"Of Miss Ellis I shall always think as one of my greatest earthly benefactors, and it will be a life-long regret that I never met her.... I wish you would say to Mrs. Smith that I have by me here in New England only the letters received from Miss Ellis since coming to Harvard, and these I fear contain nothing she would like to make use of. The really helpful letters, those that were of most vital interest to me, were written while I was a Methodist preacher in Ohio, and these are back there still, packed up among odds and ends, and practically might almost as well be in the moon.... Again accept my best wishes for your success in the new calling,--a divine one in the truest sense of the word. I assure you I shall always be glad to hear of the growth and success of your Mission, all the more, perhaps, because I hold to it a sort of filial relation. You know that in the Methodist Church each young convert or young minister speaks of the minister under whose preaching he was converted, as a spiritual father. So I think of myself now as the spiritual child of your Women's Missionary Society in Cincinnati. Would that Heaven might help me to be worthy of the home, and justify in some sense their loving-kindness and help in time of need." A gentleman in Kentucky, long a correspondent of Miss Ellis, who had taken papers, bought many books, etc., through her, and who has recently died, wrote of her, Jan. 22, 1886:-- "Many souls will miss the modest, unassuming, faithful secretary, but her silent labors will be followed by a rich reward. Her memorial is in the hearts and minds of those who were led through her efforts to freedom, fellowship, and character, in religion." This correspondent was a farmer's wife in Ohio, who, after Miss Ellis's death, wrote:-- "I have had much trouble in the last two years, and would have given up to utter despair many times, if it had not been for her kind letters and sermons. I made a confidential friend of her; so, knowing my situation, she knew what sermons would serve most to strengthen me, and sometimes she would come across sermons in papers that she would cut out and send me. I have them yet, and intend to paste them in a scrapbook. I thought of calling upon her father to see if he had a picture that he would allow me to have a copy from, so I am very glad her portrait will be in the book.... I learned to _love_ Miss Ellis, and shall _never_ forget her." There was a little family of step-children living on a remote Ohio farm, in whom Miss Ellis took a warm personal interest, advising as to their religious training, sending them children's papers and books. "Miss Ellis" came to be regarded as a dear friend by these children who never saw her. March 16, 1885, she wrote to the mother:--