—First Christian Fiction Writer! DO 2226 8/86—Encouragement to Dad for "New Heaven's Children" Story!

1. I HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF THAT SONG FOR YEARS! (Maria: What is it?) It was like I was listening to somebody singing it. (Sings:)

"Just let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy rainy day!

And if your sweetie cries just tell her that a smile will always pay!

And if the Sun don't shine don't worry or fret!

Just let a smile be your umbrella & you'll never get wet!

So let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy rainy day!"

(Maria: That's sweet, Honey, & look, it just started raining!) I haven't sung that old song since I was a kid! That's the kind of cute little songs they used to sing when I was young!

2. "JUST LET A SMILE BE YOUR UMBRELLA ON A RAINY RAINY DAY!

And if your sweetie cries just tell her that a smile will always pay!

And if the Sun don't shine don't worry or fret!

Just let a smile be your umbrella & you'll never get wet!

Just let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy rainy day!"

Like the cute little songs they used to have when I was a kid!

3. ISN'T THAT FUNNY? ALL THE WORDS OF THE WHOLE THING CAME BACK TO ME JUST AS CLEAR AS ANYTHING! Somebody was singing it to me in my sleep but I can't quite get who it was. I think it woke me up. (Maria: At least they waited to wake you up until you'd had a good nap!) (Sings again: )

"Just let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy rainy day!

And if your sweetie cries just tell her that a smile will always pay!

And if the Sun don't shine don't worry or fret!

Just let a smile be your umbrella & you'll never get wet!

So let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy rainy day!"

4. AL JOLSON WAS THE ONE WHO MADE THAT POPULAR. He was a very famous singer who usually played the part of a Negro in what they used to call Negro Minstrels, where they'd blacken their faces & sing a lot of those old Negro songs—cute happy songs! He's also the one that made "Sunny Boy" famous, that song I used to sing to David when he was little, & that now I sing to Techi sometimes, but when I sing it to her I sing it "Honey Girl"!

5. I HAD ANOTHER INTERESTING EXPERIENCE JUST AS I WAS GOING TO SLEEP, AT THE BEGINNING OF MY NAP. I can't even remember why it came to me! It was almost like I was dreaming it & I was going back in memory, down memory lane! I was a little boy again & we were in Allapattah, Florida. It was a Saturday night & my folks took us kids to this outdoor showing of a free movie being shown on the side of a building. They had a lot of white buildings in those days in Florida.

6. THIS OUTDOOR FREE MOVIE WAS CALLED "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS", A DRAMATISATION OF THE BOOK WHICH JOHN BUNYAN WROTE! In those days, the only kind of movies they had were all black-&–white & silent. In the small theaters they had a pianist who would be watching the movie & playing music to fit the film. Remember, in those days there was almost no such thing as recorders. (Maria: Did somebody read text too sometimes?) No, the titles were on the screen, even the things the people were saying were on the screen. You've seen some of those old movies, like the old comics or Charlie Chaplin or "Our Gang"‚ or what's the funny one about the policemen?—"The Keystone Cops"! They've revived a lot of those.

7. ALL I CAN REMEMBER IS THAT THIS MOVIE WAS ABOUT THIS MAN NAMED CHRISTIAN IN OLD-FASHIONED CLOTHING OF JOHN BUNYAN'S DAY. It was actually the dramatisation of the life of a Christian & how he travels with different characters like Faithful & Hopeful & meets talkative Lord Fairspeech‚ Mr. Smooth-Man, Mr. Two-Tongues, Mr. Money-Love, Mr. Save-All & then he meets Giant Despair, the owner of Doubting Castle & all these temptations he withstands which are all trials & tribulations & testings that he goes through as a Christian.

8. I CANNOT REALLY REMEMBER CLEARLY HARDLY A THING ABOUT THAT FILM EXCEPT ONE SCENE, & that was the introduction of the film where they showed John Bunyan sitting there in his jail cell writing the book! "Pilgrim's Progress" was the name of the book‚ & it became the second most popular book in the whole World next to the Bible because of its allegorical style & vivid illustrations! I just had a picture come back to me of myself as a little boy with the book on the floor & me looking through it at the pictures. I think apparently he really wanted it to be read by children, showing all the trials & troubles & tribulations & temptations & testings that a Christian goes through, but in story form.

