PROVE ALL THINGS by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 15, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 27.

"PROVE ALL THINGS."

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

"PROVE all things; hold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. 5:21. A very reasonable exhortation this, and one that should commend itself to everybody's good sense; yet few heed it, and many of those who profess to regard it misapply it.

How are we to prove all things? By what standard shall we test them? Here is where so many fail. Most people will use their own feelings and impulses as the standard. Their natural likes and dislikes determine what they shall hold fast and what they will reject. What they think to be good, they will follow; but since human judgment is naturally controlled or at least biased by inclination and desire, it is an unsafe guide. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 16:25.

For this reason alone, if for no other, it should be apparent to all that we are not to prove all things by sampling them. A thing may taste good, and yet contain a deadly poison. He who makes it his practise to eat everything he sees, in order to find out if it is good to eat, may have his probation cut short. It is far better to apply well-known tests for poisons, and then to eat only that which is proved to be good.

So in the mental and spiritual world. A man is not obliged to dabble in every theory in order to prove it. He who thinks that he must prove every form of teaching by trying its effects on himself will fare worse than the one who tries physical poisons on himself. The system can not stand it. His nature would soon become so corrupted that he would be unable to distinguish the good, even if he got hold of it. But he would never find the good; for the forms of error are infinite, and he who sets himself to the task of investigating all error, so as to know how to avoid it, will never finish. The only thing that he will prove will be his own folly.

Just as there are tests for physical poisons, which can be applied without subjecting ourselves to the influence of those poisons, so we have an infallible test of truth and error. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. The Word of God is truth, and whatever is not in harmony with that is of course error. If we become thoroughly familiar with the Word, error will be revealed on its first approach, and we need have nothing whatever to do with it. The Word of the Lord is his voice, and all that is necessary is for us to know that; for we do not need to talk with a stranger hours or days in order to find out if the voice is that of our most intimate friend.

Least of all must it be supposed that we are to prove the Word of God itself, to see whether or not we should hold to it, or to how much we should hold fast. No; that is the standard that is already proved. "The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Ps. 12:6. "Every word of God is pure." Prov. 30:5. The Word itself is good; hold it fast, and prove all things by it, holding only that which the Word declares to be good. E. J. W.