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, 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.
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.