fore, for the coming of the Bridegroom. The time of the final destruction of Antichrist approaches, and therefore the time of the redemption of the purchased possession draws nigh. Then the kingdom shall be restored to Israel, the dominion shall be given to the saints, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

Wait, therefore, yea, watch, ye that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. At midnight was the cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh -take ye heed, watch and pray. He that shall come will come at the time appointed—the time of the final destruction of Antichrist-and will not tarry. "The evil servant did not say in his heart that his Lord would never come, but he thought (as many good servants now do) that i would be a great while first-not till the general judgment, and then he knew he would come. Oh, let none of Christ's good servants say as he did, My Lord delays his coming." What joy and gladness will there be when we shall see him face to face! When he shall appear we shall be like him, and see him as he is, in all his glorious excellencies and perfections-see him coming the second time, without sin, in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, to our salvation-see him that hath loved us and died for us, and is now appearing as an advocate with the Father for us! Oh what a heart-ravishing sight will this be to all his friends! Abraham rejoiced to see his day; by faith he saw it afar off, and was glad. And how did Job comfort himself in this, in the midst of all his misery, that his Redeemer lived, and that he should stand at the latter day upon the earth; and that in his

flesh he should see God-he should see him for himself and his eyes should behold him, and not another! And how were the disciples ravished with but a glimpse of his glory when they were with him in the holy mount! and again, when they saw him ascend up on high and received into heaven; toward which their gazing eyes were so steadfastly fixed, that nothing but an angel's voice could call them down to the earth! And it will be but a little while before he will so come in like manner as they saw him go into heaven.

Wherefore, O ye his saints, lift up your heads, and comfort yourselves with these words. And let us "pray with greatest instancy and importunity, and that continually, for the accomplishment of these things: pray that Christ's kingdom may come and his will may be done in earth as it is in heaven; pray for the peace of Jerusalem; keep not silence day nor night, give the Lord no rest, till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth; pray for the coming of the new Jerusalem down from heaven; pray for the destruction of the kingdom of darkness; pray for the bringing in both of Jews and Gentiles to the obedience of the gospel;" pray that the Holy Spirit may descend from on high, that God himself may dwell with men; pray for the restitution of all things; pray that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, when he will send Jesus; pray for the accomplishment of all promises and prophecies: in one word, pray for the coming and kingdom of Christ, in which all will be fulfilled. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.

No. II.

In connection with the allusion of Mr. Spalding to the conversion of the Jews at the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, we wish to give the following articles from a distinguished correspondent of the "Signs of the Times." EDS.

[From the Signs of the Times.]

PLEROMA, OR FULNESS OF THE JEWS.

"Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?-Blindness in part has happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."-Romans xi. 12, 25.

In a few words let us search the meaning of the above passage. That it is obscure, the diversity of views respecting it is evidence. And the obscurity seems to lie in the sense of that word, pleroma, rendered "fulness" in the text. What means the pleroma of the Jews, and the pleroma of the Gentiles?

According to Greenfield's Greek Concordance, the word pleroma occurs fourteen times in the New Testament, in the following places :

In Matt. ix. 16, and in Mark ii. 21, in the parable of the old garment tattered and patched with new cloth, where pleroma implies the patch.

In Mark viii. 20, it expresses the fulness of baskets of fragments. In the above instances the sense of the word pleroma seems to be completion, complement, full quantity.

It next occurs in John i. 16: "Of his pleroma, or fulness, have we all received, and grace for

grace. Here it seems to mean full quality or perfection, an attribute of God.

It next occurs in our text; and again Rom. xiii. 19, “love is the pleroma, or fulfilling of the law." And in Rom. xv. 29, "I shall come in the pleroma, or fulness, of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." And in 1 Cor. x. 26, "For the earth is the Lord's, and the pleroma, or fulness, thereof." The sense in the above passages seems to be completion, full measure.

Again, in Galatians iv. 4, " But when the pleroma, or fulness, of time was come, God sent forth his Son." And Eph. i. 10, "That in the dispensation of the pleroma, or fulness, of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth, in him." In these two passages, pleroma seems to mean fulness in the sense of end; the completion of any time being the end of that time.

"The fulness of him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 23.

"That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Eph. iii. 19.

"Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13.

"In him should all fulness dwell." Col. i. 19. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. ii. 9.

In the last five instances, the word pleroma, translated fulness, seems to signify perfection, an attribute of God.

From the use of the word pleroma in these twelve places, we may be assisted to understand its meaning in the only two remaining, found in the text.

When applied to persons or character, the word seems to signify fulness in the sense of quality, i. e. perfection; when applied to things, it signifies fulness in the sense of quantity, full measure; and when applied to times, it seems to signify fulness in the sense of completion, or end of the times.

The question is, In which or what sense is it to be understood in the text? What is the pleroma, or fulness, of the Jews? And what is the pleroma, or fulness, of the Gentiles?

1. Of the Jews. Does the pleroma of the Jews apply to their personal character or quality? Then it would seem to express the perfection of that character in a heavenly sense; full quality, perfection, an attribute of God.

Does it apply to their times? Then it would seem to imply the end of their times. The fulness of a time is the end of that time.

Does it apply to their number, or quantity? Then it would express the completion of that number or quantity; full measure.

In one or the other, or all of these senses, it does probably apply to the Jews, and it seems to apply mainly to their character or quality; and also to their times and quantity. For,

The apostle has spoken of their "fall" and "the diminishing of them," which is to be understood religiously of their quality and depravity, and not physically or politically of their quantity or number, or national power.*

*The word rendered "fall" is paraptoma, which, according to Greenfield, occurs twenty-one times in the New Testament, and is, in every other place but this