was it possible to reconcile those
beings unto God who had never sinned against him, nor been estranged from
him? According to the original, God is not exactly said to reconcile, but
_to keep together_, all things, by the mediation and work of Christ. The
angels fell from heaven, and man sinned in paradise; but the creatures of
God are secured from any further defection from him, by the
all-controlling display of his character, and by the stupendous system of
moral agencies and means which have been called forth in the great work of
redemption.

In this view of the passage in question we are happy to find that we are
confirmed by so enlightened a critic as Dr. Macknight. In relation to
these words, "And by him to reconcile all things," he says, "Though I have
translated the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, to reconcile, which is its ordinary meaning,
_I am clearly of opinion_ that it signifies here to _unite_ simply;
because the good angels are said, in the latter part of the verse, to be
reconciled with Christ, who never were at enmity with him. I therefore
take the apostle's meaning to be this: 'It pleased the Father, by Christ,
to unite all things to Christ, namely, as their Head and Governor.' "
(Col. i, 20.) The same sublime truth is revealed in other portions of
Scripture, as in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, where it is
said, that it is the design of God to subject all things to Christ, and
exception is made only of Him by whom this universal subjection and
dominion is established.

The accomplishment of such an object, it will be admitted, is one of
unspeakable importance. For no government, however perfect and beautiful
in other respects, can be of much value unless it be so constructed as to
secure its own permanency. This grand object, revelation informs us, has
been attained by the redemption of the world through Christ. But for his
work, those blessed spirits now bound together in everlasting society with
God, by the sacred ties of confidence and love, might have fallen from him
into the outer darkness, as angels and archangels had fallen before them.
The ministers of light, though