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134 illustrations
We treat the present as though it shall never end, and eternity as though it shall never begin.
This is no arbitrary decree, but a solemn declaration to which all holy spirits give their willing assent—an ordinance whose justice even the excluded themselves shall admit.
Ye are of more value.—The worth of human nature flows from four sources, according to Dr. H. W. Williams: First, from the capacities inherent in that nature itself. Second, from the fact that mankind is the object of special regard...
Thus life appears utterly different to the young than to the aged—one face glory, the other sober melancholy.
The mountains sing their praise (Isaiah 54:12), the valleys echo with melody (Psalm 65:13), and the trees of the wood lift their voices (1 Chronicles 16:33).
When David offers him honor in Jerusalem, the ancient man declines—and in that refusal, Maclaren finds a portrait of flourishing old age that rebukes our youthful delusions of perpetual vigor.
The wisdom of religion is vindicated in the contrasting ends of good and evil men.
The present is intimately related to the future, and the future will faithfully reflect the character.
It is through blindness and inconsonsideration that any man becomes entangled in the snares of the foolish woman.
Yet a great intellect dissociated from moral control becomes a scourge and terror.
Joseph Exell's 1887 *Biblical Illustrator* frames this eschatological promise through three movements.
Matthew 24:27 compares our Lord's return to lightning flashing across the sky. Joseph S. Exell's Victorian exposition unpacks two essential truths. First, Christ's advent shall be sudden. The masses will be unprepared, as unsuspecting as a city when lightning leaps...
Paul applies this text to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, revealing depths beyond the original words about humanity.
David speaks not of mere bodily existence, but of life in its truest sense—union with Elohim himself.
First, in *number*: Under the ancient dispensation, spiritual Israel remained comparatively few.
The Victorian homiletics of Joseph Exell (1887) pressed a crucial distinction: godliness genuinely lengthens life, not through magic, but through obedience to Yahweh's wholesome laws.
These are few, extraordinary, and universal in scope.
Paul, writing to the Hebrews, calls this inner barrier "the second veil," describing it as the threshold beyond which lay the most sacred articles of Jewish worship.
Consider how easily stubble kindles when fully dry.
Efforts to do good are misunderstood and ill-requited; benevolent plans are ridiculed, motives misrepresented, kindness abused, and hopes of success treated as visionary.
Christ's kingdom exists to bring rebels to obedience within God's government.
The Church Fathers offered profound interpretations of this triple declaration.
"He will swallow up death in victory"—a promise echoed throughout Scripture.
Life and immortality have been brought to light through the gospel alone; without Christ's revelation, humanity possessed only feeble conjecture regarding the afterlife.