Chapter III: Part 3

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. 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.

... 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. 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.

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.

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."

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."

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."

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?"

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. 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 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. 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
it. 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
me. '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.

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.

* * * * *

NOVEMBER 16, 1884.