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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 text, "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
Yet he frames this through prophecy—Isaiah foretold both the sending and the incredulity.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord—not because the ritual itself is defective, but because the worshipper lacks consideration.
Yet here, God withdraws His all-vitalizing and all-blessing presence.
His gaze pierced beyond mere physical suffering to discern spiritual disease—the scattered, fainting condition of sheep without a shepherd.
All persons are born in a state of ignorance and darkness as to spiritual things; therefore all young persons need instruction.
Joseph Exell's *Biblical Illustrator* identifies three categories of doubt worthy of pastoral attention.
First, the great facts of human nature—sin, mortality, the soul's hunger for God—remain substantially unchanged across the ages.
When believers emerge from great temptation and trouble—their faith tested and drawn thin—deliverance brings more than relief from that particular circumstance.
Three characteristics defined him: cruelty, determination, and worldliness.
Exell observed in *The Biblical Illustrator* (1887), "All help is dangerous for any of us when there is absence of mutuality." Consider a household where one daughter bears all the work while others remain idle; such arrangement breeds neither health...
To eat and drink unworthily means partaking of the sacramental bread and wine contrary to Christ's institution, not discerning the Lord's body in the ordinance.
Matthew Henry observed her strategy: she calls them "simple" and "wanting understanding," inviting them to her school under pretense of refinement.
In Adam's family stood Cain; in Christ's family, Judas; in the earliest Church, deceivers.
The Nature of Christian Confession requires four elements: an open avowal of Jesus as Messiah; conscious adherence to fundamental Christian doctrine; declaration of benefits received through His Person; and zealous promotion of Christian truth in the world.
First, the antecedents of healing: the diseased recognized their condition, felt genuine anxiety for restoration, and positioned themselves in the right place—near the Lord.
The title "Lamb" applied to Christ appears nowhere else in Scripture save John's Gospel—this is no accident.
Consider first the fact itself: admitting the power and providence of God, resurrection involves no logical contradiction.
Christ's people are described as His "flock," a term denoting both privilege and protection.
Paul describes the Christian not merely in metaphor but in literal reality as a soldier surrounded by enemies.
Exell's Victorian commentary illuminates why envy surpasses even explosive anger in spiritual danger.
First, its nature: deliverance FROM the guilt of sin, the power of sin, and the punishment of sin; deliverance TO acceptance with God, conquest of evil, and Heaven itself.
This narrative reveals the desperate calculus of faith.
This architectural image was so revered in both pagan and Christian societies of the Roman Empire that centuries later, when Basilicas became models for Christian worship, the bishop's chair occupied the apse in the very position of the praetor's judgment...