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10,045 illustrations — Lessons from history, biography, and world events
Yet we must consider the mangled victims left in their wake—those who trafficked in cunning and deception, proving specially obnoxious to the Almighty.
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So too the soul suffers from inherent liability to weakness, weariness, mistrust of God, and inability to rest upon His precious promises.
The Biblical Illustrator identifies four root causes of such backsliding: opposition and fear from religion's enemies; worldly conformity that erodes conviction; self-confidence in spiritual attainments; and neglect of private devotional duties.
Bishop Beveridge identifies the structure with precision: the apostle Paul establishes that holiness is lived *because we are saved*, not *in order to be saved*.
The pythoness's masters cared nothing for Apollo or religious doctrine—they opposed the Gospel purely for mercenary reasons.
The universality of Christianity proves its Divine origin, for it alone adapts itself to the condition and wants of all humanity, coming from Him who sustains, preserves, feeds, and blesses all.
An able minister requires two foundational elements: natural endowments and spiritual qualities.
Exell observed in *The Biblical Illustrator* (1887), "All help is dangerous for any of us when there is absence of mutuality." Consider a household where one daughter bears all the work while others remain idle; such arrangement breeds neither health...
It is insufficient to cherish conviction privately or confess only to sympathetic friends.
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' The unworthy members of Zion—the *sinners in Zion*—cry out in terror, supposing the prophet speaks of annihilation.
One seasoned traveler, having witnessed wonders across distant lands, told his friends: "There is something more wonderful than anything I have yet known, which I still have to experience." When pressed, he replied, "It is the first five minutes after...
Here stood a cup-bearer in the Persian court of Artaxerxes at Shushan, a man whose position required such intimate access to power that he could omit the king's name from his record—assuming every reader knew his magnitude.
Exell's Victorian illustration captures this paradox through a striking nautical image: a boat that has sailed the salt ocean, battered by storms and half-filled with briny water, now navigates fresh river currents.
The priests resented the teaching because it threatened their official prerogative.
To apprehend God's loving-kindness means to duly perceive it, believe it with persuasion, esteem it above all treasures, and consider it with serious remembrance.
This vivid metaphor describes how God's people must guard and maintain the truths contained in Scripture through deliberate action.
The linen material—simple, natural—typifies the human nature Christ wears in His glorified state, in which He executes all services of His exalted Priesthood as our Representative.
Basil observed that these saints possessed such extraordinary courage and confidence amid their sufferings that watching heathens witnessed their heroic zeal and constancy—and turned to Christ themselves.
Paul renounced the "wisdom of words" because human eloquence veils the gospel's truth.
Proverbs 4:25 commands us to keep our eyes "right on" and our eyelids "straight before thee." The wise man, whom commentators identify as Solomon, exhorts careful stewardship of every faculty—each member of our nature requires vigilant guardianship lest any become...
Standing amid the magnificent statues of Pallas Athene and Greek art, surrounded by educated philosophers who mocked new ideas, Paul possessed every reason to denounce their idolatry immediately.
When Christ lived without sin, He exposed sin's nature.
While our Lord spoke of the Holy Spirit's aid and the blessing of angels' acknowledgment, this hearer's mind never left his father's inheritance dispute.
The *bruised reed*—a slender bulrush crushed by wind or foot, its head hanging by a thread yet not severed—represents evil in its incipient stage, a destructive process begun but still avoidable.