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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.
First, contemplate the visible tragedy itself—the physical brutality that all could witness.
The first reading seems to permit spiritual idleness—as if mere belief without works sufficed for righteousness.
The righteous man's happiness operates through the law of attraction and repulsion: he repels evil (verse 1) and is drawn to meditate upon God's Word (verse 2).
Spiritual idleness consists of neglecting life's true mission: the soul's salvation and sanctification (*Phil.
First, some contend that Elohim created all things solely for His pleasure, without external motive.
First, he directly contradicts Christ's express words that all disciples would fall away.
This requirement demands clarification through five moral attributes of Elohim.
God's believing children regard the heavens not as sovereigns determining destiny, but as servants.
This abiding requires retaining our attachment: by keeping Christ in our thoughts continually, fixing our desires and will upon Him, and manifesting our love through comportment and speech.
God possesses unspeakable glory and greatness—the blessed and only Potentate sustaining all creatures and glorified in every work.
Christians possess incomparable privileges that necessitate corresponding obligations.
This fast illuminates six crucial truths about temptation and spiritual warfare.
The lowly afflicted bear a yoke of trial chosen by God—their particular crook in the lot.
Exell observes that God, in His sovereignty, took them at their word—a principle demonstrated throughout Scripture.
After eighteen centuries of Christian witness, the prophet's lament remains painfully relevant.
The inner life must be sustained by God alone.
First, it is Divine in its nature—originating from Elohim Himself, not from human effort or merit.
Consider God's presidency over all things in four dimensions.
The slaughter of the Midianites under Gideon (Judges 7) becomes the type—the historical precedent—for Yahweh's coming judgment upon Assyria.
Yet this passage speaks equally to the individual believer's threefold experience.
These men's healing was not incidental to their belief—it was its direct fruit.
First, consider the *blessing* pronounced: believers are "filled with joy and peace in believing" — not by human effort, but by the God of hope Himself.
Yet these men possessed extraordinary learning in the law of Moses—literal mastery of Scripture's letter.
The believer's endowments are extraordinary: not merely heightened mental powers, but the rudiments of a Divine nature itself, fitting us for communion with a holy God and fellowship with the pure intelligences of heaven.