     Please accept our warmest sympathy and expression of interest.\n\n                    Yours sincerely,           FRANCES J. MYERS.\n\n     _For the Syracuse Branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference._\n\nThe Post Office Mission Committee at Davenport, Iowa, at their meeting\nFeb. 10, also took formal action upon the death of Miss Ellis, and sent\nexpressions of \"heartfelt regrets and sympathy\" to the Cincinnati\nSociety.\n\n                                     CHICAGO, March 29, 1886.\n\n     A part of Thursday afternoon, May 13, will be given to the Women's\n     Conference, and occupied with election of officers and report of\n     Post Office Mission work. It seems very appropriate that something\n     should be said at that time in memory of Miss Ellis; and Miss Le\n     Baron and I request that you prepare the paper or remarks and\n     present them.... We leave the form of the memorial entirely to your\n     judgment.\n\n                                           MRS. E. A. WEST,\n\n                   _Pres. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._\n\n     In accordance with this request, Mrs. George Thornton, of\n     Cincinnati, read the following memorial before the Western Women's\n     Unitarian Conference, May 13, 1886:--\n\n     Such an occasion as this, full of words of good counsel and\n     cheer,--a reunion of the little band of women workers in the cause\n     of Liberal Christianity,--will be incomplete if we do not mention\n     one name, held in loving remembrance in the hearts of many here\n     present, and of a still greater number scattered far and wide,\n     whose lives have been touched to higher issues by the active\n     ministrations of our beloved co-worker, Miss Sallie Ellis, who has\n     laid down her work on earth and passed on to the great Hereafter.\n\n     When we recall the fragile form, so full of the Spirit's life,\n     which, rising above the many disabilities of physical suffering,\n     accomplished so much in the brief years allotted her, we take\n     courage, and thank God that we have had such spirits with us.\n     Nothing doubting that their work continues here and elsewhere,\n     though we know neither the manner nor conditions of its progress.\n\n     We who are cheered in moments of sorrow by the great faith that the\n     future of those who have passed behind \"the veil which hath no\n     outward swing\" will be but a continuance of the _best_, under\n     nobler conditions, rejoice, even in the midst of personal\n     bereavement, that Miss Ellis has entered into that rest, so nobly\n     won by her patient endurance of the heavy burdens laid upon\n     her,--burdens which yet never seemed to close her sympathy for\n     others, but only served to quicken her eagerness to work for the\n     extension of that vital faith she found so satisfying.\n\n     It is to her warm heart, and earnest desire to help others in the\n     midst of spiritual difficulties, that we owe the unique but most\n     efficacious method of reaching such through the medium of postal\n     communication.\n\n     Scientists tell us that each wavelet of sound, produced by the\n     tiniest cause, goes on in ever-widening circles of ether, to the\n     uttermost limits of creation. Had we but senses acute enough to\n     receive the sensation, how full of pulsing sound would all Nature\n     become! It seems to me that this keener sense, enabling her to\n     catch the questionings of troubled souls, became one of the great\n     compensations of Miss Ellis's later years. As the outer organs of\n     hearing became dulled to what was passing around her, the inner or\n     spiritual became more observant; and as we listened to the\n     correspondence which came to her from North and South, East and\n     West, from the home and the camp, from the teacher and the taught,\n     we seemed to stand in some great whispering-gallery, echoing with\n     the sighs and anxious inquiries of seekers after truth who sought\n     aid in solving the great problems of the soul's life. As from time\n     to time came back acknowledgments of gratitude for aid rendered,\n     either by her sympathizing letters or the Liberal literature which\n     she widely disseminated, we realized what a great lever had been\n     applied in this simple way to the spiritual needs of many.\n\n     It is in this phase of Miss Ellis's work that she has become better\n     known to the members of the Women's Auxiliary Conference; and it is\n     of this especially I have spoken to-day.\n\n     But the roots of this activity lie deeper, and this work was but\n     the fruitage of a life which drew its strength to suffer and\n     endure, as well as to labor and to wait, from those fountains of a\n     rational faith for whose extension we have met here this week.\n\n     To her it was the manna of life, and it was fitting that her last\n     years should have been spent in unselfish endeavor to extend its\n     influence.\n\n     Knowing how heartily she would have entered into the spirit of our\n     meetings during this Conference, we cannot leave unsaid the word of\n     tender remembrance which links her memory indissolubly with the\n     work of our Women's Auxiliary Conference. The little band who are\n     engaged in spreading the light of a higher faith, in lifting the\n     load of crude ideas in regard to our relations to God and humanity,\n     may surely feel that though our friend \"has joined the choir\n     invisible,\" yet her work \"lives on in lives made better by her\n     presence,\" still keeping alive the union with us who remain\n     behind,--a help and incentive to continued progress.\n\n     No better key-note of Miss Ellis's life can be given than in the\n     words of a poem copied by her into her diary, January, 1881. It\n     was taken from the \"Woman's Journal,\" and was entitled:--\n\n\n     ACHIEVEMENT.\n\n    Nothing noble, nothing great\n      The world has ever known,\n    But began a seed of thought\n      In some generous nature sown.\n\n    Any soul may rise to be\n      A new saviour to its race;\n    Every man and woman fills,\n      Well or ill, a prophet's place.\n\n    In our Now the Then lies folded,\n      All its wealth, and all its power;\n    From the promise of to-day\n      Bursts to-morrow's perfect flower.\n\n    Every deed of solid worth\n      Helps the world to find its place;\n    Every life of homely truth\n      Raises higher all the race.\n\n    \"Ye are gods,\" the Scriptures saith;\n      \"Yea,\" our spirits make reply;\n    Let us claim our birthright, then,--\n      Prove our high divinity.\n\n    We too may be, if we will,\n      Athlete winners every one,\n    Conquerors of fate and chance,\n      Lords of all beneath the sun.\n\n    Let us thitherward aspire,\n      Take whate'er we find to do,\n    Making life what life was meant--\n      Something liberal, earnest, true!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nUniversity Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.","title":"Miss Ellis's Mission","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49750}