Abstract Rufus Matthew Jones was born on January 25, 1863 in South China, Maine. His parents were Edwin and Mary Gifford Hoxie Jones. Their family had been Quakers, and he was brought up in a spartan and religious household. By his own estimate, Rufus M. Jones was deeply influenced as a child by his Aunt Peace Jones for her life of Quaker homily and, as a young man, the spirituality and philosophical powers of oratory and discourse of his other aunt and uncle, the ministers Eli and Sybil Jones. He...