The prophecy of this tenth chapter is descriptive of a piece to be performed upon the arena of the fourth-beast dominion. The dramatis personae are the Voice in the heaven, the Angel, and John. "I am the Voice," said John the Baptist, "of one crying in the wilderness." It is correct, therefore, to say that "the Voice in the heaven" is a person. The Voice personates the Father and the Son, who "are one;" and the Angel personates a multitude, who are "made perfect in one, as the Father is in Jesus, and Christ in him" (John xvii. 23); and shall we say that John only personates his individual self in the midst of this multitudinous unity? I believe not; but that, in this dramatic scene, he is the representative of a class of agents; and that the part which he performs in it is symbolical of their agency in connexion with the angel in carrying into effect the judgments written in the little opened scroll. It was said to John, as recorded in verse 11, "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." He did not do this in any sense between his release from Patmos and his decease. His prophesying, therefore, as herein specified, must be in the future: and can only be then subsequently to his resurrection from among the dead. As a resurrected, approved, and immortal man, he will again stand before kings and nations, and "prophesy." But not he alone. He will only be one among "thy servants the prophets, and the saints, and them that fear thy name, both small and great" (xi. 18). These all will "prophesy again before many peoples," &c., after they are raised and immortalized. Hence, John in the scene before us, is their representative; and what he does by command of the Voice in the heaven, they will all likewise have to do.

Illustrative of this, John was commanded to "go and take the little scroll which had been opened in the angel’s hand." Here was an action to be performed. When commanded, John had not the book, or scroll; nor was he where the angel stood: but when he obeyed, he stands with the angel, the scroll disappears in John’s substance, and he confronts the peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. This dramatic consummation demonstrates that the Angel and the class of agents John represents are identical. The Angel, therefore, symbolizes John and his associates as the scroll incorporate; that is, after they eat the scroll they occupy the position of the angel upon the sea and upon the earth; and in their prophesying again, their voice crashes with the roaring of the seven thunders. They become, like James and John, "the sons of thunder" (Mark iii. 17); and shake the heavens with their voice.

"Go and take the little scroll that has been opened." They "go" when "gathered" by the angels of his power to the Lord Jesus Christ in the Peninsula of Sinai: and they "take" the scroll when transformed into the likeness of the body of his glory by the energy whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself (Phil. iii. 21). Having taken the scroll they are commanded to "eat it up." "Thy words were found," says Jeremiah, "and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Yahweh Elohim of hosts" (xv. 16). Jeremiah is one of those who will eat the little scroll; and in consequence become a constituent of the same; that is, of the angel. We may see from this, that words may be eaten as well as more material substances. To eat words is first to know them, then to understand their meaning; thirdly, to believe this heartily, and to assimilate it to our mental habitude, that it may become the rule of our thought and action. When this result is attained, the words are not only eaten, but eaten up, or thoroughly digested; and they become part and parcel of the eater inseparably.

Ezekiel was put through this dramatic exercise as well as John and Jeremiah; and from the account he gives we may derive assistance in the exposition of the matter before us. A scroll held in a hand was sent to him. It was a scroll of judgment to be executed; for therein were written lamentations, and mourning, and woe (ii. 8-10). This he was commanded to eat, and then to go and speak to Israel. What he ate was suggestive of what he afterwards spoke and wrote in his book. It was said to him, "Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this scroll that I give thee. "Then," says Ezekiel, "did I eat." Now, the effects produced upon him by the eating to fulness being identical with those affecting John, we are enabled, upon the principle of like causes producing like effects, to determine what the contents were of the little scroll eaten by John. Ezekiel and John were similarly affected. "It was in my mouth," says Ezekiel, "as honey for sweetness;" and then, in ch. iii. 14, he tells us "the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the hot anger of my spirit: and the hand of Yahweh was strong upon me." And when John applied for the opened scroll, and it was given to him, he was told by the angel it should make his "belly bitter, but in his mouth be sweet as honey."

Ezekiel’s scroll when eaten, though prophetic of judgments causing lamentations, and mourning, and woe, was as honey for sweetness, because, "the judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether; more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, and droppings of honeycombs. Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping them there is great reward" (Psa. xix. 10,11). This explains the sweetness in the mouths of Ezekiel and John. The contents of the scrolls were the joy and rejoicing of their hearts; for in the complete execution of "the judgments written," they saw the development of the promised recompense of reward.

But this sweetness of mouth was followed with bitterness of belly. This condition of body imports "hot anger," as is manifest from Ezekiel iii. 14. Moses connects bitter with destruction in his threatening of punishment upon Israel: "They shall be burnt," says he, "with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction" (Deut. xxxii. 24). Fellows inflamed with anger, and ready to execute vengeance upon the objects of their wrath, are said to be "bitter of soul:" this appears from the original of Judg. xviii. 25, where the Danites say to Micah, "Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest fellows bitter of soul run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household." Here, loss of life to Micah and his dependants is predicated upon the bitterness of soul or body, of his enemies. Also in 2 Sam. xvii. 8, David and his mighty men are said to be mahrai nephesh, "bitter of soul as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field:" the robbed bear is a striking illustration of the nature of the bitterness -- that it is a very fierce condition of mind. But, I need add no more examples illustrative of the import of the phrase, "my belly was bitter." John ate the scroll. The effects produced upon him by the eating proved it to be the scroll of "judgment given to the saints," when they are prepared "to execute the judgments written." It is sweet to their taste, because of its truth and righteousness; and the great reward its consummation will secure them: and their body corporate becomes bitter when they set forth to destroy Babylon, and the powers which sustain her. Their blood had been shed copiously by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of "Antichristendom;" and now the time arrives to repay them "double." They become a flaming and consuming fire; and pour out from their bitterness of soul, "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." In Babylon, at "the Hour of Judgment," "is found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth;" and, as it is written, "precious in the eyes of Yahweh is the death of his saints;" therefore they are exhorted in their bitterness of soul, to "reward her even as she rewarded them, and to double unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled to fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and" sorrow are they to "give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues (the seven thunders) come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine (judgments written in the little open scroll); and she shall be utterly burned with fire (with the "Feet like pillars of fire"): for strong is the Lord God (the cloud-invested angel of the bow) who judgeth her" (Apoc. xviii. 24,6-8). After this manner, they will "prophesy again" against their old enemy, in bitterness of belly. But before they can do this, they must be like Ezekiel, only in a higher degree, "lifted up by the Spirit, with the hand, or power, of Yahweh strong upon them." They must be exalted from flesh to spirit. Their bitterness will then be "bitterness in the heat of their spirit;" and in that bitterness they will go forth to "destroy them that corrupt the earth" (xi. 18; xix. 2). This accomplished, they will rejoice in concert with the holy apostles and prophets, over the desolated and fallen prostitute; for the Deity will then have avenged them upon her (xviii. 20; xix. 1-3).