George Reynolds

“ On the fourth day of the first month of the thirty-fourth year, a great and terrible tempest arose, the horrors of which exceeded all others since the deluge. Huge tidal waves swept the coasts, swift cyclones and irresistible hurricanes mowed down forest, wilderness, city and tower, leaving blank desolation in their train; the earth trembled to its foundations, belched forth fire, uprose in giant peaks or sank in deep abysses. ”

“ Passive non-resistance for the future should be their policy, but the blood of a fellow-being they would never again shed, no matter how great the peril, how intense the aggravation. As a witness of the completeness of this resolution, they took their weapons of war and buried them deep in the earth with an oath and covenant that they would never dig them up again. Their integrity was soon put to the test, for the unconverted Lamanites, incited and led by the Nephite apostates, fell upon them, and, with sword and spear, massacred one thousand and five of their innocent unresisting fellows. ”

“ It is not our intention here to detail the horrors of the three days of mental and physical darkness that followed the hurricane and the earthquake, nor to dilate upon the great and terrible mourning of the people for their kindred slain, their cities destroyed and their treasures lost. The mental horror of those black days was intensified by the fear that they had sinned away their day of grace, as they realized the tens of thousands of the dead had done. ”

“ The change in the life of Alma brought down upon him the persecutions of the wicked, for others treated him as he before-time had treated the Saints. But in none of these things was he daunted or dismayed, for he had joy in preaching the word, and in the conversion of many from their ungodliness. So conspicuous as a champion of the cause of God did he become, that Mosiah considered him the most proper person to whom to confide the custody of the sacred plates, and to act as the recorder of the nation's doings and progress ”

“ Again the risen Redeemer spake: Arise, said He, and come forth unto me, that you may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.
Now they who heard Him from the first to the last went forth and assured themselves that it was He of whom the prophets had spoken. Then with shouts of praise they cried: Hosanna! blessed be the name of the Most High God. And they fell down at His feet and worshiped Him. ”

“ Those who followed Noah soon grew ashamed of their cowardice and desired to return to meet the Lamanites to avenge the slaughter of their wives and little ones, or perish as they had done. King Noah objected, and his unworthy priests sustained him. At this, the soldiers grew exceedingly angry; all love for him as a man was crushed out, all respect for him as a monarch was lost; they took him and burned him to death, as he had done Abinadi, and would have sacrificed the priests in the same way had they not fled from them. ”

“ When Jacob drew near the city he found himself confronted by the soldiers of Moroni, who closed in around his warriors and barred their further progress southward; while Lehi, putting forth his pent-up energies, fell with fury on their rear. Weary and worn though his troops were, Jacob would not surrender. He determined, if possible, to cut his way through to Mulek. With this intent he made a desperate, though ineffectual, charge on Moroni's lines. The Nephites being fresh and unwearied, never wavered. The battle here raged with indescribable fierceness, and with heavy losses to both sides. ”

“ This war became one of the most bloodthirsty, cruel and vindictive that ever cursed our fair planet. It was not the work of a day, it was the outgrowth of centuries of dishonor, crime and iniquity. Men's most savage passions were worked up to such an extent that every better feeling of humanity was crushed out. The women and children armed themselves for the fray with the same fiendish activity, and fought with the same intense hate, as the men. It was not a conflict of armies alone ”

“ Death had no power over them; swords would not slay them; fire would not burn them; prisons could not hold them; chains could not bind them; the grave could not entomb them; the earth would not conceal them, for they had passed through a glorious change which freed them from earthly pain, suffering and death. The age in which they ministered was a peculiar one. Under ordinary circumstances, the superhuman powers shown by them would have brought the wicked to repentance. But the happy age of peace and innocence that had followed the Savior's ministry was fast passing away ”

“ But besides being a king, Mosiah was also a seer. The gift of interpreting strange tongues and languages was his. By this gift he translated from the twenty-four plates of gold, found by the people of king Limhi, the record of the Jaredites. No wonder that a man possessed of such gifts, so just and merciful in the administration of the law, so perfect in his private life, should be esteemed more than any man by his subjects, and that they waxed strong in their love towards him. ”

“ In Alma, as their first chief judge, they had a man admirably adapted for the situation; he had the confidence of the people, inasmuch as he was the Lord's mouthpiece to them, besides his worth and abilities claimed their trust and respect; he was a man of great talent, courage, faith and energy, an unwearied worker for good, and, as a judge judged righteous judgment in the midst of the people. ”

