THEIR LIFE AND WORK. BY RUFUS M. JONES. In Memoriam. PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COATES. Copyright, 1889, BY PORTER & COATES. TO THE SWEET AND SHINING MEMORY OF 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 IS Affectionately Inscribed BY HIS PUPIL....

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 no

The man whose early life was passed in the isolation of primeval forests, and who grew to manhood carrying on an unceasing struggle to turn the rough, uncultivated soil into productive fields, gardens, and pasture-lands, has worked into his life something which no coming generation can inherit or acquire. He has missed the broad culture of the schools and universities, he cannot gain the intellectual skill which long study gives, but he has had a training which lays a foundation for the keenest

The opportunities for study in China were not enough to satisfy a boy with even a moderately strong desire for knowledge. Books were as rare as in the days before John Gutenberg, and Eli Jones has often said that if he had been asked ten times a day what he most wished for, he would have answered each time, Books. The fact that he longed so to read, and that he was almost entirely confined to the Bible, resulted in his becoming thoroughly familiar with the different parts of that great Book. It

In 1833, Eli Jones was married to Sybil Jones, the daughter of Ephraim and Susannah Jones. Susannah was the daughter of Micajah Dudley, son of Samuel Dudley, a great-grandson of Samuel Dudley of Exeter, N. H., the eldest son of Gov. Thomas Dudley, the pilgrim of Plymouth, said to have been descended from the lineage of the earls of Leicester. Both Sybil Jones's parents and grandparents were Friends, and her grandfather and great-grandfather Dudley were preachers of fine talents and high characte

In the autumn of 1840, Sybil Jones was liberated by her Friends to attend meetings and do religious work in the provinces, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. In this work she was attended by her husband, and they passed through many trying circumstances; but, being sustained from above, they came home bringing sheaves with them and feeling that they had been instruments in God's hand of doing good. A brief account of this journey was kept by Sybil Jones. It has never been published, but is full of

"I have always been thinking of the different ways in which Christianity is taught, and whenever I find any way that makes it a wider blessing than any other, I cling to that: I mean to that which takes in the most good of all kinds, and brings in the most people as sharers." After their return from this last visit they passed a few years in quiet work at home, often attending the different quarterly meetings in New England, and generally taking an annual trip to Newport to be present at the yea

There is wonderful harmony in God's work in the different kingdoms and sub-kingdoms of His domain. When His method of working is resisted, there is always harsh conflicting, and finally He removes the obstacle; but wherever we look, so long as there is a submission to His plan, there is never a jar, never a halt on the road to the great end which He has in view, be it in the growth of a tree, in the motion of a world through space, in the maturity of animal or human life, or in the development o

Eli and Sybil Jones reached Baltimore in the middle of winter, and experienced the joy of being once more among Friends and in their own loved country. Having been kept and continually supported to accomplish their work, they now were filled with thanksgiving to Him whose pillar of cloud and fire had gone before them by day and by night, and they were prepared in spirit for the still longer journey which was before them. They visited friends and relatives on their way to Maine, and were everywhe

Eli and Sybil Jones attended the London yearly meeting of 1853, and were liberated to go to the Continent for gospel work in Norway, Germany, and France. Mary James Lecky was their companion, and was in all respects a most suitable person for this service. Unknown difficulties were before them; new races of people were to be touched through an unknown language; hard journeys were to be made by a feeble, almost invalid woman; still, they turned toward the shores of Norway, believing that He whose

Before going on to speak of the work of Eli and Sybil Jones among the Friends and other Protestants in the south of France, a brief sketch of the rise and growth of the little branch of our Society there may be in place. The story is full of interest and could be studied to greater length with profit, but only the briefest reference to it is admissible here. Louis XIV. of France decided in 1685 to revoke the "Edict of Nantes," passed in 1598 by Henry of Navarre, granting liberty of worship and r

"When Christ came into the World peace was sung; and when He went out of the world peace was bequeathed." The first decided action of the Maine Legislature in regard to the sale of intoxicating liquors was taken in the autumn of 1846. Much work had been done during the two preceding years in the towns to arouse the people to the necessity of bringing about an entire revolution, and the temperance organizations worked zealously to base all the structure they built on total abstinence. The foundat

Sybil Jones was at work in the Southern States during a part of the year 1860, and returned to her Northern home only a few weeks before the attack on Fort Sumter. The sound of war carried sorrow to the hearts of herself and her husband. They were loyal to their country and the great cause of human freedom, but they were loyal also to the Prince of peace. For years they had longed to see the light of freedom break in on the South, but they had hoped no less for the day "when the war-drum should

There was comparatively little known among Friends about the land of the Bible from personal observation before 1870, and some of the best works on the history, the geography, the manners, and customs of Palestine have been written since that date. The visits of Eli and Sybil Jones to Syria, and the letters which they and their companions, Alfred Lloyd Fox and Ellen Clare Peason (born Miller), wrote from there have done much to bring that country to the careful notice of Friends; and the interes

Eli and Sybil Jones were most cordially liberated by Friends for the work in Europe, which was shown them as a field white unto harvest in which they were called to labor. They set sail from Boston in the ship "China," 4th mo. 10th, 1867. They attended Dublin and London yearly meetings, and visited the meetings throughout England, and then carried their labors into Scotland. Of the visit in this country Eli Jones writes to the Friends' Review : London , 9th mo. 6, 1867. Having returned to this c

The cause for which the two Friends came to England before fully accomplishing their work in Syria was the extreme feebleness of Sybil Jones. A change and partial rest seemed imperative. They soon began to labor in Cornwall, and they were gratified to find "Quakerism still vital" in this place where George Fox had sowed the seed exactly two centuries before. Considerable time was spent and much edifying work done at Falmouth, where they were pleased to find so many Friends of high literary and s

After the return from the East a few more days were left for Sybil Jones to tell the same story to men and women nearer her own home. Her frail body had carried her to many shores, and had not given way until she was once more among lifelong friends. She had presented Christianity to Mohammedan women "from the standard of equality of sex in social life, religion, and the ministry of the word." She had entered the "gilded cages" of Eastern harems and "borne the gospel with a sister's love to thos

It need not be told, and it could not, how the loss of his wife affected Eli Jones, already venerable with age. Those only who have borne a like sorrow know the depth of the wound. The strength of his character and the weight of his love were never shown more fully than in the first years of his widowed life. War had taken his first-born, his sons were at their work in the world, his eldest daughter was married, and the youngest daughter alone was still with him. Though sixty-six years of age, h

The later visits of Eli Jones to Palestine and their object have already been spoken of. With an accurate knowledge of the land and its customs, as well as of the needs of its people, he was especially adapted to taking a prominent part in directing the work of education there. He has always had a faculty for raising funds, and, having been especially successful in gathering money for building and necessary expenses, the time seemed to have come for opening a boy's training-home on Mount Lebanon

"Be ye complete in Him." "God's own hand must lay the axe of inward crucifixion unsparingly at the root of the natural life; God in Christ, operating in the person of the Holy Ghost, must be the principle of inward inspiration moment by moment , the crucifier of every wrong desire and purpose, the Author of every right and holy purpose, the Light and Life of the soul."— Upham. Eli Jones was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, and as far back as there is any record the family had been

"Quit you like men." The people of a city or country in which is some great natural wonder or some magnificent work of man become so accustomed to its grandeur that only the largest-minded of them continue to appreciate its excellence and gain culture from it. This is not true of men. A man who has the qualifications to instruct and the power to inspire his deemsmen will have renewed power, and will gain a stronger influence over all of them, as age brings matured wisdom. Few greater blessings c