The book, filled with spiritual texts and sermons and illustrated in watercolor, contains mainly scenes from the New Testament, including images from the passion of Jesus and the martyrdoms of the apostles.
[1] Denig's illustrations depict their subjects dressed in the costume of contemporary Pennsylvania German people.
[2][3] They were painted when the fraktur tradition in Pennsylvania was at its height, and accordingly they bear its imprint, as well as the influence of Christian devotional prints and illustrated Bibles popular during the period.
Theologically, the book contains moralistic texts and illustrations of sacrifice, reflective of the Pietism then in vogue among some members of the Pennsylvania German Community.
[4] At the time it was owned by Esther Ipp Schwartz, who had offered it to folklorist Don Yoder for study.