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John Bunyan's 1686 work, A Book for Boys and Girls; or, Country Rhymes for Children (later widely republished as Divine Emblems), is a pioneering collection of seventy-four Christian emblem poems designed to impart spiritual truths to young readers through the everyday world around them. Moving beyond mere moralizing, Bunyan used simple, accessible verse to extract profound theological lessons from common country objects and creatures—such as a buzzing fly, a top, an apple, a frog, a candle, or a rising sun. Each brief poem presents a recognizable physical scene followed by a direct spiritual application, teaching children to view creation itself as a canvas of divine instruction. Written in plain, rhythmic English with Bunyan's characteristic pastoral warmth, the book stands as one of the earliest deliberate attempts in English literature to write engaging, imaginative, and spiritually earnest literature specifically tailored for children.

Session 6: Book Two, Chapters 6-10 The Spirit and the Church, from the Puritan Paperback series (Banner of Truth), is an abridged version of Owen's treatment of the Holy Spirit. The unabridged version is found in The Complete Works of John Owen (Crossway) volumes 7 and 8, entitled "The Holy Spirit- the Helper" and "The Holy Spirit- the Comforter". In this 12-session class, Kevin Morris covers the various topics on the Holy Spirit presented by John Owen. Some of these topics include: How we believe the Scripture to be the word of God How the Spirit helps us understand the mind of God in His word How the Spirit helps us to pray How the Spirit comforts the church by His gifts and graces

If you were moved by the sweet, transformational faith of a starving London street child in Jessica's First Prayer, today we step right back into that fog-draped alleyway to see what happens when that new faith is put to its ultimate test. In Hesba Stretton's compelling direct sequel, Jessica's Mother, the frail young girl's life is suddenly upended by the return of her estranged, hardened mother—a woman ruined by alcoholism, bitter toward the world, and desperate enough to test the practical compassion of Daniel Standring and his church. What unfolds is not a neat, sanitized Victorian fairy tale, but a raw, deeply moving study of unconditional grace, maternal brokenness, and the true cost of Christian charity. Pick up where we left off: the story of Jessica's Mother.

"In the heart of fog-bound, 19th-century London, a neglected and starving young street urchin named Jessica wanders up to a morning coffee stall run by Daniel Standring—a hardened, self-interested man who secretly keeps the keys to a prosperous chapel. Drawn by a rare gesture of kindness and a warm cup of coffee, Jessica quietly follows Daniel into the grand, empty church, where for the very first time she hears the Gospel message and offers a simple, sincere prayer from her heart. What begins as a starving child's search for food transforms into a deeply moving story of redemption that utterly upends not only her own life, but also soft-hearted Daniel's, proving that the most earnest faith can shatter the hardest hypocrisies. I am thrilled to bring this forgotten masterpiece out of the archives and present my full audio narration of Hesba Stretton's Jessica's First Prayer."

We highly suggest that you READ the TEXT at the link below, as you listen to the audio above. https://gracegems.org/2026/how_blind_must_they_be_who_think.htm Feel free to FORWARD this gem to others!

In this episode, we trace the fascinating evolution of Christian children's literature, exploring how books written for young people shifted from stern spiritual preparation to lively, accessible character building. We began in the 17th century with Puritan works like James Janeway's A Token for Children, where real-life deathbed accounts served as solemn calls to early conversion, later expanded by Cotton Mather in colonial New England. As we moved into the 19th century, writers like Legh Richmond, Mrs. Sherwood, and Hesba Stretton ushered in narrative evangelical fiction, while traveling colporteurs and the American Sunday-School Union swept across the expanding frontier to deliver whole "libraries in a box" to remote pioneer towns. Finally, we looked at how dynamic visual preachers like Dr. Richard Newton and standardized classroom texts like the McGuffey Readers transformed literacy and civil morality.

If anyone does not love the Lord . . .

Heaven and Hell as Revealed in the Old Testament

Welcome back to the podcast as we continue our systematic journey through William Goold's classic edition of The Collected Works of John Owen. In today's episode, we explore the deep pastoral landscape of Volume 7, charting Owen's clinical diagnosis of spiritual backsliding and his gospel remedy for a languishing soul. We begin in 1676 with The Nature and Causes of Apostasy from the Gospel, examining Owen's surgical breakdown of Hebrews 6 and his diagnostic checklist in Chapter 6 for identifying secret heart-declension and spiritual sloth. From there, we open his 1681 work, The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded, pausing in Chapter 9 to confront Owen's searching concern that true spiritual mindedness has become tragically rare in the church—a warning we compare directly with the psychological severity of Jonathan Edwards's Religious Affections and Alexander Allen's famous commentary on it. Finally, we conclude with Owen's posthumous 1688 treatise, Of the Dominion of Sin and Grace, walking through Chapters 3 and 4 to distinguish between the persistent presence of indwelling corruption and the reigning dominion of sin, anchoring our ultimate assurance in the covenantal promise that under grace, sin shall not have the final say.