Mary P. Wells Smith Miss Ellis's Mission 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 1 
 This little sketch of Miss Ellis's life and work owes its first 
 suggestion to Rev. J. Ll. Jones, of Chicago, who soon after her death 
 wrote: "Why not try for a little memorial of her, to be accompanied with 
 some of the most touching and searching extracts from the letters both 
 received and written by her, and make it into a little booklet for the 
 instruction of Post Office Mission Workers?... Can you not make it 
 something as touching as 'Miss Toosey,' and far more practical,--that 
 is, for our own little household of faith?... We do not want it 
 primarily as a missionary tool, but as a wee fragment of the spiritual 
 history of the world,--something that will lift and touch the soul of 
 everybody.... In short, give us an enlightened Miss Toosey; her mission 
 being as much stronger as Sallie Ellis was more rational and mature than 
 the original 'Miss Toosey'!" 
   
 No one knowing Miss Ellis could read the touching little story of "Miss 
 Toosey's Mission" without being struck by a resemblance in the 
 characters, though a resemblance with a marked difference. As one said, 
 "I never saw her going up the church aisle Sundays, with her audiphone, 
 her little satchel, her bundle of books and papers, and her hymn-book, 
 without thinking of Miss Toosey." In both lives a seemingly powerless 
 and insignificant personality, through the force of a great yearning to 
 do a bit of God's work in the world, achieved its longing far beyond its 
 fondest dreams. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 2 
   
 As I read the many letters from all over the country 
 that have come since Miss Ellis's death, as I realize how the spiritual 
 force that burned in the soul of this small, feeble, seemingly helpless 
 woman reached out afar and touched many lives for their enduring 
 ennoblement, her life, so meagre and cramped in its outward aspect, so 
 vivid and intense within and on paper, seems to me not without a touch 
 of romance. To perpetuate a little longer the influence of that life is 
 the object of this sketch. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 SALLIE ELLIS was born in Cincinnati, March 13, 1835. The old-fashioned 
 name Sallie, at that time popular in the South and West, was given her 
 in honor of an aunt. She disliked sailing under the false colors of 
 "Sarah." In letters she usually signed herself "S. Ellis," because, as 
 she explained to one correspondent, "I do not know myself as _Sarah_, 
 and Sallie is not dignified enough in writing to strangers; so I usually 
 prefer plain S." Late in life, however, for reasons of dignity, she 
 sometimes felt forced to adopt Sarah as what she called her "official 
 signature." 
   
 Her father, Mr. Rowland Ellis, was born in Boston, but while yet young 
 removed to Cincinnati, where he still lives in a vigorous and honored 
 old age. Although his mother, in all her later years at least, was a 
 devoted attendant upon Theodore Parker's services, Mr. Ellis in early 
 life was a Baptist. But when the Unitarian Church was founded at 
 Cincinnati, in 1830, his name appears among the organizers, of whom he 
 is almost the sole survivor. Of that church he has always been a devoted 
 supporter and constant attendant. He was a leading banker of the West, 
 and Sallie was born into one of the most elegant and luxurious homes in 
 Cincinnati. The Ellises kept open house, exercised the most generous 
 hospitality, and made, as one says who knew them well then, "such a 
 beautiful use of their money. The Ellises were just the people who 
 _ought_ to have money." Mrs. Ellis is described as a woman of unusual 
 loveliness of character. Out of the eight children, Sallie was thought 
 to be the mother's favorite, because, it was supposed, she was always 
 puny, shy, and delicate. "Sallie shall always have what she wants," said 
 the mother, "because she wants so little." But mothers _know_, and 
 undoubtedly the mother saw deeper than others into the rare spiritual 
 quality concealed from the world under her delicate child's quiet, 
 reserved exterior. Her older sister remembers of Sallie's childhood: "As 
 a very young child she exhibited strongly marked peculiarities of 
 character. Her affection, conscientiousness, piety, and love of duty 
 made her different from the rest of us as children. I remember well that 
 at home or at school there were never any rebukes for Sallie. Though 
 very social by nature, as young as at five and six years of age she 
 loved to be alone, and would sit in the corner of her mother's room, 
 with face turned to the corner, musing, and talking in a low tone to her 
 doll. When our father and mother would take the children to 
 entertainments of various descriptions, such as children enjoy, Sallie 
 would invariably express her preference to remain at home. If she 
 thought her parents wanted her to go, she went." 
   
 For some years Sallie attended the private school of Mrs. Anne Ryland, 
 an English Unitarian (a former parishioner, I think, of Rev. Laut 
 Carpenter, and connected by marriage with Rev. Brooke Herford), a lady 
 of noble character, and a teacher whose culture and methods were in 
 advance of her age. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 3 
   
 In a volume of poetry presented Sallie by this 
 teacher, is this inscription, whose old-fashioned quaintness of phrase 
 pictures for us the Sallie Ellis of thirteen, then, as always, faithful 
 to duty. 
   
      "Mrs. Ryland has been much gratified by the general deportment of 
      Miss Sallie Ellis since she has been under her charge. Miss Ellis 
      has evinced an evident desire to please, by a strict observance of 
      the rules of the school, and by assiduous and persevering attention 
      to all her studies. She has made improvement in them all fully 
      commensurate with her laudable endeavors, in Grammar, Geography, 
      and Orthography particularly. It is with unfeigned regret that Mrs. 
      Ryland has to add, to the foregoing expression of her approval of 
      her dear pupil's conduct, the last word,--Farewell." 
   
 Later, she attended the private school of Rev. William Silsbee, who says 
 of her, "She was always studious and well-behaved, one of the most 
 faithful of all my pupils." Mr. M. Hazen White, for so many years 
 superintendent of the Unitarian Sunday school, was also one of her 
 teachers. When seventeen, she was sent to Mrs. Charles Sedgwick's 
 school, in Lenox, Mass. A schoolmate describes her then as a quite 
 pretty, black-eyed girl, of delicate physique, a good and studious but 
 not brilliant scholar, very quiet and retiring, and almost morbidly 
 reserved. The few friends she made here, however, were life-long, and 
 she corresponded with some of the Lenox schoolmates until her death. 
 "She was a perfect dancer," says the schoolmate. 
   
 Treasured among Miss Ellis's papers were found some pages of a 
 schoolgirl's album, marked, "At Mrs. Sedgwick's School, Lenox, Mass., 
 March, 1852." It contains verses descriptive of each pupil, written 
 apparently by Mrs. Sedgwick. The little pen-picture of the schoolgirl 
 paints well the woman of later years. 
   
   
                        SALLIE ELLIS. 
   
     If device for an old Latin motto were asked, 
     No invention would need to be very much tasked; 
     For the "multum in parvo" _you_ safely might stand, 
     With book, needle, or pen, ever found in your hand. 
     A little, wee body with strong, earnest will, 
     That steadily works with the force of a mill; 
     A mind quite untiring, whatever it do, 
     Its manifold ends with good heed to pursue: 
     Hands busy and strong play deftly their part, 
     And these all controlled by a good, honest heart. 
   
 Bright indeed looked Sallie's future in those days. A year or two more 
 at school, then a return to the loved mother and the beautiful home, and 
 a "coming out" into the brilliant world with all the advantages 
 attending wealth and position. But the clouds were already gathering 
 which in coming years were to darken for her in quick succession the 
 sunshine of earthly prosperity. She was called home from school by the 
 illness of her mother. The mother died, leaving Sallie the oldest 
 daughter at home, to fill her place as best she might to five little 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 4 
   
 Her sister says: "Our dear mother's death was the turning-point in 
 Sallie's life. She was so shrinking, sensitive, and tender by nature, no 
 one could fully understand her but a mother who had watched the hidden 
 beauties of her character expand from infancy to girlhood." 
   
 The mother's memory was fondly cherished, her loss deeply mourned, all 
 Miss Ellis's life. Over the dying bed of the worn and weary woman of 
 fifty smiled down the radiant face of the mother, painted when a young, 
 blooming girl. Among Miss Ellis's papers was found a manuscript volume 
 of eighty-one pages of selections, copied in her clear, firm 
 handwriting, index of the spirit's strength. It is headed, "Crumbs of 
 Comfort for the Afflicted." The selections are from the Bible, sermons, 
 hymns, and poems,--all breathing of religious trust and help in 
 grief,--a beautiful and touching collection. The first page reads,-- 
   
      "Begun in Nov. 1870. 
   
      "These selections are made in memory of my dear mother, who was 
      called away many years since, and through whose death I was led to 
      think of a higher life,--the _true_ life of the soul. 
   
      "'Oh, I believe there is no _away_; that no love, no life, goes 
      ever from us; it goes as He went, that it may come again, deeper 
      and closer and surer, and be with us always, even unto the end of 
      the world' (_Patience Strong's Outings_)." 
   
 One of the selections is an anonymous poem, "The Strength of the 
 Lonely." On one page Miss Ellis had written (signed "S. E."), "I can but 
 believe that God allows a mother still to watch over and care for her 
 family when he takes her from this world, and in our affliction that he 
 draws us to himself, and to Jesus as our guide to him, through her 
 spiritual influence, just as, while upon earth, he permitted her to be 
 his instrument to lead and guide us in all that is good. All children 
 too, even the youngest, are God's instruments for good, and their 
 ministries cease not with their earthly life. The departed are with us 
 everywhere, through our daily duties,-- 
   
      "In the loneliest hour, in the crowd, they are nigh us." 
   
 A year or two after the mother's death Sallie joined the Unitarian 
 Church, being baptized by Rev. A. A. Livermore, of whom she writes in a 
 letter: "Rev. A. A. Livermore was settled here from the time I was 
 fourteen to twenty-one, and he formed my religious character." Fitting 
 indeed was it that he who has trained so many young men for the ministry 
 should dedicate to God's service this young woman, also destined to be 
 his minister to many souls. An old lady in the church remembers seeing 
 Sallie go up to be baptized, leading a little brother by each hand, all 
 the little children being baptized at the same time. To one of her 
 nature, the vows then taken were a most sacred, real consecration of her 
 whole self to God,--vows to be nobly fulfilled in the life. 
   
 Mr. Livermore writes of her:-- 
   
      "During my pastorate of the Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, Mr. and 
      Mrs. Rowland Ellis were valued parishioners of mine, and their 
      children were all baptized by me. It was a lovely group of little 
      folks, and the spirit of that consecration has gone largely through 
      all their lives, and given them, I believe, the Christian flavor. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 5 
 I believe, the Christian flavor. 
      They have, too, been very warmly united as a family, and in health 
      and sickness, in life and death, they have borne strong testimony 
      to the blessed anchorage of a positive religious faith. 
   
      "They were also diligent attendants on the Sunday school in the 
      basement of the old church. Sallie's bright face and upright 
      attitude was to be seen in her place as sure as the Sunday came. 
   
      "After I left Cincinnati I saw her but seldom, but on those 
      occasions she always spoke of the earlier times in the church and 
      the Sunday school with a warmth and glow of memory that showed that 
      they had been real points of life to her mind and character. And 
      especially after her deafness became a chastening hand laid upon 
      her character, and family sorrows and bereavements followed in the 
      train, it was plain that she found her religious trust the one 
      thing needful." 
   
 Within another year business reverses swept away Mr. Ellis's entire 
 fortune. As he had meantime married a lady who proved a most capable and 
 devoted mother to the younger children, Sallie, released from domestic 
 cares, felt that she ought to do something to assist her father. "She 
 was so modest," says a friend, "I don't think it ever occurred to her 
 that she could teach school. But she said there was one thing she knew 
 she could do, and do well, and that was, to dance." So Miss Sallie 
 became a dancing-teacher, having classes of children in their mothers' 
 parlors. 
   
 Another friend (whose boys, now stalwart men in the church, were among 
 Miss Ellis's pupils) says of her: "She was a lovely dancing-teacher. She 
 not only taught the children to dance well, but she taught them such 
 gentle, lovely manners. Indeed, the significant thing in Miss Ellis's 
 life, to me, was her faithfulness. Whatever her hand found to do, she 
 did, and did well. Because she had been so faithful at dancing-school, 
 she was able to be so successful a teacher. Because, when taught sewing, 
 she tried so hard to do her best, she became such a beautiful sewer, and 
 was able to teach sewing;" for a sewing-class was another expedient of 
 those days. 
   
 Her father moved to Chicago in 1851, where he resided three years. There 
 Miss Ellis attended Mr. Shippen's church, taught a Sunday-school class, 
 and had a class of newsboys evenings. After the return to Cincinnati, 
 while Miss Ellis was at the sea-shore, she began to experience a painful 
 roaring in the ears. Hearing, never quite perfect, was soon almost 
 totally gone. The following years are little, to outward sight, but a 
 record of invalidism, of trying this or that doctor, but still ever 
 decreasing health and strength. Many dyspeptics, from Carlyle to lesser 
 folk, have felt their disease, like charity, a cover for a multitude of 
 sins. Miss Ellis suffered from chronic dyspepsia of aggravated type, 
 from catarrhal and other troubles which finally wore away the always 
 frail thread of life in consumptive decline.[1] 
   
 [Footnote 1: The death of two brothers, of a dear little niece, and of a 
 fondly loved sister,--a woman beloved by all who knew her, who died only 
 about a year before Miss Ellis, leaving five motherless girls--were 
 among the trials of her maturer years.] 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 6 
   
 . You 
      have not changed my views so much as brought out more clearly what 
      was already in my own mind. The best lesson I have learned from you 
      is a firmer trust in God. You have brought me to the 'Source of all 
      Truth, whence Jesus drew his life.' Here you leave me. An essential 
      point to have reached, in my view; a firm rock on which to rest, 
      and one that can never be taken from me. Some people are not 
      satisfied with a faith so simple. They need more to rest on; as if 
      there could be a stronger, better support than the 'voice in the 
      soul.' From loss of hearing, the 'voice within' has spoken more 
      clearly to me perhaps.... It is a very great disappointment to me 
      to part with you and your family, for I have become very much 
      attached to you all; for even little G---- has learned to look upon 
      me as a friend. It is not every one who wins me; and when one does, 
      it is all the harder to separate from him. Still, we are often 
      compelled to give up our preferences, as I have learned before 
      now.... The benediction I ask is the one you have so often asked 
      for us (Mary----ears to me, and a reliable authority): 'May the 
      Heavenly Father bless, preserve, and guide you all. May he give you 
      wisdom to know and strength to do his holy will forevermore.'" 
   
 Mr. Noyes, being asked for his recollections of Miss Ellis, writes:-- 
   
      "Sallie had a very true, deep, strong religious nature, and a 
      leaning to religious, not to say theological, studies. Alone in 
      Cincinnati when I first went there, I was often a guest at Mr. 
      Ellis's Sunday table. Sallie borrowed my sermons. She liked to talk 
      over the subject of the sermon, and this led to my recommending to 
      her many books for her reading, and loaning to her what I had in my 
      library. She became familiar with the writings of most of our 
      Unitarian writers,--with Channing, Clarke, Hedge, Dewey, Norton, 
      Furness, and many others. She was no careless reader, but a student 
      of the writer's thought.... She had great breadth of mental 
      outlook, and a great heart of charity and love for all. She admired 
      the diversity of opinion in our body, and had faith in the unity of 
      the Spirit that would fuse us into one.... If Sallie ever expressed 
      wonder and surprise, it was that Unitarianism did not grow as fast 
      as it ought, and that those who accepted its teachings did not 
      identify themselves with it. We had our Mission School of about 
      three hundred pupils, and our Sewing School.... The time had not 
      come for the Pamphlet Mission or the Post Office; yet Miss Ellis 
      was making the best preparation possible for her after-work, and in 
      due time the door of best usefulness stood wide open. You know, as 
      we all know, how well she filled her office.... Her letters were 
      sermons,--tracts in themselves, best adapted to her correspondents, 
      and, I am persuaded, did a grand work of their own. She heard with 
      difficulty, she was not an easy talker, but she wrote with great 
      clearness.... More than the books she sent out, she was to many a 
      one the blessed missionary of our faith.... In her early studies 
      the miracle question was a stumbling-block to Sallie. The old-time 
      interpretation of miracle she could not accept; neither could she 
      take up with the mythical theory of Strauss. Miracle must be in 
      harmony with law. Jesus must be to her the natural flower of 
      _human_ nature, the perfect blossom of _human_ development. Nature 
      and the supernatural must be in harmony. Hence the delight she took 
      in Dr. Furness's works. His works helped her, as they have so many 
      others, out of her difficulties about the supernatural. And more 
      than that, they fed her religious life, pure and simple, and let 
      her into the heart of Christ. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 7 
 She often alluded to her debt to Dr. 
      Furness, whom she admired and loved." 
   
 Miss Ellis little expected or would have desired to figure as a 
 Unitarian saint. Her estimate of herself was lowly. Whatever her faults 
 and limitations, however, they were only those natural to a strong 
 nature driven in upon itself, beating in vain against the stern walls 
 that everywhere surrounded it. Bravely did she strive to resist what she 
 clearly perceived to be the natural tendencies of her peculiar troubles, 
 and bravely did she succeed. The prayers, the tears, the struggles of 
 those lonely, baffled years are known only to God, and are only hinted 
 at here and there in the diary kept during a large part of her life. An 
 unique diary it is, showing, as nothing else could, the passion of 
 religious devotion which burned in her soul. Each day's record, no 
 matter how brief, ends with passages of Scripture, or sometimes a hymn, 
 appropriate to the day's mood or experience. In reading it, one realizes 
 afresh the richness of the Bible in comfort and strength. The diary 
 furnishes a complete history of the Unitarian Church of Cincinnati for 
 many years. All the individual joys and sorrows of its members, their 
 birthdays and their death-days, are here recorded with loving sympathy. 
 Also, a complete record of every Sunday's service for many years is 
 given, with always a full abstract of the sermon, sometimes filling 
 several pages of fine, close writing. Occasionally it happened that the 
 minister failed to hand Miss Sallie his sermon after delivery,--a 
 grievous disappointment, almost too great to bear, as the diary 
 testifies. Each year the personal matter grows less, the religious 
 meditations and quotations consume more and more space, until of the 
 journal in the last years her sister writes: "It seems to have been kept 
 mainly to give vent to her pure, spiritual nature, which was ever 
 longing for some expression of itself." A very few extracts are here 
 given from the diary,--a glimpse only of the struggles and longings that 
 unconsciously to herself were all fitting her for her work. 
   
   
   
   
 DIARY. 
   
   
 I have been too indolent for a few years. Now I must be up 
 
      and doing, with a heart for anything, and remember that these 
      clouds that overshadow us all are meant to make us look beyond for 
      the sunshine. "No cross, no crown." I have a project in my head 
      that I wish very much to carry out. I am tired of my selfish life; 
      and all that reconciles me to it is, that I accept it as a 
      necessary discipline for my restless spirit, to teach me 
      submission, and help me to say, "Thy will, not mine, be done." My 
      idea of a _true_ Christian is to be working for others always, and 
      not thinking of self. My desire is, to start a sewing-class from 
      the Mission School, to be kept up during the summer, if I can only 
      get the means of carrying out my plan, and find some one who is 
      willing to take charge of it in case I am not able to be there. I 
      would _gladly_ make the sacrifice of personal comfort. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 8 
   
 The sewing-class was started, and Miss Ellis became one of its most 
 devoted teachers, though working often in great feebleness and pain. 
   
      Feel bluer, but I believe my deafness is bringing me truer faith, 
      and resignation.... Another very warm day, but I have managed to 
      get through the day cheerfully, thinking of heavenly things.... I 
      cannot understand what makes me so ugly sometimes. I pray that my 
      evil spirit may be subdued some day.... Do not know of anything I 
      have done to benefit others to-day, only I have been cheerful.... I 
      have felt pretty well, and this day went rightly with me, though I 
      do not know as I have advanced the cause of life very much.... How 
      I do long to live a perfectly unselfish life, and to be a blessing 
      to those around me, as my life was intended for!... Am reading "Old 
      Kensington," by Miss Thackeray,--a real love-story; and it makes me 
      sad, as usual.... Still in the house, and feel poorly. Feel a 
      little dull this evening, and on thinking over my life, think that 
      I have had more than most people of my age to endure, and wonder 
      that I keep up my spirits as well as I have; and it is only that I 
      feel that all is the necessary discipline for me. "Let us but be 
      genuine, honest, and true in everything, even in the smallest 
      thing, and we have in that the sign and the pledge of entire 
      consecration of heart and life to God" (J. F. Clarke). "Be faithful 
      unto death, and I will give you a crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10).... 
      Gave up to a _terrible_ fit of the "blues" this afternoon and 
      evening. Am _so_ tired of suffering all the time, that I gave way 
      under my cross to-day. It seems as if I can't struggle to live 
      longer. 
   
      _Sunday._ A bright day; I was not able to go out, but felt that it 
      was good to remain at home to think over my blessings.... Attended 
      Bible-class this evening. I came home in rather a despondent mood. 
      I find my cross hard to bear, but must pray for more strength. 
   
 Sent my old Bible to be bound to-day, which I have used 
 
      twenty-three years.... I have felt extremely favored to-day, in 
      that I was able to attend the Sewing School, which I feared all the 
      week I might be disappointed in. We closed the school to-day, after 
      twenty-four weeks' work. It has been time well spent, and I feel 
      particularly thankful to my heavenly Father in having heard my 
      prayer for health, strength, and good weather. One strong desire of 
      my life has been vouchsafed me, and I feel overpowered with joy 
      to-night.... I have felt to-day how much I need the assistance of 
      Christ, and may his religion help me to be victorious in the end. 
   
 Quoting an extract from Miss Sedgwick's diary on the unmarried life, 
 which ends, "Though not _first_ to any, I am, like Themistocles, 
 _second_ to a great many: my sisters are all kind and affectionate to 
 me, my brothers generous and invariably kind; their children all love 
 me," Miss Ellis adds: "These _very words_ I can repeat as my 
 experience.... If I can only add a few _drops_ of happiness to his life 
 [a brother's], I shall be too happy." 
   
 Mr. Noyes called Monday to bring me his sermon, and it made 
 
      me very resigned. The text was from 2 Cor. xii. 10,--"When I am 
      weak, then am I strong." 
   
 Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was the topic of the discourse, and several 
 pages of extracts are copied in the journal. 
   
      It is one of the trials of my life not to assist in the church as I 
      desire to. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 9 
   
 I presume it must be because I neglect other duties, and 
      see but one thing before me, and that is, to give up the _idol_ of 
      my life, and do the duty that is nearest to me; but it is a sore 
      trial to me.... This has been an eventful week to me, for last 
      Sunday Mr. Noyes closed his ministry with us.... Now they have 
      really gone, it makes me feel rather despondent, though I know they 
      have left many blessings to me behind them. 
   
      I am beginning some fancy work, in hopes of brightening my life 
      somewhat. I am not reconciled to the hardships of life.... Am 
      anxious to learn wood-carving.... I try to have the faith _of_ 
      Jesus more than that about him. 
   
      ... Went to see about trumpets yesterday, and came home greatly 
      disheartened, and shall have to submit with a good grace to the 
      cross.... Mr. Wendte lectures on the New Testament this evening. I 
      should be glad to hear him, but believe all is best as it is. 
   
 We had a beautiful sermon to-day, which I took especially to 
 
      myself, on "The Lonely Hours of Life." ... Am feeling better 
      to-day, and the sermon (on "Be Strong, and of a Good Courage") 
      roused my better nature, ready to go on courageously.... Lecture 
      this evening on "Funeral Customs." I did not attend, for the sermon 
      to-day (on "Prayer") so exalted me that I didn't feel like 
      listening to things of the world.... Wakened feeling disconsolate 
      this morning, but resolved to bear the cross of life as trustfully 
      and cheerfully as possible, and lay up treasures during the summer 
      ready to "give out" when all return in the winter. Impressed two 
      little pieces on my mind,--one by Spitta, in "Day unto Day,"-- 
   
         "Glad with thy light and glowing with thy love, 
         So let me ever think and speak and move." 
   
      The other by Whittier,-- 
   
         "Lord, help me strive 'gainst each besetting sin." 
   
      Went to Madame Wendte's. Brought home, "Ten Great Religions," 
      "Reason in Religion," and "Evolution in Religion." 
   
 Thus did Miss Ellis fortify herself for the summer vacation of the 
 church. Emerson's "Society and Solitude" was another book read this 
 vacation. 
   
      Have not lived up to my ideal the past week, and particularly 
      to-day. However, may the good Father pardon my shortcomings and aid 
      me to do better.... I feel that I have added something to my life 
      for the benefit of others by the rest and reading of this summer. I 
      hope to study up German a little, among my busy hours this winter. 
      I can retain so little in my head, it is discouraging to read. I 
      must work the harder, and believe "all is for the best," and pray, 
      in faith, for patience.... Mr. Wendte's first sermon--subject, 
      "After Vacation"--made me feel somewhat depressed, for I feel so 
      anxious to do for _every one_, and have not the means or strength. 
      [She resolves to] do my little part and not discourage [the 
      minister],--do my part more by showing an interest than by the 
      amount of work I do.... I am miserable, dyspeptic, and 
      disappointed.... 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 10 
   
 I have felt heartily discouraged this week in 
      every way, but the church did me good this morning. 
   
 Mr. Noyes was succeeded as pastor at Cincinnati by Rev. Charles W. 
 Wendte in the fall of 1875. The idea of preaching, of carrying to others 
 the blessed Unitarian faith which had been her joy and strength, now 
 filled Miss Ellis's soul. She discussed various schemes to this end with 
 friends who respected her and her earnestness too much to laugh at the 
 (in worldly eyes) utter absurdity of her hopes, as futile as Miss 
 Toosey's desire to go as a missionary to Nawaub. Could she not go out 
 into Ohio villages and hold lay services, reading the printed prayers 
 and sermons of our Unitarian ministers? Great must have been the 
 yearning for the ministry consuming her soul, to tempt the reserved, 
 feeble little woman, with her deafness and dyspepsia, her incessant 
 cough, her love of her own room and things, her exactness and exquisite 
 nicety of habit, seriously to contemplate such a career. Yet, but for 
 absolute physical incapacity, and the dissuasions (on that account) of 
 her family, she would certainly have made the experiment. Or might she 
 not open a reading-room in the church, to be kept open all the week, 
 where the treasures of Unitarian literature could be dispensed? Even in 
 her last years she seriously meditated going to the church every Sunday 
 morning during the vacation to open her library and meet those who might 
 want books, papers, or advice. The summer vacation was always a grief to 
 her. She wished the church might be open every day. 
   
 Nov. 9, 1876, a rough draft of the following letter to Mr. Wendte 
 appears in her diary:-- 
   
      "I cannot resist returning special thanks for your sermon of last 
      Sunday, 'To what end is your life?' I do not know when a sermon has 
      so fully aroused the will of my youth.... At twenty years of age, 
      'the object of my toil' was to live for the earthly comfort of the 
      family, for the good of society in general, so far as in my power, 
      at the same time keeping an eye to the higher interests of life by 
      working in and for the church.... 'The goal of my ambition' in 
      middle life is to labor for the spiritual welfare of those about 
      me; but I find myself without means to assist others.... My 
      preference is decidedly to labor for the higher natures of others 
      as well as for myself; therefore, remembering your kind offer in 
      your letter to me during the summer, I ask, can you suggest 
      anything for me to engage in, in the spreading of Christianity? 
      [She wishes] to devote the remainder of my life to the highest and 
      best I know. If you can put me in the way of assisting others as 
      well as myself in the highest and holiest way, I shall be ever 
      indebted to you. I shall be glad to so live that when I lay down my 
      life I shall in some measure have returned the many kindnesses of 
      parents, sisters, brothers, and friends, repaid the efforts of 
      teachers and pastors in my behalf, and proved myself a worthy child 
      to Him who gave me being." 
   
 At the end, however, she writes: "Didn't send it. Concluded it was 
 better to talk with him." 
   
 The same ideas in another form appear again in the diary as a letter to 
 Mr. Wendte. One of the burdens on Mr. Wendte's heart in those days was 
 "to find something for Miss Ellis to do." Partly to this end he devised 
 Sunday-school lessons in manuscript, which Miss Ellis copied each week 
 for all the teachers. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 11 
   
 In 1877 he appointed a Missionary Society with a 
 formidable list of names, the significant one among whom events proved 
 to be Miss Sallie Ellis, Treasurer,--she being, indeed, the "society." 
 The little programme says:-- 
   
      "The object of the Missionary Society is to spread the knowledge 
      and increase the influence of Liberal religious ideas throughout 
      the city and State by publications, correspondence, and such other 
      means as may seem to it suitable and best." 
   
 During the winter of 1877-78 Miss Ellis, aided by Mr. Wendte, 
 distributed 1,846 tracts and 211 "Pamphlet Missions" (as baby "Unity" 
 was called) in twenty-six States. Miss Ellis was always scrupulously 
 systematic, methodical, and exact in all she did, and a huge pile of 
 closely written blank books gives every minutia connected with the 
 business details of her work. In her diary was a copy of this letter to 
 Mr. Wendte, dated Feb. 21, 1878:-- 
   
      "Why not have a 'Mission Sunday' sometime soon? Do not announce it 
      previously, however; for some might feel inclined to remain at 
      home; but catch as many together as possible, and make them listen 
      to a rousing address from you,--a report of what you have done and 
      the letters you have received. It might not be as social or 
      interesting as a concert or something else; but it would not hurt 
      the people to listen to it, and would make the missionary work more 
      a reality to them, and I believe in the end an appeal from you 
      would bring in more money than anything else. 
   
      "I have one request to make of you, however; and that is, that you 
      do not bring my name out in the pulpit, unless you have occasion to 
      mention the names of the Missionary Society. It is merely necessary 
      to mention you have been assisted by one of the 'Missionary 
      Committee,' not saying 'Treasurer,' man or woman. I have no 
      objection if any one asks you privately who has done the work, to 
      have you tell them. I love to do good work, but wish no other 
      praise than to know that the recipient of the act has been 
      benefited thereby. I act from the mere pleasure of doing good to 
      others and believing it to be right, therefore deserve no 
      credit.... The winter's work has brought out the desire of younger 
      days, when a Presbyterian friend used to tell me, 'You ought to go 
      as a missionary to China.' I then had five little brothers and 
      sisters to help care for, and considered that 'mission' enough. 
      Since they are grown my health has been too poor to undertake 
      anything, but now I should like a work in life. If I have a 'taste' 
      or 'talent' for anything, it is for the study and the spread of 
      religion.... All the family are only too kind to me, which only 
      makes me the more anxious to use my one talent to the utmost 
      extent. If you know of any work I could assist in, in our 
      denomination, East or West, I would be much obliged to you if you 
      would let me know." 
   
 The first mentions in the journal of missionary work are Nov. 25, 1877, 
 "Mr. Wendte came to me with missionary work to do,--five hundred tracts 
 to distribute;" and Dec. 9, 1877, "Feel that I am doing good in lending 
 books and papers and distributing tracts." 
   
 Sept. 5, 1880, while visiting her sister in Philadelphia she opens a 
 new volume of the journal as follows:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 12 
   
      Too warm to venture to church. The church in Cincinnati opens 
      to-day. Would I might be one of the congregation! I _am_, in 
      spirit! In opening this book on Sunday I would dedicate it to a 
      high use, and open it with ascription of praise to the Giver of all 
      good. "Pray for us unto the Lord thy God, ... that the Lord thy God 
      may show us the way wherein we may walk" (Jer. xlii. 2, 3). 
      "Quicken thou me in thy way" (Psalms cxix. 37). 
   
 The following prayers are then copied:-- 
   
      "My Father, may I ever humbly follow in thy way; may I ever trust, 
      with the full assurance of faith, that it does lead to thy heavenly 
      kingdom. It is often narrow and perplexed, and I cannot see where 
      it is leading me; yet, though the guiding light of thy holy word 
      may be half obscured by the mists of the valley, if I fix my eyes 
      steadily upon it, it will become brighter and brighter; I shall see 
      my way clearly in this seemingly intricate road, and discern, even 
      at the end of it, the entrance to thy heavenly mansion." 
   
      "O God, may our souls be full of life. Save us from an inanimate 
      and sluggish life.... Inspire our sensibility to good; may we see 
      more and more its loveliness and beauty. And may all the varied 
      experience of life draw us nearer to thee" (Channing). 
   
 Then follows "an abstract from Channing's Memoirs, showing how, by 
 self-scrutiny, his character was formed, by many trials and denials." 
 She then copies eighteen pages from Channing's "Rules for 
 Self-Discipline," at the end writing, "All these pages from Channing are 
 written from memory, not copied." 
   
 The second rule copied is, "Let me not _talk_ of pains, sicknesses, 
 complaints," etc. 
   
 Following the rules is a poem copied from the "Christian Register" of 
 Sept. 4, 1880. 
   
   
                    WHAT OF THAT? 
   
             "Tired?"    Well, what of that? 
     Didst fancy life was spent on beds of ease, 
     Fluttering the rose-leaves scattered by the breeze? 
     Come, rouse thee! work while it is called day! 
     Coward, arise! Go forth upon thy way. 
   
             "Lonely?"    And what of that? 
     Some must be lonely; 'tis not given to all 
     To feel a heart responsive rise and fall, 
     To blend another life into its own. 
     Work may be done in loneliness. Work on! 
   
             "Dark?"    Well, what of that? 
     Didst fondly dream the sun would never set? 
     Dost fear to lose thy way? Take courage yet! 
     Learn thou to walk by faith, and not by sight; 
     Thy steps will guided be, and guided right. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 13 
   
 "Hard?"    Well, what of that? 
     Didst fancy life one summer holiday, 
     With lessons none to learn, and nought but play? 
     Go, get thee to thy task! Conquer or die! 
     It must be learned! Learn it, then, patiently. 
   
             "No help?"    Nay, 'tis not so! 
     Though human help is far, thy God is nigh; 
     Who feeds the ravens, hears his children's cry. 
     He's near thee wheresoe'er thy footsteps roam, 
     And he will guide thee, light thee, help thee home. 
   
 Then follows a selection from Emerson:-- 
   
      "The scholar must be a solitary, laborious, modest, and charitable 
      soul. He must embrace solitude as a bride. He must have his glees 
      and his glooms alone. Go, scholar, cherish your soul; expel 
      companions; set your habits to a life of solitude; then will the 
      faculties rise fair and full within, like forest trees, field 
      flowers; you will have results, which, when you meet your fellow 
      men, you can communicate and they will gladly receive. It is the 
      noble, manly, just thought which is the superiority demanded of 
      you; and not crowds, but solitude, confers this elevation." 
   
 Next follows a page of "Paragraphs for Preachers." Evidently this year 
 sees the dying of the first hope to be a preacher, and the gradual dawn 
 of her life's real mission. Seven pages follow of "Prayers altered and 
 rearranged for my own use, from 'Dairy Praise and Prayer.'" Three or 
 four appropriate prayers are united in one, headed, "First evening," 
 "First Morning," "Second Evening," etc. These were apparently prepared 
 for the lay services she had dreamed of holding. A page or two more, and 
 this entry, October 17, marks the dawning of the new hope: "Last week 
 received a very kind letter from Mr. Wendte, in which he stated, 'We 
 have made you chairman of a Book and Tract Table in the church; 
 'therefore I feel bound to return to attend to it." Further extracts 
 from the diary are:-- 
   
      Saturday evening, J---- accidentally broke my audiphone. I felt 
      _lost_ then, but wouldn't let them know how badly I felt about it, 
      and even went to church without it, for fear they would feel hurt 
      about it. It came home mended, this evening. 
   
      _October 31._ Finished G----'s afghan, also completed the 
      embroidery of fourth skirt for Mrs. ----, and first of baby C----'s 
      mittens. Was quite interested in a letter of Mrs. ---- in 
      "Register" of last week on "The Woman's Auxiliary Conference." Hope 
      she _will_ succeed in establishing a Woman's Club for discussion 
      and debate in Cincinnati. 
   
 Miss F. Le Baron, whose friendship with Miss Ellis dates back to the 
 latter's residence in Chicago, writes that she has several letters from 
 Miss Ellis setting forth her desire to preach, but unfortunately they 
 are in a totally inaccessible place. This allusion, in the diary, 
 evidently points to the final renunciation of Miss Ellis's first 
 missionary impulse:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 14 
   
 _November 7._ A letter from Miss Le Baron, of Chicago, in regard to 
      my engaging in missionary work in the West. She finally closed with 
      the idea that I had come to myself. In a letter from A---- this 
      week she says to me, "_Our_ lot in life appears to be that of 
      patience and submission," which brings to my mind quite a sermon, 
      in other's words, which I hope to write out to-day. It is time to 
      prepare for church.... The thought suggested by A----'s letter with 
      regard to submission to our lot called to mind the passage William 
      Ellery Channing wrote to his friend Francis. "You seem to go upon 
      the supposition that our circumstances are determined by 
      Providence. I believe they are determined by ourselves. Man is the 
      artificer of his own fortunes. By exertion he can enlarge his 
      sphere of usefulness. By activity he can 'multiply himself.' It is 
      mind that gives him the ascendency in society; it is mind that 
      gives him power and ability. It depends upon himself to call forth 
      the energies of mind, to strengthen the intellect, to form 
      benevolence into a habit of the soul. The consequence I draw from 
      these principles is that Heaven, by placing me in particular 
      circumstances, has not assigned me a determinate sphere of 
      usefulness (as you seem to think), but that it is in my power, and 
      of course my duty, to spread the 'beams of my light' wider into the 
      'night of adversity.'" 
   
 Miss Ellis continues, apparently partly in her own words:-- 
   
      With this idea, then, that we largely fashion our own lives, that, 
      "working with God, and for him, our lives can know no true failure, 
      but all things shall contribute to our soul's true success," let us 
      take up our cross, and then we shall find 
   
                            "The burden light, 
     The path made straight, the way all bright, 
             Our warfare cease; 
           So shall we win the crown, 
           At last our life lay down 
             In perfect peace." 
   
 Two pages more on the same topic, of original and selected matter 
 skilfully blended (perhaps the whole a bit of one of the sermons never 
 to be preached), end with the hymn, copied in full,-- 
   
     "I ask not wealth, but power to take 
       And use the things I have aright;" 
   
 and Miss Ellis finally sums all up, "True submission, then, consists in 
 _working_ out our own salvation, looking to God for strength wherewith 
 to work." The only entry for the next day is part of the hymn,-- 
   
     "But God, through ways they have not known, 
                 Will lead his own." 
   
 November 11 she returned home. 
   
      _November 14._ Attended fair, and met many friends. Mr. Wendte 
      kindly set me to work at a Book and Tract Table, and I sold two 
      books and distributed a quantity of free matter. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 15 
   
      _December 5._ Am thoroughly on the road to the Book and Tract Table 
      in the church. Hope it may prove a good thing, and that I shall do 
      it _faithfully_. 
   
      _December 12._ Have been miserable all the week, and quite sick two 
      and a half hours Thursday. Couldn't raise my head, and had to 
      pretty much give up all day. Had sociable this week, and I was on 
      hand to urge the book trade, and hoped to have a supply to-day, but 
      was disappointed in it. It was one of the unsatisfactory days to 
      me, for I have had such a tremendous noise in my head that I 
      couldn't hear at all. 
   
      _December 19._ Held a meeting at Mrs. ----'s on Friday, with regard 
      to the Woman's Auxiliary Missionary work. It has been decided that 
      I am to take charge of distribution of Liberal publications, also 
      to canvass for the "Register." Had Mr. Mayo to preach for us 
      to-day. I was astonished to hear how well I heard him, and how 
      _natural_ it seemed. It made my cross all the heavier in contrast. 
      [The sonnet, "Strength for the Day," by Rachel G. Alsop, is copied 
      to close this day's record.] 
   
      _Feb. 10, 1881._ Began committing "A Statement of Unitarian Belief 
      in Bible Language." 
   
      _February 13._ I have felt rather depressed this week, and _needed_ 
      the church to-day, which did do me good, as I heard more of the 
      sermon than I have heard for thirteen years. 
   
      _February 20._ Sermon to-day on "Are ye good Hearers?" I think my 
      remark to Mr. Wendte last Sunday must have called it forth.... Mr. 
      Wendte made the following beautiful tribute to the deaf.... I heard 
      just enough to overcome me, and thought two or three times that I 
      should break down. Have cried and laughed over the sermon. 
   
 A long extract is copied into the journal, of which this is a portion:-- 
   
      "Blindness only separates a man from Nature, but the loss of 
      hearing also isolates him, more or less, from human companionship. 
      As a natural consequence, the deaf are apt to lose interest in the 
      social life around them, and to grow discontented, suspicious, and 
      morose. You and I know beautiful examples to the contrary,--persons 
      so patient, brave, and uncomplaining amidst their heavy 
      tribulation, so sunny of temper and full of human kindness, that 
      they are a constant inspiration and joy to us. Yet theirs is a hard 
      struggle, to remain true and sweet and Christian with such fearful 
      odds against them in the journey of life." 
   
      _February 27._ Am becoming quite interested in missionary work in 
      Ravenna, Ohio. 
   
      "We scatter seeds with careless hand, 
      And dream we ne'er shall see them more; 
         But for a thousand years 
         Their fruit appears, 
         In weeds that mar the land, 
         Or healthful store." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 16 
   
      _March 13._ To-day is my forty-sixth birthday, and I am about 
      ready, or rather have resolved, to open a Circulating Library in 
      the church, as quite a number are in favor of it. We organized our 
      Women's Auxiliary Conference last Tuesday, of a rainy day: Mrs. 
      Fayette Smith, President; Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, 
      Vice-president; Fannie Field, Treasurer and Recording Secretary; 
      Miss Ellis, Corresponding Secretary; Executive Committee (with the 
      above), Mrs. Davies Wilson, Miss Elizabeth D. Allen. 
   
 The foundation of the Circulating Library was Miss Ellis's own 
 collection of religious books. Book lovers know what this sacrifice 
 would have been to a less generous nature, one less intent on helping 
 others. Additions were made by gifts from individuals and authors, and 
 by Miss Ellis's occasional purchase of some book whose need she felt, 
 until the library now numbers over one hundred and thirty volumes. These 
 books were loaned at church, and by mail all over the country. 
   
 A letter to Rev. A. A. Livermore reveals the brisk, happy, and 
 business-like Miss Ellis of the later years, with her hands at last full 
 of work for her denomination. It also records the advent of her first 
 correspondent, Mr. Julius Woodruff. 
   
                                              MARCH 10, 1881. 
   
      I have been better in health this winter than for many years,--for 
      a severe winter is all the better for me,--and have been able to 
      keep _very_ busy. Mr. Wendte has made me chairman of a Book and 
      Tract Table in the church, which has kept me very busy; and in 
      addition, the Unity Club made me Corresponding Secretary of their 
      Sunday Afternoon Lecture Committee, which involved distributing the 
      tickets (one thousand) and then collecting the money on them.... In 
      the mean time, too, I was agent here for the "Register," had that 
      to attend to, besides attending to sale of books, paying for them, 
      and sending new orders, also "Unity" subscribers coming in, and 
      hunting up members for the Women's Auxiliary Conference, and 
      receiving their money. Now, do you not think for one who has always 
      been more spiritually inclined, that I have taken quite _too_ much 
      to money matters? 
   
      Well, in distributing "Registers" through the State I have come 
      across a very interesting, appreciative young man of twenty-one, in 
      Ravenna, Ohio, and I have reason to think we have created quite a 
      stir in the little town. Mr. Woodruff, my correspondent, writes a 
      very good letter, and is quite enthusiastic on the subject of 
      Unitarianism, and is willing to do missionary work, distributing 
      widely the documents I send him, and has recommended a young man, 
      formerly a student of theology, an intelligent, thinking man, who 
      is much interested in our views. He now works on a farm and teaches 
      school, in order to gain an education. On Wednesday last we 
      organized our Women's Auxiliary Conference, at which I read Mr. 
      Woodruff's letters, and the ladies at once moved that we should 
      propose Meadville to our young friend, whose name is ----. I am to 
      write and ask whether he would like to go to the college at 
      Meadville, and in the mean time am to find out through you the 
      conditions on which he could be admitted. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 17 
   
 I should be only too 
      happy if I prove the means of assisting one young man to the 
      ministry, and shall feel that all these many years of interest in 
      the church have not been lost, if we only succeed in doing this 
      much good. Besides all this other work, I find the ladies are much 
      in favor of a Circulating Library in the church, so I am going to 
      found my library soon. 
   
 The journal, March 20, shows the indomitable will that ruled the feeble 
 body:-- 
   
      Yesterday [Saturday] I was at the church all day to get the library 
      in order. Was taken with vertigo, and for over an hour and a half 
      couldn't walk straight. J---- S---- happened to be at the church at 
      choir-meeting, and brought me home. By bedtime could walk alone, 
      and to-day have been attending to duties at church. Succeeded in 
      getting the Library settled to my satisfaction, and was glad there 
      was no one there. Opened my library March 19. Mr. W----announced me 
      "Miss Sarah Ellis" in the papers. 
   
      _March 28._ Have felt quite encouraged this week by applications 
      for documents. Have just mailed to Rev. ----, "Statement of 
      Unitarian Belief in Bible Language." [This applicant is now in a 
      Unitarian pulpit.] 
   
      _April 3._ A beautiful sermon in "Register" to-day--"Life's 
      Shadows"--by Rev. J. Ll. Jones. [She copies two pages.] 
   
      _May 1._ Feel deeply interested in a correspondent we have in 
      Springfield, ... who confesses himself something of an atheist, and 
      I am hunting up all the convincing articles upon the subject of God 
      and Immortality that I can find, and came across a "Unitarian 
      Review," of June, 1876, which seems to have been written for his 
      very case.... Hope these will be convincing to the Springfield 
      Club, which was formed last Sunday, with ten members to begin with. 
   
      _June 2._ Am now quite interested in trying to manage it so as to 
      keep the church open two hours Sundays during the vacation, for 
      persons to come and read and take home books. Hope I may succeed. 
   
      _June 12._ Have felt tired to-day, but enjoyed the day, for Mr. 
      Wendte and mother dined here. He tells me I may "run the church" 
      during the vacation, which will make me very happy. 
   
      _June 29._ The hottest day of the month for ten years, and the 
      hottest of the season so far. Intense. One hundred in the shade at 
      noon. Have been reading W. R. Alger's "School of Life," from which 
      the following abstract.... 
   
 Then follow three pages of the "abstract," in a close, minute 
 handwriting, ending this volume of the journal,--the last submitted to 
 the writer's inspection, because, as has been previously said, there 
 was almost no personal matter in the diaries of the remaining years. 
   
 Miss Ellis's ardent desire to keep the church open during the summer 
 vacation had to be abandoned, owing to the reluctance of her family to 
 have one so feeble at the church alone; and she went Saturday afternoons 
 instead, when the sexton was there. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 18 
   
 The Cincinnati branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference, on its 
 organization in March, 1881, looking about for work to do, remembered 
 occasional letters received by Mr. Wendte in response to the documents 
 sent out by him and Miss Ellis. These letters seemed to hint at a 
 possible opportunity awaiting this Unitarian church, standing so 
 isolated in the heart of the great rich West, where the multitude of 
 Ingersoll and Liberal clubs, and of intelligent people outside all 
 churches, seemed to indicate a want that the evangelical denominations 
 did not meet. It was therefore resolved to attempt extending the work 
 begun by Mr. Wendte, by advertising in the daily papers Unitarian 
 literature for free distribution,--an experiment never before tried. 
 Miss Ellis entered upon her duties as Corresponding Secretary "without 
 money and without price" (though later a small annual salary of one 
 hundred dollars was raised for her), but with an immense zeal. The 
 advertisement's line or two of fine print, almost lost, apparently, on 
 the broad side of the daily paper, inserted only once a week, 
 nevertheless soon began to bring Miss Ellis letters that equally 
 surprised and delighted us, showing that we had not over-estimated the 
 demand for Unitarian literature in the West. 
   
 Rev. J. Ll. Jones being in Cincinnati, the first bundle of letters was 
 read to him, and his opinion, as an experienced Western missionary, 
 anxiously awaited. It was given in these words:-- 
   
      "I think you Cincinnati women have got hold of the _little end_ of 
      a _big thing_, and if Miss Ellis's health and your enthusiasm hold 
      out, something is bound to come of it. Go on, by all means." He 
      added, "I wish I knew that Miss Ellis had ten years more to live." 
   
 Four years and a half, however, was the short term of service allowed 
 her in her mission, found at last after years of longing and groping 
 towards it vainly. But now it was seen that all these years of suffering 
 had not been in vain. She who had endured so much was quick to 
 sympathize with others. The religious studies undertaken for her own 
 consolation enabled her wisely to direct the reading of her 
 correspondents. Even her deafness seemed specially to fit her for her 
 work. Shut apart from the din and bustle of modern life in a quiet world 
 of her own, from its peaceful communings she sent out light and strength 
 to others. The poor, denied life, like a plant severely pruned by the 
 careful gardener to insure a late, full bloom, now reached out and 
 touched many lives with a wonderful uplifting power. 
   
 Her records of this four and a half years' work show that she received 
 1,672 letters and postals, wrote 2,541, distributed at church and by 
 mail 22,042 tracts, papers, etc.; sold 286 books, loaned 258 books, and 
 obtained about sixty subscribers to religious papers.[3] Mere figures, 
 however, but poorly tell the story. Several young men have entered or 
 will enter the ministry, as one result of her efforts. Many souls 
 wrestling in utter loneliness with doubts they dared not confide to 
 their nearest friends, received, from her wise sympathy and counsel, 
 restoration to religious faith, and strength to bear heavy burdens with 
 renewed courage, animated by trust in a loving Father hitherto concealed 
 from them behind the outgrown phraseology of antiquated creeds,--creeds 
 which their reason rejected. Many, indeed most of these correspondents, 
 overjoyed with their new faith, hastened to share it with friends, and 
 many a little missionary centre began to grow in localities far from any 
 Unitarian church, fostered by people who had never heard a Unitarian 
 sermon. So the ground was being prepared for the State missionary. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 19 
   
 Her 
 work, too, opened the eyes of her denomination to its opportunities, and 
 did much to promote that missionary activity in which lies our brightest 
 hope for the future. She is the acknowledged pioneer of the Post Office 
 Mission. 
   
 [Footnote 3: Besides this, much reading matter was sent to the City 
 Workhouse, to the Old Men and Women's Home, and other institutions.] 
   
 As her work began to attract attention, many letters came from those 
 desiring to undertake like work, both East and West, asking advice, full 
 and explicit accounts of her methods, etc.; and many long letters were 
 written in reply. A Unitarian Club formed among the soldiers in the 
 Columbus barracks was one of her interests, until its dissolution by the 
 ordering of its members to other posts. She supplied much reading matter 
 to, and corresponded occasionally with, soldiers at the Dayton Soldiers' 
 Home. A soldier in Wyoming Territory was for a long time a most grateful 
 recipient of reading from her, which he shared with his company. Small 
 clubs in several localities were supplied by her with matter for 
 discussion and study during their existence. Wherever she had two or 
 three correspondents, she always urged the formation of reading or Unity 
 clubs. For some months she had an interesting correspondence with a 
 young man of more than usual intelligence in our City Workhouse, loaning 
 him such books as Channing's "Life and Works," Dewey's "Human Nature," 
 and Merriam's "Way of Life." She never heard from him after he left the 
 workhouse, but always had faith that he was somewhere living up to, or 
 towards, the good resolves so often expressed to her. Through him, and 
 Mr. Beach, of Joliet, Ill., our attention was called to the need of 
 supplying prisoners with good reading matter, both religious and 
 secular. Correspondence was opened with the warden and chaplain at the 
 State Penitentiary, Frankfort, Ky., which led to the sending of their 
 "Registers" there regularly by two Boston ladies, and eventually to the 
 sending of many barrels of reading matter both to Joliet and Kentucky by 
 the Women's Auxiliary Conference of Boston. 
   
 A great pleasure of her last years was attending the Western Conference 
 at Chicago in May, 1883. Published accounts of her work had made her 
 well known in the denomination; so that, as the Cincinnati party 
 reported on their return home, "Miss Ellis was decidedly the belle of 
 the Conference." Every one wanted to see and talk with her, ask her 
 advice, etc. It was an immense satisfaction to her to meet personally, 
 to see and hear (for she almost seemed to hear through the eager eyes), 
 men and women whose fame and writings were so familiar to her. Every 
 session of the Conference saw Miss Ellis seated in the front pew, 
 audiphone in hand, eagerly intent on the exercises. Social beguilements 
 might make other people late at the morning devotions, but never Miss 
 Ellis, who took her conferences, like all else, conscientiously. 
   
 In May, 1885, she again attended the Western Conference at St. Louis, 
 though in great feebleness of body. Rev. W. C. Gannett, in "Unity," thus 
 speaks of her:-- 
   
      "A last summer's letter from the little mother of the Post Office 
      Mission, who has just died in Cincinnati, will be of interest now. 
      Some who were present at the last May Conference in St. Louis may 
      remember the pathos of the quiet figure sitting in the front pews 
      and trying on her echo-fan to catch the patter of the words said 
      round her. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 20 
   
 The wee, sick, deafened body in which she did her work 
      so strong-heartedly makes that work all the more an example and an 
      inspiration. Strange enough should it prove that this bit of a 
      lady, almost caged from the world by cripplings, had opened the 
      most effective channel yet made for carrying our liberal faith to 
      the world. Perhaps it _takes_ a thorn in the flesh to make a 
      missionary. She certainly has done more than many a stout _son_ of 
      the Gospel to keep her name remembered in our Western churches. 
      This letter hints her pluck and her joy in the work, and the 
      struggle of it. She had been urged to go into the country for a 
      short rest, but replied:-- 
   
      The country is not the place for me to stay in any time. The 
      morning and evening air keep my head roaring so, and increase 
      catarrh. I have learned that to stay home during the summer, make 
      no special effort, and work on slowly, is the better plan. If I go 
      away, there is constantly an effort over something. I return tired, 
      work has accumulated. I have to work doubly hard, and soon use up 
      the little gained. I am too weak in summer to wish to come in 
      contact with people to whom I have to be agreeable. Another 
      difficulty,--the country is too _quiet_ for me. I am inclined to be 
      a "hermit," and when I do go out, which I do daily, even now I am 
      so sick, I need the stir, bustle, commotion, and the stores to 
      change the thoughts. I loved the country before I was so deaf,--now 
      city life is better for me; but I love to refresh myself by a ride 
      into the country in the street cars, where I can study _human_ 
      nature on the way.... I work on principle, and for the real love of 
      working. I am not happy unless at work, and can't bear to tear 
      myself away from my little congregation, my papers, books, etc. 
      _They_ suffer for it. The family do not wish me to keep so busy, 
      but I am better for it, and my physician is on my side. "Keep up!" 
      [The next few sentences have already been given, in reference to 
      Mr. Noyes.] Don't give me undue credit for my appearance at the St. 
      Louis Conference. I tried to kill three birds with one stone (I 
      don't wear bird's wings in my hat, however),--to attend the 
      Conference, visit a brother, and gain strength. The last I failed 
      in.... I have written this long letter in two sittings. I have 
      improved decidedly within the past few days, and with pleasant 
      rides and good food and care shall soon be better. Most sincerely 
      and cordially your friend,                   SALLIE ELLIS. 
   
      CINCINNATI, July 28,1885." 
   
 Strangely enough, one's first thought of Miss Ellis was never as an 
 invalid. She so ignored the poor, weak body that she made you forget it 
 too. She was always so _alive_, so full of interest and joy in her work. 
 With what delight would she say, "This new tract is exactly the thing to 
 send ----," or announce, "such a good letter from ----." Even during the 
 last months, when the ravages of disease could no longer be concealed, 
 she _would_ not be sick. She set aside your sympathy. She was always 
 "better," "only my limbs are so weak to-day," or "my breath is so 
 short," or "it always makes me cough to walk," as if these were mere 
 casual incidents quite unworthy of notice. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 21 
   
 The last of her life, it was pitiful to see her still clinging to her 
 work, still persisting in caring for her own room, declining all offers 
 of help. She often rose at five o'clock Sundays, because obliged by 
 weakness to work slowly, that she might reach church early, to prepare 
 her Tract Table before the congregation arrived. When no longer able to 
 remain to the services, she still came and ministered to her own special 
 congregation at the Tract Table, though obliged by weakness to sit. When 
 she no longer had strength to arrange her hair, she quietly cut it off. 
 But she went on with her work. To one offering help she said, "When I 
 cannot do my work, I don't want to live." Again, she said, "There are 
 many who need me, and they keep me alive." To the last she declined 
 being considered an invalid,--did not wish any one to walk out with her, 
 although the family were very uneasy to have one so weak and so deaf on 
 the street alone. She walked out every day, until the last time she was 
 forced to lean against the door-post and gain breath and strength to 
 take the final step up into the house. 
   
 All this time she was writing letters of cheer and strength, seldom 
 intimating that all was not well with her. When finally obliged to keep 
 her bed, she faded away rapidly, only living about two weeks. The last 
 postal card to a correspondent was begun in bed, in a trembling hand, 
 ending abruptly, "Too sick to write," and it was finished for her. 
 Although at times she had a little of the consumptive's feeling that she 
 might possibly rally, and even recover strength to work again, yet she 
 perceived, as she said to her mother, that "the sands are running out 
 fast," and made all her preparations for death in the quiet spirit of 
 one merely going on a journey into a familiar country. One who watched 
 with her one of the last nights spoke of a beautiful prayer she offered 
 in the middle of the night. She was unable to turn herself in bed, and 
 said to this friend with a smile, "This body wants turning so." Poor 
 body! not much longer had she to endure its weaknesses. Her religion was 
 too habitual, too much a part of her very soul, for many outward words 
 or professions. It was her life, her self. Why should she talk about it? 
   
 Mr. Thayer had always given her a list of the hymns and the full order 
 of service, and the sermon to read. The Sunday before her death the 
 sermon was returned, with the message that Miss Ellis was unable to read 
 it, but had asked her mother to copy the text for her. A week before 
 her death a friend, finding that in her excessive conscientiousness she 
 was letting business details of the Women's Auxiliary Conference trouble 
 her lest she should forget some item, went over all the books, wrote 
 business letters, and settled accounts, at her dictation. Speaking of 
 her work, she expressed faith that "God will raise up some one to do 
 it." She said earnestly, "I have always wanted to do something for my 
 denomination." It had evidently been a little of a struggle for her to 
 leave the work she loved, just as it began to be so successful in many 
 places, to die and be forgotten. In her modesty, she had no foregleam of 
 the afterglow of praise and public testimony to her worth that was to 
 follow the setting of her sun. Speaking once, near the end, with great 
 pleasure, of Mrs. Paine's successful work in Newport and New York, she 
 added, sadly, "They must increase, but I must decrease." But at last she 
 was "ready not to do," able to give all up and repose in perfect peace 
 upon the Father. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 22 
   
 She had always thought much of Christmas, always remembered her friends' 
 birthdays. Her skilful fingers and untiring industry made the slender 
 means go a long way in devising innumerable tasteful presents on these 
 days for a large circle of friends. She loved children, and loved to 
 make them happy, and her little friends were always remembered. This 
 year, a day or two before Christmas, when so weak that only by the 
 closest attention could the feeble, broken utterance be understood, she 
 directed Christmas gifts, prepared long before, sent to all her friends. 
 To one whom she knew needed it, went "Daily Strength for Daily Needs;" 
 to one, a teacher, the little "Seed Thoughts from Browning." "I thought 
 it might help her in her work, tell her." Even her washerwoman and her 
 little girl, and the postman,--"he has brought me a great many letters," 
 she said,--were not forgotten. 
   
 A friend took her a Christmas card sent by a little girl. Her feeble 
 vision could barely discern the design. "Birds and flowers," she said; 
 "what could be more beautiful? It cheers me so. Yet I hardly need that. 
 I am very happy and cheerful. I feel that everything is right." 
 Afterwards she spoke of the "Happy, happy Christmas-tide," saying, "We 
 must try to make it bright for the young." To the last, her thoughts 
 were of others. 
   
 Having closed all her earthly affairs, she lay awaiting the end in great 
 peace. Sunday, Dec. 27, 1885, in the evening of the peaceful day she 
 always loved, just as her little clock was striking seven, she passed 
 gently away in sleep. Well may we believe that hers was a joyful 
 wakening into a bright New Year. 
   
 Her funeral was attended in the Unitarian Church, December 30,--a 
 service of rare beauty and appropriateness. A thoughtful friend had 
 covered the Tract Table in the vestibule with moss, ferns, and flowers, 
 among which were placed a few tracts. In the church, wreathed with 
 Christmas evergreens, a large concourse of friends assembled. To the 
 strains of the Beethoven Funeral March, the coffin, nearly concealed 
 beneath emblematic palm branches and lilies, was borne by the brothers 
 whose loving-kindness had brightened all the life now ended, to its 
 resting-place beneath the pulpit, close to the front seat where, for so 
 many years, Miss Ellis's familiar form had never been missing. The 
 choir, composed of young friends of hers in the church, sang the first 
 three verses of "Nearer, my God, to Thee," and Whittier's appropriate 
 hymn, "Another hand is beckoning us." 
   
 From the text, "She is not dead, but sleepeth," Rev. George A. Thayer 
 paid a just and beautiful tribute to the spirit passed from our midst. 
 To few, he said, could these words of Jesus be so fittingly applied. 
 Though seemingly dead, she would live in ever-increasing power in the 
 influence she had exerted over other lives. If, from cities and villages 
 far away, from lonely farm-houses, all could to-day be assembled within 
 these walls who had received help and strength from her, large indeed 
 would be the concourse. More truly of her than of most might it be said 
 that she had 
   
               "joined the choir invisible 
     Of those immortal dead who live again 
     In minds made better by their presence." 
   
