Loading...
Loading...
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.
Brute courage, born of insensitivity to danger, fails the thinking man.
By grace, all believers become Abraham's descendants through three distinct mechanisms: *imitation* (walking in his faith's pattern), *succession* (inheriting his blessing), and *spiritual generation* (Abraham's believing reception of them as children, as Romans 9:8 confirms).
What does it mean to make light of Christ's gospel?
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word (Acts 8:4). The aggressive power of Christianity demonstrates that the Church prospers pre-eminently through...
He visits rebellious generations with four gifts: the call—spoken through prophets, apostles, and conscience itself, articulated in earthquake and storm; the stretched hands—an open path to the Father with no obstruction, no forbidding, no upbraiding; the counsel—specifically directed at those...
When stationary, they rested; when it advanced, they journeyed.
This divine knowledge produces fourfold effects: it stimulates spiritual activity, restrains from transgression, excites desire for pardon, and braces the soul in duty.
Behold the world is gone after him" (John 10:19), they unwittingly echoed the failure of infidelity itself—a prophecy hidden in their own words of despair.
As sap flows from roots through trunk, branches, and the remotest leaf, so genuine piety pervades the whole life of the godly man, imparting its spirit and character to everything he does.
Within this exercise, humility and hope unite with patience and perseverance, producing an agreeable serenity of mind that opposes turbulence of spirit and uneasy emotions.
This commission extends to the Christian Church with urgent force.
The righteous possess *phos* — light itself, drawn from Elohim, the "Father of lights." This illumination burns with joy because it originates beyond the soul, inexhaustible as the sun traversing its course without weariness or exhaustion.
The word *purse* (*zone*) referred to the hollow girdles Jews wore to carry money—yet the disciples were sent out stripped of such security.
Yet Elohim had a deeper purpose: Peter must become an eyewitness to all of Christ's sufferings, that the Church might know the cost of discipleship.
Man, as a fallen being with alienated affections and distorted views, requires precise Divine direction.
This declaration concerns the body's care and furnishes arguments against fear.
The slothful man pursues an impossible contradiction: he craves wealth without labour, knowledge without study, and respect without merit.
Joseph Spurgeon's 1887 exposition clarifies this distinction: religion does not flourish through well-attended services alone, but through genuine obedience.
Strangers with thee *in life*: Those united in Christ alone are united in truth; all other bonds fracture under ultimate scrutiny.
In these proverbs of purity, the wise man personifies wisdom's rival standing in earth's great thoroughfares, bidding simple youth to shameful pleasures along the broad and crowded way.
True religion teaches us to refer all questions to the highest tribunal, asking not merely what is agreeable and expedient, but what is the will of God.
God's eternity and unchangeableness are inseparable attributes revealed throughout Scripture.
Isaiah records a sobering scene: "He shall come to his sanctuary to pray." Yet this prayer proves fruitless. The Victorian preacher W. F. Manning observed a pattern repeating across centuries—people who recognize idolatry's folly still approach Elohim's altar with hollow...
we may be accepted of Him" (2 Corinthians 4:9), he did not mean he laboured to atone for sin—that would be treason against Him who "by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).