With the entire land in danger, the sacred records are also in danger. Mormon takes them from the hill Shim to keep them in his personal protection. He also takes them to have access to them. If Shim held the records, and the Lamanites held Shim, Mormon would be cut off from the sources that he needed to write his great work of warning for future generations.
Textual: There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition.