“Alma and Amulek Answered Him Nothing”

"One of the most difficult feats of self-subjugation is that of holding one's tongue when righteous judgment otherwise requires one to speak. To stand unmoved and mute while facing wicked accusations is the supreme test of self-control. Just as God had withheld the hand of Justice during the burning of the innocent women and children, (Verse 8) so He now constrained Alma to withhold his hand a little longer, in order that iniquity's cycle might run its full course.

"It is out of the impact of evil upon good, like sledge upon anvil, that the qualities of saintliness are forged, and hammered into shape. Alma was being tried as have few of history's other saints, but the result of the impact of these frightful experiences upon this great man 'were good.'" (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 3, p. 221)