Miss Ellis's Mission Part 7

'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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sured 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 pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.sumed 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy G.o.d," 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 G.o.d 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, "G.o.d 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 G.o.d!'

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 grat.i.tude 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 G.o.d. 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' Inst.i.tute 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d.

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 G.o.d," 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d?' (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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d.... Only be true to your own convictions, and you will lead them by example rather than precept, unconsciously to them. Work on patiently, and G.o.d'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.

I feel for you greatly in your isolation; but comfort yourself in the thought that the generality of Unitarian ministers are cut off from all companionship with ministers of other denominations where they are settled, and are seldom permitted to enter into charities, where they are, with other ministers. It has been the case ever since the days of Jesus, that those who really hold his views are separated from others in the community. But as you say, and many more say, "if we have G.o.d alone, that is enough." I cannot consider myself a "theist" entirely, but might call myself a "Christian theist." I have come to know G.o.d as manifested through Jesus, but have as much respect for those who do as Jesus did, and who have as firm a trust in the Father as Jesus had. Think that is what Jesus taught, and labored to have no man worship him. "There is none good but One," he said; "why callest thou me good?" Though I value Jesus, I do not worship him, or feel that he is my support in life.