“Essential Truths” written by Rufus M. Jones, is a statement of belief of the Religious Society of Friends from the early twentieth century. It is an excerpt from a larger document known as the Uniform Discipline, which was completed in 1900 by Jones and another American Friend, James E. Wood (1839–1925). A discipline is a document that outlines the organizational structure, standards, and beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends and acts a guide for the gathered community of faith. The earliest discipline was written in 1668 by George Fox and served as the basis for later disciplines in England and America. The Uniform Discipline was adopted by a group of Quakers (the informal name for Friends) in 1902, the Five Years Meeting of the Friends in America. The “Essential Truths” section was one of three documents included in the Five Years Meeting's Authorized Declaration of Faith in 1922. The other two documents are George Fox's Letter to the Governor of Barbados, from 1671, and the Declaration of Faith (or Richmond Declaration) put forward at a conference held in Richmond, Indiana, in 1887, written by the English Quaker Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, with the help of two American Quakers, James E. Rhoads and James Carey Thomas.