Alma makes explicit here the concept implied in verse 5. The doctrine of restoration requires like for like. There is no substitution in restoration; one cannot be “restored from sin to happiness.” Alma’s famous statement that wickedness never was happiness is a qualitative statement. Since wickedness never was righteousness, happiness (the restoration for good, or righteousness) cannot be applied because there is nothing of happiness in the wickedness that could be restored. For Alma, judgment returns eternal essence to temporal essence.