The recollection of their former disasters were gradually worn away by time and prosperity, and three years later we find great inequality among the Nephites. This was especially to be noted in the Church, where some were poor and some were rich; the more powerful ones abusing and oppressing their weaker and poorer brethren. This inconsistency with God’s laws was not only “a great stumbling-block” to those who did not belong to the Church—that is, those who were actively interested in so becoming—but it was also a prolific source of excuses for those who saw in it a reason to relax their efforts to further God’s Kingdom. Two classes began to develop in the Church. Again, those who “set their hearts upon the vain things of the world” treated with scorn the attempts of the righteous to bring to pass the cause of God. In their stiffneckedness and pride they persecuted the meek and reviled the righteous because of their righteousness. On the other hand, there were many, far more noble souls who helped those, who of themselves, were helpless; there were many who imparted of their own substance to the poor and the needy, and who for the sake of their belief in Christ “suffered all manner of afflictions.”
In their time of need, the Lord did not forsake the faithful; the Saints of God found comfort when they remembered the promise of King Benjamin, in whose words they continually rejoiced:
And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.
And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due. ...
And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. (16)
These words which King Benjamin uttered to the Saints in Zarahemla almost two score years before, awakened in the believer’s hearts a desire to remain steadfast to the cause they had espoused. They also moved them to assist their brethren to stay firm; this they did by ministering to the wants and needs of the sick and the afflicted, the poor and the helpless, the hungry and the naked. Thus was the Church made stronger, the Saints became more united, and the attempts of the unfaithful to frustrate the purposes of God were brought to naught.