... 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.
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?
"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. 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."