Miss Ellis's Mission Part 14

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 pa.s.ses, 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.

CHICAGO, March 29, 1886.

A part of Thursday afternoon, May 13, will be given to the Women's Conference, and occupied with election of officers and report of Post Office Mission work. It seems very appropriate that something should be said at that time in memory of Miss Ellis; and Miss Le Baron and I request that you prepare the paper or remarks and present them.... We leave the form of the memorial entirely to your judgment.

MRS. E. A. WEST,

_Pres. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._

In accordance with this request, Mrs. George Thornton, of Cincinnati, read the following memorial before the Western Women's Unitarian Conference, May 13, 1886:--

Such an occasion as this, full of words of good counsel and cheer,--a reunion of the little band of women workers in the cause of Liberal Christianity,--will be incomplete if we do not mention one name, held in loving remembrance in the hearts of many here present, and of a still greater number scattered far and wide, whose lives have been touched to higher issues by the active ministrations of our beloved co-worker, Miss Sallie Ellis, who has laid down her work on earth and pa.s.sed on to the great Hereafter.

When we recall the fragile form, so full of the Spirit's life, which, rising above the many disabilities of physical suffering, accomplished so much in the brief years allotted her, we take courage, and thank G.o.d that we have had such spirits with us.

Nothing doubting that their work continues here and elsewhere, though we know neither the manner nor conditions of its progress.

We who are cheered in moments of sorrow by the great faith that the future of those who have pa.s.sed behind "the veil which hath no outward swing" will be but a continuance of the _best_, under n.o.bler conditions, rejoice, even in the midst of personal bereavement, that Miss Ellis has entered into that rest, so n.o.bly won by her patient endurance of the heavy burdens laid upon her,--burdens which yet never seemed to close her sympathy for others, but only served to quicken her eagerness to work for the extension of that vital faith she found so satisfying.

It is to her warm heart, and earnest desire to help others in the midst of spiritual difficulties, that we owe the unique but most efficacious method of reaching such through the medium of postal communication.

Scientists tell us that each wavelet of sound, produced by the tiniest cause, goes on in ever-widening circles of ether, to the uttermost limits of creation. Had we but senses acute enough to receive the sensation, how full of pulsing sound would all Nature become! It seems to me that this keener sense, enabling her to catch the questionings of troubled souls, became one of the great compensations of Miss Ellis's later years. As the outer organs of hearing became dulled to what was pa.s.sing around her, the inner or spiritual became more observant; and as we listened to the correspondence which came to her from North and South, East and West, from the home and the camp, from the teacher and the taught, we seemed to stand in some great whispering-gallery, echoing with the sighs and anxious inquiries of seekers after truth who sought aid in solving the great problems of the soul's life. As from time to time came back acknowledgments of grat.i.tude for aid rendered, either by her sympathizing letters or the Liberal literature which she widely disseminated, we realized what a great lever had been applied in this simple way to the spiritual needs of many.

It is in this phase of Miss Ellis's work that she has become better known to the members of the Women's Auxiliary Conference; and it is of this especially I have spoken to-day.

But the roots of this activity lie deeper, and this work was but the fruitage of a life which drew its strength to suffer and endure, as well as to labor and to wait, from those fountains of a rational faith for whose extension we have met here this week.

To her it was the manna of life, and it was fitting that her last years should have been spent in unselfish endeavor to extend its influence.

Knowing how heartily she would have entered into the spirit of our meetings during this Conference, we cannot leave unsaid the word of tender remembrance which links her memory indissolubly with the work of our Women's Auxiliary Conference. The little band who are engaged in spreading the light of a higher faith, in lifting the load of crude ideas in regard to our relations to G.o.d and humanity, may surely feel that though our friend "has joined the choir invisible," yet her work "lives on in lives made better by her presence," still keeping alive the union with us who remain behind,--a help and incentive to continued progress.

No better key-note of Miss Ellis's life can be given than in the words of a poem copied by her into her diary, January, 1881. It was taken from the "Woman's Journal," and was ent.i.tled:--

ACHIEVEMENT.

Nothing n.o.ble, nothing great The world has ever known, But began a seed of thought In some generous nature sown.

Any soul may rise to be A new saviour to its race; Every man and woman fills, Well or ill, a prophet's place.

In our Now the Then lies folded, All its wealth, and all its power; From the promise of to-day Bursts to-morrow's perfect flower.

Every deed of solid worth Helps the world to find its place; Every life of homely truth Raises higher all the race.

"Ye are G.o.ds," the Scriptures saith; "Yea," our spirits make reply; Let us claim our birthright, then,-- Prove our high divinity.

We too may be, if we will, Athlete winners every one, Conquerors of fate and chance, Lords of all beneath the sun.

Let us thitherward aspire, Take whate'er we find to do, Making life what life was meant-- Something liberal, earnest, true!

University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.