This book is a plea for religion, worship, prayer—for the inner life. Darwin, James, Bergson and others are discussed. The facts of science and of Biblical criticism are surveyed, and the conclusion that is reached is that there is a world of spirit, and that in this spiritual life Jesus is the best guide. The author’s style of writing is vigorous, eloquent and suggestive.

“A book of unusually fine quality. The author has a great message for such a time as this. The book will help men to be efficient instruments of God in the world.”—Christian Intelligencer.

“A book from the pen of this Quaker professor is always worth while, and this little volume is in the same worthy class. It combines scholarship and mystic interpretation, and furnishes at once food for thought and inspiration for devotion.”—Western Christian Advocate.

Studies in Mystical Religion

“The book is written with clearness and quiet dignity. It is animated throughout by breadth of fine and kindly sympathies, and by a sense of the character of religion as a light and a power that from within control all the social fulfilments of our nature.”—Philosophical Review.

“Such a work as this is not only a contribution of great timeliness in these days when the thoughts of scholarly men are turning perhaps as not before for centuries toward religion, but will go far to give mysticism, of which perhaps Quakerism is the best American illustration, a standing even at the bar of science.”—American Journal of Religious Psychology.

“It is a book of wide and conscientious research, solid and steady structure and noble aim. The style is clear and definite, free of any attempt to dazzle or confuse. Those who have come to feel that the seat of authority in religion lies in the first-hand experience of the soul will turn eagerly to it, opening up as it does so many channels of the spiritual life in the past.”—North American Review.

“It is a careful study of subjective religion, from the New Testament down to modern times. A vast field is covered and covered completely. The writer has made excellent use of his materials and given a sympathetic study of religion on its subjective and personal side.”—New York Times.

“It shows abundant evidence of conscientious research and a careful study of sources either not easily accessible or generally passed over by the student. Sufficient attention has been given to the analytical investigation of the subject.”—The Churchman.

“His study is distinguished by moderation and justice, high intent and reverent spirit. It has a peculiar significance for us, because, in a generation when many are following will-o’-the-wisps and garish lights, it studies classic and enduring experiences; and because it reminds us of a mystic strain which is our inheritance, and, I hope, our genius, and which in time will have its own poets, philosophers, and prophets. If this comes not even in some measure in our own day, it will still be splendid to have prepared the way and made straight the path by some such notable achievement as this study in mystical religion by Professor Jones.”—Boston Transcript.

Spiritual Reformers of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries

Professor Rufus Jones is well known in this country and in England for his earlier writings on the history of Quakerism and other phases of mystical religion, and this new work on some of the more obscure teachers among the Reformers will be received with interest.

The book opens with a general survey of the main currents of the Reformation, and in succeeding chapters he deals with the following subjects: II. Hans Denck and the Inward Word; III. Two Prospects of the Inward Word—Bunderlein and Entfelder; IV. Sebastian Franck; V. Caesar Schwenckfeld; VI. Sebastian Castello; VII. Coornhert and the Collegiants—A Movement for Spiritual Religion in Holland; VIII. Valentine Weigel and Nature Mysticism; IX. Jacob Boehme: His Life and Spirit; X. Boehme’s Universe; XI. Boehme’s “Way of Salvation”; XII. Boehme’s Influence in England; XIII. Early English Interpreters—John Everard and Giles Randall, and others; XIV. Spiritual Religion in High Places—Rous, Vane, and Sterry; XV. Benjamin Whichcote, the First of the “Latitude Men”; XVI. John Smith, Platonist; XVII. The Spiritual Poets of the Seventeenth Century.

The Quakers in the American Colonies

This volume is a historical and critical study of the Quaker religious movement; a movement important both for the history of the development of religion and for the history of the American Colonies. The subject is presented not only in its external setting but also in the light of its inner meaning. The story of the Quaker invasion of the Colonies in the New World has often been told in fragmentary fashion, but no adequate study of the entire Quaker movement in Colonial times has yet been made from original sources, free from partisan or sectarian prejudice and with due historical perspective. The accounts written from the Quaker point of view do not furnish a critical investigation of Quakerism and its work in the New World; while those written from the anti-Quaker point of view are for the most part one-sided and colored by prejudice, and are obviously lacking in penetration into the inner meaning of the type of religion which they undertake to present. By avoiding these extremes and by furnishing a critical investigation of Quakerism both in its outer forms and its inner spirit, Professor Jones has produced an excellent piece of work, done in an impartial and historical spirit and not too brief to admit of details. The account is an able and clear treatment of the religious principles of Quakerism, replete with first-hand knowledge and with concrete details, and thus it presents a truly historical picture of this great movement which bore no small part in the early political and religious life of this country.

This volume is divided into five books. Book I. deals with the Quakers in New England; Book II. with Quakerism in the Colony of New York; Book III. with the Quakers in the Southern Colonies; Book IV. deals with the early Quakers in New Jersey, and Book V. with the Quakers in Pennsylvania.

The work thus admirably assists the man of to-day to visualize the life history of the Quaker movement on this continent.