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By Joseph S. Exell · 1887 · 1,353 illustrations
The Biblical Illustrator is a 56-volume reference work compiled by Joseph S. Exell in the late 19th century. Each passage of Scripture is illuminated with historical anecdotes, biographical sketches, analogies from nature, and homiletical observations drawn from ancient and contemporary sources. These illustrations have been carefully restored from the original public-domain text and rewritten for clarity and accessibility — preserving the historical depth while removing Victorian OCR artifacts.
Exell identifies three distinct enemies arrayed against the believer's sanctification.
First, God's kindness (*chesed*) embodies tenderness toward the God-fearing.
This supernatural eclipse during the crucifixion carries five profound theological meanings, as exposited by Dean Stanley and W.
The authority of their testimony rested on four unmistakable foundations.
Our Lord exhorts His disciples to cultivate strength of character—but never at the expense of brotherly love.
The exiles' return to Jerusalem embodies this metaphor.
Trusting in riches is spiritually unsatisfactory and necessarily evanescent.
Consider any discipline of human knowledge: a man who disbelieves the principles of astronomy or geology yet pretends to teach these sciences will find his teaching rendered useless by his own heartlessness.
First, Christ freed this ancient law from false Jewish glosses that had corrupted its meaning (Matthew 23:43-44).
The apostle Paul, when dissuading from impurity, eschewed mere physical or social arguments.
Consider the comparison: A thief who forcibly enters a strong man's house, binds him, and seizes his weapons must possess greater strength than the householder.
Yet this appeal reveals something profound: the preacher refers always back to Christ as the source of all authority and influence.
The human mind naturally divides into two warring camps.
From infancy's peril to age's afflictions, human existence demands deliverance.
It is not mere religious habit but your entire conduct—all you think, feel, desire, speak, do, and suffer.
When Socrates drank hemlock in Athens and Caesar fell upon the Roman senate floor, their deaths remained final.
This outburst reveals the nature of evil's opposition to Christ.
Yet his greatest difficulty arose from a faction calling themselves Christ's party—a group whose very name masked dangerous sectarianism.
Man's true wisdom is a pattern of God's wisdom.
This vivid metaphor describes how God's people must guard and maintain the truths contained in Scripture through deliberate action.
All contingencies rest under the direction of God's providence.
The ground of the mistake lies in misinterpreting the word "remaineth": taken to point to rest after the sorrows of this life are finished.
First, consider the effect of the gospel truly preached.
Both old cloth and new cloth share the nature of cloth; similarly, old wine and new wine share the nature of wine.