 It would be well could we all imitate her example in cultivating a love 
 of religious reading, and that habit of religious meditation and 
 communion which was the source of her strength. Her leading 
 characteristic was conscience, an all-dominating power of conscience. 
 Whatever she felt it her duty to do, that she did, at all costs. He 
 closed by reading Bryant's 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 23 
   
 THE CONQUEROR'S GRAVE. 
   
     Within this lowly grave a Conqueror lies, 
       And yet the monument proclaims it not, 
     Nor round the sleeper's name hath chisel wrought 
       The emblems of a fame that never dies,-- 
     Ivy and amaranth, in a graceful sheaf, 
     Twined with the laurel's fair, imperial leaf. 
         A simple name alone, 
         To the great world unknown, 
     Is graven here, and wild-flowers, rising round, 
     Meek meadow-sweet and violets of the ground, 
       Lean lovingly against the humble stone. 
   
     Here, in the quiet earth, they laid apart 
       No man of iron mould and bloody hands, 
     Who sought to wreak upon the cowering lands 
       The passions that consumed his restless heart; 
     But one of tender spirit and delicate frame, 
         Gentlest in mien and mind, 
         Of gentle womankind 
     Timidly shrinking from the breath of blame: 
     One in whose eyes the smile of kindness made 
       Its haunt, like flowers by sunny brooks in May, 
     Yet, at the thought of others' pain, a shade 
       Of sweeter sadness chased the smile away. 
   
     Nor deem that when the hand that moulders here 
     Was raised in menace, realms were chilled with fear 
       And armies mustered at the sign, as when 
     Clouds rise on clouds before the rainy East-- 
       Gray captains leading bands of veteran men 
     And fiery youths to be the vulture's feast. 
     Not thus were waged the mighty wars that gave 
     The victory to her who fills this grave. 
         Alone her task was wrought, 
         Alone the battle fought; 
     Through that long strife her constant hope was stayed 
     On God alone, nor looked for other aid. 
   
     She met the hosts of sorrow with a look 
       That altered not beneath the frown they wore, 
     And soon the lowering brood were tamed, and took, 
       Meekly, her gentle rule, and frowned no more. 
     Her soft hand put aside the assaults of wrath, 
         And calmly broke in twain 
         The fiery shafts of pain, 
     And rent the nets of passion from her path. 
       By that victorious hand despair was slain; 
     With love she vanquished hate, and overcame 
     Evil with good, in her Great Master's name. 
   
     Her glory is not of this shadowy state, 
       Glory that with the fleeting season dies; 
     But when she entered at the sapphire gate, 
       What joy was radiant in celestial eyes! 
     How Heaven's bright depths with sounding welcomes rung, 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 24 
   
         And flowers of Heaven by shining hands were flung! 
         And He who, long before, 
     Pain, scorn, and sorrow bore, 
     The Mighty Sufferer, with aspect sweet, 
     Smiled on the timid stranger from his seat; 
     He who returning, glorious, from the grave, 
     Dragged Death, disarmed, in chains, a crouching slave. 
   
     See, as I linger here, the sun grows low; 
       Cool airs are murmuring that the night is near. 
     O gentle sleeper, from thy grave I go 
       Consoled though sad, in hope and yet in fear. 
         Brief is the time, I know, 
         The warfare scarce begun,-- 
       Yet all may win the triumphs thou hast won. 
     Still flows the fount whose waters strengthened thee, 
       The victors' names are yet too few to fill 
     Heaven's mighty roll; the glorious armory, 
       That ministered to thee, is open still. 
   
 On the pleasant slope of a lovely hillside in Spring Grove, where 
 everything around breathes of Nature's peace and repose, among graves 
 very dear to her, the worn body was laid to rest, while the gentle 
 winter rain fell not unkindly into the open grave. Much seemed to have 
 gone out of the world when the echoing clods covered that which was 
 "Miss Ellis." 
   
 The Sunday after her death, as some of her friends were sadly trying to 
 replace the tracts in the table drawer just as she would have liked them 
 arranged, a white dove flew down and rested on the window-sill outside. 
 Only a coincidence, but one that touched us, nevertheless. If the 
 spirits of the departed ever revisit earth, surely Miss Ellis would 
 return to the church she loved so much; and possibly it is not wholly 
 fancy that still feels her in her old-time seat under the pulpit. 
   
 As soon as possible after Miss Ellis's death the Women's Auxiliary 
 Conference of Cincinnati prepared a four-page leaflet, containing a 
 brief sketch of her life and death, and sent it to all her 
 correspondents, many of whom were ignorant that she was even in ill 
 health. The little memorial's first page reads:-- 
   
             In Memoriam. 
            SALLIE ELLIS. 
           DECEMBER 27, 1885. 
   
     So many worlds, so much to do, 
       So little done, such things to be, 
       How know I what had need of thee, 
     For thou wert strong as thou wert true. 
                             TENNYSON. 
   
 It reprinted from "Unity," Jan. 9, 1886, this tender tribute from a 
 personal friend and a member of the Women's Auxiliary:-- 
   
   
                 SALLIE ELLIS. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 25 
   
 She only did what lay at hand,-- 
       Work that her own hand found to do: 
     With no thought of a  "mission" grand, 
       Yet, bit by bit, her mission grew. 
   
     She did--what others left undone; 
       She gleaned behind the harvesters: 
     The scattered ears of grain let stand 
       By careless ones,--all these were hers. 
   
     Patient, unresting, still she wrought, 
       Though life beat fainter and more faint: 
     And only as her soul took flight, 
       We saw--the aureole of the Saint. 
   
              ALICE WILLIAMS BROTHERTON. 
   
     CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
   
 The memorial closed as follows:-- 
   
      "At the regular monthly meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference 
      of Cincinnati, Jan. 12, 1886, the programme for this meeting was 
      omitted, and the afternoon devoted to tender recollection of the 
      dear friend and valued secretary so recently taken from us, to the 
      reading of many letters from East and West containing loving 
      tribute to her worth and sympathy for our loss, and to devising 
      such plans for continuing our work in future as should be our 
      friend's best commemoration, the tribute she would chiefly have 
      desired. Mrs. George A. Thayer offered the following expression of 
      the feeling of our Society, for entry on our records:-- 
   
      "'It is fitting that we should place upon the records of this 
      Association some words of grateful remembrance of our late 
      fellow-worker and Secretary, Sallie Ellis, who went up higher on 
      Sunday, Dec. 27, 1885. 
   
      "'She was called to her office four years and a half ago, and took 
      up its work from the beginning as one who felt its consecration, 
      and saw the opportunity it offered of being a ministry of the 
      highest things to many souls yearning for a word of religion both 
      reasonable and spiritual. 
   
      "'Her long and loving study of Unitarian principles gave her a rare 
      fitness for teaching others the _thought_ of our church. Her 
      personal faith in the deep things of God enabled her to speak ever 
      the needed word to inquirers of the _religion_ of our church. And 
      her sacred sense of duty, not only illustrated in every act of her 
      life, but shining always through her written words, made her an 
      admirable exemplar of the _moral quality_ of our church. So she was 
      all that we could ask as our missionary leader, for she not only 
      taught the stranger from afar of the surpassing beauty and 
      greatness of our Liberal Christianity, but she quickened in us at 
      home new love for its truths, and a deeper sense of our privilege 
      and obligations in being of its disciples. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 26 
   
 "'In her life she guided and inspired us, and being dead she abides 
      with us, ever a constant presence, to make us humble that we do so 
      little for our great work, and to stir in us desire to be more 
      faithful to our task in the Master's vineyard.' 
   
 "The following extract from a letter of directions left by Miss Ellis in 
 the event of her death was then read:-- 
   
      "'All the books in the loan library I bequeath to the use of the 
      church, and when not so used, my family shall have the disposal of 
      them.' 
   
     "This library comprises over one hundred and thirty religious books, 
     chiefly by Unitarian authors. It was voted that this library 'shall 
     always be known as The Sallie Ellis Loan Library.' 
   
     "Mrs. M. E. Hunert, 177 Betts Street, Cincinnati, was appointed 
     Corresponding Secretary. All communications may hereafter be 
     addressed to her. She will continue the free distribution of 
     Unitarian papers, tracts, and sermons, to any names furnished her of 
     persons desiring them. She will also receive subscriptions for 
     Unitarian publications and sell books, when desired, and will loan 
     the books of the Sallie Ellis Loan Library, the borrower paying the 
     postage only. It is earnestly wished to continue Miss Ellis's work 
     in her spirit, and it is hoped correspondents and friends will 
     co-operate with us in this effort. 
   
     "Though saddened and greatly bereft, the Cincinnati Auxiliary would 
     still strive to 'look forward and not back,' working on in the 
     spirit of Whittier's poem, 
   
   
                 OUR SAINTS. 
   
     From the eternal silence rounding 
       All unsure and starlight here, 
     Voices of our lost ones sounding, 
       Bid us be of heart and cheer, 
     Through the silence, down the spaces, 
       Falling on the inward ear. 
   
     Let us draw their mantles o'er us, 
       Which have fallen in our way: 
     Let us do the work before us 
       Calmly, bravely, while we may, 
     Ere the long night-silence cometh, 
       And with us it is not day!" 
   
   
 The "In Memoriam" called out letters of deep regret--the regret of those 
 who mourn a personal friend--from every correspondent. A few of these 
 letters appear in the correspondence, selected from many of similar 
 tenor. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 27 
   
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 The letters of Miss Ellis's correspondents here given are selected from 
 an immense number of like purport and interest. She had kept all the 
 significant letters neatly filed in bundles, each correspondent by 
 himself. It has been a disappointment to receive so few, comparatively, 
 of her own letters. Our busy age is not given to saving its letters. It 
 is therefore all the more touching to know that so many of her 
 correspondents have treasured even every postal card from her hand. Her 
 letters given here, however, well illustrate her spirit and ideas on 
 many topics, also her method of work, and reveal something of the secret 
 of her success. 
   
 Literary style and fine effects were the last things aimed at in her 
 letters. Their characteristics are plainness, directness, intense 
 earnestness to convince and impress, and a warm sympathy with people of 
 all kinds and degrees. Strongly conservative in her own theology, she 
 yet did not set up her views as a fixed standard for others, or assume 
 to hold all truth. Some of her warmest friends were among our younger, 
 more radical ministers, whose purity and sincerity of life and faith 
 quite offset in her eyes their theological vagaries. 
   
 The letters first given are to fellow-workers who had asked about her 
 methods, materials, etc. In an article which Mr. Gannett had asked her 
 to write, and which appeared in "Unity," March 1, 1884, she wrote:-- 
   
      "We keep a standing weekly advertisement in two of our chief daily 
      papers,--those which have the widest circulation, one Saturday 
      morning, and the other Sunday, under the head of 'Religious 
      Notices.' One of these papers advertises free for us.[4] 
   
      [Footnote 4: The advertisement read thus: "Unitarian papers, 
      tracts, etc., sent free to any one addressing Miss Sallie Ellis, 
      Auburn Ave."] 
   
      "On receiving an application we respond, being guided somewhat by 
      the style and character of the application, by sending one or two 
      tracts, with a copy of the 'Christian Register' or 'Unity.' [Many 
      people of the church, after reading their religious papers, handed 
      them to Miss Ellis for distribution.] After sending the papers and 
      various tracts for several weeks, we write a postal of inquiry as 
      to whether Unitarian literature is satisfactory; and if the person 
      cares to subscribe to either of the papers, _which_ he or she 
      prefers; which tracts have given the most satisfaction; and whether 
      they care to borrow any books by mail, paying the postage on them. 
      Frequently we receive no reply [in which case the name was 
      dropped], but mostly the answer is gratifying. If the person cannot 
      subscribe for the papers, but enjoys them, we continue to send 
      them.... In sending tracts, we begin with 'Unitarian Principles and 
      Doctrines,' by Rev. C. A. Brigham, the 'New Hampshire Statement of 
      Belief,' and 'What Do Unitarians Believe?' by Rev. C. W. 
      Wendte,--because we wish to show what our faith has grown from, and 
      what it is now. These we think fairly represent the denomination; 
      and we have found that they all give general satisfaction. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 28 
   
 Next, 
      'Why Am I a Unitarian?' by James F. Clarke, D.D., which is also 
      well liked, and 'Discourse on Distinguishing Opinions of 
      Unitarians,' by William E. Channing, D.D., as creating a thirst for 
      his 'Works.' Then we branch off from this into whatever we think 
      best.... _Promptness_ in replying and _regularity_ in sending 
      papers, etc., will do more towards showing our deep interest in the 
      work, and bring the individual seeking into vital connection with 
      the church sending the literature. A _little_ at a time frequently, 
      to insure _careful_ and _thorough_ reading. Recommend books 
      extensively.... We believe in loaning the books of the early 
      ministers of our denomination as a good stepping-stone to the 
      Unitarianism now taught in our pulpits." 
   
 In a letter to Miss F. L. Roberts, of Chicago, then Secretary of Western 
 Women's Unitarian Conference, March 14, 1884, she wrote:-- 
   
      "I agree with you that no _one_ tract or sermon will satisfy the 
      questions of inquirers. They have to 'grow into the light,' as we 
      all have done and still are doing. Did any one thing settle our 
      doubts or questionings? I think not. 
   
      "'What is our _aim_ in the Post Office Mission Work?' It occurs to 
      me it should be to give inquirers the fairest statement of our 
      teachings, from Channing up to the present time. Not the thought of 
      any one man or woman, but that of the greatest number of our best 
      minds in the several eras of our denomination. In many cases ... 
      people have not the _slightest_ idea what Unitarianism is, farther 
      than that we do not believe Christ was God. They not only do not 
      know what we believe, but think us a kind of 'outcasts.' It almost 
      seems like being in the Dark Ages of the world to hear of such 
      ignorance as we _know_ exists with regard to our doctrines. 
      Therefore we are talking, as it were, to children. Let us then 
      begin at first principles, and send fair, clear statements." 
   
 After alluding to several of her correspondents who were thinking of 
 entering the Unitarian ministry, she adds:-- 
   
      "It seems to me the A. U. A. tracts, and the books, papers, etc., 
      sent with them, have produced good results; have made deep, 
      earnest thinkers. It is through these very things our own ministers 
      have been made to think, and they have gone beyond these same 
      things; and so will our correspondents in time. But at present few 
      of them have access to books, or come in contact with people who 
      can converse on all these points with them; therefore it is well to 
      intersperse with our tracts on doctrines, good _practical_ sermons, 
      and the newer tracts occasionally, leading them up gradually to 
      Unitarian ideas, and showing them especially that while we _have_ 
      doctrines in our church, character is the most important to us. 
      There is no one book that has done more effective work than Rev. J. 
 Clarke's 'Orthodoxy,' etc., which proves that we need good, 
 
      _clear_, strong doctrine. [The Post Office Mission, she adds] is 
      only a larger church, and we want to bring these people into vital 
      connection with us,--making not Unitarians of them, or merely 
      intellectual men and women, but practical Christians working with 
      us and for humanity. Rev. ---- is the prophet of his age. We shall 
      all _grow_ up to his ideal some day, and bring our Post Office 
      Mission members with us. Hope he will be willing to wait. 'It is 
      good that a man should both hope and quietly wait' (Lam. iii. 26)." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 29 
   
 A bit from another letter to Miss Roberts is interesting as showing the 
 untiring industry which enabled Miss Ellis to accomplish so much:-- 
   
      ... "Next week we hold our fair, and I shall be very busy all the 
      week. Have had so many orders for mittens, that I am a perfect 
      knitting machine. I can knit and read, however, and therefore have 
      looked over many sermons for distribution in the mean time. Am 
      tired, and thankful for the blessed Saturday night followed by the 
      quiet of Sunday." 
   
 In answer to a letter of inquiry from Miss F. Le Baron when that lady 
 first entered on her work as Secretary of the Western Women's Unitarian 
 Conference at Chicago, Dec. 2, 1884, Miss Ellis wrote:-- 
   
      "'How much time do you give to all this work?' Doing it at home, I 
      cannot calculate exactly, for there are many moments thrown in that 
      I cannot well count; but this much I _can_ say. I begin about 9 A.M. 
      Monday to collect my materials about me, and usually by 
      dinner-time (1 P. M.) I have put away all papers, etc., and have 
      ready my week's papers, etc., for the postman to take. Nearly every 
      evening I write an hour or more, excepting Sunday, when I won't 
      write business letters. This is all the work I can _calculate_; but 
      there are many moments spent reading my letters, assorting papers, 
      tying up books, setting down items, making purchases, etc., besides 
      the time spent Sunday and on Wednesday at the church, over the 
      library, etc. However, I am very systematic in everything, and 
      accomplish more in that way.... Of course, new applicants I reply 
      to at once; but every new applicant is then added to my Monday 
      list. Being at an office, you have more interruptions; and then 
      deafness has its reward, and one can pursue her work in peace many 
      times, whereas another would be disturbed." 
   
 In answer to another letter from Miss Le Baron, full of warm 
 congratulations on her success, she writes, Dec. 11, 1884:-- 
   
      "I am very much obliged for your high opinion of me. I read it to a 
      dear friend, who always sends me to the Conference at Chicago, and 
      she said, 'It's all true, but I hope you won't get so far above me 
      in the next world.' I never have stopped to 'understand' what I am 
      doing, or the 'name' I am making. To do the good comes from my 
      heart, and I leave the results to the Good Father, and know if I 
      merit a reward it will be given me. It is a pleasure in _this_ 
      world, to feel I am giving satisfaction to so many in the 
      denomination. I am a thorough Unitarian, and have read our 
      denominational works more than anything else, which has prepared me 
      for this very work. I am an ignoramus in literature outside of 
      Unitarianism, only that you cannot be a Unitarian and not come, 
      more or less, in contact with general literature.... By the way, I 
      always read tracts, and M. J. Savage's and Chadwick's and Clarke's 
      weekly sermons, going to and from the city [Miss Ellis was living 
      at this time in Avondale, three miles from the city], and carry 
      _big_ packages of papers home on Sunday. Think the conductors must 
      know I am a missionary." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 30 
   
 Rev. Joseph May, Rev. Charles Allen, and Rev. F. L. Hosmer sent Miss 
 Ellis many of their printed sermons for distribution, which did good 
 service. Rev. William C. Gannett early saw the possibilities of this 
 work, and has done much to systematize and further it in many ways. He 
 christened it the "Post Office Mission," and, seeing the need of more 
 fresh material for distribution, devised and edited the "Church Door 
 Pulpit" series of sermons, and has also been the chief promoter of the 
 "Unity Mission" series of tracts. The following extracts are from Miss 
 Ellis's letters to him. 
   
                                                    SEPTEMBER 12, 1882. 
   
      Received to-day, from ----, your letter of September 5, asking 
      about our "Missionary Work by Letter." ... I will very gladly 
      afford you my assistance in that respect. However, I am rather more 
      conservative than yourself,--rather of the E. S. Gannett 
      type,--still have visited Omaha, where I have had brothers settled, 
      and know some little of the style of religion which is requisite in 
      the Northwest.... Will give you a list of the tracts I have used 
      most profitably. Most people state, when they ask for literature, 
      "Want something that teaches the _doctrines_ of the Unitarian 
      Church." Thereupon I have forwarded, from time to time, "Unitarian 
      Doctrines and Principles" (Brigham); "Word of God" and "The Rising 
      Star of the Liberal Faith" (W. P. Tilden); "New Hampshire 
      Statement of Belief;" "Unitarian Belief in Bible Language;" "Why Am 
      I a Unitarian?" "Inspiration of New Testament," "Revivals" 
      (Clarke); "Our Common Christianity" (A. P. Stanley); "Mission of 
      Unitarianism" (Heber Newton); "Spiritual Christianity." (Starr 
      King); and "What Do Unitarians Believe?" (C. W. Wendte).... The 
      serial sermons of Chadwick, Clarke, Hale, and Savage always gladly 
      received.... But do not be afraid of a little doctrine, Mr. 
      Gannett, for there are some people in Orthodox churches who are 
      hungering and thirsting for just our doctrines. They cannot do 
      without doctrine just yet, but want something better than they have 
      known, and think it a great blessing to find it. I try my 
      congregation to see what each requires, and lead them on and up. My 
      church is composed of a very mixed set.... I am deeply interested 
      in this work, and know we have done much good.... We keep books to 
      loan, and also recommend books from time to time, and ask our 
      correspondents to subscribe to the periodicals.... Dr. Dewey's 
      sermons on "Human Nature" and "Human Life," and his "Two Great 
      Commandments" benefit some people very much. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                    March 11, 1883. 
   
      I never omit the "Pulpit" column [of the Register], and read 
      "Wrestling and Blessing" with much interest.... I set each 
      difficulty down as just suited for some one, or two, or three of my 
      correspondents. Of course, I _don't apply sermons to myself any 
      more_. It is a beautiful sermon; and this brings me to the point 
      we are all so interested in,--the wider circulation of the fresh 
      thoughts of all the pulpits. I surely think, with you, that it will 
      help the work to "give it name." Am glad you are stirring them all 
 I do not, as you say, feel the need of it so much, but 
 
      occasionally do.... A new case in Tennessee, who never knew 
      _anything_ of the Liberal Church, till we sent him papers. Is much 
      pleased, and wants to read till he knows still more about us.  
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 31 
   
 He 
      writes, "Not one per cent of the people here know there is such a 
      church. Tell me, do the majority of Unitarian ministers believe in 
      the resurrection of Jesus; that he healed the leper, cast out 
      devils, and raised Lazarus? I ask for information, and hope you 
      will reply at some future time." He is evidently in a benighted 
      region. Says he has "heard nothing outside the Cumberland 
      Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist Churches, and am none of 
      these;" and I presume is very little of anything yet, and is 
      longing for a nobler life than he has known, or sees about him. The 
      longer I go on, the more need I see of getting this work fully and 
      well organized. It will be brought about ere long. Even reading 
      over papers is beneficial. The publication of our hymns, the most 
      inspiring, will do a great deal of good. In several cases I have 
      copied them, and to good purpose. 
   
 Jan. 20, 1885, in answer to the question, what twenty names she would 
 prefer in the "Church Door Pulpit" series the coming year, she wrote:-- 
   
      "Revs. Grindall Reynolds, Rush R. Shippen, J. F. Clarke, E. E. 
      Hale, Joseph May, Dr. William Furness, H. W. Bellows, T. Starr 
      King, J. Ll. Jones, J. T. Sunderland, George Bachelor, William C. 
      Gannett, F. L. Hosmer, David Utter, George A. Thayer, C. W. Wendte, 
 J. Barrows, Albert Walkley, J. C. Learned, James Martineau. Am 
 
      afraid I haven't left any room for those who do not bear the 
      'Unitarian' name, but feel that Unitarianism is so little known, 
      that I would first make our own best writers known, and then branch 
      out and take in others. All of the above names I should like to see 
      in 'Church Door Pulpit' for 1885-1886.... I think generally people 
      wish to become acquainted with the Unitarian pulpit. 'What do 
      Unitarians preach?' is the cry. 'I want to hear a Unitarian;' 
      'those who have been educated in that denomination.'" 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                 February 20, 1885. 
   
      Your article in "Unity," February 16, on "A Blessing on the Day," 
      pleased me very much.... We haven't quite the right book yet, and 
      with you I say, "about twelve verses from the Bible well knitted 
      around some central thought," as we principally want to become 
      acquainted with the Bible as the "Book of man." Think something 
      more like "Daily Praise and Prayer," with different Scripture 
      selections, perhaps, and omitting most of the prayers. I would only 
      have a prayer to lead to a prayer of one's own,--that is, to 
      inspire one to pray in their own words. Have often thought I should 
      like to compile a book of "Daily Worship" from the Scriptures, our 
      Hymn Books, "Daily Praise and Prayer," "Day unto Day," "Helps to 
      Devout Living," and the "Responsive Service," and now, from "Daily 
      Strength for Daily Needs," "Aspirations of the World," and 
      "Spiritual Life" in the "Register," but principally Scripture 
      selections.... "Daily Praise and Prayer" is doing much good in a 
      very troublesome family of one of my correspondents. I remembered 
      to have sent the lady "Wrestling and Blessing," and wrote a short 
      time since to call her attention to the "Inherited Burden," asking 
      if she still had the tract. This morning received a reply, in which 
      she wrote, "Yes! I still have 'Wrestling and Blessing,' for it did 
      me so much good when I first read it that I felt as if I could not 
      part with it." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 32 
   
 Many, many homes need "A Blessing on the Day" to 
      create the true feeling. 
   
 To Miss Holmes, of the Davenport, Iowa, Post Office Mission, Miss Ellis 
 wrote:-- 
   
                                              August 20, 1884. 
   
      ... Yes, I do use the A. U. A. tracts freely, and more than any 
      others, those marked on our list herein enclosed, and also "Word of 
      God," "The Doctrine of Prayer," and "Wrestling and Blessing,"--the 
      latter to those who need encouragement particularly. I find 
      generally that people want to get at the first principles,--the A 
      B C of Unitarianism. We do not use Higginson's "Sympathy of 
      Religion" at all. Our aim is to make practical Unitarians, and let 
      doctrines and theory gradually fall into the secondary place. 
      Therefore I object to Mr. ----'s list of books, because they are 
      more historical and theoretical. They do well where one wants to 
      study religion; but where one wants a Christianity to live by, I 
      think something that comes down to practical life, or that is more 
      simple, better adapted to the generality of people. As knowledge of 
      Unitarianism spreads, they will naturally seek deeper works. But at 
      present, something as clear and concise as possible, with the 
      "Christian Register," "Unity," and the "Dayspring," which further 
      illustrate our principles, we find very popular. The difficulty is 
      to get a large enough supply and variety enough. The A. U. A. 
      tracts only answer as an explanation, and we must have the sermons, 
      and papers, and books enough in addition. As I have been at the 
      work for three years, it is hard work to find sufficient supplies 
      for between thirty and forty every week, and these extending the 
      papers and tracts elsewhere. 
   
      I cannot think, with Mr. Judy, that it is the best method to divide 
      the work. It seems to me that causes confusion. It seems a much 
      better way that the person who sends the tracts and papers should 
      distribute the books too, as being better able to advise the books 
      to read; for he or she learns the "bent of mind" of the seeker. So 
      many different persons at work causes confusion and mistakes. I 
      mail papers, tracts, etc., attend to all the correspondence, to 
      loaning and mailing the books, to all printed matter received, to 
      all the advertising orders of every kind, to money received and 
      expended,--consulting the President frequently, and the details are 
      brought up before our monthly meetings. I do not believe the work 
      can be so well done as by one person; but of course no one could 
      devote so much time to it unless they have some compensation for 
 I took up the work at first voluntarily, but soon found there 
 
      was a great deal in it, and therefore wished to give it earnest 
      attention, and the ladies felt me particularly fitted for it, and 
      preferred to give me a small salary. It never is "irksome" to me, 
      but a work of real love to me. I have always been a 
      missionary,--distributing all the papers and tracts which contained 
      anything of a practical nature or of a pure Christianity. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                          _To Miss Holmes._ 
   
                                                      AUGUST 29, 1884. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 33 
      Have just been re-reading "A Little Pilgrim." To tell you the plain 
      truth, the ideas are beautiful, but I do not like prying into the 
      next world. No one really knows anything concerning it. I am 
      willing to rest where Jesus left us. He told us little of it, but 
      enough for the "health of our souls." "In our Father's house are 
      many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you;" and I believe when 
      our friends leave us they go to another division of God's kingdom 
      and "prepare a place for us," in that through their deaths we are 
      naturally drawn heavenward, and our lives are different from ever 
      before. I am not so much interested as to what the future world is. 
      It is enough to me, to know that it is, and that I am doing the 
      best I can while I am living here. The future world will be made 
      plain to me when my time comes to go there; and if I have only 
      lived rightly here, there will be nothing to fear. 
   
      I can trust in God. Still such books seem to be necessary to some 
      persons, but I do not consider them healthy reading. When you have 
      finished such a book the query comes, "Is it fact?" Who can say it 
      is? I feel that my friends are in the hands of a loving Father as 
      they were while on earth, and that he will still do for them what 
      is best, and their spirit and affection remain with us to comfort 
      and guide us. I never lose them. They are only "gone before." 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                        _Miss Ellis to Rev. A. A. Livermore._ 
   
                                                    JUNE 2, 1880. 
   
      MY DEAR FRIEND,--Many thanks for your kind letter of Mar. 29th, 
      though I never saw the "P. S."--which, as usual with all 
      postscripts, contained the best part of the letter--till a month 
      afterwards, when in house-cleaning I was assorting letters 
      received, I noticed the last page of your letter, which was like 
      receiving a new letter, and came in very opportune; for we have 
      had so much to depress us of late, that I was glad to have my 
      attention called to Philippians, which contains so much that is 
      cheering. There has been a good deal to occupy my time and thoughts 
      since your very kind letter reached me; but I will not allow your 
      college term to close without sending you my kind word, though I 
      cannot be personally present at the Ohio Conference and Meadville 
      exercises. May you have charming weather, and a satisfactory 
      gathering, is my sincere wish. Rev. William H. Channing's visit 
      here was highly appreciated by his old friends and the early 
      members of the church, and we all particularly enjoyed the 
      Communion. It was truly a communion with the departed, and very 
      beautiful to us. I did not have the pleasure of meeting Mr. 
      Channing excepting a few moments at Mrs. Ryland's, which I 
      regretted exceedingly; but it was a disappointment I could not 
      alter. 
   
      ---- and wife moved to Mt. Auburn to-day, there to make a bright, 
      beautiful home for themselves, which is as it should be; but we who 
      are left at home feel rather sad.  
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 34 
 The last of my dear mother's five 
      little children has gone from me, and it is not so easy to enter 
      into their homes and have my brothers and sisters what they were to 
      me in our own family circle. Still all is right and best as it is; 
      and though clouds gather over our heads, the sunshine will at 
      length make itself seen, for "all things work together for good." I 
      am going to be gay and spend the summer with ---- in Philadelphia; 
      and as we have not met for eight years, we shall enjoy a quiet 
      summer together. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                 OCTOBER 1, 1884. 
   
