Have you ever wondered if your daily witness for Christ can truly make a difference in winning a loved one’s soul? Would you be willing to compromise your principles if you thought it might be the only way to influence someone else for Christ?
These are the heart-searching questions at the center of this month’s free read, “Fishing for Phil,” by Isabella Alden. The story follows teenager Daisy Morris as she navigates the delicate balance between family loyalty and her personal devotion to God.
Daisy Morris is a young woman of firm Christian principle , but her convictions are put to the test when her beloved Aunt Mattie and cousin Blanche plead with her to attend a special play. They believe it is the only way to coax Phil away from his worldly companions and back into the church. Will Daisy yield to the pressure of those she loves , or will her quiet refusal to compromise “one inch of the way” prove to be the very witness Phil truly needs?
In Lesson One Mr. Moody diagnosed the disease (Understanding Sin) and in Lesson Two, named the cure (The Remedy of the Gospel). Now, in Lesson Three, Mr. Moody outlines the five essential steps of genuine repentance:
Conviction Contrition Confession of Sin Conversion Confession of Christ
Using the biblical examples of King Saul’s shallow confession, David’s broken heart, and Joseph of Arimathea’s courageous stand at Calvary, Mr. Moody explains the difference between true and counterfeit repentance.
You can read Lesson Three for free!Click here to download a large-print PDF version you can print or share with friends.
Then, join us again on January 27, 2026 for Lesson Four of Mr. Moody’s Bible Class.
If you missed Lessons One and Two, you can find them by clicking on the Free Reads tab above.
It’s Christmas time, and shopping for the holiday is now in full swing. During Isabella’s lifetime, Christmas ads filled the issues of newspapers and magazines, tempting shoppers with bargains and gift ideas.
Among the many advertisements for books, handkerchiefs, slippers, and gloves were ads for a gift the whole family could enjoy: a piano.
The idea wasn’t as extravagant as it might sound; by the late 1890s pianos were quite affordable. Dealers and manufacturers offered consumers credit or payment plans that made purchasing a piano within the reach of families with more modest incomes.
Families weren’t the only ones who took advantage of these arrangements. In Pansy’s Advice to Readers, Isabella wrote about a group of school girls who bought a piano for their gymnasium by raising the money themselves and making regular payments to the dealer.
Such arrangements meant pianos were no longer an article of luxury available only to the wealthy. As more families were able to purchase pianos, American social life began to change. Previously, people gathered at churches, concert halls, and other public places to enjoy music; but affordable pianos allowed people to enjoy music at home and within their own family circle.
But even affordable pianos presented a challenge: someone had to learn how to play them.
Once a piano was installed in a home, there were lessons to be had and endless hours of practice in order for a player to become proficient. But in the 1890s self-playing devices came on the market that again changed how families brought music into their homes.
There were two kinds of self-playing devices: those that attached to pianos, and those that were placed inside them.
Invented in America, the pianola was a cabinet-type device that was pushed up against a piano keyboard. It depressed the piano keys with protruding felt-covered levers controlled by a perforated paper roll. A person had to be seated at the device to work the pumping pedals so air pressure created suction to rotate the roll.
Pianola cabinet style in 1890.
The other type—the player-piano—operated in the same manner with a rotating perforated roll, but the device was installed within the piano itself.
According to the editor of The Piano and Organ Purchaser’s Guide for 1908, these devices “made tens of thousands of pianos eloquent with good and popular music”—pianos that formerly were silent, except when there was a dance at home, or on a Sunday, when a few hymns were played.
“The present of a pianola is a present to every member of the family.” So declared a magazine advertisement in 1904 that urged consumers to consider buying a mechanical piano player for Christmas.
It wasn’t just families that could now listen to beautiful music in their homes. This ad in a 1904 issue of Booklover’s Magazine suggested a pianola cabinet player was the ideal gift for a bachelor’s home.
Those self-playing piano devices opened up whole new musical worlds for people. Many who never visited the opera or a concert before became thoroughly acquainted with world-class musical and orchestral compositions.
Sales of pianolas and player pianos peaked in the mid-1920s when gramophone recordings and the arrival of radio caused their popularity to wane.
But while in their heyday, pianos, pianolas, and player pianos made an important mark on American culture, bringing music and joy to thousands of families. Isn’t that a wonderful gift to receive?
You can learn more about pianolas and player pianos by clicking here.
This month’s free read is a sweet story about faith and Christmas blessings by Isabella’s sister, Marcia Livingston.
