"'What is our _aim_ in the Post Office Mission Work?' It occurs to me it should be to give inquirers the fairest statement of our teachings, from Channing up to the present time. Not the thought of any one man or woman, but that of the greatest number of our best minds in the several eras of our denomination. In many cases ... people have not the _slightest_ idea what Unitarianism is, farther than that we do not believe Christ was God. They not only do not know what we believe, but think us a kind of 'outcasts.' It almost seems like being in the Dark Ages of the world to hear of such ignorance as we _know_ exists with regard to our doctrines. Therefore we are talking, as it were, to children. Let us then begin at first principles, and send fair, clear statements." After alluding to several of her correspondents who were thinking of entering the Unitarian ministry, she adds:-- "It seems to me the A. U. A. tracts, and the books, papers, etc., sent with them, have produced good results; have made deep, earnest thinkers. It is through these very things our own ministers have been made to think, and they have gone beyond these same things; and so will our correspondents in time. But at present few of them have access to books, or come in contact with people who can converse on all these points with them; therefore it is well to intersperse with our tracts on doctrines, good _practical_ sermons, and the newer tracts occasionally, leading them up gradually to Unitarian ideas, and showing them especially that while we _have_ doctrines in our church, character is the most important to us. There is no one book that has done more effective work than Rev. J. F. Clarke's 'Orthodoxy,' etc., which proves that we need good, _clear_, strong doctrine. [The Post Office Mission, she adds] is only a larger church, and we want to bring these people into vital connection with us,--making not Unitarians of them, or merely intellectual men and women, but practical Christians working with us and for humanity. Rev. ---- is the prophet of his age. We shall all _grow_ up to his ideal some day, and bring our Post Office Mission members with us. Hope he will be willing to wait. 'It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait' (Lam. iii. 26)." A bit from another letter to Miss Roberts is interesting as showing the untiring industry which enabled Miss Ellis to accomplish so much:-- ... "Next week we hold our fair, and I shall be very busy all the week. Have had so many orders for mittens, that I am a perfect knitting machine. I can knit and read, however, and therefore have looked over many sermons for distribution in the mean time. Am tired, and thankful for the blessed Saturday night followed by the quiet of Sunday."