9. OF COURSE, THERE WASN'T TOO MUCH IN THE FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT IN THOSE DAYS WHEN I FIRST SAW THAT AS A LITTLE BOY. Mind you‚ I must not have been more than about seven or eight years of age, about Techi's age. We all went & stood out in this huge big parking lot or empty lot. Everybody stood because there were no chairs or seats or anything‚ you just stood there & watched the film. It was silent although they were playing music to it, it might have been played by a Victrola, what they called a record player in those days. They called them Victrolas because that was the first record player that came out that was popular, that the most people bought, & that was its brand name, the Victrola Company‚ probably named after Victor somebody!

10. BUT THE SIGNIFICANT THING ABOUT IT WAS THAT I SHOULD HAPPEN TO THINK ABOUT THAT JUST OUT OF THE BLUE! From where did it come? Why should I be thinking about John Bunyan & "Pilgrim's Progress" & the fact that the only scene in that whole movie that really stuck with me & impressed me as a little boy was that picture of him sitting there in his prison cell at a bare table under a barred prison window with the light coming through the window from the outside falling on his table. I can see him sitting there yet! You see from the left side that he's writing with his right hand the script on these sheets of paper on the table.

11. BUT THE AMAZING THING WAS THAT THAT WAS THE ONLY SCENE IN THE WHOLE MOVIE THAT I REALLY REMEMBER, but it impressed me so as a little boy that he would have been so brave to suffer prison yet redeem the time by writing a book while he was in prison! The funny thing was that all of that should have come back to me as I was falling asleep! (Maria looks up John Bunyan in the encyclopedia:)

12. (MARIA READS: JOHN BUNYAN, 1628-1688, ENGLISH AUTHOR & PREACHER, SON OF A TINKER. After a brief period at the village free school, Bunyan followed his father's trade.) A tinker was a tin smith who usually made pots & pans & sold them from door to door. He was also a sort of a repairman‚ that's where we get the word as we use it. We talk about people tinkering with things, a handyman who has a hobby of making things. But most tinkers in those days were Gypsies & they made various instruments & utensils out of tin & sold them from door-to-door—even when I was a boy!—Hence the name "Tin-ker".

13. (MARIA READS: He was conscripted into the Parliamentary Army in 1644, (age 16) & served until 1647.) That was in the days of Oliver Cromwell, who led the big successful Protestant revolution with Puritan forces against King Charles I. In place of the monarchy, Cromwell established a Protestant Republican government called the Commonwealth.

14. (MARIA READS: ABOUT 1648 HE MARRIED A MEMBER OF ONE OF THE NUMEROUS PURITAN SECTS of his day‚ & in 1653 joined her church & became one of its leaders. The couple settled (1655) in Bedford, England, where Bunyan's wife died soon afterward. There he began to give sermons as a lay preacher. During the late 1650's he became one of the most popular preachers of the period, speaking to large audiences drawn from all the Puritan sects. After Cromwell died & the Puritans were no longer in control of the government & Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, the Puritans met with intense persecution from the Church of England, & it was declared illegal to conduct divine service except in accordance with the forms of the established Anglican Church. Bunyan, who persisted in his irregular preaching, was confined in Bedford county jail for 12 years (1660-72)‚ refusing all offers of release on condition that he would not preach again, although during a part of this time he was allowed a large degree of freedom & was able to support his family by making tagged laces.

15. (MARIA READS: WHILE IN PRISON, HIS LIBRARY CONSISTED OF THE BIBLE & THE "BOOK OF MARTYRS" BY THE ENGLISH THEOLOGIAN JOHN FOXE. During this period Bunyan wrote nine books‚ the most famous of which is "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners", 1666, a fervent spiritual autobiography. Soon after his release in 1672, he was reimprisoned briefly & wrote the first part of his masterpiece, "The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come", published in 1678.)

16. HEY, HOW ABOUT THAT? IT WAS A BOOK IN WHICH HE SORT OF ENVISIONED THE FUTURE, "FROM THIS WORLD TO THE WORLD TO COME!"—AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN WRITING! Isn't that something of the Lord to give me that encouragement? John Bunyan must have come to me & given me that picture & that message! Just think‚ he inspired me when I was just a little boy, & that's the thing that impressed me the most about him! It was not even his story‚ but him personally sitting in jail writing that book!