“ A voice, the voice of One whom they knew not, sounded in their affrighted ears, once, and again, yea, a third time, and each time that the voice came it was followed by the trembling of the earth and the shaking of the prison walls. All nature quivered at the presence of the Majesty on High, while the heavy, palpable, impenetrable darkness still enshrouded them. ”

“ It was a foretaste of the Millennium to the whole people of half the world, and when Nephi died (A. C. 110) this inexpressibly happy, heavenly state still continued in undiminished warmth of Divine and brotherly love and strength of abiding faith. All the generation to which Nephi belonged entered in at the straight gate, and walked the narrow way to the Eternal City of God, not one of them was lost. ”

“ So great was the misery entailed by the invasions of the robbers, that Lachoneus at last determined to gather all the people into one place, and by a policy of masterly inactivity wear out or starve out the invaders. We can scarcely understand how terrible must have been the misery endured by the nation at this time, to cause the conception and execution of such a measure. Can we picture to ourselves the scenes that must have occurred as the people of two continents converged into one gathering place? ”

“ Our only way out of this difficulty is to suggest that there were two cities called Aaron; not at all an unlikely thing when we reflect how important a personage Aaron, the son of Mosiah, was among his people. When chosen to be king he declined this great honor and the republic was established. It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe that a free and grateful people would name more than one city in honor of this self-denying prince. ”

“ Not one escaped; Alma and Amulek alone were preserved in the midst of this awful manifestation of the power of the Almighty.
The citizens, hearing the noise, rushed in crowds to learn of the disaster, but when they saw the ruined heaps of the prison, with the brethren in safety and confronting them, they fled like a flock of frightened sheep before two young lions. Still they would not permit the prophets to remain in their midst, so the latter left and went over into the land of Sidom. ”

“ As on the eastern continent, so on this; at the time of Christ's resurrection, numbers of the saints who were dead arose from their graves and were seen and known by many of the living.
Three days had passed in darkness, in terror and in woe, when the thick mist rolled off the face of the land, revealing to the astonished eyes of the survivors how great had been the convulsions that had shaken the earth. ”

“ A brief examination showed him that the man was Laban. The Spirit of the Lord directed Nephi to slay Laban, for he was a robber and, at heart, a murderer. He had robbed the sons of Lehi of the property they had taken to him in their effort to exchange it for the records, and had afterwards sought their lives. But, though fully justified, Nephi shrank from taking the life of a fellow being. Never before had he shed human blood. But the Spirit of the Lord whispered to him it was better that one man should be slain than that a whole people should perish in ignorance. ”

“ Omer being driven from his kingdom, Jared was anointed king, and his daughter was given to Akish to wife. But this did not satisfy Akish; he had learned the power of these secret combinations, and now determined to use them for his own ends. He aspired to the throne, and made up his mind to murder his father-in-law. So he assembled his followers, instructed them in his wishes, and Jared was slain by them as he sat on his throne giving audience to the people; a case of poetical retribution which, though often found in fiction, is seldom met with in real life. ”

“ Manti, Gideon, Cumeni, Moroni, and even Zarahemla fell. Nor did the war end when the bloodthirsty Lamanites held high carnival in the midst of its towers and palaces. Onward swept the invading host , backward fled the defenders of the Commonwealth, backward they continued until every town and city, every tower and fort, from Melek to Moroni, from Manti to Bountiful, was filled with the savage, half-disciplined, dark-skinned warriors of Laman and their apostate allies. Not a place could be found in the whole southern continent where the soldiers of Moronihah successfully held their ground. ”

“ There lay the foe, there lay his guards, all overcome with resistless fatigue. To draw his javelin, thrust it into the king's heart and then flee, was but the work of a moment, and so adroitly did he fulfil his purpose that Amalickiah died without a struggle or a cry, and it was not until the morning that his guards discovered that the hosts of Laman were without a head. ”

“ The unburning flame, the tottering walls, the quivering earth, the impenetrable cloud of blackness, all conspired to fill their hearts with solemn fear and awful dread. They realized the almighty power of God; they where filled with the sense of their own abject insignificance. ”