Wealthy Mr. Thornton finds his greatest pleasure in carrying out the quiet, unseen work of “his Friend.” With Christmas fast approaching, he has renovated a beautiful cottage to bestow upon an as-yet-unknown person who is homeless and friendless. When his path crosses that of Lily Winthrop and her grandfather, Mr. Thornton sees a clear object for his charity. Will his act of giving remain anonymous, or will Lily and her grandfather discover the secret donor of their miraculous Christmas gift?
In his first lesson, evangelist D.L. Moody diagnosed humanity’s deepest problem: the universal reality of sin and its separating power. Now, in this second lesson, Mr. Moody presents the remedy: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Through scripture and stories, including a powerful account from a Civil War hospital, Mr. Moody shows how Christ came to heal the broken-hearted, deliver captives, restore sight to the blind, and liberate the bruised. As he reminds us, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all that we choose to make it.”
Like her younger sister Isabella, Marcia Macdonald Livingston was a talented writer. Her stories always contained a message of faith and a happy ending; and she excelled at writing about the trials—small and large—that husbands and wives face together.
This month’s free read is about one of those couples who must learn to cope with an empty nest.
Mrs. Warner is in despair. After her beloved daughter marries a young pastor and moves away, the once-cheerful woman cannot muster a smile for her husband, the Deacon. It will take a lonely November evening and the comforting strains of a few old hymns for this devoted couple to rediscover their faith and their gratitude for one another.
Isabella had a special bond with evangelist Rev. D.L. Moody. They were contemporaries who shared a common mission: bringing biblical truths to everyday Americans through accessible, compelling writing.
While Isabella wove Christian principles into her novels and short stories, Mr. Moody taught them directly through his preaching and writing.
In 1896, Mr. Moody published a twelve-part Bible study series in The Ladies’ Home Journal, a magazine that regularly published sermons, essays on religion and faith, and stories with Christian themes. He called his series, “Mr. Moody’s Bible Class.”
Each month for twelve months, Mr. Moody filled the pages of the magazine with lessons on the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, from sin and redemption to prayer and Heaven. His accessible writing style and practical approach made theological truths understandable to every-day readers, while he challenged them to examine their own faith.
From The Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1896.
“Mr. Moody’s Bible Class” is now available for a new generation. Each of his lessons has been carefully formatted for modern readers, with added reflection questions and organized Scripture references.
Whether you’re studying alone, with a small group, or teaching a Sunday school class, Mr. Moody’s lessons offer rich yet practical insights into the foundations of Christian doctrine. Click on the link below to view or download the first lesson:
Isabella Alden and her entire family were actively involved in the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, a movement that promoted Christian service and ideals to its teen and young adult members.
Isabella believed in the Endeavor program so much, she founded the Pansy Society for Christian Endeavor, a similar organization specifically designed for children. The Pansy Society focused on teaching children to use Jesus’ life and words as a guide to live by.
This month’s free read is a story by Marcia Livingston that illustrates some of the values The Pansy Society sought to teach children: forgiveness, patience, and kindness toward others.
It was a simple act of kindness when Lily Haines offered Cindy Barker a rose from her garden; but neither young lady could predict how much of a difference the presence of that single rose could make in the Barker family home.
When it came to writing stories, Isabella sometimes relied on “real” life for inspiration. She’d take an actual occurrence—an overheard conversation, an event she attended, or something as simple as a family gathering—and use it as the basis for her story.
Other times, a story she wrote was inspired by a lesson she wanted to convey, or a kernel of truth around which she fashioned a story. That was the case in 1887 when she published a little story called “Monuments,” about a young girl who visits a cemetery in New York with her Aunt Joanna.
The entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
The story draws on fact: Green-Wood in Brooklyn, New York is a real place that Isabella very likely visited because of its famed monuments.
Monuments and headstones at Green-Wood Cemetery, about 1900.
In the 1800s Green-Wood Cemetery, with its extraordinary grave markers and lush, rolling hills, was a popular tourist destination. People came to spend the day with their picnic baskets and marvel over the sculpted monuments.
In her story, Isabella mentions one of the most magnificent monuments that marks the grave of Miss Charlotte Canda, a seventeen-year-old bride-to-be who was tragically killed after falling from a run-away carriage.
Charlotte Canda’s tomb, photographed about 1910.
She also mentions a monument dedicated to the brave firefighters of New York City and, in particular, Andrew Schenck, who perished in 1854 while trying to save people and his fellow firefighters from a burning department store.
The Firemen’s Monument mentioned in the story, topped by fireman’s boots and hat.
As a creative storyteller, Isabella took these tales of tragedy and heroism and crafted them into a story about a completely different kind of ‘monument’—one built not of marble and stone, but of transformed lives and acts of service.
