9.  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book.  And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

10.  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

11.  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Vs. 8-11.—­John is next directed by a voice from heaven, or by divine authority,—­to take and eat the open book.  There is obvious allusion to a similar transaction in Ezekiel iii, 1-3.  The prophet was a captive by the river of Chebar in Babylon, under the dominion of the first beast of Daniel, as John was in Patmos under that of the fourth; and both were favoured and employed by the glorious Head of the church in an eminent part of their ministry.  “The word is not bound” when ministers are in confinement.

The “eating of the book” represents the intellectual apprehension of the things which it contained.

“Thy words were found and I did eat them,"(Jer. xv. 16.) A speculative knowledge of the word of God, and especially of those parts that are prophetical, will afford pleasure to the human intellect, even though the mind be unsanctified. (Matt. xiii. 20, 21.) But when the prophet gets a farther insight into the contents as containing “lamentations, and mourning and woe,” like Ezekiel’s roll;—­the pleasure is converted into pain.  A foresight of the sorrows and sufferings of Christ’s witnesses causes grief to the Christian’s sensitive heart.  He “weeps with them that weep,” by the spontaneous sympathies of a common and renewed nature.  “Sweet in the mouth as honey, but in the belly bitter as wormwood and gall.”

Upon the apostle’s digesting the little book, the Angel interprets the symbolic action by the plain and extensive commission,—­“Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”  This commission did not terminate with the ministry of the apostle, although he may be truly said to prophesy by the Apocalypse to all nations till the end of the world.  This is equally true, however, of all the inspired penmen of the Holy Scriptures. (Psalm xlv. 17.) But John is to be considered here as the official representative of a living and faithful ministry, on whom devolves the indispensable obligation to open and apply these sacred predictions to the commonwealth of nations, however constituted authorities may be affected by them.  And, indeed, these messages will prove unwelcome to the immoral powers of the earth, as in the days of old. (1 Kings xviii. 17.)

CHAPTER XI.