Miss Ellis's MissionSmith, Mary P. Wells (Mary Prudence Wells)
Religion
Miss Ellis's Mission
Smith, Mary P. Wells (Mary Prudence Wells)
Ellis, Sarah, 1835-1885; Home missions -- United States -- Unitarian Church
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 assumed 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 God 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 God require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and
walk humbly with thy God," 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 God 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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