17. HEY, YOU KNOW IT MUST JUST BE PAST THE 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF THAT BOOK, THINK OF THAT!—FROM 1684 TO 1984! Maybe he wants me to remember him! The Lord must have given me that to encourage me about the story I'm writing, because that was literally, you might say, an imaginative, fictionalised account of a Christian travelling through life to Heaven. Now, that's amazing! (Maria: Amen, that is!)

18. (MARIA READS: BY THE TIME BUNYAN WAS RELEASED FROM HIS SECOND IMPRISONMENT, HE HAD BECOME A HERO TO THE MEMBERS OF HIS SECT. His fame as a preacher continued to increase until his death; during his last years he was universally recognised as the leading Puritan divine & author. The principal works of these later years are the allegories, "The Holy City", 1660, "The Life & Death of Mr. Badman", 1680, & "The Holy War", 1682.) You know what? He must have been the World's first writer of Christian fiction!—Get it? (Maria: Yes‚ Sir!)

19. THE LORD MUST HAVE GIVEN ME THAT TO ENCOURAGE ME ABOUT WHAT I'M WRITING, because the Devil often tempts me with doubt about am I doing the right thing to try to envision or imagine or whatever they want to call it, these scenes in my Story of the Future, of the Millennium & Heaven & all that.

20. IMAGINE, IN HIS DAYS THEY STILL HAD NOTHING BUT HAND PRESSES that were operated by hand & blocks of wood for pictures which they carved, that's why they call them wood cuts, where they had to carve the picture into a block of wood & then put it in this press & they wound the thing down. They first painted the ink on & then pressed it on a piece of paper & each page had to be printed separately, just like the first famous printing press.

21. (MARIA READS: "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" IS AN ALLEGORY RECOUNTING CHRISTIAN'S JOURNEY FROM THE CITY OF DESTRUCTION TO THE CELESTIAL CITY.) How about that, Honey! I mean, it's a real parallel! The Lord must have sent him along to encourage me. Now that's really encouraging! It was almost like a dream, I was just falling asleep & I was so sleepy I told you I'd tell it to you later. PTL! TYL! (Maria reads: A second part appeared in 1684 describing the manner in which Christian's wife, Christiania, makes the same pilgrimage.

22. ("PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" ESTABLISHED BUNYAN AS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL RELIGIOUS WRITERS OF ALL TIME. The book is now generally considered the finest allegory in English literature. Its prose unites the eloquence of the Bible with the vigorous realism of the speech of the common man. After his conversion, Bunyan made the Bible his entire education & studied it constantly. To it he owes the force & charm of his own writing.)

[Puritanism‚ in the 16th & 17th Centuries, was a movement for reform in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical & theological ideas of England & America. The Puritans were those members of the Church of England who wished to purify the church, believing that too many Roman Catholic practices had been kept in the Protestant Church.

During their struggle against the Stuart kings in the early 17th Century, the Puritans gained a majority in the English Parliament. A group within the Church of England, the Puritans demanded simpler church services & a more fully Protestant theology. The Puritans presented King James with a petition, asking him amongst other things to stop the use of the sign of the cross in baptism, that clergymen be allowed to marry & that abuses in the church be stopped, that priests cease wearing rich vestments, along with engaging in the pomp & show which accompanied them & attracted too much attention & intended to exalt the priests.

James I granted only one of the Puritans' requests: For a new revision of the Bible. A group of scholars produced the King James version which appeared in 1611. The religious & political strife between the Puritans & the Kings continued until in 1648 Parliament tried, condemned & beheaded King Charles I, & Cromwell, the leader of the Puritan Army‚ took control of the government. But after his death in 1658‚ the monarchy was restored. The Anglican Church regained its strength in Parliament, & between 1661 & 1665 the Parliament passed a series of harsh measures against the dissenters & Roman Catholics (groups such as Presbyterians, Puritans‚ Baptists & Quakers were called dissenters). According to the new laws, only members of the Church of England could serve in local or national government. A legislation also forced dissenting ministers out of their pulpits in the Anglican Church & made it almost impossible for them to start their own independent congregations.

