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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.
Most possess considerable advantages: the pure teaching of Scripture, the living voices of parents and ministers, and the Spirit of Elohim unfolding truth to conscience.
Yet Christ's call came sovereignly, without miracle or earthly inducement—only the attraction of personal authority and divine grace.
David understood what many Christians experience: the connection between bodily ailment and spiritual distress.
Five fortresses stand against Him: indifference ("What shall we eat?" matters more than salvation), false doctrine inherited from childhood, self-sufficiency ("I can find Him without His help"), spiritual pride ("the gospel is outworn"), and despair ("I can never know Him").
Though David knew reproach, Jesus Christ experienced mockery incomparably deeper—the common heritage of the godly tested by scorn.
This reversal of suffering's apparent meaninglessness constitutes the heart of 2 Corinthians 1:6-11.
When the Macedonian emperor sat for his portrait, the painter faced a difficulty. A sword-wound had left a terrible scar across the monarch's right temple—a mark of battle and suffering. Yet the master craftsman possessed wisdom. He positioned the emperor...
Yahweh, the Lord in His everlasting redemptive purpose, invites Israel to *ask*—not as suppliants begging scraps, but as covenant partners speaking into the Divine intention.
The preciousness of Christ's sympathy with our infirmities lies in His actual and personal union with our nature.
This distinction cuts to the heart of His redemptive mission.
"Where are the gods of these places?" (Isaiah 36:19).
The Preacher employed a single lamp to illuminate the young man's delusion about the strange woman's house: the lamp named "At the last." This is no ordinary light but Ithuriel's spear itself, which according to Milton's *Paradise Lost*, dispels all...
Moses, at his wits' end, cried to God, and received this command: take the elders, ascend Horeb with your rod, and strike the rock.
The kingdom lay low, fractured by foreign invasions and internal division, yet the surrounding nations—particularly the Philistines—watched with both enmity and fear.
This duty offends the natural mind and cannot be softened for worldly taste; it rests upon God's command alone, for our salvation hangs in the balance.
This term carries profound weight—not mere completion, but restoration to an earlier and better state.
We require this petition when surrounded by gloom, when tempted, and when our path grows rough.
Similarly, the sacred temple shook at God's presence and the seraphim's praise.
Rogers observes, must address the *emergencies* of his own time, not retreat into historical lament or distant eschatology.
The faithful soul accumulates boundless spiritual riches because it places no limits on its fidelity.
The apostle distinguishes between four categories of observance: natural (the sun and moon's course), civil (harvests and commerce), ecclesiastical (thanksgiving and humiliation), and superstitious (both Jewish legalism and heathen astrology).
Our sufferings are not the same as Christ's, yet we suffer.
First, it denotes God's essence, majesty, and perfections—the *doxa* (glory) that radiates from His divine nature.
First, Christ came on pre-incarnate mission through Old Testament theophanies—manifesting Elohim before the Incarnation.