Here’s the short story Isabella wrote:
It was my first visit to New York. A few days after my arrival uncle took me to Green-Wood, the most beautiful cemetery I ever saw. We visited the many points of interest. As we stood gazing at the fireman’s monument, uncle told me the story of his heroism; how in one of the fierce fires this brave man lost his life while rescuing a woman from the flames. Then we spent a long time looking at the monument to Miss Canda, the beautiful young heiress who was thrown from a carriage and killed; and her fortune was built up in this wonderful marble.
The next morning aunt said, “You will go with me today to another Green-Wood and see grander monuments than any you saw yesterday.”
I wondered how that could be, but we were soon on our way. At length we turned into narrow, dirty streets, growing worse and worse. I shuddered at such sights and sounds of human beings, never before dreaming that in grand New York there could he so much wretchedness. I drew closer and closer to aunt, fearing one of the human demons that leered at us would seize me and carry me off.
Such people! Such places to live in! Such language! Why, it almost makes my hair stand on end to think of it. Aunt did not seem to mind them. Maybe they knew her, for everyone stood aside for us to pass.
“Here it is,” she said at length. “Here is the other Green-Wood.”
“This?” I answered, looking around for gravestones and monuments, and seeing nothing but dreadful houses and miserable objects. “This is Green-Wood?”
She simply answered, “Yes; come right in and you shall see the monuments.”
I could only follow, wondering all the while if aunt was not losing her mind.
A sweet-faced girl met us with a warm welcome to aunt and an earnest look at me. As she led the way within, aunt whispered:
“One of the monuments, Clara.”
“What? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Her name is Maggie,” she quickly whispered back; “used to be called ‘wild Maggie;’ was one of the worst girls in this region. Never mind now, I will tell you more hereafter. Take a good look at her, you’ll see her again.”
Then I heard singing like the songs of many angels. A door swung open. We entered. It was a great company of children, black and white, some with sweet sad faces; others with evil looks, but all singing. Soon Maggie came in from another door and sat among them and I could hear her voice ring out in joyful strains, leading the rest.
There was prayer and Bible reading, and such a good talk by a gentleman. It seemed like heaven, while many of the children, some partly blind, some lame, some pale and sad-faced, gathered around after meeting was out and seized Aunt Joanna’s hand, and seemed so happy. Another lady was there to whom they all pressed for a smile and a word.
“That lady,” said aunt, “is Sir Christopher Wren.”
“What can you mean?” I asked. “Sir Christopher Wren was a man who died in England more than a hundred years ago.”
Aunt Joanna only laughed and said, “And came to life again, my child. This is he, only greater.”
“What?” said I, more and more bewildered.
But she went on: “Look around here at the monuments. You knew Sir Christopher was the architect of the great Westminster Abbey of London, and that kings and statesmen and poets are buried there, and their names and deeds are written there; but if anyone inquires for Sir Christopher Wren’s monument, he is told to look at the wonderful building of which he was the architect.”
“I see,” said I, “that lady has ‘built up’ Maggie.”
“Exactly,” said Aunt Joanna, “and more than one hundred other miserable, sick and wicked children. See that frail girl over there coming toward her? It would take a book to tell how this lady used to come daily here and bend over her crib, sometimes holding her in her arms for hours fearing each moment would be her last. But come and I will introduce you, and you shall see a monument greater than Christopher Wren.”
After we were on our way home, aunt told me the story of this lady; how one day curiosity led her to go through this worst part of New York. Her heart was so touched at the wretchedness of the people that she resolved to do something for them. Her friends tried to dissuade her. Some said the people would kill her; some said it was no use to try to help them. But she went right forward, and now after years of labor and sorrow there is her monument: saved children.
Before my return home in the country, Aunt Joanna gave a treat to the children of the Home all at her own expense.
Maggie, once “Wild Maggie,” and I served. How many sandwiches I passed around, how many cups of milk Maggie filled, how some of the urchins were dressed, how they laughed, or chattered, or stared, what they all said to aunt Joanna about the “treat,” would fill a book.
You can read more about Green-Wood Cemetery by clicking here.
Click on these links to read the stories behind the monuments for:
Our September free read is a short story Isabella wrote in 1910.
Mrs. Luther Smith-Mosher believes more in hard work than miracles, so when her beloved church faces foreclosure, she’s willing to do just about anything to save it. But as the foreclosure date draws near, Mrs. Mosher finds herself caught between feuding factions and impossible financial realities—until Pastor Powers challenges her to trust God completely, even when human solutions have failed.
YOU CAN READ “LINKS IN AN ENDLESS CHAIN” FOR FREE!
Reviews and giveaways for Christian fiction and sweet, clean fiction. Bringing readers information on great stories and connecting authors with their readers.
Isabella Alden 