das End der Welt

"I came once up the Engelberg Valley in Switzerland to a place which the natives call the end of the world - das End der Welt. A huge mountain closes the pass, the road stops abruptly and no one can go on there. It is a terminus.... How often in life the gateway shuts, a semaphore drops in front of us, the way closes. We have come to a terminus. The next day, however, I found a zigzag path farther down the valley that went up the side of the mountain. I climbed up and went on over the End of the World. There is always, if one can find it, a way higher up that goes over these closed ways which confront us." - Rufus Jones, New Eyes For Invisibles

I am growing into a new kind of understanding of Rufus and his ways. He was articulate, well-read, a scholar to the core - and yet what mattered most to him was how spiritual contact manifested into action. For Jones this was the proof that the spiritual encounter was indeed "real" and lasting. His words, while sometimes complicated, are ever hopeful throughout his many books.