THE KING ISSUES A PROCLAMATION--THE RESULTS OF THE LABORS OF THE
SONS OF MOSIAH--THE PEOPLE OF ANTI-NEPHI-LEHI--THEY BURY THEIR
WEAPONS OF WAR--ARE MASSACRED BY THE THOUSAND--THEY REMOVE TO THE
TERRITORY OF THE NEPHITES, WHO GIVE THEM THE LAND OF JERSHON.
(ALMA CHAP. 23 TO 27.)
After the king was converted he sent a proclamation throughout
the land forbidding any and all from persecuting Ammon and his
fellow-missionaries, giving them liberty to preach anywhere and
everywhere that they desired. Our readers may be sure that this
privilege was not neglected. To use Ammon's own words, the missionaries
entered into the houses of the people and taught them; they taught them
in their temples and synagogues, in the open streets and on the lofty
hills. But often they were cast out, spit upon, smitten, stoned, bound,
cast into prison and made to suffer all manner of afflictions, from
which the Lord, in his mercy, delivered them and from which the king's
proclamation afterward protected them. Nor was the result of their
labors trifling, but glorious in the saving of many thousand souls; for
unto the Lord were converted the people of the Lamanites who dwelt in
the lands of Ishmael, Middoni, Shilom and Shemlon, and in the cities
of Nephi, Lemuel and Shimnilon; and they became a righteous, peaceful,
God-serving people; and from faithful obedience to his law they never
fell away. But the various bodies of Nephite apostates who dwelt
among the Lamanites universally rejected the gospel message, with the
exception of one single Amalekite, and of what ultimately became of him
we have no record.
History often repeats itself, but we have no recollection of any
parallel to the events that followed this marvelous conversion. The
Lamanite people now became two as distinct and separate bodies as
they and the Nephites had beforetimes been. But with this strange
complication, the apostate Nephites now occupied the place and did
the work of the natural Lamanites, while the true descendants of
Laman and Lemuel took the ground previously held by the righteous
Nephites. So clearly defined did the division become that the supreme
ruler (Lamoni's father), having turned from the tradition, habits and
customs of the Lamanites, was determined to also cast aside the old
name. If they were Lamanites in name only they would cut that weak
cord which alone held them to the past, and be as new in name as they
were in feelings, hopes, loyalty and religion. So, after advising with
Ammon and his fellow-missionaries, he gave to his people the name of
Anti-Nephi-Lehies, and to his son, to whom he transferred the royal
power, that of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.
The renegade Amalekites, Amulonites and others were not willing to
be ruled by a Christian monarch. They had rejected Christianity
altogether, and would not have it as the ruling power, either in Nephi
or Zarahemla. With the old sophistries and falsehoods they raised a
mutiny in the hearts of their associate Lamanites and urged them on to
rebellion against the rightful king and his believing subjects. But
the converted Lamanites made no preparations to resist them; they felt
that in times past with unholy hands they had spilt blood as water on
the land; blood that they could never atone for, but they would do it
no more. Passive non-resistance should for the future 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 resolve, 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. When the maddened hosts of their embittered
brethren rushed upon them, they came forth unarmed, bowed down before
their assailants, and submitted to their fate. With them to live was
Christ, to die was salvation. The vengeful Nephite apostates led the
inglorious charge and shed most of the blood that flowed that day,
when one thousand and five unresisting martyrs glorified the Lamanite
race by the tribute of their lives to God and the truth. A thousand
ransomed souls, washed white in the blood of the Lamb, that day entered
the gates of heaven to stand amongst the saviors on Mount Zion in the
great day of the redeemed. Nor was there joy alone in that bright world
beyond, but on earth the church was gladdened by fresh accessions
to the cause. When many of the actual Lamanites witnessed the great
change that had taken place in their brethren, that they would quietly,
peacefully joyously lay down their lives, their consciences smote them;
they stayed their hands, and rose in tumult against their Amalekite
leaders, and would no longer be the murderers of their kin. The blood
of the martyrs was indeed the seed of the church, for there were more
added to the fold of Christ on that memorable day than those who passed
away to the presence of their God.
Foiled in their attempt to destroy the Anti-Nephi-Lehies (or Ammonites
as we shall hereafter call them), the blood-thirsty Lamanites, led
as usual by Nephite apostates, made a sudden incursion into the land
of Zarahemla, and, in fulfillment of Alma's prophecies, destroyed
the great city of Ammonihah, of which we shall say more hereafter,
but met with most disastrous defeat later on in the campaign. Still
vowing vengeance they returned to their own lands, and feeling that
the Ammonites were in sympathy with the Nephites, they satisfied their
hatred by again slaughtering many of these unresisting people, who,
as before, permitted themselves to be slain, without making the first
effort at defense. But Ammon and his brethren were not willing to have
the disciples continually harassed and eventually exterminated; they
judged that the Lord having so thoroughly tried the faith of this
devoted people, would provide some way of escape.
Ammon counseled with the king and it was thought it would be better to
forsake their all so far as worldly possessions were concerned, than to
sacrifice their lives. But first let them inquire of the Lord. Ammon
did so and the Lord said, Get this people out of this land, that they
perish not, for Satan has great hold upon the hearts of the Amalekites
who do stir up the Lamanites to anger against their brethren to slay
them; therefore get thee out of this land; and blessed are the people
of this generation for I will preserve them.
The word of the Lord thus received was joyfully obeyed. The Ammonites
gathered up their flocks and their herds and departed into the
wilderness that lay between the lands of Nephi and Zarahemla. There
they rested whilst Ammon and his brethren went forward and treated with
the Nephites in behalf of the persecuted hosts they had left behind.
The people, by united voice, gladly welcomed their co-religionists
and set apart the land of Jershon as their inheritance. Thither the
Ammonites with happy feet repaired, and there they dwelt until the
breaking out of war made it desirable that they should remove to the
land of Melek, and many thousands in after years emigrated to the land
north. Of their future history we shall speak, from time to time, when
it connects with that of the Nephites.