2022 Reprint of the 1905 Edition. New and Enlarged Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Rufus Matthew Jones (January 25, 1863 - June 16, 1948) was an American religious leader, writer, magazine editor, philosopher, and college professor. One of the most influential Quakers of the 20th century. He is one of the better-known mystics to come from the Quaker tradition. He distinguished between negating or negative mysticism (contacting an impersonal force) and affirming or affirmative mysticism (contacting a personal being). He upheld that God is a personal being with whom human beings could interact. He wrote in The Trail of Life in the Middle Years, "The essential characteristic of [mysticism] is the attainment of a personal conviction by an individual that the human spirit and the divine Spirit have met, have found each other, and are in mutual and reciprocal correspondence as spirit with Spirit." At the same time that he distinguished between negative and affirmative mysticism, he asserted that all negative mystics occasionally take the affirmative approach and that all affirmative mystics tread the negative path from time to time. He exerted a major influence on the life and work of theologian Howard Thurman, who studied with him from 1929-1930.