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10,054 illustrations — Lessons from history, biography, and world events
Exell's commentary on Proverbs 20:17, the love of pleasure stands as "the secret of the failure of nine-tenths of our unsuccessful young men." The wise man identifies pleasure—particularly when pursued as *hedone* (self-gratification)—as fundamentally opposed to material and spiritual prosperity.
Their *sedulity*—their persistent, uninterrupted devotion—admitted no indifference in their religious offices.
When David offers him honor in Jerusalem, the ancient man declines—and in that refusal, Maclaren finds a portrait of flourishing old age that rebukes our youthful delusions of perpetual vigor.
This text reveals a profound truth: bodily satisfaction depends entirely upon the soul's condition.
Of all species of deception, self-deception proves most detrimental; it is like having a traitor within the fortress who betrays his country to the enemy.
He acted with decisive speed, beginning reforms in his first month, calling the priests to immediate work.
Exell's Victorian commentary on Proverbs 25:15 illuminates what seemed paradoxical to ancient minds: that meekness, courteousness, and kindness possess greater persuasive force than harshness, bitterness, or clamour.
First, men cannot walk in good ways unless they leave the bad ones.
Skinner's rendering exposes the active betrayal—these are not merely failed guides but active corruptors.
The picture is midnight—the master absent, servants waiting with loins girded, lamps burning, eyes fixed upon the entrance.
Yet Christians must judge timidity differently than the world does.
Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." — Psalm 19:12 Sin possesses a remarkable tenacity and cunning.
First, the wicked man takes deliberate pains to devise evil, much as a miner searches for treasure in concealed depths.
Thus life appears utterly different to the young than to the aged—one face glory, the other sober melancholy.
It is through blindness and inconsonsideration that any man becomes entangled in the snares of the foolish woman.
The vast region of human sorrow appears to most a dark and dreary desert.
While all persons possess some sense of duty rooted deeply in the human heart, the constant strife between inclination and principle generates contradiction in conduct.
The greatest truths burned high in the heavens like the star that guided the Magi, yet they directed Christians to the humblest details of daily conduct.
Man suffers equally under two extremes: subjected without redress to another's passions, or abandoned to the dominion of his own.
One Victorian writer imagined hours passing like solemn virgins in silent procession, their faces veiled, carrying caskets filled with treasures: brilliant diadems, ripe fruits, faded flowers.
The latter we enjoy now through faith and hope; but the former is present with us, the certain consequence and necessary attendant upon a mind truly virtuous and religious.
Acts 12:12 reveals that some believers retained their property, maintaining households with children and servants as before.
The flattery here is not gentle commendation but *kelalah* (curse)—a loud, vaunting display that intrudes itself on all occasions with busy, demonstrative energy.
Some possess remarkable skill in dwelling exclusively upon dark things: black aspects, wintry phases, deprivations, bereavements, losses.
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