      ... Thanks for your kind sympathy for us in our sorrow. Thanks to 
      you for the solid foundation you laid when our dear mother died, 
      which has given me a firm faith in the hour of trial. I firmly 
      believe that "all things work together for good," and that dear 
      C----'s long sickness prepared her family, herself, and all of us 
      for her death. There was much in her sickness and death that was 
      beautiful and comforting. It was pleasant after so many days of 
      suffering to see her at rest; and we feel it must have been a happy 
      release to her too, for her face in death bore no trace of the pain 
      she had endured, of which we were glad, for she looked so natural 
      and sweetly that we could allow her two youngest children to look 
      at "mamma asleep, to wake up an angel in heaven." C---- never 
      wanted her children to have a horror of death, and her desire has 
      been granted. They have no other idea than that the Good Father 
      released their dear mother from pain and she is an angel in heaven. 
      An Episcopalian minister officiated at the funeral, as C---- always 
      preferred that service. He was a personal friend of hers and my 
      brother E----'s. My brother's widow came from ----to attend the 
      funeral, and she requested that I select a piece to be read in case 
      they found no one to lead in a hymn. I selected your hymn,--"A holy 
      air is breathing round." It was read in the middle of the service, 
      very impressively, and was particularly comforting to N----'s widow 
      and myself, as you had officiated at our mother's funeral and had 
      baptized C---- and N----. (Do you remember the day you baptized me 
      and my three brothers and C---- at the Masonic Hall?) The children 
      scattered flowers over the graves; A----, ten years old, said on 
      returning from the cemetery, "Papa, it was all beautiful, no dread 
      or gloom about it. It was just as mamma would have had it." And so 
      it was. The children will always feel the life hereafter a reality. 
      "More homelike is the vast unknown," since their mamma is there. 
      The piece "At noontide," in last week's "Register," applies to dear 
      C----'s death as well as if written for her. It is beautiful. I 
      want it in a leaflet to distribute, as I have opportunity 
      frequently for just such words. Yes! I help on "Unity," the 
      "Register," and "Our Best Words."... Hope I am making Christians, 
      and not merely Liberals or merely Unitarians. Think we are gaining 
      ground with many; but the literature must be distributed with great 
      care, I feel with you.... We are glad to have the Thayers home 
      again, and will probably begin to work earnestly next week. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                  JANUARY 4, 1885. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 35 
   
      ... Thanksgiving and Christmas were rather sad days to us this 
      year, without our dear C----, who always did so much to make the 
      days bright for all about her. Pa, mother, and myself dined both 
      days with C----'s family. Christmas was made a happy day for the 
      children by all our kind friends, and we could but feel their 
      mother was looking upon them, with a bright and happy face, in 
      gratitude to all those who had endeavored to make her dear ones so 
      happy. I have been very busy this winter, for the correspondents 
      still claim my time. Young ---- still appears interested, and I 
      hope he may be able to enter college this year, for he appears to 
      feel his isolation there much. No sympathetic person about him 
      nearer than Mr. Barnes of Montreal.... Unity Club flourishes, so 
      does the Day Nursery and Women's Auxiliary Conference. The fair was 
      a pleasant occasion, and now we are all feeling cheered in having 
      Mrs. T---- better again. I always see A---- at the window as I pass 
      there on my way to church. He is a lovely little boy. He looks as 
      if he _wanted_ to know "Miss Ellis;" but I doubt if he does, 
      without his mother to call attention to her. Hope you all passed 
      pleasant holidays at Meadville. I must close to write to Aunt ----, 
      who always looks for a Sunday letter from me. [This was an aged 
      blind aunt.] 
   
 Miss Ellis's first Post Office Mission correspondent was a young man in 
 Ravenna, Ohio, Mr. Julius Woodruff. His first letter to her said: 
   
      "Thank you for your kindness in sending me the 'Christian 
      Register.' I am much pleased with the paper, and may become a 
      subscriber at no distant day. I received copies of Mr. Wendte's 
      sermon, 'What do Unitarians Believe?' I have distributed them where 
      I thought they would do the most good, and have reason to think 
      that good was accomplished. Before long I will send to you for 
      more books; and if I can help you in obtaining subscribers to the 
      'Register' I will gladly do so. I am not a member of any church, 
      and stand almost alone in the church I attend [Methodist], in my 
      views. Our people seem to be almost entirely divided into three 
      classes; namely, the strictly Orthodox, the wholly indifferent or 
      non-thinking class, and the ultra Liberal. I am in sympathy with 
      neither; and I know of only a few, all young boys like myself, who 
      occupy middle ground. I can almost _fully_ indorse the views 
      expressed by Rev. C. W. Wendte in the sermon to which I have 
      referred; and believing his views to be right, I take pleasure in 
      giving them as wide a circulation as I can. In many respects I 
      admire Ingersoll; but I have no sympathy with the so-called 
      'Liberal League' with which he is connected, and which has an 
      auxiliary league in this county. 
   
      "... If I understand the theory and purpose of your church, I shall 
      be glad to render the cause any service in my power; and if I can 
      be of any service as an auxiliary to your Missionary Society, I 
      have only to be instructed in the ways thereof." 
   
 As such auxiliary he acted, distributing tracts, papers, etc., with a 
 zeal that might well shame some life-long Unitarians. In later letters 
 he wrote:-- 
   
      "Outside of all churches there is quite a number of men, mostly 
      young, intelligent men, who have cultivated an intense hatred of 
      certain doctrines and religious observances, and who have 
      gradually come to denounce and seek the overthrow of our whole 
      religious system. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 36 
   
 These are banded together as an auxiliary to the 
      'Liberal League' of America. In addition to these are a number of 
      young men, sons of Orthodox parents, who dissent from the religious 
      views and peculiar creeds which have satisfied their elders, and 
      yet have no definite faith of their own. I think that with these 
      two classes, as well as with those who have so far been indifferent 
      to the claim of religion, we have an excellent prospect of success 
      in introducing our views and extending the influence of Liberal 
      Christianity. I am very friendly to the Orthodox Church, 
      recognizing the noble purpose that animates them all, and the 
      invaluable services that they have rendered to mankind; and I have 
      less desire to draw upon their strength than I have to see the 
      Unitarian Church built up from material that has formerly been 
      identified with _no_ church organization. I was a Unitarian in 
      theory long before I knew anything of the Unitarian Church.... As a 
      rule, the young men of my acquaintance who are, either in theory or 
      practice, liberal Christians, are of the most intelligent order, 
      ambitious, progressive young men; and of _them_ what may we not 
      hope?" 
   
 He went into business in Leadville, Colorado, and from there wrote Miss 
 Ellis (in 1881):-- 
   
      "Sunday is almost entirely ignored in the business portion of the 
      city, very few men closing their places of business. Every saloon 
      and theatre is open on Sunday, and brass bands fill the air with 
      their inspiring music. I attended the Methodist Episcopal Church 
      Sabbath School last Sunday, and found quite a respectable crowd in 
      attendance. I thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon; and when I saw 
      rough-bearded, grimy, slouchy-looking men and boys from the mines 
      and workshops taking part in the exercises of the school, I thanked 
      God for the influence his church and school had had upon the 
      largest, hardest mining-camp in the world.... If you have any more 
      of the documents referred to, I wish you would send me a dozen or 
      more, and a few of the pamphlets on 'What Do Unitarians Believe?' 
      It seems to me this would be a most fruitful field in which to 
      plant Unitarian ideas and principles. It seems to me no other 
      church would be so popular here. Of the party of ten young men who 
      board with me, I do not think that any one of them has been in a 
      church three times since he came to Leadville. In most respects, 
      all of them are fine young men; but Orthodox doctrines would never 
      gain any ground with them, while Liberal ideas might win the field 
      if the boys could be made to consider them." 
   
 Miss Ellis, and all the ladies, indeed, of the Cincinnati Auxiliary, 
 were greatly interested in Leadville, and hoped to do a good work there, 
 aided by our enthusiastic young friend; but the above was destined to be 
 our last letter from him. In September, 1881, came a postal card from a 
 hotel clerk, saying, "Mr. Woodruff wishes me to inform you that he has 
 been unable to answer your letter on account of sickness, but will write 
 you as soon as able." A few days later came intelligence of his death. 
 Tributes to his character in the Ravenna newspapers, and his photograph 
 sent Miss Ellis by his sister, only confirmed our opinion of this young 
 man's noble character, and our sincere grief at his loss. Miss Ellis at 
 once wrote to his mother this letter:-- 
   
                                              OCTOBER 17, 1881. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 37 
   
      I shall be compelled to address the envelope containing this note 
      to your daughter, not knowing your husband's name. I presume you 
      are aware that Miss ---- informed me of your son's death, and she, 
      I presume, sent me so kindly the paper last week containing the 
      obituary on him which I read with much interest, as it was such an 
      opinion as I and all of us had formed of your son, Julius, from his 
      interesting letters. I assure you that our love and sympathy are 
      with you in the affliction, and would that we could soften the 
      severe loss to you; but that alone the good Father in time can 
      render less bitter. True resignation consists in enduring it as 
      God's will. 
   
      The ladies of our Missionary Society wish me to tell you how much 
      all were interested in Julius's letters, and how deeply they feel 
      with you, and at my request send you a book of consolation, "Light 
      on the Cloud," as an expression of our real interest in your son. 
      It seemed to me that nothing could be so appropriate as the 
      literature he so learned to love. "He being dead yet speaketh" 
      (Heb. xi. 4); and such we deem would be his words to those who were 
      so dear to him. The President of our society marked one piece,--"He 
      giveth his beloved sleep," and I have marked passages through the 
      book, particularly under the head "Death a Blessing," and the last 
      poem in the book. If words can cheer you, it is our hope that this 
      little gift may serve the purpose. At least may it be a testimonial 
      to you of our deep interest in your dear boy.... Our ladies are to 
      hold the first meeting this season a week from to-morrow, when the 
      obituary notice of Julius R. Woodruff's death will be read, and 
      listened to with interest. He was my first correspondent, and his 
      letter from Colorado was particularly enjoyable. It grieves me to 
      think it was the last.... Hoping to hear farther from you, dear 
      friend, through your daughter or Miss----, and to have the pleasure 
      of becoming personally acquainted with you at some future day, with 
      a God's blessing on you one and all, far and near, 
   
      Yours in common sorrow,              S. ELLIS. 
   
 The correspondence was continued with Mr. Woodruff's sister as 
 follows:-- 
   
                                         NOVEMBER 11, 1881. 
   
      ... Yes, you may call me your "friend," for I truly feel that I 
      have lost a dear and true friend in your brother, and consequently 
      feel interested in all of his family, and do not wonder that your 
      mother and the whole family are heart-broken to be called to give 
      him up. Am sincerely glad that you felt free to express all your 
      feelings to me, for now I can sympathize more deeply with you. You 
      are just the age I was when my first sorrow came upon me,--the 
      death of my dear mother. As you say, I felt that I must keep up, to 
      cheer my father, who has ever been a domestic man, and the loss of 
      my mother was very hard for him to bear, and the five little 
      children to be cared for, I the oldest daughter at home, and had 
      been my mother's "right-hand man" in the care of the children. But 
      all our sorrows and trials are good for us to bear, and we need the 
      crosses as well as the joys of life to fit us for the life here and 
      for that which is to come. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 38 
   
 It was hard to be reconciled to the death of one so young and so 
      good and true as Julius; but we must not be selfish, but think what 
      is our loss is the gain of those taken, many times. He may, through 
      his spiritual influence, still care for and lead you all nearer to 
      God. These "dark hours of life" bring us to know ourselves better; 
      they call out our sympathy for our fellow-men; and, what is more 
      than all, they bring us nearer to God, and thus they are not a mere 
      cross of agony; therefore let us not murmur at our affliction, but 
      still believe that God is good, and will so make our trials serve 
      us that they may become _good_ to us.... We must trust God, who 
      doeth all things for the best, and pray for strength and light to 
      be given us. Our prayers may not always be answered as we ask, but 
      they are answered in another way. 
   
     "Pray, though the gift you ask for 
       May never comfort your fears, 
     May never repay your pleading; 
       Yet pray, and with hopeful tears. 
     An answer--not that you sought for, 
       But diviner--will come one day: 
     Your eyes are too dim to see it; 
       Yet strive, and wait, and pray.[5] 
   
     "How shalt thou bear the cross which now 
       So dread a weight appears? 
     Keep quietly to God, and think 
       Upon the Eternal Years. 
   
     "Bear gently, suffer like a child, 
       Nor be ashamed of tears; 
     Kiss the sweet cross, and in thy heart 
       Sing of the Eternal Years."[6] 
   
      [Footnote 5: A. A. Procter.] 
   
      [Footnote 6: Faber.] 
   
 The whole of Whittier's "Angels of Grief" and a poem by Ellerton are 
 copied in addition. 
   
 The correspondence was continued, occasionally, during Miss Ellis's 
 life. Aug. 11, 1882, she wrote:-- 
   
      "Young women, Miss----, have great influence over young men, and I 
      hope you struggle to improve all those whom you know. Have you 
      ever come across Frances Power Cobbe's 'Duties of Women'? It is a 
      remarkably sensible book, and I feel as if every young girl ought 
      to read it. I think you would do your young friends a service by 
      owning it and passing it around among them. You can get it in paper 
      for twenty-five cents. It is not a doctrinal work at all. She 
      delivered the lectures in London, to women. Neither is it a Woman's 
      Rights book altogether, but what any girl or young man, come to 
      that, ought to do and practise. Are you going to resume school 
      after vacation again, or what do you intend to turn your attention 
      to? 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 39 
   
 "I have not been very strong since I was sick last August, 
      therefore have not done much this year. I go into the city every 
      two weeks on Saturday A.M., to be at the church to loan books to 
      any one who desires them. Was there last Saturday, and two strange 
      ladies came in who proved very pleasant; one a young girl. She came 
      after 'Helps to Devout Living,' for a sister who has gone out to 
      Nebraska for her health, and is miles away from any church and has 
      no companionable people about her. This young sister also selected 
      for herself 'Day unto Day,' as a book of daily study in an upward 
      path. It is such pleasant work to have it within my power to loan 
      and to recommend so many good books to those who have not read 
      them. They always enjoy them. Julius would have been so happy in it 
      out at Leadville." 
   
 Mr. Woodruff's sister wrote, Feb. 15, 1886: 
   
      "Some one very kindly sent us the obituary of our dear friend Miss 
      Ellis. We were surprised and deeply grieved to hear of her death, 
      as we did not know that her health was poor even. She said so 
      little about herself, that we never thought of her as otherwise 
      than well and strong.... I enjoyed Miss Ellis's letters so much, 
      and we appreciated her kindness in writing to us after my dear 
      brother's death. He thought so much of Miss Ellis, and I know if he 
      had lived you would not have been disappointed in him. I cannot 
      thank you sufficiently for the little book you sent mother after 
      J----'s death. Truly it was a 'Light on the Cloud,' and it 
      comforted mother more than I can tell you. It is so full of 
      comforting words. 
   
      "Though Miss Ellis is gone from us, she has left behind the 
      influence of a life so pure, so noble, and so grand, that we will 
      all be the better for having known her. As my brother once wrote in 
      a friend's album, 'God wisely wills that we may not know the number 
      of our years, and in view of the uncertainty which enshrouds each 
      to-morrow, let us so live that be our lives long or short, the 
      little home-world that surrounds us will be the better for our 
      having lived in it.' Can we not say that these two did not live in 
      vain? My brother had a great influence over young people and also 
      over some who were much older than he, and had he been spared, I 
      feel sure that he would have done a grand work for the cause of 
      Christianity. But their life work is ended only too soon; and why 
      they should be taken when they were doing so much good, and others 
      who are a burden to themselves and others are left, I suppose we 
      shall know sometime; and until that time we must believe that 'He 
      doeth all things well.'" 
   
 Miss Ellis's letters frequently express her joy in a young man who had 
 become a Unitarian minister through her efforts. He was a Methodist 
 minister in Ohio, but had grown unable longer to accept the creed of his 
 church. Unhappy, unsettled, and adrift, not knowing where to turn for 
 help, by the merest "chance" he picked up on a railroad car a Cincinnati 
 paper, and his eye fell on the Women's Auxiliary Conference 
 advertisement. He wrote Miss Ellis a postal card, saying:-- 
   
      "I have seen your notice in the 'Commercial,' offering Unitarian 
      papers and tracts free to persons who may desire to read them. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 40 
   
 I 
      must confess to more ignorance in regard to Unitarian doctrines 
      than is seemly in a minister of the gospel, and will be thankful 
      indeed if you will kindly favor me with such papers and tracts as 
      may enlighten me ever so little." 
   
 Later he wrote:-- 
   
      "You have helped me not a little in my search for truth. Before I 
      first wrote you for tracts, etc., I knew absolutely nothing of 
      Unitarianism beyond the term, and the fact that Unitarians did not 
      believe Christ to have been God." 
   
 Miss Ellis corresponded with him from that time on, loaning many books, 
 etc. It was never her wish or aim to unsettle persons of a fixed faith. 
 She sought rather to reach and help those who, by reading and thinking, 
 had become dissatisfied with the only forms of religious faith known to 
 them, and were consequently drifting into scepticism. Mr. ----'s own 
 letters best tell the story. After Miss Ellis's death, he wrote Feb. 
 3,1886: 
   
      "I had long been wondering why I did not hear from her, but 
      supposed that she found her time so engrossed with her chosen work 
      that she must defer writing until some more convenient season. She 
      had, it is true, hinted at her failing health, but I never dreamed 
      it was so bad. My first intimation of the real state of affairs was 
      the notice of her death. I need not say that I was startled, that I 
      regret our common loss; these are but feeble expressions. 
   
      "Through all my life here at Cambridge I have been anticipating the 
      day when, returning West, I should meet her, and in some degree 
      thank her for the help and comfort she brought me in life. This has 
      become such a fixed idea with me, that it is hard to believe, as I 
      write this, that it can never be in this world. It seems very 
      strange that the one friend who did me such a supreme kindness in 
      life I shall never meet. 
   
      "She was the very messenger of God to me, and is inseparably 
      associated with the most trying period of my life. The only 
      conceptions of religion I had ever had were proving unreal and 
      worthless, and no one offered anything as a substitute. As I look 
      back, the peril of my situation seems much greater than it did at 
      the time. I fear I should have become insincere, or, what is 
      perhaps almost as bad, should have fallen into a sort of despairing 
      scepticism. Heaven in mercy saved me from it; but I shall not 
      forget that even Heaven might not have found a way to do this, had 
      there been no Miss Ellis. It was but a little thing, a trifle, a 
      brief notice in a daily paper, that in some way caught a careless 
      reader's eye. But my whole life is changed in consequence. 
   
      "And so, while you miss her in her place and in your work, in your 
      church and social life, I, too, here in New England miss her. I 
      feel as if something is gone out of my life and I have really one 
      less reason for returning West when my school work is done. But I 
      have if possible an additional incentive to a good life. I trust I 
      shall hear that your work is still going on successfully. I assure 
      you I shall never lose interest in your Mission, and shall never 
      cease to regard it as in some sense a home into which I was 
      adopted. I sincerely hope I shall never do it any discredit." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 41 
   
 In a letter to Mrs. Hunert, Miss Ellis's successor, he says:-- 
   
      "Accept, please, my hearty congratulations, and my best wishes for 
      your very abundant success. It is a great work indeed, one that 
      cannot be easily over-estimated, and in which it seems to me you 
      can accomplish a minister's work even, and a very successful 
      minister's work at that. I wonder how large your congregation is 
      now; that is, how many persons are in communication with you and 
      your Mission. 
   
      "Of Miss Ellis I shall always think as one of my greatest earthly 
      benefactors, and it will be a life-long regret that I never met 
      her.... I wish you would say to Mrs. Smith that I have by me here 
      in New England only the letters received from Miss Ellis since 
      coming to Harvard, and these I fear contain nothing she would like 
      to make use of. The really helpful letters, those that were of most 
      vital interest to me, were written while I was a Methodist preacher 
      in Ohio, and these are back there still, packed up among odds and 
      ends, and practically might almost as well be in the moon.... Again 
      accept my best wishes for your success in the new calling,--a 
      divine one in the truest sense of the word. I assure you I shall 
      always be glad to hear of the growth and success of your Mission, 
      all the more, perhaps, because I hold to it a sort of filial 
      relation. You know that in the Methodist Church each young convert 
      or young minister speaks of the minister under whose preaching he 
      was converted, as a spiritual father. So I think of myself now as 
      the spiritual child of your Women's Missionary Society in 
      Cincinnati. Would that Heaven might help me to be worthy of the 
      home, and justify in some sense their loving-kindness and help in 
      time of need." 
   
 A gentleman in Kentucky, long a correspondent of Miss Ellis, who had 
 taken papers, bought many books, etc., through her, and who has recently 
 died, wrote of her, Jan. 22, 1886:-- 
   
      "Many souls will miss the modest, unassuming, faithful secretary, 
      but her silent labors will be followed by a rich reward. Her 
      memorial is in the hearts and minds of those who were led through 
      her efforts to freedom, fellowship, and character, in religion." 
   
 This correspondent was a farmer's wife in Ohio, who, after Miss Ellis's 
 death, wrote:-- 
   
      "I have had much trouble in the last two years, and would have 
      given up to utter despair many times, if it had not been for her 
      kind letters and sermons. I made a confidential friend of her; so, 
      knowing my situation, she knew what sermons would serve most to 
      strengthen me, and sometimes she would come across sermons in 
      papers that she would cut out and send me. I have them yet, and 
      intend to paste them in a scrapbook. I thought of calling upon her 
      father to see if he had a picture that he would allow me to have a 
      copy from, so I am very glad her portrait will be in the book.... I 
      learned to _love_ Miss Ellis, and shall _never_ forget her." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 42 
 There was a little family of step-children living on a remote Ohio farm, 
 in whom Miss Ellis took a warm personal interest, advising as to their 
 religious training, sending them children's papers and books. "Miss 
 Ellis" came to be regarded as a dear friend by these children who never 
 saw her. March 16, 1885, she wrote to the mother:-- 
   
      "Your letter was received a week since, but I have been sick three 
      weeks with a very severe cough and cold. Have been up and about, 
      but could not accomplish much of anything, and especially writing, 
      and still had much of it to do.... Wanted to advise you about the 
      Sunday-school lessons. Order the lessons of 'Home Life' from 
      Chicago at present, and then next, if you can, 'Corner-Stones of 
      Character;' but do not get the 'Old Testament Chart,' for I have 
      some very good lessons on the Old Testament that you will like and 
      can have immediately.... Am so sorry you have so much sadness to 
      contend against. However, you must feel that all your sacrifices 
      are known by the good Father in heaven; so to him turn in your hour 
      of need. There is a hymn Mr. Thayer often selects for our opening 
      on Sunday. We sang it last Sunday,--'Daily Consecration,' by 
      Caroline Mason. 
   
     'Oh God! I thank thee for each sight 
       Of beauty that thy hand doth give; 
     For sunny skies, and air, and light,-- 
       Oh God, I thank thee that I live! 
   
     'That life I consecrate to thee; 
       And ever, as the day is born, 
     On wings of joy my soul would flee 
       To thank thee for another morn: 
   
     'Another day in which to cast 
       Some silent deed of love abroad, 
     Which, greatening as it journeys past, 
       May do some earnest work for God. 
   
     'Another day to do, to dare; 
       To use anew my growing strength; 
     To arm my soul with faith and prayer, 
       And so win life and thee, at length.' 
   
      "Let your first thoughts be turned to God in the morning, and in 
      the day's struggles believe that you are in his presence; and even 
      if your earthly life is not such as you may wish, you may rest 
      assured that your tears are counted above.... My own life is much 
      brighter than it was. My brother ---- has an only child, three and 
      a half years old, who is very cunning, and much company for us all. 
      On Friday I passed my semi-centennial birthday, which a number of 
      my friends kindly remembered.... I was not strong enough to enjoy 
      the occasion fully; but still on the whole it was a bright day to 
      me, and on Sunday I was glad Mr. Thayer selected the beautiful 
      hymn, 'Daily Consecration.' I am too weak to write longer.... May 
      God bless and strengthen you for your daily toils." 
   
 On the envelopes of all these letters was written, "From my friend Miss 
 Ellis." To the oldest child, who was difficult to influence, Miss Ellis 
 addressed this letter:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 43 
   
 MY DEAR M----: I wonder if you ever had any one write a letter to 
      you, and whether you can read a letter yourself. If not, your 
      mamma will read it to you. She has told me that you are having a 
      little Sunday-school of your own at home, and I feel quite 
      interested in it, and am going to have two of the lessons sent to 
      your mamma from Chicago, hoping you three children will feel 
      interested in them. One is a very simple thing to learn,--"Rules to 
      make Home Pleasant;" and I hope you will all try to learn them, and 
      try to keep them in your daily life.... If children do not learn to 
      keep such rules, they never can have happy homes, for they will 
      grow up into ill-natured, lazy men and women. The other lesson is 
      called "Corner-Stones of Character," because it gives us true ideas 
      of what all children should learn in order to grow up into good, 
      truthful men and women.... Now I know you are studying together 
      Brown's "Life of Jesus," and these lessons I am to send you will 
      help you to understand better what Jesus did to make himself, with 
      God's help, become so good a man. I know, too, that you, M----, 
      have a copy of "Daily Praise and Prayer," which is a very good 
      book. It is pleasant to me as I read in mine to think that Mrs. 
      ---- and M---- are reading their lesson to-day, and I wonder if 
      they are thinking how beautiful it is, and that "Miss Ellis" and 
      many others are reading and asking God for the same goodness 
      to-day. It is so pleasant,--do you not think so?--to feel that our 
      good Father in heaven and all good, kind people are thinking of us 
      each day. It helps _us_ to be good, to know that others are trying 
      in the same way,--do you not think so? You are the oldest of the 
      three children, and I want to hear from you, that by studying our 
      Sunday-school lessons, and reading in sensible books, and playing 
      with well-behaved children, you are all becoming wiser and better, 
      and helping mamma and each other. I will also send you some verses 
      all the children in our Sunday-school learned one winter.... There 
      are many things I could talk to you about, but I must leave the 
      rest till another day. It will be sufficient for you to know that 
      some one on earth feels interested in your life at home, with a 
      kind mother to lead you so well.... I will say good-by now, and 
      hope you will learn to write to me. With love to all of you, very 
      kindly your friend. 
   
 Miss Ellis corresponded frequently with a young man in Canada (living in 
 a city where, so far as known, he is the only Unitarian), beginning in 
 1882, and loaning him many books. He, too, was in a state of religious 
 doubt and despair, when chance threw the little advertisement in his 
 way. He intends to enter the Unitarian ministry, as is shown by the 
 following extracts from the correspondence. Miss Ellis wrote him Oct. 
 21, 1882:-- 
   
      Monday afternoon I mailed "Religion in Evolution" to you, and I 
      have imagined you eagerly poring over the book this week in high 
      ecstasies.... To me James F. Clarke's views and Dr. Furness's seem 
      more just and reliable. But Dr. Clarke says, "What commends itself 
      best to our reason, must be the truth;" therefore Mr. Savage may 
      benefit you more. If he rouses you to a deep faith and makes you 
      truly Christian, that is the point to be gained. Should like to 
      have you compare James F. Clarke with Mr. Savage, on the Humanity 
      of Jesus and the Miracles and the Resurrection, particularly. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 44 
   
 "Bible for Learners," Vol. III., takes the same view, about, of the 
      Miracles and Resurrection,--"myths and legends," "not an external 
      fact of history, but simply a form of belief assumed by the faith 
      of his friends and earliest disciples." James F. Clarke, in "Truths 
      and Errors of Orthodoxy," in the chapter Miracles, says, "The 
      resurrection may have been an example of a universal law." Dr. 
      Furness says: "Till men know all the laws of God it is rather 
      presumptuous in them to set the resurrection aside as an 
      impossibility." These are not his exact words; but the purport I 
      have quoted from memory. To return to Dr. Clarke.... [Then follows 
      a long extract from Clarke, which is omitted here.] Dr. Clarke's 
      view is the most likely and rational to me; but all the more 
      radical men take the view of the German critics, and look upon it 
      rather as "myths and legends" arising from a simple faith of the 
      disciples. The only way is to read for yourself and compare, 
      forming an opinion of your own, while remembering that Christianity 
      does not rest on a certain belief, but on the life. "What doth the 
      Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and 
      walk humbly with thy God," are the words of the prophet Micah. 
      James F. Clarke believes firmly in the simple, pure humanity of 
      Jesus, best shown in "Steps of Belief," under the "Historical 
      Christ." I have "Steps of Belief," "Truths and Errors of 
      Orthodoxy," also "Bible for Learners" and "Talks about Jesus" (M. 
 Savage), to loan you. You have only to say which you wish 
 
      first.... I am tired, and must rise early to be in the city in time 
      for Sunday-school, so I will tear off the paper here, or I shall go 
      on writing all night. Have more good sermons to send you. Wish you 
      could go to Boston, join the Young Men's Christian Union 
      (Unitarian), and be helped into what God means you and all to be, 
      by putting our faculties to the highest use we are capable of. 
      Hoping to hear further from you, 
   
                  Truly your friend,                  SARAH ELLIS. 
   
      _Sunday Evening._ Our sermon to-day was on the "Effects of Modern 
      Scientific Thought upon the Essentials of Religion." If it is 
      published, will send you a copy of it.... I think the hymn will 
      meet your views, therefore copy it. Do you know it? 
   
 The hymn referred to is the one, "God Ever Near," by T. H. Gill, 
 beginning:-- 
   
     "What secret place, what distant star, 
       O Lord of all, is thine abode?" 
   
 Miss Ellis copies it in full. In 1883 the young man wrote Miss Ellis:-- 
   
      "A year ago I was in the dreariest stage of agnosticism. I was in 
      despair at times, and sometimes my very soul seemed to be in agony. 
      Through reading scientific literature I had been convinced that 
      most of the religious teaching I had learned was false. The 
      flippancy and shallowness of Ingersoll and his school disgusted me. 
      I could not find rest in materialism; I considered it as far astray 
      from the truth as Orthodoxy. I was nineteen years old, and found 
      myself facing the most tremendous problems of existence. I tried to 
      tell myself to wait for maturer years to solve them, and to a great 
      extent that satisfied me. But I still yearned for 
      _something_,--simply this: 'My soul cried out for the living God!' 
      Alas! I could not find him. I looked around me for a little 
      sympathy or a kind word even, but I looked in vain. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 45 
   
 Every Sunday I 
      heard denunciations of such views as mine. I heard a great deal of 
      'blatant atheists,' 'infidel scientists,' etc., but no sympathy for 
      a despairing agnostic,--only scorn and ridicule. It pained me 
      intensely to be misunderstood by even those dearest to me on earth, 
      but I determined to stand firm for what I took to be the truth. Oh 
      for some men to preach a little charity for the views of others, 
      and to consider a man as not being necessarily worse than a 
      criminal because he cannot accept their own views! I owe you a 
      large debt of gratitude for being the means of lifting me out of a 
      state of misery and despair, in which I had no pleasure in life, 
      into a state of cheerfulness, happiness, hope, and peace; not 
      intellectual peace,--for I do not expect that,--but real 'soul 
      peace,' a calm trust and a real faith in a living God. I have been 
      surprised to see how largely Unitarian theology is based on 
      science. I owe it to science that my life is something more than 
      daily drudgery. The foundation of my scepticism was laid when I 
      learned the rudiments of natural philosophy in school. I was 
      astonished at what I read of Nature's wonders. Since leaving school 
      I have been an ardent reader of all kinds of scientific literature. 
      By means of the Mechanics' Institute I have the use of all the 
      magazines, reviews, etc., besides a splendid library. I have read a 
      great deal that I did not understand,--books which are beyond my 
      years; but I have a good idea of what is occupying the minds of the 
      world's thinkers in this nineteenth century. One of the best 
      lessons I have learned from the literature you have sent me is 
      faith,--a very different kind of faith from the mere credulity I 
      once knew by that name. At times I am dazed and confounded when I 
      think of the great mysteries surrounding us, especially of the 
      mysteries of death; but I feel that a good God is over all, and the 
      main thing is to do right, and all will be well. I cannot express 
      how much I owe you for the great good you have done me. You have my 
      heartfelt thanks." 
   
