The book, whose inscription has garnered a fair amount of attention here on the blog, is The New Quest by Rufus M. Jones (1928).

Jones was a Quaker:

Rufus Jones (writer) 

Rufus Matthew Jones (January 25, 1863 – June 16, 1948) was an American writer, magazine editor, philosopher, and college professor. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Haverford Emergency Unit (a precursor to the American Friends Service Committee). One of the most influential Quakers of the 20th century, he was a Quaker historian and theologian as well as a philosopher. He is the only person to have delivered two Swarthmore Lectures.

This particular book was discarded by the Sanders Memorial Library of Clarke College, Newton, Mississippi and somehow made its way to the Palmer Thrift Shop in Starkville, Mississippi where I purchased it for $0.50. (Books are 1/2 price lately.)

We should all be Quakers. 

May Mrs. Thomas Lockhart and her Dear Husband rest in peace knowing that her Christmas gift to him has at last found a deserving home.