"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."
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:--
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.
"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.
J. 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?"