"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:—
"... 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.