It was again a period of intense persecution of all who were not Church of England‚ including Roman Catholics, & many Puritans fled to New England. The Puritans who struggled to build a new nation on America's hostile shores had a vision. They were hoping to find a new "promised land". As one Puritan writer put it, God had kept America hidden for a purpose & chose the Puritans to fulfil that purpose, sending them on this "errand into the wilderness". He gave them the task of building a righteous, God-fearing society.

23. HOW ABOUT THAT, HONEY! HE MUST HAVE BEEN THE FIRST WRITER OF CHRISTIAN FICTION!—And that's what the World or the System would say about my Heaven Stories—"Heaven's Children" & our "Heaven's Girl" & all that, they would call them Christian fiction, right?

24. ISN'T THAT AMAZING THAT THE LORD WOULD GIVE ME JOHN BUNYAN? I never thought of that before, how he was one of the earliest writers of Christian fiction actually in the early days of Protestantism.

(Note added later: He even felt the need to explain this new style of writing to his readers by way of a lengthy poem he wrote at the beginning of the book that he calls "The Author's Apology for His Book". Here are a few lines:

The prophets used much by metaphors

To set forth truth; yea, whoso considers Christ,

His apostles too, shall plainly see

That truths to this day in such mantles be.

Sound words, I know, Timothy is to use‚

And old wives' fables he is to refuse;

But yet grave Paul, he nowhere did forbid

The use of parables‚ in which lay hid

That gold, those pearls & precious stones

That were worth digging for, and that with greatest care.)

25. SEE, THOSE ARE STORIES THAT THEY CALL ALLEGORIES, IN OTHER WORDS, LIKE JESUS' PARABLES. Jesus wrote Christian fiction too, you might say. I'm sure all those stories must have been true, at least they were truth, you know what I mean? But Jesus told all those stories which were called parables‚ which were illustrations of truths that He wanted to get across to them!—Sort of like little fictional stories illustrating a Christian truth.

26. THE LORD MUST HAVE WANTED TO ENCOURAGE ME about that, because sometimes the Devil accuses me & tempts me with doubting whether I'm doing the right thing to, as some people might say, "imagine" the Future & writing what they would not even consider the truth or might not be the truth or something. I really try to get it from the Lord, get the pictures from the Lord in real prayer! I pray a lot before I start writing any of those Chapters, & ask the Lord to really give me the scenes & the pictures, to inspire me! I really believe what I'm seeing & getting is reality, or awful close to it anyhow, as vividly as I can envision it with the Lord's help! PTL! TYL!

27. I THINK I'M GETTING REALLY INSPIRED NOW THAT I'M FINALLY GETTING PERSONAL! In the 17th & 18th Chapters I finally get around to really telling a personal story about our actual life in the Millennium. I'm doing on this "New Heaven's Children" series almost like I did on the first one! I wrote I don't know how many Chapters of Introduction first, reviewing the Endtime events, & I've written literally 16 Chapters of Introduction this time, describing the Millennium in generalities & general terms & the conditions of the land & a lot about the events leading up to the Millennium. Review, review, review! Repeat, repeat, repeat!—That's the law of memory!

28. I'VE TOLD LITTLE BITS & PIECES OF OUR PERSONAL STORY WITH THE CHILDREN THROUGH THESE EVENTS & INTO HEAVEN & IN THE MILLENNIUM ETC.‚ but I'm now beginning to write more where the whole Chapter's about those things & getting personal, really getting personal now, with our Family coming back to see our old home on Earth, our last home on Earth, & I'm getting really inspired & thrilled about that! So PTL! TYL!

29. WELL NOW, ISN'T THAT AMAZING THAT THE LORD WOULD GIVE ME THAT ABOUT JOHN BUNYAN! I got it almost like a dream, you know, in that wonderworld, the heavenly borderland where you're just falling asleep. Didn't we read somewhere that that's where many psychics get their revelations, either in their sleep & dreams or as they're just falling asleep or just waking up? You're in a state of real spiritual suspense, sort of spiritual animation. They could call it spiritual imagination, I presume, where you see things spiritually so easily. When you're falling asleep you see things almost like you're already dreaming; or when you're just barely waking up you see things & hear things almost like you're still dreaming‚ just like that song woke me up!

