Harley Bradley Jeffery was a popular New Thought author and lecturer for most of the first half of the twentieth century. He had come into New Thought through the efforts of Charles Brodie Patterson and studied with Emma Curtis Hopkins, with whom he collaborated while she was writing her classic study, High Mysticism. He studied in England with Thomas Troward and was associated for a period with the Unity School of Christianity. During his mature years he produced a number of books developed out of the concepts of High Mysticism, including: The Principles of Healing (1939), Coordination of Spirit, Soul and Body (1948), and Mystical Teachings (1954). (Source of this biography is not known.)
According to an online article in encyclopedia.com, Allan Truesdale (d. 1985) and Nell Truesdell (d. 1971) founded The Christ Truth League in 1938 as an independent ministry and fellowship of students seeking what they believed to be the right application of the law of life as taught and lived by Jesus Christ. The Truesdells were closely aligned with the teachings of H.B. Jeffery. After Jeffery's death, the Truesdells acquired rights to his works and, for more than 30 years, carried on his ministry, published his books, and saw to their distribution. Click on the above link for the Nell Truesdell profile page for more information. Click here for Nell Truesdell's Biography of H.B. Jeffery.
Biography in Unity Archives File:
The first recorded date of H. B. Jeffery with Unity School was in 1918 when he served on the Unity staff. He taught courses on the Emma Curtis Hopkins teachings. In 1931 he served on the teaching staff of the newly formed Unity Training School held at Unity Farm.
He wrote a number of articles all appearing in the various Unity publications; Unity Magazine, Good Business, DAILY WORD, Weekly Unity and Progress. They were: Health and Business, A Transcendent Treatment, When Ye Pray and the poem Unfettered and Unbound. Attached is a list of his books and publishers. According to the book Spirits in Rebellion-his writings were similar to Emma Curtis Hopkins, especially Mysticism.
After his transition in Santa Monica, California on January 19, 1954 the remnants of his publications were acquired by the leaders of Christ Truth League of Fort Worths Texas.
References: Heritage Room subject and author records. Who's Who in New Though by Tom Beebe and Spirits in Rebellion by Charles S. Braden.
Emma Curtis Hopkins wrote to Myrtle Fillmore October 27, 1916:
My beloved Myrtle Fillmore,
I wish I could have seen you facet to face while you were as near in tangible presence.
I am much [?] in returning to New York this year after my summer outing [?] I have ever been before. My [?] are so clogged with engagements that I am [?] the Verdun Hills.
Mr. Mach[?] has asked me a question as coming from you which I must answer with great positiveness. – I have always spoken in the highrest terms of Mr. H.B. Jeffrey and Mrs. VanMarter knows it, as does everybody everywhere. I think and have always thought, that whoever could secure the aid de camp of Mr. H.B. Jeffrey would be in luck as he is one of the greatest healers in this country. He always wins steadfast friends and believes in his message, as well as grateful patients. Whoever has reported anything different has eiher spoken a malicious falsehood (motive unknown) or confounded me with some one else in this subject. We are living in times that by individuals as well as nations go as by fire. I think misrepresentions are very hot fires to be dipped into.
I give my deep love to Mr. Fillmore – I mean, any eternal love to you both. Emma C Hopkins
Agnes Sanford in Sealed Orders, chapter 14 talks about Emmett Fox and his book The Sermon on the Mount. She writes “The only book in which I have found this matter treated in a practical rather than a theological manner is a thin book of lectures called What Seek Ye? by H.B. Jeffery, another “student of truth.”
