"WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY; WHEREUNTO YE DO WELL THAT YE TAKE

HEED (AS UNTO A LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE, UNTIL THE DAY DAWN, AND THE

DAY-STAR ARISE) IN YOUR HEARTS."-- 2 Peter i. 19.

However unimportant the Study of Prophecy may be in the judgment of men, we learn from our text that it is

a subject of the greatest importance in the sight of God.

It is true that the great majority of professing Christians dismiss prophecy as being at once unimportant and

uninteresting. This may be because instead of allowing God to mean what He says, each interpreter declares

that He means something very different, and thus the ordinary Bible reader is bewildered with the Babel

around him: or it may be that the belief that Christ will not come till at least a thousand years, makes it

useless to look for Him or to study the Scriptures which speak of His return: or it may be that the belief that,

practically, Christ comes at the death of each believer, renders it a matter of little consequence whether He

will return before or after the Millenium.

Hence when one and another raises the midnight cry, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh," it is treated as the

warning of Lot was treated, when "he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law."

They are confessedly ignorant of the subject, and this doubtless is the reason of their confidence that the

prophecies are unprofitable, if not dangerous.

But we are to consider this great subject together, because we believe in the importance of the "sure word of

Prophecy;" and our object is to have this importance impressed on our hearts.

Let us first consider the place which God Himself has given it in His Word. Our aim ought ever to be to hold

all "Truth" in proportion, for Truth out of proportion becomes error. Not only must we receive God's Truth

because it is the Truth, but we must receive it in the order in which God has revealed it, in the proportion in

which God has given it, and with the emphasis which God has put upon it.

Now look at Prophetic truth in this light. What was the very first promise in Eden? Was it n ot a prophecy

concerning the seed of the woman, and His victory over that old serpent the devil? What did the faith of the

Patriarchs rest on but the word of Prophecy? Abel's was faith in the coming sacrifice, Enoche's was faith in

the coming Lord, Noah's was faith in a coming judgment, Abraham's was faith in a coming heir and a coming

inheritance, Isaac's was faith in "things to come," Jacob's was faith in a coming Blessing, Joseph's was faith

in a coming Exodus, Moses's in a coming "recompense of reward;" while all looked and waited for "some

better thing," and the "better resurrection." Their faith was based on the "sure word of Prophecy," and in

the strength of faith in this, they suffered and they overcame.

The Pentateuch is filled with Prophetic word and type. The ceremonial law, the Tabernacle and its

ordinances, were all "shadows of good things to come."

The Psalms are full of "the testimony of Jesus" which is "the spirit of prophecy." Of David we read, that "He

being a prophet" -- "He seeing this before," spake of Christ.

And besides the Psalms, there are seventeen books (out of thirty-nine) directly and wholly prophetic.

If we come to the New Testament we find that there are 260 chapters; and in them, what one other truth or

doctrine will you find mentioned as this is 318 times?

If we take verses instead of chapters, we find one verse in every twenty-five referring to this great doctrine.