30. ISN'T THAT FUNNY I SHOULD GO TO SLEEP ON JOHN BUNYAN & WAKE UP WITH THE FUNNY LITTLE SONG ABOUT "LET A SMILE BE YOUR UMBRELLA"? That was one of those little cheerer-upper songs of my childhood! Now isn't that wonderful the Lord was giving me John Bunyan as an example & that he impressed me so? He himself & his life impressed me more than his story, the fact that he wrote all that in jail! I hope that doesn't mean I'm going to go to jail! (Maria: Maybe the Lord meant that this is sort of like your prison.) In a way, yes‚ we're sort of confined here, sort of like house arrest, we hardly ever get out. (Maria: Well‚ that shows you can be happy even in confinement!) Yes‚ thank the Lord! Compared to prison, this is a heavenly mansion even though we hardly ever go outside its walls! We've got every convenience & comfort for our pleasure right here. (Maria: And in the spirit you can travel all over the World & even into the Future!)—Yes! I take so many spirit trips, I'm taking a spirit trip in the Story!

31. NOW ISN'T THAT SOMETHING THE LORD WOULD GIVE ME THAT STORY OF JOHN BUNYAN! The impressive thing about it was it was John Bunyan I was impressed with & how he wrote those stories. They were literally stories. They weren't just history or dry theology or church doctrines which so much religious literature is composed of, arguing points & doctrine or even dead church history, but they were lively little tales, fictional tales, allegories, parables illustrating Christian truth!

32. ISN'T THAT AMAZING? HIS MOST POPULAR STORY WAS THE STORY OF CHRISTIAN! This man who was the pilgrim was named Christian travelling from the City of Destruction to the Heavenly Home!—He called it the Celestial City! Now how about that! That's exactly what I'm talking about in my Story, our journey from the City of Destruction, this World, Babylon, to the Heavenly City! Now isn't that something? I'm writing a modern "Pilgrim's Progress"!

33. IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE LORD WHO SENT JOHN BUNYAN TO REMIND ME, TO ENCOURAGE ME! (Maria: He's not confined to England nor to prison any more, he can go wherever he wants!) He wasn't confined just to church theology either or just to the actual facts of history‚ but he obviously had a vivid imagination to either dream up or visualise all those allegorical parabolic stories about a Christian's adventures. Imagine, from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, that's exactly what I'm writing! Isn't that wonderful, Honey?

34. I MEAN‚ HE PROBABLY CAME CLOSER TO WRITING THE SORT OF THING I'M WRITING OF ANY OF THE CHRISTIAN WRITERS! All the so-called modern Christian fiction is all tales about modern people, nothing about Heaven or the Future or making this life sound so terrible as to call it the City of Destruction! Most Christian fiction nowadays is just designed for amusement & entertainment with a little moral scattered through them etc. of Christian behaviour & morality. They are really pretty tame & pretty shallow & insipid‚ almost silly!—So-called Christian fiction.

35. (JOHN BRINGS DAD'S DINNER:) JOHN, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF JOHN BUNYAN? (John: No, but I've heard of Paul Bunyan!) Ha, ha, ha! He was a mythological character of the far North, a giant lumberjack who was supposed to have been able to do all these super-human feats! (John: I've seen pictures of this great big tall statue of Paul Bunyan & his blue ox!) He had a blue ox? (John: He was always with him.) The ox was for hauling logs. (John: Yes, & in the cartoons & everything they always have the blue ox.) Just think, this generation never heard of John Bunyan but they've heard of Paul Bunyan, a character that never even existed! (John: They say his footsteps formed the five Great Lakes!) Ha, ha! Oh boy! Well, that really was fiction!

36. (PRAYS:) LORD DO BLESS‚ SANCTIFY & PURIFY THIS FOOD, LORD, & THANK YOU FOR THESE WONDERFUL REVELATIONS, ENCOURAGING THINGS THAT YOU GIVE US, LORD, ABOUT OUR WRITING! Thank You, Jesus, for John Bunyan & his wonderful life & all that he did to interest children & young people in reading his stories to illustrate the Christian life. Thank You for sending these memories back to me, Lord, & we think You must have even sent John Bunyan himself, Lord, thank You‚ Lord, to remind me of these things, to encourage me in my writing! I'm writing them almost the same way‚ in what some would call Christian fiction, but You know & I know, Lord, it's the truth as You showed it to me & it's for young people & children, vividly illustrated like John Bunyan's work! TYJ! PTL! Hallelujah! So we thank You for these things You've given us to encourage us, in Jesus' name.