“ Lamoni then arose, as Ammon had foretold. His soul was filled with heavenly joy. His first words were of praise to God, his next were blessings on his faithful wife, whose faith he felt or knew. He testified to the coming of the Redeemer, of whose greatness, glory, power and mercy he had learned while in the spirit. His body was too weak for the realities of eternity that filled his heart. Again he sank overpowered to the earth, and the same spirit overcame his wife also. Ammon's rejoicing heart swelled within him as he heard and witnessed these things ”

“ Alma accused him of arguing against his convictions, but this he stoutly denied, and clamored for a sign to be given, as he pretended, that he might be convinced. Alma, at length, wearied by his impious importunities, told him that God, as a sign, would smite him dumb. This terrible warning, though it caused the pretender some uneasiness, only resulted in an attempt at prevarication. He said: I do not deny the existence of a God, but I do not believe there is a God; and I say also, that ye do not know that there is a God; and except ye show me a sign I will not believe. ”

“ CORIANTON, SON OF ALMA. Of Corianton's birth and death we have no record. With his brothers, he is first mentioned in the Book of Mormon at the time of the Zoramite apostasy, when, though young and inexperienced, his father took him on the mission to that people. At this period of his life, Corianton appears to have been afflicted with a failing common to youth — an inordinate estimate of his own strength and wisdom, and an inclination to scepticism, if not to infidelity. He was a doubter of everything except his own supposed abilities. ”

“ The people were rapidly growing in iniquity—they gave succor and support to the Gadianton bands, whose members held the chief offices in the gift of the people. Justice was travestied, the law was administered in the interest of the wicked and of those who would bribe or buy the judges; while the righteous were persecuted, abused and robbed in its name. It thus became an engine of oppression to the good or uninfluential, and an instrument to aid and protect the vile and the influential in all their evil-doing. ”

“ The repentant people now regarded Nephi in his true light; they revered him as a great prophet, and for a few short years they listened to his teachings. While they did so they prospered. But the leaven of unrighteousness had too thoroughly permeated the national life for their faithfulness to God to be of lone duration. For two, three, or perhaps half a dozen years they would maintain their integrity, and then corruption would seethe, the vile would snatch the reins of government, the good would be oppressed, and contention and war, with all their horrors, would again reign supreme. ”

“ Whether it was because she really had affection for her father, or, like him, languished for the pomp and magnificence of the court life she no longer possessed that caused her to submit to him a plan by which he might regain the kingdom, cannot be told; perhaps, also, she loved the man whom she suggested as the instrument to be used in the fulfillment of her ambition — possibly all three, for our motives are seldom single; our actions, in other words, are generally the result of a combination of motives. ”

“ No sooner was Lehi dead than the hatred that rankled in the hearts of Laman and those who sympathized with him seems to have become intensified. It became evident that the two peoples could not live together in peace. They had nothing in common except that they belonged to the same family. Laman's vindictiveness grew so cruel that Nephi's life was in danger; and, as the readiest way out of the difficulty, Nephi was instructed of the Lord to take those who would listen to his teachings and obey the commandments of God into some other part of the land. ”

“ We may therefore infer that Aminadab was not radically a bad man. Whether he was in the prison as an officer, a prisoner, or a stranger led thither by curiosity or by sympathy for the two Nephites, is not explained, but we find him there when the earth shook, when the voice of God was heard from heaven, and the other wonderful and awful manifestations of His presence occurred. Aminadab was apparently the first who was permitted to notice that the faces of the prophets shone with the glory of God, and that they were conversing with angelic beings. ”

“ King Benjamin's truly royal work was now done. He had lived to bring his people into communion with their Creator, his spirit was full of heavenly joy, but his body trembled under the weight of many years. So before he dismissed the multitude he consecrated his son Mosiah to be their king, appointed priests to instruct the people in the ways of the Lord, and, with his patriarchal blessing, dismissed his subjects. ”

“ The people having the privilege granted them, chose Pagag, the eldest son of their prophet. He declined, as did all of his brothers, and also all the sons of Jared except Orihah. The last named accepted the royal dignity and was anointed king. Soon after this the brother of Jared died, full of years and honor. Like Enoch, he had been privileged to enter the presence of the Lord, and to have revealed to him the history of the world in all its generations. He was also a seer, having received the priceless gift of a Urim and Thummim. His faith was never exceeded by the sons of men ”