When Nephi Saw This Great Wickedness, His Heart Was Exceedingly Sorrowful

George Reynolds, Janne M. Sjodahl

This great wickedness caused Nephi great sorrow; his only recourse was to Heaven. Before God, in mighty prayer, he bowed in behalf of his imperiled people. All the day long he continued his earnest supplications. At last the word of the Anointed One came unto him, saying: "Lift up your head and be of good cheer, for behold the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of My holy prophets." As was thus declared, so was it fulfilled, for at the going down of the Sun, it was light as day and so continued until the morning when the Sun arose again in its usual course. A new star also appeared in the skies. Then the faithful rejoiced, their hearts were filled to overflowing, they knew that their Redeemer was born, and that the great Plan of Salvation had entered its most glorious phase; God, the great Jehovah, was tabernacled in the flesh. But the wicked quaked with awful dread: they realized the extent of their iniquity, they sensed that they were murderers at heart, for they had plotted to take the lives of the righteous, and in the terror that this overwhelming sense of their piteous condition wrought, they sank to the earth as though they were dead.

Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 7

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