 In another letter he wrote:-- 
   
      "To say that I am delighted with 'The Religion of Evolution' is but 
      a poor way of expressing myself. You could not have sent me a more 
      timely book. I would like to get all of Mr. Savage's books. You 
      'wish I could go to Boston,' etc. Ah! you do not know how I 
      sometimes yearn for some such thing myself. I find my great 
      pleasure and recreation in intellectual pursuits; and of course I 
      have not nearly so great advantages in a small city as I would have 
      in a large one. But for meditation and communion with the Infinite, 
      communion with Nature and the incomprehensible God, I must have 
      solitude. It was a favorite dream of my childhood that I would be a 
      minister. But I have to work in another way. My father died when I 
      was six years of age, and my mother therefore had a struggle to 
      give us an education,--that inestimable blessing of a common-school 
      education. I feel that the highest work for me is to support her to 
      the best of my ability.... I value highly the sermons you send me. 
      Most of our churches here offer one 'dry bones' instead of the 
      living truth. Do you know of any low-priced publication which would 
      give me a fair sketch of Theodore Parker's life and thought? I 
      would like to know something of him. I am greatly pleased with the 
      'Register.' Mr. Savage's sermons are also a feast to me. The 
      sermons of J. F. Clarke you sent me in June have a ring about them 
      and a spirit in them that I find in few others." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 46 
   
 Miss Ellis wrote him, Dec. 29, 1883:-- 
   
      Am glad to hear you have gained _something_ in the past year. Do 
      not be discouraged if you are not perfection at once. It takes 
      _years_ of struggle to become so. Read the lessons on "Patience," 
      in "Day unto Day," particularly "Jan. 9--Parsons." You are quite 
      young, remember, and there are many years for you to improve in, 
      "and room for improvement," as people always say.... I will not 
      allow _your_ want of time to keep me from writing you. It is my own 
      lack of time, and troublesome eyes. Have been very busy this 
      winter. Have a gentleman in Alabama who is becoming much interested 
      in Unitarian theology, and also one in Kentucky. It keeps my mind 
      at work to send just the right thing to each one. My eyes are 
      troubling me much this evening. Must close, to make some last 
      preparations for Sunday, as I have to start early in the morning to 
      be in time, and must also write a postal to a young nephew in 
      Philadelphia, who is very fond of me and remembered me Christmas 
      and always. Wishing you a bright, happy, and successful New Year, 
      in which all the ladies join me, with kind regards to your mother, 
   
                              Truly your friend,            S. ELLIS. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                 APRIL 15, 1883. 
   
      I must answer your question, "Why no denunciation of sin (by 
      Unitarians)?" In the New Hampshire "Statement of Belief" I first 
      sent you, if you still have it, you will find: "(4) In Human 
      Nature, as not ruined, but incomplete. Man is not fallen from a 
      primitive state of holiness, but is imperfectly developed. Being 
      imperfect, he is liable to sin.... _The essence of sin is the 
      failure of the higher nature of man to rule his lower nature._ 
      Human nature is made sacred by the indwelling presence of God. 
      Humanity is not tending downward, but is divinely guided from lower 
      to higher forms of moral and spiritual life." 
   
      Starting from such a high ideal of man's nature,--that he is 
      created in the "image of God," and as found in the first chapter of 
      Genesis, I think, and in Psalms viii.: "Thou hast made him a little 
      lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with honor and 
      glory,"--we feel him capable of so much, that our ministers are too 
      busy talking concerning _being_ and _doing_ good to have any time 
      left for denunciation of sin. Our great concern is to raise man in 
      _every_ way. Teach him to be cheerful, looking _forward_ all the 
      time, moving onward and upward, and to find no opportunity to spend 
      in vain regrets,--only looking at his sins long enough to learn 
      lessons from the past, that he may avoid them in the future. Our 
      sins leave a deep stain that will affect us during our lifetime, 
      but the only way to overcome them is to be so engaged in right 
      doing that we rise above them. Now, do you not think this a far 
      higher way of converting men than by dwelling on their weaknesses? 
      Give the world something higher to do all the time, and they will 
      naturally rise to that level. We start from a higher standpoint 
      than the Orthodox, therefore our methods are very different. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 47 
   
 We 
      denounce sin by avoiding it whenever we come in contact with it, or 
      evil of any kind, and there is no more effectual way of overcoming 
 Do you not see why it is we have ceased to speak of it in 
 
      sermons? We are too busy with the good, the true, the beautiful, to 
      pay attention to the wickedness. Dr. Dewey wrote some stirring 
      sermons, on "Human Nature." The topic of one is, "On the Wrong 
      which Sin does to Human Nature;"--text from Prov. viii. 36: "He 
      that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul." That was the 
      former way of dealing with and denouncing sin; but the later way 
      is, to take care always to place the better in people's way, and 
      the sins will fall behind. Think you not so? 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                     JANUARY 6, 1883. 
   
      ... We sometimes strain at _words_ when in reality we agree with 
      others. If we would only remember to strive to discover wherein we 
      agree, and not always be looking for divergence of opinion, there 
      would be more of practical piety in the world. Let us open our eyes 
      to the fact that _all_ denominations endeavor to make men better, 
      though they differ in methods; and see to it that we ourselves are 
      true to the highest and best as far as we know it, and the kingdom 
      of God will be hastened in everywhere. Do right for its own sake, 
      and not from fear or hope of punishment or reward. Let me give you 
      a hymn we sang after the sermon last Sunday. The subject was, "This 
      life: why we are in it, and what we have a right to expect of it." 
      The hymn is one of Rev. Samuel Longfellow's, "Life's Mission:"-- 
   
     "Go forth to life, O child of earth! 
     Still mindful of thy heavenly birth." 
   
      [The whole hymn is copied] ... Methinks if one lives up to such a 
      mission he will be none the less Christian than if he can accept 
      the dogmas of churches. 
   
 He had consulted her about the propriety of his contributing to the 
 support of the Methodist church when he no longer accepted its 
 doctrines. She wrote in reply, Oct. 6, 1884:-- 
   
      ... "There are two precepts which come to my mind when I am 
      perplexed as to what to do, which I will mention: 'What doth the 
      Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk 
      humbly with thy God?' (Micah vi. 8). The other: 'If ye have not the 
      spirit of Christ, ye are none of his,'-- from the epistles, but 
      can't recall it just now. If you conclude to contribute to the 
      Methodist church, you could tell Mr. B---- what your intention had 
      been, and how I reasoned upon the subject. However, act just as you 
      come to the conclusion. The thing is to do as you believe to be 
      just. I should think the church I attended had the first claim upon 
 'Duty before pleasure' is true in any church. Am glad you think 
 
      so well of Unitarianism, and hope you may be able to work heartily 
      with us some day. Only be patient." 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                        JUNE 7, 1884. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 48 
   
      You speak of the "loneliness" of the position you are taking, and I 
      felt glad to find you so firm in the step you are taking.... It 
      will be a position full of self-denial many times, but on the 
      other hand will bring its own rich rewards, known only to the true 
      minister of God. To encourage you in the many hours of 
      discouragement, I advise Dr. Furness's sermon on the "Solitude of 
      Christ," in "Register" of May 8,1884, I think, which I believe has 
      been sent you, but if not, will hunt it up and send it to you; and 
      besides that, the words of Jesus: "He that hath put his hand to the 
      plough and looketh back, is not worthy of me;" therefore have 
      firmly fixed in your mind the glorious hymn by Rev. Samuel Johnson, 
      "The Conflict of Life." 
   
 The whole five verses of this hymn are then copied, followed by the 
 whole of Watts's 
   
     "Awake, our souls; away, our fears,-- 
     Let every trembling thought be gone;" 
   
 and Doddridge's 
   
     "Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve, 
     And press with vigor on!" 
   
 Miss Ellis saying, at the end, "I have copied these, for they have more 
 weight when written by those we know." 
   
                                                   JULY 5, 1884. 
   
      ... I will permit you to "unburden yourself" with as many pages as 
      you see fit, at any time you feel disposed to do so, and promise 
      not to be "bored." I, in my deafness, understand what it is to feel 
      so utterly alone, though surrounded by dear, old, and tried 
      friends. This lack of one congenial person or thing no one can 
      appreciate but those who have experienced.... Remember, _opinions_ 
      separate us, but kindly deeds and affection draw us close to one 
      another; and so pursue your studies patiently, striving to make 
      yourself the kind of man you think one ought to be, and in 
      attending church do it in the spirit of Jesus,--with the feeling of 
      worshipping God, and cast aside all other feeling, knowing that 
      those around you are doing what they feel to be best. Leave it to 
      the Good Father to judge them, and in time to help them to see 
      differently. We are judged by living up to the highest and best we 
      know, and if others have not been so far enlightened as we, or have 
      not been moved by the Spirit to seek higher light and truth, we 
      must work in patience and leave them in the hands of God.... Only 
      be true to your own convictions, and you will lead them by example 
      rather than precept, unconsciously to them. Work on patiently, and 
      God's promises will not fail you. It is a slow process to overcome 
      one's many failures; but we shall come out conquerors at the last 
      if we only will, and are earnest in our endeavors.... After two 
      weeks our churches will close for the summer, but _my_ congregation 
      will still be ministered to. I go to the church during vacation 
      every two weeks to lend books to any who desire them. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 49 
   
                                                   NOVEMBER 16, 1884. 
   
      I feel for you greatly in your isolation; but comfort yourself in 
      the thought that the generality of Unitarian ministers are cut off 
      from all companionship with ministers of other denominations where 
      they are settled, and are seldom permitted to enter into charities, 
      where they are, with other ministers. It has been the case ever 
      since the days of Jesus, that those who really hold his views are 
      separated from others in the community. But as you say, and many 
      more say, "if we have God alone, that is enough." I cannot consider 
      myself a "theist" entirely, but might call myself a "Christian 
      theist." I have come to know God as manifested through Jesus, but 
      have as much respect for those who do as Jesus did, and who have as 
      firm a trust in the Father as Jesus had. Think that is what Jesus 
      taught, and labored to have no man worship him. "There is none good 
      but One," he said; "why callest thou me good?" Though I value 
      Jesus, I do not worship him, or feel that he is my support in life. 
      I only look to him in difficulties and trials to show me the way to 
      the Father. I ask to worship and to live in his spirit and so gain 
      strength from the Father wherewith to do. You and others look more 
      to men of later date, who have learned from others nearer to them; 
      but if we trace it all back to the beginning, we will find it is 
      Jesus' spirit working through them. So one and all, whoever they 
      are, wherever found, who have the spirit of Christ, are the sons of 
      God, whether they call themselves merely theists, or Christian 
      theists, it seems to me. George Eliot was truly religious, though 
      perhaps not a Christian in the common acceptation. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                               DECEMBER 27, 1884. 
   
      I do not know as I "have ever realized the depths of absolute 
      negations," but I have realized the depths of absolute solitude, 
      and can sympathize with you in your loneliness, and "think it a 
      good thing to keep the Eternal and Infinite always in view, and so 
      love quiet, solitude, and meditation. They strengthen me to do my 
      work in life." Do not despair, then, if you are despondent at 
      times. Every one is, and it is good for us to some extent to be 
      disgusted with ourselves; it makes us know ourselves. "The dark 
      hours of life bring us nearer to our fellow-men, help us to know 
      ourselves and bring us nearer to God." God has put these 
      questionings into you for some wise purpose. Be true to your 
      highest and best self, and work them out by degrees. But remember 
      you are young yet, and there is time for you to solve all these 
      mysteries in. Do not try to solve all the great questions of life 
      at once. Be patient, and do not brood too much. Meditation and 
      solitude are good, but try to mingle somewhat with those around 
      you. See God in the world about you, as well as in the stars. I 
      would like to dwell longer upon your letter, but perhaps I shall 
      bring you out of doubt by giving you something to do. [She then 
      proposes a bit of work for him to undertake.] ... Our doubts and 
      mysteries are solved sometimes by setting to work on things we are 
      pondering over. 
   
 He wrote Miss Ellis, Aug. 24, 1885:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 50 
   
      "A shadow has come across my way of late,--a great disappointment. 
      I think I mentioned it to you before. A doctor, an acquaintance of 
      mine, has often told me that I studied and read too much.... It is 
      hard for me to realize this, but he insists on a year's rest from 
      study. This will postpone my entrance to Meadville for two years, I 
      fear. I confess to great disappointment over this. I will be past 
      twenty-five when I get to Meadville; and yet there is another side. 
      I have often questioned my fitness for this great work. I wish to 
      be cautious. I do believe that I have a noble gospel to preach. 'To 
      preach,'--but first to live it. And, in shame I confess it, I have 
      not lived it. It will therefore be a good thing if in these two 
      years I give myself to growth in manhood. But enough of this. These 
      matters must be dealt with in the closet,--the soul's closet.... 
      After my taste of Montreal fellowship I am sick with loneliness 
      here. It is fearful, at times, this longing for one friend even, 
      and finding none. But it must be borne without grumbling. And now I 
      must stop. The doctor would object to even this light piece of 
      writing. Thank you kindly for sending me the 'Register' and 
      'Unity.' It is very good of you to look after me so much. Be 
      assured that your kindness is giving great encouragement to a 
      lonely one who, amid much opposition and misunderstanding from his 
      dearest ones, is making at least a _little_ honest effort to be 
      true to himself and God. I would that I were fully faithful; but it 
      is not so. Still I think your seed will yet bear fruit, and spring 
      up in a life devoted to the uplifting of mankind. My deepest 
      prayer is for this. I trust your health will improve. Still more do 
      I trust that you may continue to grow nearer God, and help others 
      to do so, as you have helped me." 
   
 Miss Ellis replied, Aug. 30, 1885:-- 
   
      "... I have neglected you of late, thinking you were soon to go to 
      Meadville, and that you were busy. We are sorry to hear of your 
      great disappointment. It is a disappointment to us as well, 
      particularly to me. However, we need the reverses and crosses of 
      life as much as the air we breathe, to strengthen our characters. 
      You have pushed yourself so hard with business and studies the past 
      two years, that you have not taken time to view the life around you 
      in the right light. Let the next two years be given principally to 
      building up your character individually and socially, and to 
      improving your health, as one of the first requisites of a minister 
      is a sound mind and a healthy body. Be social; take life 
      cheerfully; make those about you better for your company; and 
      mingle freely with your family and best friends, showing them you 
      are practising Unitarianism. Yes; make these two coming years tell 
      as a preparation for college in another way, and let them prove a 
      blessing to you, though a disappointment at first. Did you read 
      Rev. E. E. Hale's 'Methods,' in 'Register' a few weeks since? This 
      week's 'Register' contains an excellent sermon by Rev. John 
      Clifford on 'Spiritual Building.' Have a home worship of your own 
      sometimes. During the vacation, every Sunday I have had a regular 
      worship. For instance, to-day I read for sermon, 'Spiritual 
      Building;' opening hymn, 'Come, Thou Almighty, help us to praise;' 
      'Scriptures Old and New' (a compilation by Mr. Forbush and Mr. 
      Hosmer, from all religions, and an excellent thing to have), Lesson 
      27,--'The Kingdom within us;' prayer, followed by Scripture lesson, 
      Galatians iii., from which is taken text; then Wesley's hymn, 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 51 
   
 'The 
      whole armor of God;' sermon; closing hymn, Doddridge's 'Awake, my 
      soul, stretch every nerve,' etc. Have been interested during the 
      vacation in looking over Gannett's 'Childhood of Jesus' and 
      Carpenter's 'Palestine when Jesus lived.' Also bought 'Selections 
      from the Apocrypha,' compiled by Mrs. Tileston, who compiled 'Daily 
      Strength.' Readings from the Apocrypha are so common in Unitarian 
      pulpits now, that it is well to be familiar with the best portions. 
      Am not able to do much reading now. Am physically too weak. Never 
      was able to use my brain to its full extent,--feeble and nervous 
      all my life, but active otherwise." 
   
 Miss Ellis's last letter to him was written but little more than a month 
 before her death, when in the utmost weakness herself; but to this she 
 makes no allusion. It was a letter of consolation in bereavement, from 
 which this is an extract:-- 
   
                                             NOVEMBER 18, 1885. 
   
      ... The only way to reconcile ourselves to our sorrows is to think 
      of those who are worse off than ourselves. It makes us less 
      inclined to murmur in our own sadness. It is good for us to bear 
      the cross. If things were always as we would have them, many 
      virtues would never be developed. There are so many comforting 
      pieces in "Sunshine in the Soul." Some I marked for a former 
      correspondent. Mr. Thayer read for his Scripture lesson last 
      Sunday, Job. iv. 5; and v. 6-11; 17 to end. I have no doubt your 
      sister knows many comforting passages; but the real comfort is 
      found in keeping ourselves busy for others, while at the same time 
      we lean and trust in God to give us peace of soul. We find it in 
      time as we go on patiently doing the duty just before us, and 
      loving the blessings which remain to us. 
   
 One of Miss Ellis's last thoughts was for this correspondent. When 
 hardly able to speak, she requested a special "Register" sent to him. It 
 was sent, and a postal card informing him of her condition. He 
 replied:-- 
   
                                               DECEMBER 25, 1885. 
   
      Your card came to me this morning. I am shocked at its sad message. 
      I was not in the least prepared for it. It seems to hold out no 
      hope. Though I have never seen Miss Ellis, she has been to me for 
      over three years a close friend. And now I must lose her 
      friendship, and her kind encouraging letters! But I am not 
      intending to complain of loss, but rather to be thankful for the 
      help I have received from her. I shall now have another motive to 
      work on, to be more faithful in life. That motive shall be the 
      memory of Miss Ellis's self-sacrificing life. I have a large 
      package of her letters which will be more valued now than ever 
      before. I do trust her work will go on; it ought to certainly. If I 
      can help I will gladly do so. 
   
 Later, he wrote in reply to a letter announcing her death:-- 
   
                                                    JANUARY 1, 1886. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 52 
   
 I was very glad to hear a little of our dear friend who spends this 
      happy New Year's Day freed from all ills of the body. I can hardly 
      realize that she is gone. She never gave me a hint that she was 
      seriously ill, but always spoke cheerfully. It is such a short time 
      ago that I wrote to her as usual, not having the remotest thought 
      that she would never answer my letter. Her last letters to me are 
      dated Nov. 6 and 18, and, singularly enough, are almost entirely 
      taken up with remarks upon death and affliction. Not a word of 
      herself, however.... 
   
      Miss Ellis wrote me two letters full of kindness and sympathy, and 
      sending cheering words to my sister; for she wrote, "Though I don't 
      know her, I feel deeply for her." It really is hardly possible to 
      estimate the influence, both direct and indirect, which Miss Ellis 
      has had upon my life. It is a very long story, this of my inquiries 
      in religious matters. I have always looked forward to the day when 
      I should see our friend and speak to her of it, and make some 
      expression of my gratitude to her. But it is not to be,--not in 
      this life, at least. Hereafter her letters shall be a source of 
      constant encouragement to me. I have them all, and glad I am of it, 
      for through them she will yet speak to me. I often wished to have a 
      photograph of her, and I am very sorry now that I too long 
      hesitated to take the first step in making a mutual exchange. Often 
      when weary through the day's work I have been cheered by her kind 
      letters. But this is only one limited instance of her influence. 
      For years I went to my daily work sad and heavy of heart because 
      life was aimless, almost dead. By the printed page Miss Ellis 
      showed me God,--God living, working, right here now, daily 
      surrounding me and all men. And lo! life has an aim, is full of 
      beauty and goodness and joy.... All this I owe to her. 
   
 In response to a request for letters, he wrote: 
   
                                                  FEBRUARY 14, 1886. 
   
      In your card you speak of a book. I hope the pamphlet will grow 
      into a book. I was delighted to hear that it will contain a 
      portrait, for that will be just what I wish for. The letters I 
      sent, I had to just pick out hurriedly, as I had very little time. 
      If I had had more time, I might have made a better selection. I 
      will vouch for their quality, however. I have post cards 
      innumerable from her. Then again, once, when I was having a sore 
      mental struggle over the philosophy of prayer, in answer to my 
      inquiries Miss Ellis wrote out for me the greater part of Mr. 
      Chadwick's sermon on "Prayer," in his "Faith of Reason." This I 
      mention as one out of many instances of such work. She never tired 
      of trying to aid me. I sent you the last letter I received from 
      her, never having a thought, at the time I received it, of its 
      being the _last_ one. Perhaps Miss Ellis is aware of all this 
      afterglow, as you so well call it. I hope so. I believe so. How it 
      must gratify her to know what she accomplished! 
   
      In looking over these letters I am very forcibly reminded of the 
      last few years.... As you may suppose, Miss Ellis is much in my 
      thoughts. I looked forward to meeting her some day, and making 
      grateful acknowledgment of her influence for good on me. I would 
      not hide from you that I often regret that it is not to be so. But 
      every other thought is swallowed up in gratitude for her life and 
      for our meeting together. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 53 
   
 The following is Miss Ellis's first letter from a farmer's wife a dozen 
 miles out of Cincinnati, who has this winter become a member of the 
 Women's Auxiliary Conference, and wishes, with her daughter, to join the 
 church:-- 
   
      "I have frequently seen the item in the Sunday's paper offering 
      Unitarian reading to those who wish it, and have as often 
      determined to avail myself of the opportunity, but have so far 
      neglected it. I will say that I have been for a long time somewhat 
      of a Unitarian, without being sufficiently informed in the belief 
      openly to declare myself one. I would ask you to teach me from the 
      beginning the doctrines, so that I can understand and feel a safety 
      in embracing them. I have a daughter who will avail herself with me 
      of your kind offer. You are to be our teacher in the matter of 
      selecting the reading, and I will gladly pay postage on all books 
      sent." 
   
 As such teacher Miss Ellis acted ever after. She wrote in reply, Jan. 1, 
 1884:-- 
   
      Was very glad to receive your letter to-day, and hope I may prove a 
      successful "teacher." Have always been a Unitarian, as my father 
      was among the first subscribers to the church, when it was 
      established in 1830.... Have sent you by this same mail three 
      tracts pertaining to our doctrines. Shall be glad to give you and 
      your daughter a weekly Sunday-school lesson for several weeks. 
      Began with statements of doctrine and Channing's famous Discourse. 
      On the list sent have numbered other tracts in the order in which I 
      shall send them,--leading you from Channing to Brigham and J. F. 
      Clarke, showing an advance in thought up to Mr. Wendte's tract, 
      "What Do Unitarians Believe?" which represents Unitarianism as held 
      by the _young_ men of the present time; and after you read these 
      tracts, if you wish more doctrine, will mention some books we can 
      loan you by mail. With the tracts will also send the "Christian 
      Register," where you will see our principles carried out. It is a 
      very interesting, able paper. Perhaps after you have examined a 
      few copies you may like to become a subscriber to it. I usually 
      spend Mondays mailing papers to our correspondents, though they do 
      not all get off till about Wednesday. They will be in time for a 
      Sunday lesson, however, and I hope you may find some neighbors to 
      join you in your study. Hoping this is a beginning of another good 
      work for us, and to hear from you further, 
   
                           Respectfully yours,               SARAH ELLIS. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                        JANUARY 26, 1884. 
   
      This leads me to your question, "What do you do with the Immaculate 
      Conception? Why was that way employed to compel people to accept 
      the divinity of Christ?" Ask as many questions as you please, and I 
      will answer them in letter, or send some sermon or tract to throw 
      light on the subject to you. Monday, will mail to you "The 
      Incarnation," by Rev. J. W. Chadwick, wherein you will see that 
      many of the doctrines of the early times were invented by the men 
      of the day to suit some purpose of their own. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 54 
 Will shortly send you 
      a lesson paper by Rev. William C. Gannett, of St. Paul, Minn., on 
      "The Christmas Story and the Christmas Fact." These stories or 
      "legends" concerning Jesus were written some time after his death. 
      "Bible for Learners" says--[Here is copied a long extract.] I have 
      said enough to let you know that we do not accept these "legends" 
      as literal truth; and you will understand, from "The Incarnation," 
      that Jesus was not miraculously born any more than we all are. 
      Jesus never claimed it for himself, as you will find as you read 
      what I send you from time to time. It was a doctrine created by the 
      Church to suit later days. I was glad to have you speak freely of 
      yourself, and hope that we may make religion, the Bible, and Jesus, 
      natural, simple, true, and beautiful to you and your 
      daughter,--something that you can take hold of and live out in your 
      daily lives, and be thankful that you _live_. Hoping that you may 
      have further questions to ask, and wish to borrow books on subjects 
      of interest to you, 
   
                                Very truly your friend,      S. ELLIS. 
   
      There is a book that will throw much light on your question 
      concerning the early view of Christ, "Orthodoxy and Heresy," by 
      Rev. E. H. Hall. We have it to loan. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                      MARCH 13, 1884. 
   
      It is with pleasure I sit down to reply to your last letter, and it 
      has only been from total inability that you have had to wait so 
      long. I wanted to sit down immediately to send you a few 
      sympathetic words, for your life must have been very similar to my 
      own. The best comfort for us is, to say to ourselves, Are not many, 
      _many_ others carrying the same burdens, disappointments, and toils 
      as we? How do they bear them, and where do they get their patience 
      and strength from? Only from studying the words and lives of those 
      who have had similar trials to bear; and no one bore the cross 
      better than He to whom the whole world has looked as a guide. 
      Therefore though you fall and fail often, be not in despair. All 
      you need is some one to speak with you who sympathizes with you; 
      and though they may not lighten your burden or change your 
      circumstances, they will lighten your heart and make the whole 
      world seem different to you, and full of work to be done, that will 
      take your thoughts out from beyond your own home, and yet at the 
      same time only make that all the more precious to you and just the 
      place you ought to be in. Am not fond of the country myself. Have 
      always lived in the city, and prefer to be surrounded by people and 
      life rather than trees and quiet of the country; still, I love to 
      visit in the country for a short time.... You ask how you can best 
      prepare yourself to become a member of our church. I sent you the 
      church programme, and Mr. Thayer says there, "Those who present 
      themselves in an earnest spirit,"--an earnest spirit to do all the 
      good you can, in every way, at home and to the world. It is 
      _character_, and _not_ belief, which makes the true Christian. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 55 
   
 And 
      if our conscience is right before God, let man say what he will; if 
      we are only sure ourselves we are doing our best according to our 
      circumstances and our health; if our motives are pure and our 
      conscience clear,--we shall feel a pleasure in joining in a 
      Communion service, though one can be a member of our church if not 
      a communicant. There are several books I wish to recommend to you. 
      The first is a great help to inward strength, and is a gem of a 
      book, "Day unto Day," which consists of a passage or two from the 
      Scriptures, a selection from poetry, and one from writers, for 
      every day in the year.... The whole book is full of selections 
      which fit the needs of every day. I have two copies, and will loan 
      you one copy with passages I have marked as read, and which has 
      benefited several of my correspondents.... Another great help to a 
      good life is Merriam's "Way of Life." "Theodore Parker's Prayers" I 
      can loan you too. Since I wrote you, have had presented to our 
      library Sunderland's "What is the Bible?" shorter than "Bible for 
      Learners," and on the whole better to read first. I subscribed for 
      the Sunday-school lessons on "The Life of Jesus," so any time you 
      are welcome to it. You will understand from what I have written, 
      that to strengthen the inner man is a good preparation for anything 
      and anywhere; and you will find a great deal among our books, and 
      in our papers, and in our religion, to help you and make life a 
      blessing, though under unfavorable circumstances, and enable you to 
      have the spirit and faith _of_ Jesus, if not so much _in_ Jesus, 
      which the Orthodox make most emphatic. 
   
 The following letter was written June 27, 1885. The unusual allusions to 
 her own health are evidently in sympathy with the correspondent, who had 
 written of ill health and heavy burdens to bear. 
   
      "I have been most useless since the middle of February; but, weak 
      as I am, I have insisted on staying out of bed, waiting on myself, 
      and keeping my room in order, even to sweeping it, and keeping up 
      my missionary work slowly. I do dislike to be nursed and a care to 
      people. Sometimes it seems impossible for me to get dressed for my 
      breakfast, and it takes me about one hour and a quarter, I am so 
      weak. Last Sunday I could not get to church; but I spent the day in 
      resting,--spiritual rest. I had a service at home,--the responsive 
      service, the three hymns, the Scripture lesson, and read one of J. 
 Clarke's sermons, which I sent to another who needed consoling. 
 
      There is a favorite hymn of mine, which I will write out for you. 
      We often sing it for an opening hymn. [The hymn "Daily 
      Consecration," by Caroline Mason, is here copied in full.] Excuse 
      the mistakes, for I have written it from memory. Work on, dear 
      friend, just where you are, and feel that there you are casting 
      silent deeds of love which no one knows but the good Father above, 
      but that they are none the less earnest work in his service.... 
      Every other Saturday A. M. I go to the church to do up papers for 
      the Workhouse. Was there _this_ morning. Take heart, good friend, 
      and feel that nothing you do is lost, and that sometime your labor 
      will be appreciated. I must not write longer, for I want to attend 
      church to-morrow. They miss me when I am not at my post." 
   
 Another letter of this summer reads:-- 
   
      MY DEAR FRIEND,--Your letter was duly received, and I wanted to 
      answer it immediately, but have been too weak to write _comforting_ 
      letters. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 56 
   
 Am so sorry to hear you are still sick, and wish I could help you. 
     Am still more sorry to hear you are "dreading" the summer; but I do 
     not wonder at it, for on a farm the labor required by the women in 
     the house must be incessant.... I cannot take the burden off your 
     shoulders; but perhaps a word of sympathy from another, and 
     something from her experience, may enable you to face the 
     difficulties.... My experience has been that when anticipating a 
     hard time, if I only accept it, and make up my mind that it _has_ to 
     be my part, half the burden is taken off, if I determine to go 
     through with it all, giving myself up to that work and thinking of 
     nothing beyond in the mean time. Take all the rest I can get, 
     instead of trying to do something else too. Rest will do you more 
     good than company or books, when you are so used up with real hard 
     work. Women all try to attend to too much outside of their 
     households, for the sake of company and variety; do you not think 
     so? Now, just take things as quietly as you can this summer, and 
     feel that in your home duties you have more than you can do, and 
     look forward to the time when summer will be over and you will have 
     less care. 
   
