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185 illustrations
Yet here, God withdraws His all-vitalizing and all-blessing presence.
Exell's Victorian commentary illuminates why envy surpasses even explosive anger in spiritual danger.
Before conversion, the Galatians possessed neither natural knowledge of God—imperfect and weak as it is—nor revealed knowledge through Christ.
The Galatian church had experienced genuine spiritual joy in their earliest faith—that *first love* which marks every conversion.
The text, "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
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.
First, consider the effect of the gospel truly preached.
The accumulation of light things becomes overwhelmingly ponderous.
His words carry three essential truths for the believer.
The *tablinum*—the grand reception chamber with marble or alabaster benches—held the Sanhedrin's formal proceeding against Jesus.
Exell's Victorian exposition illuminates two critical spiritual failures.
First, the *phobos* (fear) of preparation for judgment itself.
The Biblical Illustrator identifies four root causes of such backsliding: opposition and fear from religion's enemies; worldly conformity that erodes conviction; self-confidence in spiritual attainments; and neglect of private devotional duties.
So too the soul suffers from inherent liability to weakness, weariness, mistrust of God, and inability to rest upon His precious promises.
Its acquisition presents such difficulties that it is seldom truly found in our age.
From infancy's peril to age's afflictions, human existence demands deliverance.
Both old cloth and new cloth share the nature of cloth; similarly, old wine and new wine share the nature of wine.
Little sins are peculiarly offensive to God precisely because they are little—we risk offending Him for what we ourselves care very little about and expect insignificant return from.
Exell's Victorian homily isolates four charges against this congregation, each applicable to contemporary faith communities.
The tabernacle in which our soul dwells is a most frail and complicated machine.
First, *metanoia* (repentance)—literally "to perceive afterwards"—demanded an entire reversal of opinion respecting Jesus Christ.
His enemies declared, "There is no help for him in God," when Absalom's rebellion consumed his house—the very judgment God had threatened after David's own transgression.
A great many cannot afford to have Christ.
Figuratively, it describes the literal Zion; spiritually, it sets forth the visible and mystical Church.