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- Over this same stone of stumbling all unconverted men, however sound their profession of the truth may be, are actually falling. Strangers to the new relation, to the only foundation which GOD has laid, they still rest upon the old basis. This is all, by nature, they can know.

III.  CHRIST is all and in all in PROVIDENCE.

The whole administration of providence is in his hand - he is also the End to which its movements are subservient, and in which all the series of events will finally terminate. In both these respects CHRIST is all and in all.

1. He is invested with the actual administration of providence.

CHRIST, the essential word, "was in the beginning with GOD, and was GOD. All things were made by him." [1 John i. 1, 3.]   "All that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions or powers, all things were created by him and for him." [Colos. i. 16, 17.]   As he is before all things, so "by him all things consist." He is the glorious dispenser of providence, the sole ruler and governor of the world. "The father judgeth no

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man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." He is the king of nations in the most extensive sense, as it respects the divine perservation, co-operation and government. And he is the king of saints, and head of his Church, in consequence of a more intimate and special relation which subsists between him and the redeemed family. Of the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace CHRIST has the sole direction. In the actual administration of both he is all and in all.

With regard to the former, it is said of him - "a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth" [Jer. xxiii. 5.]   - "The LORD reigneth" [Psal. xciii. r.]   - "Thy throne of GOD is forever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." [Heb. i. 8.]   - As in the beginning he laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens were the work of his hands, so to him the government of the whole is committed. He employs them as instruments to fulfil his pleasure, and when his work is accomplished, he shall fold them up as a vesture, and they shall be changed. But he remains the same and his years shall not fail.

The mediatorial kingdom of CHRIST is distinct from that eternal dominion over all worlds