 After her death, the lady wrote:-- 
   
      "I sent my letter to her home by a messenger who reported that he 
      understood at the door, as he handed it to the person who answered 
      the bell, that Miss Ellis was dead. I hoped that he was mistaken, 
      but your letter confirmed it. I knew she was very feeble. She 
      wrote me some two weeks before Christmas, saying she was very weak; 
      but I did not think for one moment that she was in danger, or I 
      would have hurried to see her. I shall miss her greatly, and her 
      dear letters to me, which I prized so highly; and you, who saw more 
      of her than I could possibly, will feel her loss greatly. I believe 
      there are few persons capable of entering so entirely into sympathy 
      with others who needed it as she was, and of giving such 
      consolation; at least, it has not been my good fortune to meet many 
      such. I will be glad to receive the memorial of which you speak. I 
      shall be very glad if your minister would write me on the subject 
      of joining the church, as I was depending on Miss Ellis to guide me 
      in the matter, which she was ready to do one year or more ago." 
   
 In 1884 Miss Ellis received the following letter from a young man, Mr. 
 J. Beach, who had been one of her discouragements, because, after 
 
 some correspondence, she had ceased to hear from him. Mr. Beach was 
 usher in the State Penitentiary at Joliet, Ill. 
   
      "More than a year ago I wrote to thank you for papers which you had 
      kindly sent me. In answer, you sent me a very kind letter, and 
      named several books which I might read with profit. I procured a 
      number of Rev. James Freeman Clarke's works, which I read 
      carefully, and from which I gathered much of great value. I also 
      subscribed to two of the papers you named, to which I have become 
      so much attached that I could not possibly do without them.... Your 
      letter led me to a course of reading and investigation that has 
      proved a sun-burst to me. I have been in darkness. I am out of it 
      now. I am connected with the State Prison (as usher), not the 
      pleasantest position in the world; but I have tried to show many of 
      the poor convicts the better way of life, and to cheer them by kind 
      words and a showing of real interest in their unfortunate 
      condition, and I believe I have succeeded in making lighter many a 
      poor friendless fellow's load...." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 57 
   
 The following extracts are from others of his letters:-- 
   
      "I have read the sermons, and have handed them to a very 
      intelligent prisoner, who has become greatly interested in 
      Unitarian teachings, and requested him to pass the documents to 
      others, after reading them. He will do so, and will see that they 
      are kept moving. I am glad you are taking so much interest in our 
      prison. There is much need of genuine kindness here, and it cannot 
      be better shown than in a true and apparent desire to raise the 
      unfortunates to a higher plane of thought and action. These men and 
      women are in a sense left to themselves. They are not permitted to 
      talk to each other. They pass long hours in their cells either 
      reading or thinking. Is it not the very time to get them started 
      thinking in the right direction? You say, We shall write to the 
      Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary Conference in Boston, ... and 
      interest them in the Joliet prison. This is good news. The Post 
      Office Mission is truly a grand mission, and is doing more good 
      than you may think of." 
   
 The next letter says:-- 
   
      "The papers and tracts you have been kind enough to send me have 
      been given to prisoners, and they have been passed from hand to 
      hand until literally worn out. There are a great many very 
      intelligent men among the fifteen hundred and fifty convicts now in 
      our prison, and they (or many of them, at least) are very glad to 
      get such papers and tracts as you have sent me; and I am only too 
      glad to place such reading matter in their hands. You asked if old 
      'Registers' and 'Unities' would do any good. They would be 
      thankfully received by many of the unfortunate men, and would be 
      carefully read by them. Reading is one of the very few privileges 
      granted convicts.... I to-day received from Mrs. Thacher, of 
      Boston, a bill of lading for two barrels of papers and magazines 
      shipped for distribution among prisoners; also a kind and very 
      interesting letter from Mrs. Thacher,--for all of which I am 
      indebted to you. I am glad, indeed, Unitarian people understand 
      that convicts want and appreciate something more in reading matter 
      than chilling tracts. We are constantly receiving for distribution 
      the strongest kind of Orthodoxy, but the prisoners do not seem to 
      take kindly to it.... An old colored man, who was sent here eleven 
      years ago under life sentence, said to me yesterday, 'I tell yo', 
      sah, it seems mighty ha'd to sarve in hell all yo' life in dis 
      place, an' den have to take it for sartin' su'ah in de nex' worl'.' 
      He seemed to think that a sentence to the penitentiary was merely 
      carrying out a part of the divine plan; in other words, he was 
      foreordained to eternal suffering, and has got eleven years on his 
      way.... We found the books and papers to be all that could be 
      desired, and have taken great pleasure in distributing them.... 
      Could you have heard the genuine thankfulness expressed by the 
      unfortunate prisoners as I passed along the galleries distributing 
      the reading matter, you surely would have felt amply repaid for 
      interesting yourself in them.... Many said, 'God bless the ladies 
      who thought of us!' with an earnestness and sincerity which 
      indicated clearly to me that they felt and appreciated the kindness 
      and the motives of the donors. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 58 
   
 My experience among convicts has 
      convinced me that kindness shown toward them is never wasted. There 
      are in this prison several noted criminals,--men who have the 
      reputation of being brutal desperadoes,--with whom I have 
      frequently talked, and have invariably found to be easily touched 
      by a kind word and act." 
   
 Last June Mr. Beach dropped dead in a Chicago depot while on his way 
 home. It seems proper to copy here portions of a letter written to his 
 family by the chaplain of the prison. 
   
                                                       JUNE 30, 1885. 
   
      ... As we roomed together, I was with him more than any one else; 
      and when not otherwise engaged, we read and talked together.... We 
      were very frank with each other, and last Sabbath eve we had a long 
      talk on religion. The reaction from a Calvinistic faith had 
      evidently left him somewhat adrift. We talked of the cramping of 
      creeds on the one hand, and the tendency on the other hand of 
      (so-called) Liberal views to produce loose morals, etc. He dwelt on 
      the fact that the perceptions of the mind were so much in advance 
      of the inclinations of the heart, that men knew better than they 
      did; adding, "Oh, I have often come so near to the wonderful 
      process by which bad men are made good!" I reminded him that Paul 
      said, "It is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy 
      heart,"--dwelling at length on the whole argument in Romans x. 6 to 
      13 inclusive. I remarked that my habit of urging these views 
      earnestly for forty-four years might have become obtrusive; but he 
      answered: "No; if these things are worth anything, they are worth 
      everything. If duty here affects destiny there, these are matters 
      of primary and not secondary consideration." Little did I think 
      then that in twelve brief hours he would know their reality better 
      than I possibly could. In saying good-by [the chaplain adds], he 
      said he would write soon, was glad he had ever known me, but feared 
      he _would not see me again_; then walked off feebly but cheerfully 
      with ----, who carried his satchel, and to whom he was much 
      attached--though a colored convict, yet much of a man. At 7:30 A. 
 he went with Mr. L----, our purchasing agent, with whom he 
 
      talked freely _en route_ to Chicago, who carried his satchel, 
      helped him up the stairs in the depot, and at whose feet he 
      suddenly dropped dead. A physician was called at once, but 
      paralysis of the heart had stopped the wheel of life.... The boys 
      here loved him _much_. B----, a special friend, gave him a pretty 
      onyx cross for his little niece. I think he put it in his pocket. 
      Some Boston ladies sent him several boxes of pamphlets and books 
      for the library, advising him to keep certain volumes himself, and 
      I hoped he had written his name in them or set them aside; yet 
      C---- (colored) and T. J. D----, who aided him in the library (and 
      mourn him as a brother) think he read the volumes they recommended, 
      but made no further claim on them. Some prison employees, like some 
      physicians, find their sympathies decrease by constant use. _He_ 
      was not so; for there was not a drop of tyranny or despotism in his 
      blood, and any one who used power simply to oppress another was 
      beneath his contempt. He could consistently say to the Recording 
      Angel, "Mark me as one who loves my fellow-men." Oh! had I known 
      all he probably meant when he said so tenderly at parting, "I fear 
      we will not meet again," I would have followed out the impulse of 
      my heart, clasped him in my arms, and then have said (as I did), 
      "Yes, we will meet in heaven!" 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 59 
   
 The following extracts are from Miss Ellis's letters to Beach:-- 
   
                                                DECEMBER 23, 1884. 
   
      Your letter was received last Saturday afternoon, and was quite 
      encouraging to us, for we may do some good work in the prison with 
      one who feels interested with us. Your letter was particularly 
      welcome, as the same morning came a letter from Mrs. J. I. W. 
      Thacher, Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary Conference of Boston, 
      who responded promptly and satisfactorily to my letter, though she 
      was sick in bed. After the hurry of Christmas is over, they will 
      send you two barrels of literature,--"Registers," "Harpers," 
      "Centuries," "Atlantics," and some few other materials. I feel as 
      if this will be "good news" to you. Yes; it is a good time to turn 
      the minds of the men, women, and boys in the right direction. "A 
      little kindness" and good advice may help some of the poor 
      creatures to a better life. Think Orthodoxy takes a wrong 
      starting-point in teaching one that he is "totally depraved," and 
      that he must wait for a sudden conversion in order to become good. 
      I feel as if Unitarianism is the better way, upholding that we are 
      "not totally depraved, but incompletely developed," and that our 
      salvation depends greatly upon individual responsibility. That we 
      have it within ourselves to become what God intended we should be, 
      and what was possible with Jesus is with us,--that we may become 
      "sons of God" as he was. We are not to "shift the responsibility 
      off on to some one else," as M. J. Savage says. These poor 
      creatures must be taught that the sin is greatly on their own 
      shoulders, and they are capable of overcoming if they only will. 
      Mr. Savage's closing sentence is fine,--"Not to do wrong, one must 
      develop in himself the ability of magnificent self-control!" That 
      is the starting-point of many of life's failures,--lack of 
      self-control. Teach these poor creatures that lesson, and some 
      trade by which they can support themselves when they leave the 
      prison. You wrote us word you subscribed to two of our papers. I 
      take it for granted they are the "Register" and "Unity." If so, 
      will call your attention to a review of a book on "Prison Reform," 
      in "Unity," Dec. 16, 1884. I sent you yesterday a tract, "Unitarian 
      Belief in Bible Language," marking several passages which I thought 
      might rouse some of the poor men and women and _boys_ (it is the 
      _young_ we must work on, and see to it that we are making better 
      men and women for the future) to a truer view of what sin is; also, 
      "Wrestling and Blessing," by Rev. William C. Gannett. His first 
      section, on "Inherited Burden," is capital, showing that in spite 
      of it we may come off "conquerors." The whole of the tract is 
      good.... Hoping we may continue to aid you in the prison work, and 
      with the good wishes of the season from the Women's Auxiliary 
      Conference to you and all prison-workers and inmates, 
   
                     Cordially yours,                       S. ELLIS. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                FEBRUARY 5, 1885. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 60 
   
 If we can only make men feel their bodies are temples of the Holy 
      Spirit, which they have of God, and that they are not their own, 
      and that in sinning they disgrace this holy temple, it seems to me 
      that there would be less crime in the world. It is the divine in 
      their own souls they defile. There has been a tract of Unitarian 
      hymns published. I will send you a copy next week, hoping that some 
      of our beautiful hymns may cheer the poor benighted prisoners.... I 
      have had people say to me, "The Unitarian faith does very well to 
      live by daily; but when you are in trouble, or your friends die, if 
      you do not believe in the Trinity, what have you to comfort you?" 
      My reply is, "We have God, from whom Jesus received _his_ strength. 
      We have the faith _of_ Jesus, and not so much faith _in_ Jesus. We 
      can trust _God_ to help us in our hour of need; and if we have 
      sinned we know _He_ is ready and willing to pardon us. We know that 
      to live truly in this life will secure us happiness in the world to 
      come; and that while we are here there is time to repent and do 
      good, and we would not wish to feel that it was necessary for a 
      perfect being to die to spare us from our sins. We had rather 
      suffer on, if we have done the wrong, than see some one else suffer 
      for us." 
   
 On receiving the news of Mr. Beach's sudden death in July, 1885, Miss 
 Ellis wrote to his sister: 
   
      "... I was much shocked and very sorry to hear the news your 
      letter, which was received this morning, contained, but was much 
      obliged to you for speaking so plainly of your dear brother, for I 
      was much interested in him. Not only I, but _all_ of our little 
      Women's Auxiliary Conference, and also the ladies of the Auxiliary 
      Conference in Boston. He was a noble fellow, and doing much good 
      there in the Joliet prison. I hope to transfer my esteem and 
      respect for him to his family in remembrance of him. How little it 
      ever occurred to me, when I wrote the letter to him on the 20th, 
      that the dear fellow was safe in his heavenly home. I am sure he 
      deserved a high place with the dear ones above, in whatever faith 
      he died. He used to write us such good, interesting letters, both 
      here and to Boston. We were always glad to get them.... I never 
      have known to what church he and his family belong, but have 
      imagined the Presbyterian.... What church do you attend, and how 
      old was Andrew? I am old enough to be his mother, I suspect, and 
      looked upon him and some few other of my correspondents as 'my 
      boys,' as one of my converts styles himself. My hope was that 
      Andrew would study for the ministry some day.... I know what sorrow 
      is, but must say yours is one of the most trying ordeals to pass 
      through,--an only son, and such a noble one, to die among 
      strangers. My heart aches sorely for you, and I do not wonder it 
      seems like a 'dream' to you. We do not know and cannot tell why our 
      dear ones are taken. We can only trust in God's love to lighten the 
      burden for us after a time, and accept our present trial. The 
      spirit of the dear ones will help us to be kinder and more loving 
      to those who are left with us; and gradually a change comes over 
      us, and as days roll on we find our lives are very different from 
      what they were before,--purer and holier, and we have been drawn 
      nearer heaven and been with our dear one all the time. I will copy 
      a beautiful poem of Whittier's, 'The Angel of Patience,' at the 
      close of this letter. 'Our earthly loss is our heavenly gain.' ... 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 61 
   
 Bear as bravely as you can, and the good Father will send peace to 
      your souls as the years roll on. 'We must through much tribulation 
      enter the kingdom of heaven.' We shall be glad to send papers to 
      _you_ now. I think in the 'Register' you will find many things to 
      comfort you often; and from time to time I will select something 
      especial for you. Let me know, please, by postal, if you prefer not 
      to have them. Shall be very glad to hear from you any time." 
   
 This letter led to a correspondence continued until Miss Ellis's death, 
 and to the sending of much literature to the family. Further extracts 
 from this correspondence follow:-- 
   
                                              AUGUST 16, 1885. 
   
     ... I do not wonder you miss the dear brother, and feel grieved that 
     you may not see him again. I do not believe the good Father in 
     heaven is angry if we murmur some. He cannot be so harsh as to have 
     us cultivate family affections and friendships on earth and not have 
     any loving feelings left. No! It is right to mourn, but yet "not 
     without hope." One of the most beautiful sermons I ever heard, and 
     the most comforting, was one from our pastor, Rev. C. W. Wendte, on 
     "The Dark Hours of Life, and what they bring us." 
   
 Here she copies the closing passages of the sermon, and also four pages 
 of poems,--"The Heart Prayer," by J. N. Spriggs; "I am so Weak," Jennie 
 McCaine, both from "Unity Songs Resung;" "My Dead," by Rev. F. L. 
 
 Hosmer; and selections from "Scriptures Old and New." So little did she 
 spare the feeble remains of her strength in these last months. Sept. 27, 
 1885, she wrote:-- 
   
      "... Not that I have so much to do, but this changeable weather has 
      unfitted me for work, and I have a good deal of extra work lately, 
      that has exercised my brain considerably and required _long_ 
      letters. I was put on a committee of three at the St. Louis 
      Conference last May, for drawing up systematic Post Office Mission 
      methods. Rev. Arthur Judy, of Davenport, Iowa, is the chairman. He 
      has planned a circular letter and a book of records. It has taken 
      much of my time to read the long letters and give my opinion of 
      them.... We have to work very differently in this region.... 
      However, in time we shall have more than one enlightened family in 
      a place. The way to overcome is to lend our papers, tracts, books, 
      etc., that the people may see we are Christians after all. We do 
      not want to convert them so much, but to make more sincere 
      Christians of them, and happier people in this world; and by 
      degrees they throw aside their old dogmas without knowing it. We do 
      have so many comforting books; so many good Sunday-school lessons 
      adapted to grown people even; devotional books, too, with 
      selections which fit each day; and also so many books containing a 
      true account of Unitarianism and of the Bible, that I feel every 
      one ought to read them, and own many; but of course they cannot.... 
      I want to lend you a little daily book I have,--'Day unto Day.' It 
      is in rather a dilapidated state, because I have sent it by mail to 
      a number of persons. I have two copies, but both birthday presents, 
      and I do not like to part with either. The pencil-marks in it are 
      mine, as they have impressed me day by day. You may retain it three 
      or four months if you wish." 
   
 The sister wrote in reply:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 62 
   
                                                    OCTOBER 27,1886. 
   
     I wish to thank you especially for the loan of your book, "Day unto 
     Day." It was very kind in you, and I have found it to be a perfect 
     mine of beautiful gems of truth and wisdom, and "day unto day" it 
     can furnish comforting thought for all occasions. 
   
     I was very much interested in your statement of your work as a 
     member of the committee you mentioned. Certainly, such an amount of 
     such elevating literature distributed so extensively must result in 
     much good. The literature that I receive from you we endeavor to 
     make the very best use of,--by first "thoroly" reading in our own 
     family, and then lending to those among our neighbors and friends 
     who will be most likely to give their attention to it. On one or 
     two occasions we have invited in, on Sunday afternoons, some of our 
     neighbors, and made them occasions for reading to them an especially 
     good sermon or article, hoping to awaken sufficient interest to 
     perhaps have frequent readings and talks. In our village there are 
     two churches only,--the Disciples and Presbyterian. 
   
 The date of Miss Ellis's last letter to this correspondent shows it to 
 have been written less than a month before her death:-- 
   
                                            November 30, 1885. 
   
     Your letter was very welcome, and I intended replying sooner; but 
     for the last three weeks have been very miserable, though up, out, 
     and at work all the time, accomplishing little, however. We were so 
     glad to hear you were occasionally having Sunday readings and doing 
     the good you can. To-day I have mailed to you "Songs of Faith, Hope, 
     and Charity," and the last Church Door Pulpit "Channing," selected 
     by Mr. Gannett, whose father, Ezra S. Gannett, was Dr. Channing's 
     colleague for many years. It is an admirable compilation, and I wish 
     it were in small book form, for it would make a very beautiful 
     little Christmas gift. Even in this form I shall use it for such a 
     purpose. There are three books I would call your and your friends' 
     attention to as little gifts of value at this season; namely, "Daily 
     Strength for Daily Needs;" "The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems," 
     by Rev. F. L. Hosmer and Rev. William C. Gannett, just published; 
     then there is a pleasant story-book for boys or girls published last 
     year, "The Browns." ... All this may be quite contrary to your 
     feelings this year, and I presume you cannot enter into Thanksgiving 
     and Christmas with the real spirit of former days. But not as you 
     see the "golden lining" to all things can you give way to gloom. 
     There is always _something_ to be grateful for. How much worse 
     _might_ have happened to us. Then, too, we can feel thankful that we 
     had our treasures so long, and that they were such a pleasure to us. 
     Thanksgiving naturally makes us ask, "What have I to be thankful 
     for?" and makes us somewhat sad; but at Christmas we lay aside all 
     thought of self, and think of Him who was all unselfishness; and in 
     this thought we try to forget our sorrows in order to send gladness 
     thrilling through some other human soul, and thus forget our loss 
     for that day at least, though tears may come involuntarily. Hope the 
     Thanksgiving was as pleasant as it could be; that there was a 
     reunion of those of you who are still living, and that the spirit of 
     the dear one only drew you all together in stronger bonds of love. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 63 
   
 We--father, mother, and myself--were invited to dine with my 
     brother----, there to meet my dear sister's husband and five 
     motherless children. It is the one pleasure to us to pass these 
     anniversaries together, and to feel all our dear ones are with us in 
     spirit, bidding us to be of "good cheer," for they are not dead, but 
     with their love for us would guide us on to better things than 
     _they_ ever knew or could accomplish. All is well with them now, and 
     they look down smilingly upon our feeblest efforts to do the right 
     and be cheery. 
   
 The sister wrote, Feb. 7, 1886:-- 
   
      "... We were very much shocked when we heard of the death of Miss 
      Ellis. We had known that she was an invalid, yet, judging from her 
      letters, we had no idea of the great weakness she must have endured 
      physically in writing to her correspondents up to so recent a date. 
      Her letters to us in our great bereavement were so full of tender 
      sympathy with us, and were so comforting, we feel that we have 
      sustained a great loss, even though we had never seen her.... It 
      will be a pleasure to us to forward to you any letters of Miss 
      Ellis either to my brother or myself that will aid you in the 
      publication of a book ... that will extend and perpetuate the 
      influence of so useful and good a life." 
   
 Mrs. J. I. W. Thacher wrote:-- 
   
                                               FEBRUARY 17, 1886. 
   
     You will be glad to know that we have had very grateful letters from 
     the several stations in Kentucky to which we have sent barrels of 
     magazines and papers. To Eddyville and Greenwood we have sent twice; 
     and Dr. R----(at the latter place) still says, "Send more whenever 
     it is convenient;" so that we feel that the very miscellaneous 
     collections have been really appreciated and enjoyed. In each barrel 
     we sent large numbers of "Registers" and some good tracts, and then 
     filled in with miscellaneous magazines,--chiefly the illustrated 
     ones. This is hardly Post Office Mission work, but I don't doubt it 
     accomplishes much good, and I am always grateful to you and Miss 
     Ellis for suggesting it to us.... Do you continue to be in 
     communication with the Joliet Penitentiary, and is any one keeping 
     on with Mr. Beach's work for the prisoners? It is a constant help 
     and inspiration,--the thought of Miss Ellis's devotion to her work 
     and her faithfulness to the end! 
   
 A young Englishman in Frankfort, Ky., wrote Mrs. Hunert, in answer to 
 her card of inquiry: 
   
      "I do take the 'Register,' 'Unity,' and 'Unitarian;' I am almost 
      entirely dependent upon what I read here, as I can hear no Liberal 
      preaching, and meet with very few who have sympathy with Liberal 
      religious views. I did get the memorial of Miss Ellis, and will 
      prize it much, as I was better acquainted with her than any one 
      connected with the church at Cincinnati, and looked upon her as one 
      of my best friends, and a very noble lady. The day on which I 
      received your postal, I met the chaplain of the penitentiary here, 
      and he told me how much the Unitarian literature that was sent from 
      the East was liked by him; that it was all distributed, and enjoyed 
      very much by the inmates of the prison. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 64 
   
 If I had another copy or 
      two of Miss Ellis's memorial, I would give one to the chaplain, and 
      another gentleman,--about the only Unitarian I know here." 
   
 The following correspondence is with a workingman in Northern Ohio,--a 
 young Englishman, whose letters tell his story. He once rose at four 
 o'clock to write Miss Ellis before going to his daily work. One of his 
 first letters to her said:-- 
   
                                                 MARCH 16, 1885. 
   
     Now, that you may know in what walk of life I move, I must tell you 
     that I am a laborer. When working by the month, my wages never 
     exceeded twelve dollars a month. From such small wages I have built 
     up a small library of 155 volumes; have also 156 pamphlets. I take 
     unceasing delight in reading, and now that I have others dependent 
     on me, am not able to procure all the books I need. By some I have 
     been encouraged to prepare for the ministry. Such also is my 
     aspiration. It may be years before I shall become a minister, 
     because my preparation is not to be accomplished very quickly. Oh, 
     how I wish that some one from their abundance would forward me some 
     of the books and pamphlets they have cast aside, having no further 
     use for! They would be of great use to me. What are the 
     qualifications necessary for the Unitarian ministry? Will you please 
     tell me? If possible for you to do so, please send me a few more 
     sermons by Rev. G. A. Thayer, and I shall be greatly obliged. 
   
 Miss Ellis forwarded this letter to Miss M. O. Rogers, Secretary of the 
 King's Chapel branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, 
 Mass., who had written, offering aid in her work. As a result, the 
 King's Chapel Women's Auxiliary Conference sent this young man many 
 Unitarian books of value, and the "Unitarian Review" regularly, for 
 which his gratitude was great. He loans and distributes all matter sent 
 him, and has procured many tracts from the American Unitarian 
 Association for distribution. A portion of Miss Ellis's reply to the 
 letter given above is as follows:-- 
   
                                                      MARCH 18,1885. 
   
     Your letter was read with much interest, and we are glad to know our 
     "little society has done good work."... Don't be discouraged if you 
     cannot convert the world at once, but wait quietly till your time 
     comes to do more. You are young yet. Think I can spare a few more of 
     Mr. Thayer's sermons. He has only had four sermons on "Reasonable 
     Religion" published.... Will send you the Meadville catalogue next 
     week, and you can see for yourself, and afterwards write to 
     President A. A. Livermore, telling him I sent you the catalogue. He 
     can give you all further information. He was the pastor in 
     Cincinnati from the time I was fourteen to twenty-one, and knows us 
     well.... Hope to hear further from you occasionally. Work on 
     quietly, knowing the discipline will the better fit you for 
     ministerial labors. We can't jump into the highest calling on earth 
     in a moment, and now-a-days a man must be something of more than 
     ordinary ability to enter a Unitarian pulpit. It is not an easy 
     place to fill. 
   
 He wrote to her, June 14, 1885:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 65 
   
 "Believe me, I am sorry to hear that you were 'too sick to more 
      than keep up' with your work. I know you must be busy at all times, 
      from the report of your work in the Conference 'Unity' you sent me. 
      That number of 'Unity' is very valuable to me, and will be kept for 
      future reference. The four sermons on 'Reasonable Religion,' by 
      Rev. George A. Thayer, have also been kept. I hope soon to see them 
      in a neat binding. They are worthy of the expense. Of the books 
      received from Boston, four have been read by me. Two of them were 
      mostly read as I walked to my work mornings. In the same manner 
      'Meditations on the Essence of Christianity' was read. This book is 
      very beautiful, its author, Robert Laird Collier. 'Channing's 
      Works' and 'Genuineness of the Gospels' cannot be carried about as 
      readily, so they are to be read and studied on lost days, when I 
      cannot work. The 'Reviews' received are very valuable; I would not 
      part with them for anything. The 'Register' is received regularly 
      from Philadelphia. The last one is very interesting, containing as 
      it does an account of the Festival. It must have been good to be 
      there. To you, and all who have aided you in your generosity to me, 
      I return my heartfelt thanks." 
   
 After Miss Ellis's death, he wrote, Feb. 13, 1886:-- 
   
      "... With this I send you the whole of her correspondence to me, 
      hoping that you may find something that will be of use to you. I 
      cheerfully send you the letter and postals, knowing that my 
      treasures will be in safe keeping. Since Miss Ellis's death they 
      are doubly precious to me; I prize them very highly, because she 
      who wrote them proved herself to be a very dear friend to me,--a 
      laborer longing for more light. Whilst I live I shall never forget 
      how much I owe to her who labored so much in my behalf. It was the 
      one wish of my heart to have met Miss Ellis, and to have thanked 
      her for all that she had done for me; but it was to be otherwise. 
      When I meet her in the country of 'many mansions,' I shall have the 
      opportunity to do so. I believe I shall meet and know her there. 
      Your offer of help is very kind; my greatest drawback is lack of 
      books by Unitarian writers. I buy when I can, but being out of 
      work--that is, steady work--since last September makes it very hard 
      work to get a book very often. If you can help me in this way I 
      shall be very thankful, and if you cannot, I shall be just the 
      same, because I feel that you would if you could. I have much 
      opposition to overcome, standing alone in my belief in the truth of 
      Unitarianism. I have great need of more books. My preparation for 
      the ministry must necessarily be slow, because I can never attend 
      Meadville Theological College. But I am reminded that your time is 
      precious, and so I will close. Mrs. ----, will you at the next 
      meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference thank all the dear 
      friends who have done so much for me? If I ever amount to much in 
      life I shall owe it all to the Cincinnati branch of the Women's 
      Auxiliary Conference. Hoping that you will not forget me when 
      sending out literature, I remain, etc." 
   
 In another letter he wrote:-- 
   
      "My object in fitting myself for the ministry is to be able to 
      carry the message of Unitarianism to my brother-laborers, because I 
      believe it will make better men--and women too--of them.... 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 66 
   
 I began 
      to work when I was but a little more than eleven years old, and 
      since that time I have been my own teacher." 
   
 A lady in Ohio sends her "Register" regularly (the arrangement being 
 made through Miss Ellis) to the correspondent who wrote her this letter 
 of thanks:-- 
   
      "I have long postponed the note of thanks I have meant to send you. 
      But when I tell you that I am a dressmaker, you will pardon me, I 
      am sure. This is my harvest season, and I am extremely busy. Being 
      one of the class of work-women who put _themselves_ into what they 
      do, I am exhausted at night, and forced to make Sunday a day of 
      rest indeed. 
   
     "The papers do come regularly, to my great joy. I assure you that 
     the pleasure and spiritual strength I get from them, if you could 
     realize it, would compensate you for the trouble an hundred-fold. My 
     business, showing me so plainly the small foibles and weaknesses of 
     human nature, and necessarily binding one's thoughts in large 
     measure to 'band, gusset, and seam, seam, gusset, and band,' or 
     their equivalents of flounces and gores, tends to a wearisome 
     narrowing of the mind; a half-hour spent after work is done, with 
     the 'Register,' opens a window, as it were, into heaven. 
   
     "I live alone. At times my isolation is hard to bear; but having 
     seen better days, as the saying goes, to me my deprivations are but 
     part of the discipline that God saw was needful for me. I am shut 
     off, by reason of serving the public, from the society of my equals 
     in education and breeding, and for that of my equals in station I 
     have no taste. _Pardonnez-moi_ these personal details; I give them 
     that you may know how much good you are doing. Long may you be 
     spared the power and the will to do such kindness to those who need. 
     We may never meet on earth, but I trust we shall in heaven." 
   
 To Miss Ellis, Aug. 20, 1885, she wrote:-- 
   
      "I receive the papers, and not only read and enjoy them, but give 
      and send them to others. I am surprised to find 'unconscious' 
      Unitarians wherever I go. I hope you may be well by this time. Do 
      not tire yourself to write. Others need you more than I." 
   
 After Miss Ellis's death, she wrote acknowledging the memorial:-- 
   
      "Many thanks. I was so glad to receive it, and prize it as one of 
      my treasures; also for the welcome tracts and papers. They are like 
      the shadow of a great rock in a weary land to me, and are given 
      away to others." 
   
 A woman in a small Indiana village wrote Miss Ellis:-- 
   
      "I understand you have Liberal literature that you send gratis to 
      hungry people who are not able to gratify their appetite in that 
      direction. It would be greatly appreciated by me, and after reading 
      I would put it where I thought it would do the most good." 
   
