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
DEAR FRIEND,--For such you have been to me, and it is to you I am
indebted for the papers, tracts, and sermons that I have received
and enjoyed so much. I have derived genuine comfort from them, and
sincerely thank you for thinking of one so unhappy and so tossed
about for a haven of rest. Truly yours is a heavenly mission,
answering the needs of many like myself afflicted beyond human aid.
The sermons of James Freeman Clarke are peculiarly comforting; and
indeed I have read all you sent me with the deepest interest and
benefit. How I wish I might in some way recompense your Society as
it deserves! And you individually have my deepest gratitude, which
is so little for such thoughtfulness as yours.
A second letter says:--
"Your papers, sermons, etc., are regularly received, and I wish I
could make you understand the great comfort they are to me,
particularly the sermons. Anything pertaining to the future life
holds me spell-bound till the last word is read. The Unitarian
ideas and beliefs, so far as I know, find echo in my heart; and I
always feel comforted and soothed, as it were, with all I have read
and understood. I attend the Presbyterian Church here, because I
think it is better to attend some church regularly; and I am very
fond of this minister socially. There has been for ten days or more
an evangelist holding a union meeting in our church, and a night or
two ago I went to hear him. The only feeling excited in my heart
was one of pity that all persons could not be taught the love of
God instead of being frightened into a nervous fear. I assure you,
I feel it a privilege to correspond with you, and find myself
wishing in my heart that you knew me thoroughly, what I have been,
and what I am by nature, education, and social standing. I feel
that we women of the South are to be seen at home and known to be
understood by our Northern sisters."
The following are some of Miss Ellis's letters to a radical of the
radicals, an old gentleman in Boston, one of Theodore Parker's old
congregation, who sent much literature out under her direction, and
contributed Theodore Parker's "Prayers," and his new volume of sermons,
to her loan library.
JULY 2, 1883.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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