_Sunday Evening._ Our sermon to-day was on the "Effects of Modern Scientific Thought upon the Essentials of Religion." If it is published, will send you a copy of it.... I think the hymn will meet your views, therefore copy it. Do you know it? The hymn referred to is the one, "God Ever Near," by T. H. Gill, beginning:-- "What secret place, what distant star, O Lord of all, is thine abode?" Miss Ellis copies it in full. In 1883 the young man wrote Miss Ellis:-- "A year ago I was in the dreariest stage of agnosticism. I was in despair at times, and sometimes my very soul seemed to be in agony. Through reading scientific literature I had been convinced that most of the religious teaching I had learned was false. The flippancy and shallowness of Ingersoll and his school disgusted me. I could not find rest in materialism; I considered it as far astray from the truth as Orthodoxy. I was nineteen years old, and found myself facing the most tremendous problems of existence. I tried to tell myself to wait for maturer years to solve them, and to a great extent that satisfied me. But I still yearned for _something_,--simply this: 'My soul cried out for the living God!' Alas! I could not find him. I looked around me for a little sympathy or a kind word even, but I looked in vain. Every Sunday I heard denunciations of such views as mine. I heard a great deal of 'blatant atheists,' 'infidel scientists,' etc., but no sympathy for a despairing agnostic,--only scorn and ridicule. It pained me intensely to be misunderstood by even those dearest to me on earth, but I determined to stand firm for what I took to be the truth. Oh for some men to preach a little charity for the views of others, and to consider a man as not being necessarily worse than a criminal because he cannot accept their own views! I owe you a large debt of gratitude for being the means of lifting me out of a state of misery and despair, in which I had no pleasure in life, into a state of cheerfulness, happiness, hope, and peace; not intellectual peace,--for I do not expect that,--but real 'soul peace,' a calm trust and a real faith in a living God. I have been surprised to see how largely Unitarian theology is based on science. I owe it to science that my life is something more than daily drudgery. The foundation of my scepticism was laid when I learned the rudiments of natural philosophy in school. I was astonished at what I read of Nature's wonders. Since leaving school I have been an ardent reader of all kinds of scientific literature. By means of the Mechanics' Institute I have the use of all the magazines, reviews, etc., besides a splendid library. I have read a great deal that I did not understand,--books which are beyond my