 Later, she wrote:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 67 
   
 "I have received a paper and often something else every other week. 
      These I have accepted as a kind of trust; and when there has been a 
      favorable opportunity, given them away to friends and 
      acquaintances. I do not press them on any one, nor talk about it 
      much. I have not the courage of a reformer. When I speak to friends 
      (that are kind every other way) of a broader religious belief, they 
      meet me with coldness and distrust. It chills me, and I am silent. 
      Yet I believe, with Helen Williams, if any one is brought to face a 
      great truth, if they accept it, yet do not speak or act upon it, 
      there is retribution, barrenness, for them,--a plunging in the 
      whale's belly, as Jonah was,--a figure so many have laughed at, yet 
      significant for all that. I wonder now at my struggles in former 
      years; am happier since the tangled skein is partially 
      straightened. Still I am not fully in accord with the Unitarians. 
      Miss ---- [another correspondent in the same village] spoke to me 
      some time ago of your desiring us to form a reading circle. I do 
      not know what she said to you. I will give you the situation. I 
      live in a small village of about one hundred inhabitants, and Miss 
      ---- lives about two miles away. I cannot call to mind a woman that 
      would take any interest. They would go to sleep over their 
      knitting, or want to use the time for social chat, as they do not 
      meet day after day at the village store, as the men do (I speak of 
      winter). True, there are a few that would enjoy the reading, yet 
      are so severely Orthodox they could not comprehend a new truth 
      outside of _their_ church. That is the dark side. Now I have often 
      thought if we had a place of meeting, where we could seat a small 
      audience (which we have not), and a good reader (ditto), we could 
      call them together Sunday afternoons and read some of the beautiful 
      sermons you have sent. 
   
     "Your work is grand,--the elevation of the human race. The ones that 
     _will_ read, will become better, kindlier, more patient with 
     ignorance; and while they yearn to give every soul a chance, will 
     naturally throw out a better influence and teach a broader religion. 
     As to your paper, not now. It is midwinter; husband, carpenter, out 
     of employment. Intend to take one of your publications after a 
     while." 
   
 About two weeks after Miss Ellis's death she addressed this letter to 
 her:-- 
   
      MY DEAR FRIEND,--I received a "Register" yesterday, directed in a 
      different hand. Are you sick? I hope not. I should grieve indeed if 
      I knew that physical pain had stopped your work. These lines come 
      to my mind:-- 
   
     "Only a woman, and I could not find 
     The quiet household life that women know; 
     So too, my part where there were sheaves to bind, 
     Not much, perhaps, but more than I could do. 
     My tired feet failed me in the harvest lands, 
     My ripened grain but half-way reaped across; 
     And, where it dropped from over-wearied hands, 
     My best sheaf lies half bound for winds to toss." 
   
     Instead, may you continue your work till eventide. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 68 
   
 Who can tell, when a mind gives up its beliefs, where it will stop? 
     I seem to believe nothing, unless it is in the Supreme Good, 
     whatever that is,--and my religion, to live the best life I know. 
     The Orthodox preachers say if one strays from the "path," or 
     "back-slides," they are always uneasy and unhappy. How different my 
     experience is! How glad I am to have escaped the little enclosure of 
     dogma, and to stand "far indeed from being wise, but free to learn"! 
   
     Hoping this will find you in good health and spirits, I remain 
   
                                  Your friend            A---- C---- 
   
 After hearing of Miss Ellis's death, she wrote: 
   
      "Received your postal. Have also received Unitarian papers, and 
      Miss Ellis's memorial, which last I will store among my treasured 
      mementos. How beautiful her life was! Though never having seen her, 
      she will be treasured in my memory as a dear friend. She has sent 
      me almost all the pamphlets, I suppose, that have been written for 
      the purpose of distributing. Having a large family, they have been 
      read and reread, and handed to neighbors and friends. One has no 
      idea how many they will reach, or how much they influence; and yet 
      there is so much prejudice against Unitarians among Orthodox 
      Christians, some would take it as an insult to offer them one of 
      the pamphlets. In our little village the 'United Brethren' have 
      been holding meetings day and night for three weeks, and oh! how 
      they do preach hell, and pray publicly for 'that lady that is 
      leading her daughters down to hell,' simply because she does not 
      believe as they do. I have more tolerance for them than they have 
      for me. I think there are some people they will reach and do good, 
      as I presume the Rev. Sam Jones is doing in Cincinnati." 
   
 The following letter to Miss Ellis from a poor old woman to whom she 
 wrote, sent papers and other aid, for several years, is given 
 _verbatim_, to illustrate the range of her sympathies. This letter was 
 also written after Miss Ellis's death:-- 
   
      "I wish I could come and see you, but I cannot afford to go up and 
      down on the Trains. I have to send by someone, now Miss Ellis you 
      have been a sending me good Papers to read and now you must not 
      think I mean to beg but you sent me a New years Card it was a Rose 
      now I would not take anything for it I am as Foolish as Littel 
      Children is about Pictures the Rose I have is in my Album and if 
      you got any one by you to part With Will you send it to me for this 
      New year I feel more than thankful for the Papers you have sent 
      me.... Well I will close Write to me soon I am alone day and night 
      So goodbye from a Dear Friend to one I Love." 
   
 A young man in a State Normal School in Indiana long corresponded with 
 Miss Ellis. He has been an enthusiastic distributor of our literature, 
 and instrumental in procuring Unitarian preaching in his city. Extracts 
 from his letters are here given. 
   
      "The papers received are read by myself and others. There are few 
      here who know anything of what Unitarians believe." 
   
 A second letter says:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 69 
   
 "The matter sent to me is read by several persons. I think of one 
      young man now who asked me to send you his name. He said he would 
      like to read literature made by persons who are independent of 
      creeds. I gave him Wendte's 'Statement' and Chadwick's 'Art of 
      Life.' 
   
      "I am grateful to you for your kindness, and shall be glad to 
      receive what you may send. I read the sermons by Savage with 
      interest. They were the only ones of his I ever saw. I have given 
      and shall continue to give the matter sent me wider circulation. 
      [Mentioning a rebuff recently received, he continues:] This little 
      experience, while not pleasant, is valuable to me. I see that the 
      spirit of the Middle Ages is not entirely dead yet, and that one 
      better not be too hasty. My convictions are just as strong as 
      before." 
   
 Another letter says:-- 
   
      "I know something of what it costs to break away from old 
      associations. I was brought up in the Baptist Church. All my family 
      were of that faith.... My relatives all look upon me as one lost to 
      all true belief, because I cannot see my way clear to go with them 
      in the traditions of the fathers. Still, I feel that to be true to 
      the light I have is better than to have the sanction of those who 
      are simply following what their creed teaches, asking no questions. 
      I do not care to argue with them, and so follow that life that 
      gives me the greatest comfort and satisfaction." 
   
 Feb. 11, 1886, he wrote Mrs. Hunert:-- 
   
      "Miss Ellis was a very dear friend (although I never saw her), and 
      it was a great shock to learn of her decease. The first intimation 
      I had of her death was the article in the 'Register' headed 'A 
      Candle of the Lord.' Whatever literature you may send me shall be 
      given circulation after I have read it. I now supply some 
      half-dozen persons by mail with the tracts sent me. As I know the 
      personal peculiarities of all these parties, I can adapt the matter 
      to each. You will see, therefore, that I am a sort of branch 
      'mission.' In addition to this, I occasionally write a short 
      article to a local paper in Wayne County upon subjects of 
      interest." 
   
 He encloses one of these articles,--subject, "Future or Everlasting 
 Punishment: Which?" 
   
      "... Mrs. Smith wrote to me in regard to Miss Ellis's letters. I am 
      very sorry not to have any of them. During the last three years I 
      have moved so frequently, being sometimes in this State and 
      sometimes in W. Virginia, that they were lost, and I am unable to 
      find them. Some of them I carried for a long time in my pocket 
      until they became so worn as to be scarcely recognizable. The form 
      of them has vanished, but the kindness and sympathy they breathed 
      is with me still. The spirit of that sainted woman cannot wax old. 
      I humbly trust that I may be imbued with something of the calm and 
      trust and purity which her letters always suggested. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 70 
   
 There was, 
      too, an enthusiasm which was untiring, and withal a modesty that 
      never was absent from her utterances. There was ever the absence of 
      anything like dictation in her advice. It was the gentle monition 
      of a friend, never the pompous dictation of conscious superiority. 
      Rev. J. T. Sunderland, of Chicago, is to preach in our city March 
 I have never heard him, and am looking to his coming with 
 
      expectation." 
   
 A young woman who is working out a Homestead and Timber Claim in 
 Nebraska, and has been for several years supplied with much reading 
 matter by Miss Ellis, which she has circulated so zealously as to have 
 become one of the "branch missions," writes:-- 
   
      "When I was about seventeen years old I joined the Baptist Church 
      in Newport, Ky. (where at the time I was residing, and teaching in 
      the public school in that city); and I was sincere in what I did, 
      only I had so many doubts about many things that they taught, and 
      hesitated from the beginning of the revival until the close before 
      I could decide. Then my decision was made on this, that there were 
      older persons belonging to the church that said they believed the 
      teachings and doctrine, and I thought when I grew older and had 
      more experience that I would understand, and I had a delicate fear 
      to converse with the older members about my doubts for fear of 
      their opinions of me; so I quietly stayed with them for a number of 
      years, when an old friend, a good woman, now gone from among us, 
      induced me to attend your church, Mr. Wendte then being the pastor. 
      The subject he was to speak about was 'the Christ we know.' I 
      remember my thoughts then were about these,--'Christ they know? I 
      don't believe they know any,' and thought I should like to hear 
      what he would say, any way. I well remember that sermon; not one 
      sentence he uttered jarred me in the least; and, strange to say, 
      they were my own thoughts on the subject; but I dared not, even if 
      I could, have expressed myself. I thought over that sermon the 
      whole week every spare moment I had, and even took some that did 
      not justly belong to me. I shall never forget that week. The next 
      Sunday his text was, 'the God we love.' For all I enjoyed the 
      previous sermon, I still thought, 'They love God? Impossible!' and 
      as my friends invited me to go over with them again, I accepted the 
      invitation. I never had God represented to me before as now,--more 
      like a kind father than an austere judge; yes, kind, compassionate, 
      and loving us all alike, condemning only our evil actions. This 
      suited me exactly; so another week was spent in thought. I would 
      think, 'How can I conscientiously be a Baptist and believe this 
      way?' Yet how I disliked leaving the church where many things were 
      endeared to me. It seemed as if I was in a sea of trouble and 
      doubt, not knowing whether to go on or halt and turn back. The next 
      Sunday the subject was, 'the Bible we revere.' I was more than 
      anxious to hear this one, for it seemed to me that on this I would 
      have to decide. I went, and decided. I broke off gradually from my 
      old associations, and attended the services in the Unitarian church 
      from that time until I came West. I never joined the church, but it 
      suited my views best of all churches, and to-day I cannot go in any 
      of the Orthodox churches and feel at home. Now as regards this 
      mission work that you wish me to engage in, I could devote half an 
      hour each day, and am willing to do all I can for the advancement 
      of the cause. My health became very poor, and I went West thinking 
      it would be beneficial. I must say I succeeded, for I am not 
      compelled to stay now for my health, but business keeps me here.... 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 71 
   
      My homestead is three miles from the town, and I go out quite often 
      and stay over Sunday. My house is a very small dug-out. I raised 
      about ten bushels of potatoes, some beans, and a few squashes; have 
      done work I never thought of doing,--that is, planting vegetables, 
      made my own bedstead, put a floor in the house, and lined it with 
      sacking. Some of my lady friends assisted me when they came to see 
      me, and gave me ideas about my new kind of work. Now last, but not 
      least, in regard to Miss Ellis. I wrote to her directly after 
      coming West, and told her I felt isolated from church attendance, 
      but was pleased to find so many people with whom I could converse 
      on Liberal thought. Since that time she had kindly furnished me 
      with reading matter which I have again sent on its errand of peace 
      and joy. I looked over a bundle of letters and can only find this 
      postal card from her.... This card I send you is one she sent me in 
      reference to Mr. Copeland. I wrote her for his address, which she 
      gave me, and I requested him to come to our town and speak to the 
      people here. He kindly consented to come, and spoke on 'Into the 
      Light.' The majority of the people that heard him were well 
      pleased, and he promised me that whenever he passed our town on his 
      way to or from Denver he would stop over and speak. Would like to 
      have the card returned, as I want it for a remembrance." 
   
 In her first letter written after Miss Ellis's death she said:-- 
   
      "Imagine how I felt when I came to your letter, and read the sad 
      news of Miss Ellis's death. I feared the worst when I did not hear 
      from her, for a friend had written me of her decline; but Miss 
      Ellis herself never referred to her illness but once to me. She 
      certainly must have been a patient and uncomplaining invalid, and 
      I, with many others no doubt, feel as if I had lost a dear friend, 
      and would be pleased to receive one of the memorials as a 
      keepsake.... I can assure you that I do all I can towards building 
      up a religion that all could conscientiously embrace. ... All the 
      reading matter sent to me I distribute to the best of my ability, 
      and hope that as it goes on its mission good seed will be sown. 
      There are numbers of Liberal people here who do not belong to any 
      church; and then I find a number of Liberals belonging to Orthodox 
      churches. I will subscribe for Mr. Savage's sermons, for I like his 
      sermons best of all." 
   
 Miss Ellis numbered several physicians among her correspondents. One 
 living in Alabama writes:-- 
   
      "Your Conference speaks truly when it says, 'Many of Miss Ellis's 
      correspondents had come to regard her as a dear friend, though 
      never having seen her face.' I feel that I too may have the 
      privilege and the honor of being enrolled among the number of her 
      unseen friends. I hope some of the good seed she sowed has fallen 
      in good ground, even at this distance from the kind hand that 
      scattered them, and that their fruit may not 
   
     'Appear in weeds that mar the land, 
       But in a healthful store.' 
   
      I am a regular subscriber to the 'Christian Register' and the 
      'Unitarian,' all through the influence of Miss Ellis." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 72 
   
 A man on a remote plantation in Georgia, who has been most zealous in 
 spreading the new light around him, writes:-- 
   
      "Please accept thanks for papers and memorial of Miss Sallie Ellis. 
      She has been a good and a kind friend to me, has supplied me for 
      over two years with the best of literature, something new, so 
      different from what we are used to, something that lifts me above 
      myself and gives me new views of heaven and immortality, makes me a 
      better man to wife, family, neighbors, stock, and fills my heart 
      with that new love, the divine brotherhood of all mankind. I deeply 
      lament her loss. I do wish she could have lived a little while 
      longer, for my sake. I do feel so thankful for the papers, and 
      Channing, from Mrs. ----, God bless her!... Any books or papers 
      sent me will be used to the good of the community. The Post Office 
      Mission is doing a good work." 
   
 A young German in Tennessee to whom she sent much reading matter wrote 
 her:-- 
   
      "I am a German by birth, and received my education at German 
      universities. I devoted many years to the study of the chief 
      philosophical systems, and had in consequence of the results 
      derived from the latter for a long time little or no connection 
      with any church whatever. But during the last four or five years I 
      became more and more convinced that no school of thought possesses 
      so glorious a light as is emanating from the life and lessons of 
      Jesus Christ. So when I became acquainted with Channing's Works, 
      seeing that it is possible to reconcile with every scientific 
      discovery and with every logical conclusion all that is special in 
      Christianity, I knew I had found what I want and wherein to rest. 
      From my own standpoint, and remembering the religious 
      indifferentism which is now general in my native country and in 
      France, I regard Unitarianism as the principle which is to save the 
      Christian Church from ruin, and which will be an indestructible 
      bulwark against Nihilism and materialism. I still believe there is 
      a great future before the Unitarian Church." 
   
 From a lady in Alabama to Miss Ellis:-- 
   
      DEAR FRIEND,--For such you have been to me, and it is to you I am 
      indebted for the papers, tracts, and sermons that I have received 
      and enjoyed so much. I have derived genuine comfort from them, and 
      sincerely thank you for thinking of one so unhappy and so tossed 
      about for a haven of rest. Truly yours is a heavenly mission, 
      answering the needs of many like myself afflicted beyond human aid. 
      The sermons of James Freeman Clarke are peculiarly comforting; and 
      indeed I have read all you sent me with the deepest interest and 
      benefit. How I wish I might in some way recompense your Society as 
      it deserves! And you individually have my deepest gratitude, which 
      is so little for such thoughtfulness as yours. 
   
 A second letter says:-- 
   
      "Your papers, sermons, etc., are regularly received, and I wish I 
      could make you understand the great comfort they are to me, 
      particularly the sermons. Anything pertaining to the future life 
      holds me spell-bound till the last word is read.  
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 73 
   
 The Unitarian 
      ideas and beliefs, so far as I know, find echo in my heart; and I 
      always feel comforted and soothed, as it were, with all I have read 
      and understood. I attend the Presbyterian Church here, because I 
      think it is better to attend some church regularly; and I am very 
      fond of this minister socially. There has been for ten days or more 
      an evangelist holding a union meeting in our church, and a night or 
      two ago I went to hear him. The only feeling excited in my heart 
      was one of pity that all persons could not be taught the love of 
      God instead of being frightened into a nervous fear. I assure you, 
      I feel it a privilege to correspond with you, and find myself 
      wishing in my heart that you knew me thoroughly, what I have been, 
      and what I am by nature, education, and social standing. I feel 
      that we women of the South are to be seen at home and known to be 
      understood by our Northern sisters." 
   
 The following are some of Miss Ellis's letters to a radical of the 
 radicals, an old gentleman in Boston, one of Theodore Parker's old 
 congregation, who sent much literature out under her direction, and 
 contributed Theodore Parker's "Prayers," and his new volume of sermons, 
 to her loan library. 
   
                                                       JULY 2, 1883. 
   
      Your letter was received on Thursday, and, contrary to your 
      expectation, was read with a great deal of interest, for I always 
      admire to have every one speak with perfect freedom, and I am very 
      glad you wrote as you did, and feel honored by having so old a man 
      for a correspondent.... You and I won't quarrel on the Bible 
      question. Rather think I should come up to your expectations on 
      _that_ point.... I do not consider Mr. C---- or Mr. S---- authority 
      any more than I consider the Bible so; I read for myself and settle 
      the question as best I can. Am I not right? I have not read Colenso 
      on the Pentateuch, nor Davidson's "Introduction to the New 
      Testament," but _have_ read "Canon of the Bible," Knappert's 
      "Religion of Israel," Stanley's "Eastern Church," Higginson's 
      "Spirit of the Bible," Dr. Noyes's Translation of Prophets, 
      Psalms, Job, and Canticles, and lastly, "Bible for Learners." I 
      merely mention these to let you see I have been a student of the 
      Bible. Will also add Alger's "Future Life," J. F. Clarke's "Ten 
      Great Religions" and "Thomas Didymus," Savage's "Talks about 
      Jesus," and his sermons this winter on the Bible.... I think of 
      heaven and hell as you do; but having always been fed on Unitarian 
      teachings, am not so "bitter" in my feelings as those who have had 
      the "Assembly's Shorter Catechism" to overcome. In short, if people 
      only _live_ truly from day to day, I will excuse their view of the 
      Bible, and of God, and Christ, as long as they do not wish me to 
      think the same as they do, for I decidedly think they are wrong.... 
      I shall be very much pleased to have a copy of Theodore Parker's 
      "Prayers," and shall gladly accept a copy for my circulating 
      library; for, but with the exception of a few donations, the books 
      loaned have been those I put in it. 
   
 After receiving the book, she wrote:-- 
   
      "First, I must tell you how much I am enjoying Theodore Parker's 
      'Prayers.' They are suitable in most instances to the present day, 
      and for all ages and times, and one rises from reading them with 
      kindlier, broader thoughts, and renewed in strength.  
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 74 
   
 Am very glad 
      to have the book. Shall endeavor to sell copies of it this 
      winter.... I cannot _exactly_ agree with all you said in your 
      letter, for I think it is not necessary yet to give up all 
      theology, though it should not be the main thing in religion. The 
      chief thing is to _do_ right, and people arrive at that by 
      different methods. They will inquire and discuss theology, and 
      therefore it is necessary as yet that ministers should preach it, 
      and I do not believe that Orthodox ministers have arrived at Mr. 
      Savage's or Mr. Chadwick's views exactly, or they would come out 
      and say so. As for myself, I still enjoy the Communion service, 
      partaking of the bread and wine, and cannot agree to casting aside 
      Jesus as a helper to a better life, though I neither worship him 
      nor think that he redeems us in any other way than as by following 
      his example we become one with him and God. He 'died for us' in no 
      other sense than as a soldier dies for his country. Then let 
      theology continue, for the world is fast becoming better and better 
      in spite of it, and the time _may_ come when we shall need it no 
      longer. We are gradually coming to the point. I do not regret the 
      time 'lost' I have spent on theology, for it has fitted me for just 
      the work I am engaged in, and many are the questions I am called 
      upon to answer, either by letter or printed matter; therefore I am 
      glad to know where to send perplexed minds. As a friend wrote me 
      from the South, 'Your papers are a great help to me. You are doing 
      more good than the women did in the days of our Saviour. They 
      clothed the body and you are feeding the souls.' Both acts are 
      needed, but in different directions, and some people can better do 
      the one, and others the other. I am cut off from active benevolence 
      from want of health for it, and am glad to know there are souls 
      needing nourishment. Do you not take this view too?" 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                  DECEMBER 20, 1883. 
   
      Your kind letter awaited my return from the city last evening, when 
      I returned at ten. It grieved me to think that possibly I had 
      wounded your feelings, for your "heresies" have not been "too 
      tough" for me, as you fear. One's religious belief never troubles 
      me as long as they do not force me into the same belief. Should be 
      sorry if I had not "charity" enough to see the good in one, and not 
      look at the outside merely. Your last letter reached me September 
      28, and I replied by postal October 19, as there did not appear to 
      be anything especial to require a letter; and as my eyes were 
      troubling me much at the time, I was compelled to desist from all 
      but necessary letters. Am still as much interested in the good 
      cause as ever, and we still have new applications constantly. We 
      are gaining ground in the South. One gentleman in Alabama is much 
      interested in Unitarianism, and wrote, asking me for Mr. Savage's 
      address, whereupon he wrote to Mr. Savage himself, who is sending 
      him "Unity Pulpit" present series. I am subscriber to it myself, 
      and never can keep a sermon. I subscribed for the benefit of 
      others. In Independence, Ky., a gentleman lately wrote, asking for 
      Unitarian papers, etc. He is highly satisfied. Has been groping in 
      the dark a long time, and wrote me, "When I read the pamphlet, 
      'What Do Unitarians Believe?' by C. W. Wendte, I shouted 'Eureka!' 
      Like it so well that I shall not part with it." 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 75 
   
 So it goes on all 
      the time. Some one finds just what they have been in search of for 
      some time. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                               FEBRUARY 19, 1885. 
   
      Am much obliged to you for sending matter to Mr. ----. He is 
      extremely radical, a farmer, with a large family to educate, and 
      cannot get such religious matter as he needs. You might, if you 
      choose, send the Chadwick sermons to him too, or, if you prefer 
      they should go elsewhere, address them to me, and I will send them 
      where they are needed. 
   
 Her last postal card to this correspondent, dated about a month before 
 her death, says: 
   
      "Thanks for the six 'Unity Pulpits' received. I have been too busy 
      to reply before, and my health still feeble, though not confined to 
      the house or bed at all. I'm not one of that kind until necessary." 
   
 Since her death, the farmer referred to above has written:-- 
   
      "I want to pay my humble tribute to the departed Miss Ellis. I 
      never met her; but she was my friend, because she was the friend to 
      all struggling humanity. She sent me sermons, etc., but above all, 
      _kind words_. I had pictured her in my mind as a strong, robust 
      person, and hoped at some future time to meet her. I now fear that 
      I may have wounded her refined soul by some things I wrote to her. 
      I am somewhat 'agnostic;' but I love to think of heaven if such as 
      Miss Ellis preside there and give tone to the surroundings." 
   
 The old gentleman in Boston wrote:-- 
   
      "With this please receive eight letters and seventeen full postals 
      from our dear departed friend, Miss Sarah Ellis, of your city, 
      whose face I never saw, but whose correspondence was to me a great 
      pleasure. Her personal friendship must have been a real blessing to 
      you and her immediate friends. She was able to be a very active 
      worker for the cause which lay so near her heart, and was at the 
      same time so perfectly willing to let others believe what they can. 
      I will send all I have of hers and let you select what you desire. 
      There is not even a postal card among them on which there is not 
      some small or large trace of her noble, generous, kindly nature." 
   
 A young man in Ohio, writing Miss Ellis about some revival scenes in his 
 town, makes this comment, which is good and true enough to settle the 
 "leaven" idea once for all. 
   
      "If you had seen all this as I have, you would hardly think it time 
      for a civilized organization like the Unitarians to cease fighting 
      the great evil and wait for the leaven to work. 
   
      "_The Unitarians are themselves a portion of the leaven, and unless 
      they work there is so much of the leaven idle._" 
   
 A Christian minister with whom Miss Ellis has corresponded two years or 
 more, and who expects to enter Harvard Divinity School, in sending her 
 letters writes:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 76 
   
 "... I send such as I can get at, preferring to let you make any 
      suitable selections or extracts they may offer. I shall be pleased 
      to have them returned, as you mention, when you have used them. I 
      may add that my correspondence with Miss Ellis on all matters 
      connected with religion, Unitarianism, etc., was in all respects 
      most pleasant, satisfactory, and profitable to me. The careful 
      skill with which she divined the exact want of a correspondent and 
      sent the appropriate word by tract or letter to supply it, bespoke 
      a wisdom and experience deeper than casual letters may reveal. And 
      continued correspondence served thus to inspire a greater esteem 
      and confidence in the judgment expressed." 
   
 The following extracts are from her letters to this minister:-- 
   
                                             NOVEMBER 12, 1883. 
   
      Your letter was received a week since, and read with interest. What 
      you said of our teachings, of course, was light and just. We do not 
      expect ministers of other denominations to accept our views 
      altogether, for if so they would _be_ Unitarians. Your view 
      concerning studying the Bible agrees with mine. Still, it is well 
      to know the latest view of the Bible, although we cannot accept the 
      teaching at first. In time the way is made clear to us. Have 
      mailed to you to-day two more good tracts and our church programme 
      for this year. After Wednesday will mail to you "Positive Aspects 
      of Religion," by English leaders. We will agree to let you have any 
      book at just what it costs us, you paying postage on it.... 
      Theodore Parker's "Discourses Pertaining to Religion" is a good 
      book for you to read,--usual price, $1.00. But first, "Orthodoxy; 
      Its Truths and Errors," J. F. Clarke; and a new book just out, 
      "Orthodoxy and Heresy." ... "Bible for Learners" is by three German 
      divines, translated by an Englishman, and gives the latest German 
      views concerning the Bible. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                             DECEMBER 23, 1883. 
   
      ... At the time your letter reached me we were holding our annual 
      fair, and since then I have been much occupied with preparing for 
      Christmas. To-day am home-bound by the snow,--it being knee-deep 
      between our front door and the gate, and as I have to walk half a 
      mile to take the street cars to the city, and as it is raining on 
      top of the deep snow, concluded it was really too bad for me to 
      venture. Have read myself out, and being very much occupied during 
      the week, will take advantage of the holy-day to speak on a holy 
      topic. You suggested that we send "papers representing Unitarian 
      ideas rather than tracts;" but papers do not contain our doctrines 
      so explicitly. Since your last letter, have mailed to you two 
      tracts on "Inspiration" and "Incarnation" which I thought well 
      answered the thoughts expressed in your letter. 
   
      You will see from them that Unitarians are little troubled about 
      Inspiration and the Divinity, or the Deity of Christ as we prefer 
      to state it. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 77 
   
 We do believe in his divinity, for we hold that all 
      men are divine, while we deny his being Deity. We lay greater 
      stress on the divinity of human nature, and therefore we do not 
      feel that Jesus is degraded by calling him man, for we exalt man. 
      If we considered man totally depraved, then to call Jesus a mere 
      man might seem to lower him; but when we think of the possibilities 
      of man, and that he has it within himself to reach up to the 
      highest manhood, and to become in a measure a saviour of the world, 
      then to compare him with Jesus--the most glorious of men--is not 
      lessening the divinity of the Christ, it seems to me. Or, if we 
      held Jesus to be God, a being different from man, and so far 
      superior to us that we never could attain to his goodness, then we 
      never could compare the two. Jesus is an example to us because we 
      also are divine as he is; for he prays "that they all may be one, 
      as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in 
      us." If man had not been of the same nature as himself, would he 
      have thus spoken? I advise you to send to the Western Unitarian 
      Sunday School Society for Rev. William C. Gannett's Sunday School 
      Lesson, "The Christmas Poem and the Christmas Fact," if you wish to 
      understand how Unitarians of the present day understand Christ. 
      Though you may not accept, you will have our idea of the birth 
      legends in our Gospels. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                 DECEMBER 24, 1884. 
   
      My reply to your letter, by postal, was written before talking with 
      ----. She tells me that Harvard will be decidedly the better place 
      if not too expensive. Meadville has the advantage in that 
      respect,--less expensive; but being near Boston, Cambridge offers 
      better opportunities for students to engage in work by which they 
      can support themselves in the mean time. A correspondent of ours 
      went to Harvard a year ago last September. Had a scholarship 
      promised him. He found a set of books to keep, and studied.... I 
      tell you of this case, as it may help you in your decision. 
      Meadville is very thorough, but think the younger men all give 
      preference to Harvard; I presume as much as anything on account of 
      the opportunities which being near Boston affords them. I have 
      written to Professor C. C. Everett of Harvard to please send you a 
      catalogue and answer your inquiries. We shall be very glad if our 
      little Cincinnati branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference is the 
      means of securing them another Divinity student. With many good 
      wishes of the season from the Women's Auxiliary Conference, 
   
                            Very truly yours,         S. ELLIS. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                  JANUARY 14, 1885. 
   
      Have been obliged to change my residence, and, temporarily, am with 
      another brother. Just came here to-day, and, not having my things 
      about me, have not your last letter to refer to, but having 
      received a letter from our Harvard Divinity Student this past week, 
      wish to tell you what he says of his surroundings, and his 
      impression of Professor Everett. He writes as follows: "I enjoy the 
      work of the Divinity School more than I had ever hoped. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 78 
   
 We have a 
      noble corps of professors eminently fitted for their special 
      departments, and personally most eminent examples of Nature's 
      noblemen. In the light of what I am now learning, I consider my 
      former ignorance phenomenal. Thanks to Professor Everett, my faith 
      in God is clearer and stronger than ever before. He has enabled me 
      to reduce my chaotic philosophy to something of a system, and has 
      helped to furnish a steadfast basis for faith. His lectures are 
      simply invaluable. To my mind he is not only the greatest man in 
      the Divinity School, but the greatest man in Harvard University; 
      and not only the profoundest thinker in the Unitarian Church in our 
      country, but the profoundest thinker to be found in any American 
      church." ... I feel that this will be of interest to you, who are 
      contemplating going to the Divinity School. There is another thing 
      I wish to speak of; that is, we have quite a valuable book, "The 
      Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity," by Hugh H. Stannus, of 
      England, showing how much greater cause there is for believing in 
      the Unity of God than in the Trinity. You can have the book any 
      time you wish, though I have just mailed it to a lady in this 
      State. By the way, the daughter of James F. Clarke, with others, 
      has planned a course of "Unitarian Studies at Home." The first 
      year's course includes: 1. "The Unitarian Doctrine of Prayer," by 
 F. Clarke; 2. "The Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity," by 
 
      Stannus; 3. "Jesus and His Biographers," by Dr. W. H. Furness; 4. 
      "Christ the Revealer," by Thom; 5. "Religious Duties," by Frances 
      Power Cobbe. We have first, second, and fourth,--at least, are to 
      have the latter. "Jesus and His Biographers" is out of print; but 
      we are to have that loaned to us for two months, as three ladies 
      here, with myself, are pursuing the course, and I have also induced 
      a lady in this county to join us. We have received quite a number 
      of encouraging letters from our correspondents lately, and have 
      every reason to believe the Post Office Mission work is doing good. 
      I mailed to you this week some arguments against the Trinity. Rev. 
 W. Wendte's sermon, "Encouragement for Unitarians," in 
 
      "Register," January 8, I read with much interest. We have such an 
      interesting young convert, a Methodist, in Canada. His intention is 
      to study for the Unitarian ministry, we having brought him out into 
      the light. I thought with how much interest he would read that 
      sermon of Mr. Wendte's. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                                 APRIL 19, 1885. 
   
