Restoration of Soul

He longed for their restoration, and that was, that they and Christ might immediately be brought together again, that faith might be revived in them, the simple, hearty, blessed religion of personal and direct confidence in God in Christ Jesus. He yearned that, as in himself, the Son might be revealed in them, and that, regaining Christ in their souls, they might prove they needed nothing more.
How edifying it is to mark the path of such a spirit under the conduct of the Holy Ghost! How comforting to see the purpose of God, by such a ministry, with the souls of poor sinners! How it lets us learn what Christianity is in the judgment of God Himself! The going over to the observance of days and times, the returning to ordinances, is destructive. It is the world. "Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" as the same Apostle says in another place. Confidence in ordinances is not faith in Christ. It is the religion of nature, of flesh and blood. It is of man and not of God.