These songs of Kabir are nothing but the overflowing of that melody that he has heard. These songs are nothing but the overflowing of the flood that he has received into his innermost being. These songs are no longer ordinary songs. These songs are not only those of a poet but those of a mystic - one who knows knows by living it; one who has tasted God who is drunk with God. -Osho

In John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, the pilgrims cannot reach the Celestial City without passing through Vanity Fair, where everything is bought and sold. In recent years there has been much analysis of commerce and consumption in Britain during the long eighteenth century, and of the dramatic expansion of popular publishing. Similarly, much has been written on the extraordinary effects of the evangelical revivals of the eighteenth century in Britain, Europe, and North America. But how did popular religious culture and the world of print interact? It is now known that religious works formed the greater part of the publishing market for most of the century. What religious books were read, and how? Who chose them? How did they get into people's hands? Vanity Fair and the Celestial City is the first book to answer these questions in detail. It explores the works written, edited, abridged, and promoted by evangelical dissenters, Methodists both Arminian and Calvinist, and Church of England evangelicals in the period 1720 to 1800. Isabel Rivers also looks back to earlier sources and forward to the continued republication of many of these works well into the nineteenth century. The first part is concerned with the publishing and distribution of religious books by commercial booksellers and not-for-profit religious societies, and the means by which readers obtained them and how they responded to what they read. The second part shows that some of the most important publications were new versions of earlier nonconformist, episcopalian, Roman Catholic, and North American works. The third part explores the main literary kinds, including annotated bibles, devotional guides, exemplary lives, and hymns. Building on many years' research into the religious literature of the period, Rivers discusses over two hundred writers and provides detailed case studies of popular and influential works.

Oscar the Owl watches over his animal friends as they come to church on Sunday. Why do they come? he wonders. What is it that brings them here? A young elephant, Emery, sits off by himself, carefully guarding a scrap of parchment. What is Emery's Secret, and how will it affect Oscar and his friends? Author Robert Johnson Almond takes readers on a journey through a dark and thorny jungle, on the path to discovering the greatest of secrets. Join the animals of the jungle as they finally come to learn Emery's Secret of love and sacrifice.