      Was glad to hear from you again, and find you are in a larger 
      field. [He had gone to a Pennsylvania city.] Perhaps you may draw 
      into your church--take it for granted you have gone there to 
      preach--Universalists and Unitarians.... We shall be glad to loan 
      you books again as soon as you are ready for them. Have had added 
      to the library lately "The Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity," 
      by Hugh H. Stannus; "Christ the Revealer," by Thom (both English 
      works), "The Power of the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth" and "The 
      Story of the Resurrection," both by Dr. W. H. Furness, of 
      Philadelphia,--the latter just published, and he presented the two 
      to us. Am not quite ready to loan the latter, as I've not read it 
      myself. If you know or meet with any Germans in your vicinity, we 
      are soon to have some Unitarian tracts in the German language.... 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 79 
   
 Hope you read with enthusiasm the earnest appeal for ministers at 
      the East, and also at Meadville, in the "Register" of April 9. We 
      hope to have two of our correspondents go to Meadville in 
      September, and hope you may succeed in your desire to get to 
      Harvard. We had a very pleasant letter from one of our "boys," as 
      he styled himself, a week since. He is still enjoying his 
      privileges there.... Hoping to hear from you again, and wishing you 
      success in your new position, whatever it may be, in which the 
      Women's Auxiliary Conference join, 
   
                           Yours truly,               SARAH ELLIS. 
   
 A gentleman in Mississippi, superintendent of schools in his county, 
 writes of Miss Ellis as 
   
      "... One whose memorial I read with a saddened heart. A single 
      request to her consequent upon an advertisement which I saw in a 
      paper commenced a correspondence which continued uninterruptedly 
      till the time of her death. Though just from the side of a dear 
      sister whom she had left destined to a glorious immortality, she 
      found time to write to us a letter of condolence on the great loss 
      that we had sustained in the death of our son,--a young man just of 
      age,--in which she blended submission to Him 'who doeth all things 
      right,' with such words of comfort as could emanate only from a 
      good, earnest, self-sacrificing instrument of our Heavenly Father. 
      Than in her life of trials and troubles there has never been a 
      greater instance of the victory of mind over matter. I am afraid 
      that I do little good with the sermons, etc., among the people 
      here, who, although they use the beautiful hymn, 'Nearer, my God, 
      to Thee,' at their funerals, still look upon Unitarians as cultured 
      heathens." 
   
 A lady in Ohio, who became a regular correspondent and bought many 
 books, wrote Miss Ellis:-- 
   
      "The lectures and papers you have sent have been, and are, the 
      source of much pleasure to me; and I have given them to some of my 
      friends, who also seemed pleased with them. I had thought for a 
      long time that the Unitarian faith would be my idea of true 
      religion, and now I feel _sure_ of it. I knew nothing about its 
      creed, or whether it had one, but had had a desire for several 
      years to know something of it. All my friends and acquaintances 
      were as ignorant as myself, and the most definite idea I had been 
      able to gain concerning it was through James Freeman Clarke's 
      'Self-Culture.' When I found your little notice in the newspaper, 
      it was just what I most desired. I have always wished to be 
      religious; but there are things in the Bible which my reason 
      repels, and the Orthodox way of teaching them became at last so 
      abhorrent to me that at one time I just gave it all up and ceased 
      to try to believe any of it; though I am sure I always felt the 
      beauty of Christianity as taught by Christ, and would be glad now 
      to be a Christian, if not compelled to believe him the miraculous 
      Son of God.... We like the 'Register' better and better all the 
      time, and I have no doubt shall subscribe for it regularly. I 
      consider it exceedingly high-toned as a moral and religious 
      teacher, and also in a literary point of view. The sermons and 
      lectures supply for us a long-felt need. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 80 
   
 I intend sending a list of 
      names of friends and acquaintances to the publishers soon. My 
      sister-in-law has become a convert to the Unitarian faith through 
      the medium of the 'Register' and the tracts you have sent me from 
      time to time. She is quite an enthusiast, and feels that 
      Unitarianism is a great boon and comfort to her now in the midst of 
      her troubles. [The sister had recently lost her husband.] She, like 
      myself, could not conscientiously subscribe to the old Orthodox 
      creeds and requirements, and so remained outside the Church; but 
      now she feels that she may be a Christian without stultifying her 
      sense of reason. When she returns home, she expects to subscribe 
      for the 'Register.'" 
   
 After Miss Ellis's death she wrote:-- 
   
      "I received the memorial of Miss Ellis. I thank you sincerely for 
      sending it. It is very touching and beautiful, and delineates just 
      such a character as I conceived hers to be. I had received the sad 
      intelligence of her death through the 'Christian Register' before 
      the memorial reached me, and it was like the shock of learning of 
      the death of a personal friend. I have great reason to be grateful 
      to her and to cherish her memory; for through her I have been led 
      to embrace and to love the broad and charitable Unitarian belief. 
      My reason had struggled for years against the great--to 
      me--stumbling-blocks of Orthodoxy, and had finally abandoned the 
      conflict and settled down into a kind of unthinking unbelief, 
      feeling that it was no use to try to subscribe to any Orthodox 
      creed, and not knowing where to look for any more hopeful, helpful, 
      or reasonable spiritual aid. About four years ago, I think it was, 
      I saw the notice in the paper which is referred to in the memorial, 
      and Then ensued a very pleasant correspondence ... wrote Miss Ellis 
      asking for Unitarian papers, etc. much like that with a dear 
      familiar friend, and she grew to be like one to me, or rather was 
      that almost from the first. She put so much of her real self into 
      her letters that they were like a living presence. So full she was 
      of true Christian love and feeling, so ever ready to forget her 
      own sorrows and sufferings in her sympathy with the sorrows of 
      others, that thus unconsciously truth and love and 
      self-forgetfulness were stamped upon every line that came from her 
      mind and hand. Truly she was 'A Little Pilgrim,' bearing good 
      tidings to the fainting and weary, and lifting them up with her own 
      heavenly strength. Sacred be her memory! Through her I became a 
      subscriber to the 'Christian Register,' which is to me a standard 
      of excellence in a religious, moral, and intellectual point of 
      view. I do not want to be sectarian, as that is not my ideal of a 
      good Unitarian,--I mean in an 'offensive' light; but it really 
      seems to me that even Unitarian wit and fun have a refinement and 
      exquisite touch of humor which cannot be equalled among Orthodox 
      publications. The 'Register,' however, is the only Unitarian paper 
      that I am well acquainted with. A widowed sister-in-law who is with 
      me also became a Unitarian through Miss Ellis. She is a subscriber 
      to 'The Unitarian.' We also have Channing's Works and the 'Oriental 
      Christ,' which I bought through Miss Ellis, and some of Freeman 
      Clarke's books; so that we have the companionship of much of the 
      best Unitarian thought, although we are denied the privilege of a 
      personal ministry." 
   
 From Springfield, Ohio:-- 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 81 
      "I have been greatly benefited by the papers, sermons, etc., you 
      have so kindly sent me. Hope to have them continued. Will try to 
      have some Unitarian volumes put in our public library. After 
      reading the papers I loan them out to others. Some sermons thus 
      pass into six or eight homes. They set people to thinking. I thank 
      you, and your good Society, for the broad Christian education you 
      are giving me. Will do all I can as your missionary here." 
   
 Rev. Samuel May, Leicester, Mass., having offered to send his "Register" 
 to some one, Miss Ellis arranged that it should go to the writer of the 
 above, who acknowledged it as follows:-- 
   
      "Your postal received. I am very grateful for this kindness, and, 
      as I read the 'Register' this morning, I resolved to use it for 
      others also.... Can't your Association give the ball a push at this 
      place?" 
   
 The following extract is from the first letter of a new correspondent, 
 dated Dec. 8, 1885. To him was begun the last postal card, which she was 
 unable to finish. She was so eager about it, dictating faster than one 
 could write. "Tell him I think he will like us when he knows us better," 
 she said. 
   
      "Your postal came all right, also copies of several tracts, and 
      specimens of 'Register' and 'Unity.' They are mainly in lines of 
      thought which I have been working on for some years. I am at one 
      with the authors in main points, but not prepared to accept all of 
      the so-called advanced or radical expressions. My own experience, 
      observation, and reflection seem to show that they have swung too 
      far from Orthodoxy, and the truth lies between; but I am not fit to 
      decide yet. From the pamphlet of selections of Channing's writings, 
      with which I am particularly pleased, I have derived some ideas 
      which inspire me for a greater activity, and I hope a more 
      effective activity, in my work of teaching.... I have a friend who 
      also feels dissatisfied with current Orthodoxy. If you see fit, I 
      wish you to send him some of those tracts. I wish to use my copies 
      here, or I would send them." 
   
 The estimation in which Miss Ellis was held by some of her 
 fellow-workers appears in the following extracts from letters and 
 papers. 
   
 At the conclusion of a letter, a part of which is given elsewhere, Rev. 
 A. Livermore, President of Meadville Theological School, says:-- 
 
   
      "But though disinterested and devoted to family interests and 
      helpful to the growing households of her brothers and sisters, the 
      crowning interest that came to absorb and inspire her advanced 
      Christian life was the propagation of her own Unitarian faith, 
      early learned, later disciplined, and mellowed and sanctified by 
      trial and years. What had been a stay and staff to her own mind and 
      heart she was anxious to communicate to others. Hence she sought 
      the instrumentalities of the pen and press, and the Post Office 
      Mission sprang into being,--the invention of a Christian woman's 
      heart, bent on doing good spiritually. The zeal, fidelity, 
      sympathy, and adaptation with which she developed and pursued this 
      work have been told elsewhere. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 82 
 It is another lesson to teach us 
      that ever new means will arise, as time and opportunity serve, for 
      the faithful in heart and life to hasten the coming of the Master's 
      kingdom of righteousness and love. Miss Ellis infused a sweetness 
      and sympathy all her own into her mission. To her it was no task, 
      but a delight, as her letters show,--her meat and drink to help 
      struggling souls to light and Christian faith. Peace to her 
      beautiful and saintly memory!" 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
            (From Rev. S. J. Barrows, editor "Christian Register.") 
   
                            A CANDLE OF THE LORD. 
   
      It was a feeble socket that held it. It was a constant surprise 
      that so small a candle could give forth so much light. But its 
      special mission was not so much to illumine the world with its own 
      light as it was to ignite other minds and hearts from its own 
      flame. "Behold how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!" says 
      the apostle. Nothing is small, it has been said, which is great in 
      its consequences. It does not need a stroke of lightning from 
      heaven to raze Chicago to the ground: a little lamp-flame near a 
      pile of hay is sufficient. We forget sometimes the power of a 
      single humble life to extend and duplicate its influence. We have 
      never learned yet how far the little candle can throw its beams, 
      when its waves of light and heat come in contact with minds and 
      hearts that are prepared for the illumination it may give. The wire 
      and the battery have not entirely superseded the torch-bearer. The 
      lamps in the house may have been filled, the gas may be ready to 
      turn on; what is needed is for some one to go about with match or 
      torch or candle, and tip the burner with its flame. 
   
      So, as we have said, it was the mission of this candle of the Lord 
      to ignite other minds and hearts. She had discovered that the vast 
      system of intercommunication established by the post-office might 
      be used for moral as well as for commercial means. In connection 
      with a faithful co-worker, she devoted herself to the dissemination 
      of kindling literature. Set like a luminous panel amid a great wall 
      of advertisements was a brief notice, in some of the large Western 
      dailies, that those who wished Liberal religious literature might 
      have it for the asking, and by sending to the Cincinnati Post 
      Office Mission. In the columns of this paper, from time to time, we 
      have shown what a wide-spread influence these little notices had. 
      They opened avenues of communication to many hungry souls. The 
      confidence of many in doubt and perplexity was secured. The lady 
      who was called to this special work had a keen intuition as to what 
      was needed in each special case. It was not only that she sent the 
      right tracts and the right books, and thus set up guide-posts for 
      groping men and women; not less prized by many of her 
      correspondents was the simple, earnest faith and cordial sympathy 
      which she expressed in her own letters. Many are grateful to her 
      for pointing out the way and giving the right impulse at the right 
      time. Prevented by deafness from taking an active part in social 
      intercourse, she yet found an opportunity to unstop the deaf ears 
      of others and to open their blind eyes. In this Post Office Mission 
      work was a channel for her faithful and consecrated endeavors. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 83 
   
 We cannot estimate the radiating influence of such a life. Its 
      quickening flame has gone from heart to heart, and it is destined 
      to go still further. Her devoted example has given an impulse to 
      many other women in the Unitarian body, who are sowing in the same 
      field the seed for an abundant harvest. It is now seen that this 
      diffusion of our literature is one of the mightiest means for 
      propagating our faith. If such a devoted woman, working 
      independently, could accomplish so much, how much more might be 
      effected by thorough organizations and wide co-operation for the 
      same purpose! 
   
      Her best monument will be the prosecution and extension of the work 
      to which she gave her life. It was but a pair of lines in the 
      "Deaths" of the last week's "Register" which told that the candle 
      had gone out, but its flame is still propagated in the lives it has 
      served to kindle. The great work of her life was done far beyond 
      the circle of her immediate influence; and there are many who have 
      never seen her in the flesh, who will still feel that the name of 
      Sarah Ellis represents an abiding spiritual reality. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
              (From Rev. George A. Thayer in "Unity," Jan. 23, 1886.) 
   
                                  SARAH ELLIS. 
   
      Sarah Ellis, the faithful organizer of the Cincinnati Post Office 
      Mission, and the pioneer in that admirable form of the ministry of 
      Unitarian doctrine through the writing of letters and the 
      circulation of religious literature, "went up higher" from her 
      sick-bed, on Sunday evening, December 27. There are many, East and 
      West, to whom her wise guidance in spiritual perplexities has been 
      as a strong hand lifting them from confusion and doubt concerning 
      all religion, into tranquil joy, who will read that she is dead, 
      with the shock which comes with an unforewarned calamity. For 
      almost up to her last hour she was carrying on her correspondence 
      with the wide circle of men and women to whom she periodically sent 
      glad tidings of a reasonable faith, and never giving intimation to 
      the most regular of these correspondents that she was any less 
      vigorous of health than usual. For many months her friends had seen 
      the end approaching, and very likely she herself had understood 
      that "the task was great, the day short, and it was not incumbent 
      upon her to complete the work." But her inexorable conscience, 
      blended with her delight in having found at last, within this 
      recent five years, a work needing to be done, and calling into use 
      her store of admirable wisdom for such business, kept her at her 
      duty until the body ceased to obey the will. 
   
      Only the people who knew Miss Ellis well could understand her rare 
      fitness for her office, through long and ripe study of Unitarian 
      religious literature, and through her genius for apprehending at 
      once what special reading and counsel her various applicants for 
      light upon their darkened ways of the spirit needed to 
      receive,--only those to whom she spoke the word in season, or those 
      nearer home to whom she was a quiet exemplar in holy things, can 
      appreciate the quality of virtue enclosed in that fragile and 
      infirm body, which shines on earth only "in minds made better by 
      its presence," but shines with renewed honor elsewhere in the house 
      of many mansions. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 84 
   
 It was not my good fortune to know Miss Ellis personally, but her 
      works have praised her East as well as West. Her death is a great 
      calamity to the cause, as well as a great sorrow to her friends; 
      but she has put life and power into a good instrument of influence, 
      and it will live. 
   
                                      REV. GRINDALL REYNOLDS, 
   
               _Secretary American Unitarian Association, Boston, Mass._ 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                              LEICESTER, Mass, April 10, 1886. 
   
      ... Her communications made no mention of her infirmities or 
      illness; and her death was a great surprise. I had become quite 
      interested in her manner of doing her work; the perfect 
      intelligence, good sense, and self-reliance she manifested.-----of 
      Springfield, Ohio, has written to me in the highest appreciation of 
      her helpfulness to him.... I enclose three of her postal cards, 
      which, if quite convenient, may come back to me. [On one of these 
      postal cards Mr. May has indorsed, "Miss Ellis lived but about a 
      month after this was written. Her death was a great and immediate 
      loss to the cause of a wise and large Christian faith in the 
      West."] She was eminently worthy of a special commemoration and 
      canonization. 
   
                  Respectfully yours,          Samuel J. May. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
      I have thought of you often since the "Christian Register" brought 
      the news of Miss Ellis's death, and am moved to express my sympathy 
      for the loss you have met,--a loss which all of us share indeed. I 
      suppose it was very good to _her_ to be summoned from a state of 
      feebleness; but it will not be easy, I believe, to fill the vacant 
      place. Perhaps her own inspiration will rest upon her successor, 
      and so she will indeed help to carry on the work which she has done 
      so beautifully. 
   
      I suppose the time will come, some day, when the loss of a good 
      worker in our Conference will not be felt so seriously as now; but 
      we are far too few as yet. 
   
                                               MISS ABBY W. MAY, 
   
                    _President Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, Mass. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 85 
   
 Though I had had but comparatively little correspondence with Miss 
      Ellis, that little had made me regard her as a personal friend, and 
      I felt especially drawn towards her after I learned about her 
      deafness, for that was my own mother's trial for many years. It is 
      a comfort to think that all suffering and weakness are over for 
      her; and so we can but rejoice that she has entered upon the 
      blessed life, although the feeling of loss must be very great. I 
      have thought often of Mr. Beach's sudden death last summer, during 
      the last few weeks, and I was glad to tell our friends, at the 
      meeting the other day, of Miss Ellis's tender, helping sympathy for 
      his mother and sisters at that time. I think one can hardly help 
      feeling that perhaps Miss Ellis and the young friend whom she had 
      led to a bright and happy faith may already have met and rejoiced 
      together in the heavenly life. Much sympathy has been expressed 
      here for Miss Ellis's father. I hope that the thought of all that 
      she has gained is a constant comfort and help to him. 
   
                                        MRS. J. I. W. THACHER, 
   
                 _Secretary Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, Mass._ 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
      The news of Miss Ellis's departure from among us filled us all with 
      grief and regret; and yet we feel she is so sure to continue her 
      good work there, that we ought not to _regret_. What a delightful 
      awakening for her when, with no feeling of weakness or pain, she 
      opens her eyes to find herself surrounded by those who have gone 
      before, whose lives she had gladdened here, and to learn that part 
      of her mission there is to meet and welcome her host of friends, 
      personal and parochial, as they follow her over there! How many 
      people will miss her here! Ten times one is ten. Their number 
      cannot be estimated. 
   
                                          MISS F. LE BARON, 
   
                 _Sec. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._ 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
      I want to express my great sympathy for you and your Society in the 
      loss of your friend Miss Ellis. 
   
      Although I knew she had been an invalid for a long time, the news 
      of her death was a great shock to me. She has been so kind in 
      helping me to get started in the Post Office Mission, and made me 
      feel so truly that she stood ready to help always, that I cannot 
      but feel that I have in her death lost a good friend, which must be 
      the case with many others all over the country. She has left us all 
      the memory of a brave example, which ought to fill us with the 
      desire to carry on the good work by her begun, more faithfully than 
      ever. 
   
                                        MISS ELLEN M. GOULD, 
   
                       _Sec. Post Office Mission Committee, Davenport, Ia. 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 86 
   
 I have just heard of the death of Miss Ellis. How great a loss it 
      is to all of us, but how great a _gain_ to all of us that she has 
      lived, and illustrated the possibilities of a life lived under even 
      so many limitations as hedged her about! Will you not send me a 
      sketch of her life and work for the next number of the "Unitarian"? 
   
                                     MISS ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND, 
   
                            _Assistant Editor "Unitarian," Chicago, Ill._ 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
      I had heard from time to time that she was feeble, but her fragile 
      frame held so strong a spirit, that I hoped she would triumph over 
      bodily weakness for many years to come. The world can ill spare 
      such as she. Each time I saw her I was impressed more and more with 
      the strength of her character and the clearness and directness of 
      her mind. Upon meeting a stranger of whom one has heard much there 
      is almost always a little period of bewilderment before the ideal 
      and real can be harmonized, even where there is not disappointment; 
      and at first I was at a loss how to reconcile the strong, 
      well-balanced mind, with its keen insight,--as revealed in her 
      letters,--with the delicate, dainty, sweet-looking little woman, 
      shut out from her kind to so great a degree by her affliction. Yet 
      when her tiny hand grasped mine so firmly at our first meeting, 
      there was that in the clasp that reconciled and united my ideal 
      with the actual; they were only two sides of the same nature. She 
      was so strong, too, in being so genuine and so full of faith. In 
      these halting, doubting times, a faith in the eternal verities so 
      strong and unwavering as hers is like a rock to many a tossed and 
      uncertain soul. Such people do not know their own power of helping. 
      I can never refrain from questioning _why_ those who are so needed 
      in the world must be taken, when the useless and worthless are 
      left, unless it is that they go that they may leave the _spirit_ of 
      their service to do a larger work as a heritage to all who will 
      accept it. Though dead, they speak with many tongues. 
   
                                           MISS FRANCES L. ROBERTS, 
   
              _Ex-Sec. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._ 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
      A Union Meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference for Suffolk 
      County, which includes all the branches of the Conference in the 
      Unitarian churches of Boston, was held at Arlington Street Church 
      on Thursday, Jan. 21, 1886. 
   
      At this meeting was officially announced, with the most profound 
      regret, the death of Miss Ellis, of Cincinnati. A brief account of 
      her life in connection with the work of the Conference was given by 
      Mrs. J. I. W. Thacher, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, and Miss Abby W. 
      May, and it was unanimously agreed that there should be entered on 
      the records of the meeting, and transmitted to the friends of Miss 
      Ellis, an expression of our fullest appreciation of her beautiful 
      and self-sacrificing character, 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 87 
   
 our high estimation of the work in 
      which she had already accomplished so much, and our deep and 
      earnest sympathy for those who have suffered an irreparable loss. 
      Our sorrow is not without the hope that the tender memory of a life 
      so pure and unselfish, and such earnest devotion to all the 
      principles of our religious faith, may influence for good the lives 
      of each and all of us, and prove an incentive to every member of 
      our Conference to further activity in the work we are trying to do. 
   
                                 EMILY A. FIFIELD, _Director_. 
   
     _For the Suffolk County Branches of the Women's Auxiliary Conference._ 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                                   PORTLAND, ME., Jan. 17, 1886. 
   
      MRS. FAYETTE SMITH, Director of Women's Conference: 
   
      At a recent meeting of the Portland branch of the Women's Auxiliary 
      Conference, an article in the "Christian Register," entitled "A 
      Candle of the Lord," was read; and on motion of Mrs. Dr. J. T. 
      Gilman, the Secretary was requested to express to your Conference 
      the sympathy of our little band in the death of Miss Sarah Ellis. 
      While we cannot have the sense of personal loss that you feel in 
      the extinguishment of that light, we have the highest admiration 
      for the work she accomplished under such limitations, and trust 
      that her example will be an incentive to every Unitarian woman to 
      do something to continue it, till the flame she kindled may become 
      a glorious light, glowing in every hamlet of our common country. 
   
                     Very truly,            MARY R. MCINTIRE. 
   
      TO THE WOMEN'S CONFERENCE, CINCINNATI, OHIO.. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
                      57 HAWLEY ST., SYRACUSE, N.Y., Feb. 7, 1886. 
   
      DEAR MRS. SMITH,--As I have had the pleasure of a little 
      correspondence with dear Miss Ellis, our Society have asked me to 
      express to you our deep sympathy in your loss. She must have been a 
      remarkable woman to have accomplished so much when so feeble. Her 
      warm heart spoke plainly in her letters, and we shall regret more 
      and more, as time passes, that we shall receive them no more. Let 
      us believe that her freed spirit is not far off, but is still 
      interested, and far more able to help in the work she loved so 
      well. Her sphere is only larger. Our branch of the Woman's 
      Auxiliary Conference resolved to incorporate in its minutes a 
      resolution of regret at her death, and sympathy with you, and to 
      preserve the "In Memoriam" you so kindly sent, among its papers. 
      Please accept our warmest sympathy and expression of interest. 
   
                     Yours sincerely,           FRANCES J. MYERS. 
   
      _For the Syracuse Branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference._ 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 88 
   
 The Post Office Mission Committee at Davenport, Iowa, at their meeting 
 Feb. 10, also took formal action upon the death of Miss Ellis, and sent 
 expressions of "heartfelt regrets and sympathy" to the Cincinnati 
 Society. 
   
                                      CHICAGO, March 29, 1886. 
   
      A part of Thursday afternoon, May 13, will be given to the Women's 
      Conference, and occupied with election of officers and report of 
      Post Office Mission work. It seems very appropriate that something 
      should be said at that time in memory of Miss Ellis; and Miss Le 
      Baron and I request that you prepare the paper or remarks and 
      present them.... We leave the form of the memorial entirely to your 
      judgment. 
   
                                            MRS. E. A. WEST, 
   
                    _Pres. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._ 
   
      In accordance with this request, Mrs. George Thornton, of 
      Cincinnati, read the following memorial before the Western Women's 
      Unitarian Conference, May 13, 1886:-- 
   
      Such an occasion as this, full of words of good counsel and 
      cheer,--a reunion of the little band of women workers in the cause 
      of Liberal Christianity,--will be incomplete if we do not mention 
      one name, held in loving remembrance in the hearts of many here 
      present, and of a still greater number scattered far and wide, 
      whose lives have been touched to higher issues by the active 
      ministrations of our beloved co-worker, Miss Sallie Ellis, who has 
      laid down her work on earth and passed on to the great Hereafter. 
   
      When we recall the fragile form, so full of the Spirit's life, 
      which, rising above the many disabilities of physical suffering, 
      accomplished so much in the brief years allotted her, we take 
      courage, and thank God that we have had such spirits with us. 
      Nothing doubting that their work continues here and elsewhere, 
      though we know neither the manner nor conditions of its progress. 
   
      We who are cheered in moments of sorrow by the great faith that the 
      future of those who have passed behind "the veil which hath no 
      outward swing" will be but a continuance of the _best_, under 
      nobler conditions, rejoice, even in the midst of personal 
      bereavement, that Miss Ellis has entered into that rest, so nobly 
      won by her patient endurance of the heavy burdens laid upon 
      her,--burdens which yet never seemed to close her sympathy for 
      others, but only served to quicken her eagerness to work for the 
      extension of that vital faith she found so satisfying. 
   
      It is to her warm heart, and earnest desire to help others in the 
      midst of spiritual difficulties, that we owe the unique but most 
      efficacious method of reaching such through the medium of postal 
      communication. 
   
      Scientists tell us that each wavelet of sound, produced by the 
      tiniest cause, goes on in ever-widening circles of ether, to the 
      uttermost limits of creation. Had we but senses acute enough to 
      receive the sensation, how full of pulsing sound would all Nature 
      become! 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 89 
   
 It seems to me that this keener sense, enabling her to 
      catch the questionings of troubled souls, became one of the great 
      compensations of Miss Ellis's later years. As the outer organs of 
      hearing became dulled to what was passing around her, the inner or 
      spiritual became more observant; and as we listened to the 
      correspondence which came to her from North and South, East and 
      West, from the home and the camp, from the teacher and the taught, 
      we seemed to stand in some great whispering-gallery, echoing with 
      the sighs and anxious inquiries of seekers after truth who sought 
      aid in solving the great problems of the soul's life. As from time 
      to time came back acknowledgments of gratitude for aid rendered, 
      either by her sympathizing letters or the Liberal literature which 
      she widely disseminated, we realized what a great lever had been 
      applied in this simple way to the spiritual needs of many. 
   
      It is in this phase of Miss Ellis's work that she has become better 
      known to the members of the Women's Auxiliary Conference; and it is 
      of this especially I have spoken to-day. 
   
      But the roots of this activity lie deeper, and this work was but 
      the fruitage of a life which drew its strength to suffer and 
      endure, as well as to labor and to wait, from those fountains of a 
      rational faith for whose extension we have met here this week. 
   
      To her it was the manna of life, and it was fitting that her last 
      years should have been spent in unselfish endeavor to extend its 
      influence. 
   
      Knowing how heartily she would have entered into the spirit of our 
      meetings during this Conference, we cannot leave unsaid the word of 
      tender remembrance which links her memory indissolubly with the 
      work of our Women's Auxiliary Conference. The little band who are 
      engaged in spreading the light of a higher faith, in lifting the 
      load of crude ideas in regard to our relations to God and humanity, 
      may surely feel that though our friend "has joined the choir 
      invisible," yet her work "lives on in lives made better by her 
      presence," still keeping alive the union with us who remain 
      behind,--a help and incentive to continued progress. 
   
      No better key-note of Miss Ellis's life can be given than in the 
      words of a poem copied by her into her diary, January, 1881. It 
      was taken from the "Woman's Journal," and was entitled:-- 
   
   
      ACHIEVEMENT. 
   
     Nothing noble, nothing great 
       The world has ever known, 
     But began a seed of thought 
       In some generous nature sown. 
   
     Any soul may rise to be 
       A new saviour to its race; 
     Every man and woman fills, 
       Well or ill, a prophet's place. 
   
     In our Now the Then lies folded, 
 
 
 
 Miss Ellis's Mission Pg 90 
   
 All its wealth, and all its power; 
     From the promise of to-day 
       Bursts to-morrow's perfect flower. 
   
     Every deed of solid worth 
       Helps the world to find its place; 
     Every life of homely truth 
       Raises higher all the race. 
   
     "Ye are gods," the Scriptures saith; 
       "Yea," our spirits make reply; 
     Let us claim our birthright, then,-- 
       Prove our high divinity. 
   
     We too may be, if we will, 
       Athlete winners every one, 
     Conquerors of fate and chance, 
       Lords of all beneath the sun. 
   
     Let us thitherward aspire, 
       Take whate'er we find to do, 
     Making life what life was meant-- 
       Something liberal, earnest, true! 
 
 
 Publication Date: January 21st 2015 https://www.bookrix.com/-mk496e398f1e345