obildren of thy people, and speak: unto nature of the contents, alludes to the bitter- iham," ete. And it sh&ll make thy belly ness tint: the writer narratea bis -experi- bitter, but it lhall be in thy mouth -aweet u ences in the historiool order. honey ; cf. the vision of Ezek. ii. 9-iii., Ver. 11.-And he l&id unto me. 11.eyawrw, wheJ'8 the sweetn8118 only is immediately "they say," is read in ~. A, B, and thirty mentioned: but the bitternesa is implied c111Bives, and is adopted in the Revised later on in Ezek. iii. 14. The sweetness Version. A/-yEi, "he saitb." is found in P e x p - the pleosure and tea.din8S8 with and seventeen c111Bives. 11.fyovaw leaves the whiob St. John receives his commission; speakere quite indefinite, 8lllounting, in the bittemess symbolizes the grief which fact, to no more than" it was said" (Alford); pol8ellll8II him when be thoroughly takes in cf. ,,.pitf,fllll'w in ob. xii. 6; also Dan. vii. 5, the· nature of his message. The pleasure IS. Thou must prophesy again. Thou must, with: whioh he reoeives the angel's com- beoause it is laid upon thee by God's com- mands may proceed from joy at the thought mand. It is to be done again, because the that the final overthrow of the wicked is the seer has already to some extent set forth finaldelivennee of the saints; or it may be God's will in the earlier part of the book ; that he,·feels himself honoured a.t being and he is now required to prooeed with the chosen 811 the medium for conveying God's delivery of his message. "Prophesy" (as m81188oge. Compare the readiness of Isaiah in eh. xi. 3) has rather its literal than its (vi. 8) to fulfil a similar office, and his derived meaning. It is the telling forth of subsequent fear and hesitation (Isa. vii. 4). God's purposes, and may refer to past a.a The bitternel!B of the seer follows when he well as present or future _events. The realizes the terrible nature of the judgment sentence refers to the announoements made he is to announce (of. Jer. viii. 21, "For the in the following pa.rt of the Apocalypse ( wide hurt .of the daughter of my people am I infra). Bede and others take it to mean hurt"). Various other explanations, more or the Gospel of St. John, which was, perhaps, 1888 allegorical, have been suggested. Thus afterwards composed (see Introduction). Andreas explains that the first sweetness of Viotorinua thinks it points to the period of sin is afterwards converted into bitterness. St. John's return from Patmoe-.t.o Ephesus, Origen, quoted in the 'Speaker's Commen- where the Apoealypse may have been pub- tary,' "Vety sweet is this the book of Scrip- lished. Before many peoples, a.nd nations, tUJe when first perceived, but bitter to the a.nd tongues, and kings ; C011CBmiag mqnr, eonl!Cience within." Maurice supposes that peoples, eto. ( f,r/, with dative). These are St. John's joy proceeds from the expectation the objects of the.propheey, not the audience. ihBt the book will a.nnounoe the fall of the This, serves to exp~in the referenoe in the µeat Babel-empire of the . world, and his preceding sentenoe. The message is .not dieappointmeut follows when he discovers delivered to, but abouC peoples, etc. The that it pxedicts the fl!oll of J eru8'l.lem. Bede fourfold enumeration seems to point to th& expla.in,s that the bitterness in the belly breadth of the signification-it el\lbra.oes indicates the reception by the seer, but the the whole of mankind (cf. oh. v. 9). This sweetneBS in the mouth is the declaration to is the end of what is oalled by many writers othei-s. ' the first episode; the second follows. The Ver. 10.-And I took the little book out incident 18 often alluded to as the " new of the angel', hand, and ate it up; a.nd it commission" of St. John; but it seems less wu in my mo11th sweet as honey: and &a a new oommiBSion than a rolemn re-enact- IIOOD. as I h&d ea.ten it, my belly was bitter ment of the oommand delivered in ob. i. <- above). The angel, foreseeing the
HOMILETICS. Ven. 1-7.-Tht mystery of God-finishedl According to 10me historical inter- preters, the close of the ninth chapter sets forth in symbol the inrush or the Turkish power and the downfall of Constantinople. Ap~rently necessitated by such a view, the.angel of the first verse of the tenth chapter 18 the reality of which the dominant papal power was the mimicry-a messenger of heaven with new light piercing. the gloom. His setting one foot on the sea and another on the earth indicates his taking posseasion of Continental Christendom and insular England. The seven thunders a.re the anathema.s of papal Rome. They may not be uttered, because they are the roarings of man and not the sayings of God. We ca.nnot accept this interpretation, nor any- thing like it. On the understanding that this book foreoosts in symbolic outline the fortunes of the Church of God on her way to the final consummation, it would be some- what atraqe if the lines of historv and those of prophecy did not vresent some mu~11rl ell. :it. 1-11.] THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN TIIE DIVINE. :ll1