pgs. 324 and 325...not so much with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared...

22 Now this was the covenant which they made, and they ^acast their garments at the feet of Moroni, saying: We ^bcovenant with our God, that we shall be destroyed, even as our brethren in the land northward, if we shall fall into transgression; yea, he may cast us at the feet of our enemies, even as we have cast our garments at thy feet to be trodden under foot, if we shall fall into transgression.

23 Moroni said unto them: Behold, we are a ^aremnant of the seed of Jacob; yea, we are a remnant of the seed of ^bJoseph, whose ^ccoat was rent by his brethren into many pieces; yea, and now behold, let us remember to keep the commandments of God, or our garments shall be rent by our brethren, and we be cast into prison, or be sold, or be slain.

24 Yea, let us preserve our liberty as a ^aremnant of Joseph; yea, let us remember the words of Jacob, before his death, for behold, he saw that a ^bpart of the ^cremnant of the coat of Joseph was ^dpreserved and had not decayed. And he said—Even as this remnant of garment of my son hath been preserved, so shall a ^eremnant of the seed of my son be preserved by the hand of God, and be taken unto himself, while the remainder of the seed of Joseph shall perish, even as the remnant of his garment.

25 Now behold, this giveth my soul sorrow; nevertheless, my soul hath joy in my son, because of that part of his seed which shall be taken unto God.

26 Now behold, this was the language of Jacob.

27 And now who knoweth but what the remnant of the seed of Joseph, which shall perish as his garment, are those who have dissented from us? Yea, and even it shall be ourselves if we do not stand fast in the faith of Christ.

28 And now it came to pass that when Moroni had said these words he went forth, and also sent forth in all the parts of the land where there were dissensions, and gathered together all the people who were desirous to maintain their liberty, to stand against Amalickiah and those who had dissented, who were called Amalickiahites.

29 And it came to pass that when Amalickiah saw that the people of Moroni were more numerous than the Amalickiahites—and he also saw that his people were ^adoubtful concerning the justice of the cause in which they had undertaken—therefore, fearing that he should not gain the point, he took those of his people who would and departed into the ^bland of Nephi.

30 Now Moroni thought it was not expedient that the Lamanites should have any more ^astrength; therefore he thought to cut off the people of Amalickiah, or to take them and bring them back, and put Amalickiah to death; yea, for he knew that he would stir up the Lamanites to anger against them, and cause them to come to battle against them; and this he knew that Amalickiah would do that he might obtain his purposes.

31 Therefore Moroni thought it was expedient that he should take his armies, who had gathered themselves together, and armed themselves, and entered into a covenant to keep the peace—and it came to pass that he took his army and marched out with his tents into the wilderness, to cut off the course of Amalickiah in the wilderness.

32 And it came to pass that he did according to his desires, and marched forth into the wilderness, and headed the armies of Amalickiah.

33 And it came to pass that Amalickiah ^afled with a small number of his men, and the remainder were delivered up into the hands of Moroni and were taken back into the land of Zarahemla.

34 Now, Moroni being a man who was ^aappointed by the chief judges and the voice of the people, therefore he had power according to his will with the armies of the Nephites, to establish and to exercise authority over them.

35 And it came to pass that whomsoever of the Amalickiahites that would not enter into a covenant to support the ^acause of freedom, that they might maintain a free ^bgovernment, he caused to be put to death; and there were but few who denied the covenant of freedom.

36 And it came to pass also, that he caused the ^atitle of liberty to be hoisted upon every tower which was in all the land, which was possessed by the Nephites; and thus Moroni planted the standard of liberty among the Nephites.

37 And they began to have peace again in the land; and thus they did maintain peace in the land until nearly the *end of the nineteenth year of the reign of the judges.

38 And Helaman and the ^ahigh priests did also maintain order in the church; yea, even for the space of four years did they have much peace and rejoicing in the church.

39 And it came to pass that there were many who died, firmly ^abelieving that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ; thus they went out of the world rejoicing.

40 And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land—but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many ^aplants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of ^bdiseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate—

41 But there were many who died with ^aold age; and those who died in the faith of Christ are ^bhappy in him, as we must needs suppose.

* VERSE 37 (72 B.C.).

THE BOOK OF ALMA
THE SON OF ALMA

CHAPTER 47

Amalickiah uses treachery, murder, and intrigue to become king of the Lamanites—The Nephite dissenters are more wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites. 72 B.C.

1 Now we will return in our record to Amalickiah and those who had ^afled with him into the wilderness; for, behold, he had taken those who went with him, and went up in the ^bland of Nephi among the Lamanites, and did ^cstir up the Lamanites to anger against the people of Nephi, insomuch that the king of the Lamanites sent a proclamation throughout all his land, among all his people, that they should gather themselves together again to go to battle against the Nephites.

2 And it came to pass that when the proclamation had gone forth among them they were exceedingly afraid; yea, they ^afeared to displease the king, and they also feared to go to battle against the Nephites lest they should lose their lives. And it came to pass that they would not, or the more part of them would not, obey the commandments of the king.

3 And now it came to pass that the king was wroth because of their disobedience; therefore he gave Amalickiah the command of that part of his army which was obedient unto his commands, and commanded him that he should go forth and ^acompel them to arms.

OK, I guess this is as good a time as any for a "green" post. (Spencer, don't roll your eyes!) We all know our earth is amazing. We all know that it needs to be respected. We all know it is a gift to all of us from our loving Heavenly Father. So why do we treat our earth so poorly?

I live in a beach town and recently it was reported in our city newspaper that EVERY DAY there are over 1000 pieces of littler picked up along our beaches. 85% of them were Styrofoam or plastic which, of course, are toxic to the ocean ecosystem. It makes me so sad to think of how we are trashing our oceans. And that is just one of many sad environmental situations.

So, what does this have to do with Alma 46? In verse 40 we are told that "the plants and roots which God has prepared did remove the cause of diseases." To me this is a testament that our earth has so much to offer. Much more than we are probably aware of today. I'm not suggesting that we disrespect medicine as it is today. I am extremely thankful for modern medicine and the incredible advances that have been made for all of us. I just feel like we could all, as a society, acknowledge the resources of our earth with more respect and also more awareness. They are such an amazing blessing from a Father in Heaven who loves us so much.