37. BLESS THIS FOOD, SANCTIFY IT & PURIFY IT! Bless John for fixing it & all those who provided it & make it a blessing! Thank You, Lord, that I can still eat, & still am healthy & alive & able to serve Thee in a life for Thy glory, in Jesus' name! PTL! Well, that's going to encourage me to write another Chapter probably!

38. MMMM, YOU'VE LEARNED TO MAKE THE GREATEST SAUCES & GRAVIES I THINK HAVE PROBABLY EVER BEEN MADE! (John: That's amazing!) What do you mean‚ Son? You're the King's cook! If I'm supposed to be a great king, you must be a great cook because you cook for the great king‚ TYL!

39. IT'S SOMETHING THAT I SHOULD GO TO SLEEP THINKING ABOUT JOHN BUNYAN & WAKE UP SINGING THAT LITTLE SONG ABOUT SMILING, that little song about "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella!" My father was so radical that he refused to go to movies or read any books or anything that he considered fiction because he considered that that was what the Lord called in the Book of Revelation, "he that loveth & maketh a lie". (Rev.22:15) To him, fiction was a lie & anybody writing fiction would wind up in the Lake of Fire! (Maria: I never would have read any Christian literature when I was growing up as a child if I hadn't read fiction.)

40. I GET SO HIGH ON THOSE THINGS, IT'S HARD FOR ME TO COME DOWN! (Maria: It's amazing how those departed Saints are becoming more & more real now that we know that we're going to see them pretty soon! Now they're becoming more alive!) Yes, most Christians treat the past like it's gone forever, you know? Of course, some church people live in the past, in Old Testament history like it's never going to be gone! (Maria: They had some real fighters in those days!) It must have been the Lord let him be put in prison so he'd have time to write those books! He wrote all those mostly while he was in prison.

41. I'M SURE JOHN & GEM MUST BE THE WORLD'S GREATEST COOKS SINCE THEY'RE MY COOKS! Maybe some day they'll be famous for it in Heaven! (Maria: Yes‚ Sir!) Maybe people will want to try all those dishes that they used to cook for me. I may even want a few more of them! (Maria: I don't know where we'll get the meat though.) Well, we could have simulated meat like the Seventh Day Adventists do. I mean, they make hamburgers, canned hamburger patties & all kinds of things that taste just like meat!

42. —KIND OF LIKE MY STORIES, IF THEY'RE NOT REAL MEAT‚ AT LEAST THEY TASTE LIKE IT! (Maria: Good enough meat for me! I don't know where we could find any better! I bet we've done the most beautiful story picture books that the World has ever known!) I believe that because I don't think the World's ever seen picture books with a more beautiful subject than Heaven & the Millennium! (Maria: They're the most unique & they're also the most beautiful!)

43. YOU DON'T SUPPOSE I'LL BE EVEN CLASSED ALONG WITH GREAT WRITERS LIKE JOHN BUNYAN, DO YOU? (Maria: Of course, Honey! You are already!) Famous old Saints like him? (Maria: Of course!) Oh boy! (Maria: Not so much "old" Saints, because you're sort of a new Saint!) I mean, when I was a kid those guys were so saintly & great & far-off & ancient that they didn't even seem like they were real, you know? (Maria: That's right!)

44. WELL, I NEVER GOT AROUND TO WRITING THE STORY OF THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE PAST‚ BUT I'M SURE WRITING THE STORY OF THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE, AMEN? (Maria: And that's a lot more important! A lot of other people have done the other stuff, you're a one-&-only on this!) Yes, it is rather unique except for John Bunyan. How about that, he's the closest thing I've ever heard of to what I'm doing! He was trying to picture the life of the Christian & the future of the Christian, the Christian pilgrim's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, now how about that! Isn't that amazing? That's exactly what I'm writing! Maybe he's been the one that's been inspiring me, maybe he's my Helper! Why else would I go to sleep dreaming about him?

45. YOU KNOW THE LORD GAVE ME THAT TO ENCOURAGE ME ABOUT MY WRITING! That's really an encouragement! TYL! Hallelujah! PYL! Amen! John Bunyan & I are brothers in the spirit‚ we both wrote what others call Christian fiction!—In fact, System churches today wouldn't even call mine Christian!—What to us is Christian reality or allegory or parable based on absolute facts!