The good pleasure of God is to unite all that is created under Christ's hand. This is His purpose for the administration of the times in which the result of all His ways shall be manifested. It will be a grand spectacle, as the result of God's ways, to see all things united in perfect peace and union, under the authority of man, the Second Man and Son of God; ourselves associated with Him in the same glory as Himself, His companions in heavenly glory, as the objects of God's eternal counsels. Eph. 1 directs our attention to the communication of God's counsels respecting it, and not to the scene itself. The eternal state, in which God is all in all, is quite another thing. The administration of the fullness of times is the result of God's ways in government; the eternal state is the result of the perfection of His nature. In Christ we inherit our part, heirs of God, as it is said elsewhere, and joint-heirs with Christ. Here, however, the Spirit sets before us the position, in virtue of which the inheritance has fallen to us, rather than the inheritance itself. He ascribes it also to the sovereign will of God, as He did before with regard to the special relationship of sons unto God. In the inheritance we shall be to the praise of His glory; as in our relationship to Him we are to the praise of the glory of His grace. J. N. D.