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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.
The Church is compared to a dove through ten striking parallels.
First, as an intellectual gift, the Scriptures answer mankind's deepest inquiries about the origin and history of the world in ways that satisfy the reasoning mind.
The Victorian expositor understood this command as operating on five essential dimensions.
Little sins are peculiarly offensive to God precisely because they are little—we risk offending Him for what we ourselves care very little about and expect insignificant return from.
Yet understand: there is no opposition between Christ and His people requiring conquest.
The accumulation of light things becomes overwhelmingly ponderous.
Exell's *Biblical Illustrator* offers three principles for this conquest.
First, recognize what we desperately need: the King of Glory dwelling within.
The Holy Spirit recorded a mystery of consolation: healing came through the *pistis* (faith) of others.
God's purpose is explicit: "God hath sent His Son into the world, that the world through Him might be saved." Yet formidable obstacles obscure this gracious design.
Man's untamed spirit spurns the Redeemer's love, and no truer picture of the altogether intractable exists than this creature traversing the desert according to its own nature alone.
Two essential requirements emerge for realizing this ideal.
The work of Christ in us and for us does not exempt us from work.
First, it expresses supreme contempt—the mighty Conqueror reduced His defeated enemies to mere grapes beneath His feet, utterly insignificant before His power.
Exell's Victorian homiletic unpacks this indictment with surgical precision.
First comes the temporal: "the former rain and the latter rain" (Joel 2:23), granaries filled with wheat, vats overflowing with wine and oil.
Yet Christ Himself declared He came not with peace, but with a sword.
He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done (Philippians 4:25). I. Punishment Threatened. To Masters: Imperious masters wrong their servants by defrauding them of clothing, food, or wages; by imposing labours beyond their strength; by...
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.
The promise "My God shall supply all your need" (Philippians 4:19) stretches across Old Testament pledges: "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" and "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Yet...
The diseased crowded for healing; the teachable gathered for celestial wisdom; the curious witnessed stupendous miracles.
Yet Scripture is unambiguous: the heart (*leb* in Hebrew, the seat of will and intention) cannot be good while its practice remains evil.
Why should not the seekers of Jesus fear?
Before conversion, the Galatians possessed neither natural knowledge of God—imperfect and weak as it is—nor revealed knowledge through Christ.