The word of God can cut the wicked to the very center. This concept is taught with the imagery of the sword, For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (Heb 4:12). Mormon tried to speak with the sharpness of a two edged sword to his people in a desperate attempt to get them to repent. But when he speaks the word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I use no sharpness they harden their hearts against it; wherefore, I fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased striving with them (Mor 9:4). Nephi learned this principle firsthand from his older brothers. He was left to conclude, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center (1 Nephi 16:2).