when the leper was brought back, he was actually conducted "to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." When the prodigal returned, he was set down at the table with the father. When Peter was restored, he was able to stand before the men of Israel and say, "ye denied the Holy One, and the Just,"--the very thing which he had done himself, under the most aggravated circumstances. In all these cases, and many more which might be adduced, we see the perfectness of God's restoration. He always brings the soul back to himself, in the full power of grace and the full confidence of faith. "If thou wilt return, return _to me_." "Abraham came unto the place where his tent had been at _the beginning_." Then, as to the moral effect of divine restoration, it is most deeply practical. If legalism gets its answer in the _character_ of the restoration, antinomianism gets its answer in the _effect_ thereof. The restored soul will have a very deep and keen sense of the evil from which it has been delivered, and this will be evidenced by a jealous, prayerful, holy, and circumspect spirit. We are not restored in order that we may, the more lightly, go and sin again, but rather that we may "go and sin no more." The deeper my sense of the _grace_ of divine restoration, the deeper will be my sense of the _holiness_ of it also. This principle is taught and established throughout all scripture; but especially in two well-known passages, namely, Psalms xxiii. 3, and 1 John i. 9: "He restoreth my soul: _he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness_ for his name's sake." And again: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to _cleanse us from all unrighteousness_." The proper path for a divinely-restored soul is "the path of righteousness." In other words, having tasted divine grace we walk in righteousness. To talk of grace, while walking in unrighteousness, is, as the apostle says, to turn "the grace of our God into lasciviousness." If "grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life," it also manifests itself in righteousness, in the outflow of that life. The grace that forgives us our sins, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Those things must never be separated. When taken together, they furnish a triumphant answer to the legalism and antinomianism of the human heart.