“The House of Emer Did Prosper Exceedingly”

George Reynolds, Janne M. Sjodahl

It is said of Emer, that he walked in the steps of his father, and that the people prospered. Peace always means prosperity to a nation, while war means financial as well as moral and intellectual ruin. History is decisive on that point. We read that the Jaredites under Emer had an abundance of fruit, grain, silks, fine linen, gold, silver, oxen, cows, sheep, swine, goats, horses, asses, elephants, cureloms, and cumoms, all of which were useful to man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms.

Such assets as those here enumerated were useful. They, and not money, are the real wealth of a nation. Money is only a medium of exchange, convenient but not absolutely necessary. But if there were no food, no clothing, no needful commodities and luxuries to exchange, money would be useless. The Jaredites under Emer had all these things, they had the real wealth.

Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6

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