_November 7._ A letter from Miss Le Baron, of Chicago, in regard to my engaging in missionary work in the West. She finally closed with the idea that I had come to myself. In a letter from A---- this week she says to me, "_Our_ lot in life appears to be that of patience and submission," which brings to my mind quite a sermon, in other's words, which I hope to write out to-day. It is time to prepare for church.... The thought suggested by A----'s letter with regard to submission to our lot called to mind the passage William Ellery Channing wrote to his friend Francis. "You seem to go upon the supposition that our circumstances are determined by Providence. I believe they are determined by ourselves. Man is the artificer of his own fortunes. By exertion he can enlarge his sphere of usefulness. By activity he can 'multiply himself.' It is mind that gives him the ascendency in society; it is mind that gives him power and ability. It depends upon himself to call forth the energies of mind, to strengthen the intellect, to form benevolence into a habit of the soul. The consequence I draw from these principles is that Heaven, by placing me in particular circumstances, has not assigned me a determinate sphere of usefulness (as you seem to think), but that it is in my power, and of course my duty, to spread the 'beams of my light' wider into the 'night of adversity.'" Miss Ellis continues, apparently partly in her own words:-- With this idea, then, that we largely fashion our own lives, that, "working with God, and for him, our lives can know no true failure, but all things shall contribute to our soul's true success," let us take up our cross, and then we shall find "The burden light, The path made straight, the way all bright, Our warfare cease; So shall we win the crown, At last our life lay down In perfect peace." Two pages more on the same topic, of original and selected matter skilfully blended (perhaps the whole a bit of one of the sermons never to be preached), end with the hymn, copied in full,-- "I ask not wealth, but power to take And use the things I have aright;" and Miss Ellis finally sums all up, "True submission, then, consists in _working_ out our own salvation, looking to God for strength wherewith to work." The only entry for the next day is part of the hymn,-- "But God, through ways they have not known, Will lead his own." November 11 she returned home. _November 14._ Attended fair, and met many friends. Mr. Wendte kindly set me to work at a Book and Tract Table, and I sold two books and distributed a quantity of free matter.