diff --git a/lib/devise.rb b/lib/devise.rb
index 9fc667a6..b9d2bb05 100644
--- a/lib/devise.rb
+++ b/lib/devise.rb
@@ -226,6 +226,12 @@ module Devise
     yield self
   end
 
+  def self.ref(arg)
+    dependencies = ActiveSupport::Dependencies
+    dependencies.respond_to?(:reference) ?
+      dependencies.reference(arg) : dependencies.ref(arg)
+  end
+
   def self.omniauth_providers
     omniauth_configs.keys
   end
@@ -243,9 +249,7 @@ module Devise
 
   # Set the mailer reference object to access the mailer.
   def self.mailer=(class_name)
-    @@mailer_ref = ActiveSupport::Dependencies.respond_to?(:reference)
-                    ? ActiveSupport::Dependencies.reference(class_name)
-                    : ActiveSupport::Dependencies.ref(class_name)
+    @@mailer_ref = ref(class_name)
   end
   self.mailer = "Devise::Mailer"
 
diff --git a/lib/devise/mapping.rb b/lib/devise/mapping.rb
index 8a1d25ff..3f6d275e 100644
--- a/lib/devise/mapping.rb
+++ b/lib/devise/mapping.rb
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ module Devise
       @singular = (options[:singular] || @scoped_path.tr('/', '_').singularize).to_sym
 
       @class_name = (options[:class_name] || name.to_s.classify).to_s
-      @ref = ActiveSupport::Dependencies.ref(@class_name)
+      @ref = Devise.ref(@class_name)
 
       @path = (options[:path] || name).to_s
       @path_prefix = options[:path_prefix]