MOTHER SHIPTON’S PROPHECY by Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 14, 1878

“MOTHER SHIPTON’S PROPHECY.”

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

I HAVE been asked several times this winter, in different places, what I think of “Mother Shipton’s Prophecy,” as it is called. My answer is every time, “I do not think of it at all.” I care nothing for it, and why should I think of it?

The origin of this so-called prophecy is a matter of dispute. The Inter-Ocean, of Chicago, says it was written by a gentleman of England not many years ago. We cannot vouch for this statement, but the Inter-Ocean is one of the most reliable papers of the day.

Very little is known about the personage called “Mother Shipton.” There is a tradition among the English people, rather vague, that she was a singular woman regarded as “a seer.” But there seems to be little or nothing reliable concerning her.

We think some of our brethren are attaching to this “prophecy” far more importance than it deserves. We have a “sure word of prophecy, unto which ye do well that ye take heed.” We have no time to have our minds diverted by that which is so unreliable as this.

J. H. WAGGONER.