IS IT CHAFF OR WHEAT?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 16, 1901

IS IT CHAFF OR WHEAT?

The prophecies concerning the new century are abundant and roseate, especially in the line of advanced science and prosperity. In the latter the wish is father to the thought. Some of the prophets finally say that they see no reason for the things they predict, but somehow they believe the better time will come. Men in all positions,—statesmen and clergymen, priests, politicians, and professors,—have prophesied for the daily press; but, strange to say, not one of them, so far as we have seen, has predicated what he has to say on the Word of God, or has given the predictions of that Word as to the future.

And yet God alone knows the future. He has foretold the fates of Rabbah, Edom, and No, and Babylon, and Tyre, and Nineveh, and other cities and kingdoms, and just as truly has He spoken of the nations which exist to-day. Why do not men heed these prophecies? Is it because the prophets do not indulge in pleasing dreams? Is it because they present unpleasing facts? Yet even then it is better to know the truth. O reader, take the Word of God, and know that it is truth! “What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.” The Lord says: “I am against them that prophesy false dreams, . . . and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all.” “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.” Upon which, reader, will you feed?