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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's *Biblical Illustrator* (1887) distinguishes these opposing spirits: the proud man esteems himself better than others; the humble man esteems others better than himself.
Surrounded in open field by six hundred Philistine desperadoes bent on plunder and death—not cornered at Thermopylae where numbers meant nothing—he wielded only an oxgoad against overwhelming odds.
The Acts of the Apostles overflows with language of "disputation," "conference," and "reasoning." The apostles "came together to consider the matter"; "It pleased the apostles and elders and the whole Church"; they assembled "with one accord." This pattern reveals how...
Joshua, the great military commander who had led the tribes to countless victories, now felt mortality approaching.
This blessing represents a profound debt owed to godly parenthood.
Consider a wealthy man of vigorous health who dwells in a handsome house and adds yearly to his estates, yet his soul is corrupt.
They proclaim that the city lies open and accessible to all quarters equally.
Yet this truth becomes luminous when understood through the husbandman's labor—the farmer who scatters seed receives a multiplied harvest (2 Corinthians 9:6).
The path suggests constant change, continuous progress in one direction, and an ultimate destination.
With the remaining timber, he carves a god and falls before it in worship.
He writes, "It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth." The apostle appeals not to legal requirement but to honour, conscience, and brotherly feeling—which ought to bind the Christian conscience more...
Yet these pilgrims did not cast off their festive spirit with their holiday attire.
Eastern storms possess a peculiar ferocity: vivid lightning and suffocating darkness alternate with startling rapidity, creating an appalling effect.
The Apostle Paul speaks of a fundamental constraint upon human perception.
Every season of life carries distinct duties and temptations.
This truth presents two terrible events in human history.
The Phoenician city distributed crowns to her colonies like a cupboard dispensing royal insignia—a satire on false authority.
Observe the paradox: error displays surprising zeal, while truth often appears passive.
Solomon presents three essential movements in receiving Divine principles.
First, it demonstrated that on the Sabbath especially, men must attend to the interests of the soul rather than bodily comforts.
The psalmist had known confinement—threading narrow mountain paths, hiding in cavern cracks and corners while fleeing Saul's persecution.
When your interest, your feelings, your wants, nay, even your future independence are on one side, and the plain dictates of duty and religion on the other, then it is that you must "be very courageous" and not turn aside...
An Intellectual Contrast: The intelligent man communicates wisdom; when he speaks, men are enlightened, their minds set to thinking, their spirits refreshed.
A Christian's duty, while dwelling as a citizen of this world, is to engage its concerns actively.