This pamphlet of notes for sermons and talks given by Rufus M. Jones during the 1930’s and 1940’s represents a selection drawn from four cartons containing sermons written out on cards, now in the Rufus Jones Collection at the Haverford College Library. Rufus Matthew Jones was born in South China, Maine, one hundred years ago on January 25, 1863, “into a world,” he wrote, “where love was waiting for me, and into a family in which religion was as important an element for life as was the air we breathed or the bread we ate.” Thou Dost Open Up My Life has been prepared to commemorate this important event.
The original organization of the cards was done in 1954 by Ruth Hays Smith, a Pendle Hill staff member 1958-1962, when she assisted me in the preparation of the Collection. She brought order out of chaos by sorting the cards whose elastic bands had disintegrated and whose clips had fallen away. Each complete sermon was tied together with a more enduring piece of string, so that my task of selection was, in comparison, fairly easy. I was a chooser, not a detective, and I have been grateful for Ruth Smith’s help both then and now.
