It is certain that Chrys. is incorrect in his interpretation of the statement: “When I come unto you I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ.” (29.) The meaning is not that he shall find them abounding in this blessing, but that he (Paul) will come to them furnished with the fulness of this blessing. The joyful hopes of Paul respecting his journey to Rome and labors there, were not, indeed, wholly thwarted, but how different were the experiences of his journey and life there from what he had expected. He went thither a prisoner and such missionary labors as he was permitted to perform were accomplished while he was kept in ward by the civil authorities of Rome. And, yet, notwithstanding these hardships, who can doubt that his prayer was answered? He found joy in the saints at Rome who came out from the city as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to welcome him (Acts xxviii. 15); he was permitted for two years, at least, to occupy his own hired house and freely to “preach the kingdom of God and teach the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him” (Acts xxviii. 30, 31); this preaching was crowned with signal success extending to the conversion of some of the members of Cæsar’s household (Phil. iv. 22). It is propable that we owe to this same period of imprisonment at Rome the four epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians; if so, we have in them a reflection of the manifold activities and profound spiritual experiences of the apostle during his stay in Rome which constitute a genuine providential fulfilment of his desires, although it proved that as in the case of an earlier visit to Jerusalem, he went not knowing the things that should befall him there (Acts xx. 22).—G.B.S.