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
MARCH 18,1885.
Your letter was read with much interest, and we are glad to know our
"little society has done good work."... Don't be discouraged if you
cannot convert the world at once, but wait quietly till your time
comes to do more. You are young yet. Think I can spare a few more of
Mr. Thayer's sermons. He has only had four sermons on "Reasonable
Religion" published.... Will send you the Meadville catalogue next
week, and you can see for yourself, and afterwards write to
President A. A. Livermore, telling him I sent you the catalogue. He
can give you all further information. He was the pastor in
Cincinnati from the time I was fourteen to twenty-one, and knows us
well.... Hope to hear further from you occasionally. Work on
quietly, knowing the discipline will the better fit you for
ministerial labors. We can't jump into the highest calling on earth
in a moment, and now-a-days a man must be something of more than
ordinary ability to enter a Unitarian pulpit. It is not an easy
place to fill.
He wrote to her, June 14, 1885:--
"Believe me, I am sorry to hear that you were 'too sick to more
than keep up' with your work. I know you must be busy at all times,
from the report of your work in the Conference 'Unity' you sent me.
That number of 'Unity' is very valuable to me, and will be kept for
future reference. The four sermons on 'Reasonable Religion,' by
Rev. George A. Thayer, have also been kept. I hope soon to see them
in a neat binding. They are worthy of the expense. Of the books
received from Boston, four have been read by me. Two of them were
mostly read as I walked to my work mornings. In the same manner
'Meditations on the Essence of Christianity' was read. This book is
very beautiful, its author, Robert Laird Collier. 'Channing's
Works' and 'Genuineness of the Gospels' cannot be carried about as
readily, so they are to be read and studied on lost days, when I
cannot work. The 'Reviews' received are very valuable; I would not
part with them for anything. The 'Register' is received regularly
from Philadelphia. The last one is very interesting, containing as
it does an account of the Festival. It must have been good to be
there. To you, and all who have aided you in your generosity to me,
I return my heartfelt thanks."
After Miss Ellis's death, he wrote, Feb. 13, 1886:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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