2019/09/27

Eli and Sibyl Jones, by Rufus Matthew Jones

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Eli and Sibyl Jones, by Rufus Matthew Jones

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Title: Eli and Sibyl Jones

Their Life and Work

Author: Rufus Matthew Jones

Release Date: February 22, 2013 [eBook #42164]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI AND SIBYL JONES***

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Eli Jones.

Sybil Jones.

Eli and Sibyl Jones:

THEIR LIFE AND WORK.

RUFUS M. JONES.

"Our wills are ours, we know not how;

Our wills are ours, to make them Thine."

In Memoriam.

PHILADELPHIA:
PORTER & COATES.

THE SWEET AND SHINING MEMORY

PLINY EARLE CHASE,

WHOSE SCHOLARSHIP AND CHRISTIAN MANHOOD INSPIRED
YOUNG MEN TO RICHER AND PURER LIVES, AND
WHO AS TEACHER POINTED STUDENTS

TO THE

GREAT MASTER,

THIS BOOK

Affectionately Inscribed

BY HIS PUPIL.

[5]

PREFACE.

In our busy and material lives we all need to be reminded at times that there have been and still are among us those who have deadened love of self, whose struggle on earth, far from being to amass any kind of treasures, is to bring before as many human beings as possible the great plan of salvation, the means of elevation from degradation to lofty Christian individuality, and the source of a power and a love which are making all things new in proportion as submission is given thereto.

We are not always conscious of the strength exerted around us by seemingly trivial forces, but their work is no less important in the development of the globe than the violent upheavals which overawe us by their stupendous might. So, often, quiet lives extend a wider permanent influence for the welfare of man than do those of men and women who receive the unstinted praise of their contemporaries.

Eli and Sybil Jones have done valuable service, and have lived lives full of teaching to those who wish to[6] enter upon a course of devoted obedience to the same Master. I have prepared this sketch of their lives and work from the love which I feel for them, and in the hope that it will interest and profit others. I am conscious that the stamp of youth is on the work, but I am certain that it has been undertaken and accomplished in the spirit of sincerity.

The visit to Liberia was wonderful in many ways, and should have been published after their return, so that their work might have brought forth more decided fruit. The letters from Palestine and Syria were written for the Friends' Review by Eli Jones and Ellen Clare Miller (since Pearson). Extracts have been chosen to give their descriptions of the country and the nature of their work there.

The book has been prepared in the midst of other work, and that must in part be the apology for its imperfections. Having as a young man received invaluable help from these two Friends, and feeling that their words and lives have done much to throw light on the true path which broadens into the "highway of holiness," it is my hope that this simple recital may in a measure repay what I owe them and find a place of usefulness in the world.

3d mo. 13, 1889, Friends' School, Providence.

[7]

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.	PAGE
Early Years,	9
CHAPTER II.
At School and at Home,	18
CHAPTER III.
Marriage with Sybil Jones,	27
CHAPTER IV.
First Visit,	40
CHAPTER V.
East, West, and South,	54
CHAPTER VI.
Voyage to Liberia,	60
CHAPTER VII.
Work in England and Ireland,	108
CHAPTER VIII.
Norway, Germany, and Switzerland,	127
[8]
CHAPTER IX.
Winter in the South of France,	141
CHAPTER X.
In the Maine Legislature,	160
CHAPTER XI.
In Washington,	169
CHAPTER XII.
Mission-Work,	185
CHAPTER XIII.
Letters from Syria,	199
CHAPTER XIV.
Second Visit to the Holy Land,	251
CHAPTER XV.
Sybil Jones: her Life-Work and Death,	268
CHAPTER XVI.
Alone at Home,	285
CHAPTER XVII.
Later Visits to the East,	292
CHAPTER XVIII.
As a Friend,	299
CHAPTER XIX.
His Place as a Worker,	307