Alma really lays the guilt on in this verse, and appropriately so. While the wicked go on in life violating the laws of God, they think little of what they are doing. That will change on the great day of judgment. All of a sudden, all of us, wicked or not, will be forced to reckon with ourselves and our own rebellion. The most frightening thing of all is that we will no longer be able to hide behind the protective bliss of a forgetful memory. Rather, every petty act, idle word, and indecent thought will be flooded into our otherwise forgetful minds only to pain us with the reality of our own unworthiness.
Sterling W. Sill
“That calls for an important ability (to imagine Judgment Day), and the best way to avoid possible tragedy is to focus our imagination upon [Judgment] Day before we actually get there. We can be absolutely certain that we will all want to be a faithful, devoted, hard-working, enthusiastic full tithe-paying member of God’s kingdom when we stand before the judgment bar. But we must get the impulse to faithfulness ahead of time; as someone has said that hell is ’truth seen too late.’” (Conference Report, Apr. 1964, p. 16)
Neal A. Maxwell
“At the judgment we will not only have the Book of Mormon‘s prophesied ’bright recollection‘ and ’perfect remembrance’ of our misdeeds (see Alma 5:18; 11:43). The joyous things will be preserved too-we shall know ‘even as we know now’ (Alma 11:43; see also D&C 93:33). Among the ’all things [that] shall be restored’ (Alma 40:23) will be memory, including eventually the memory of premortal events and conditions. What a flood of feeling and fact will come to us when, at a time a loving God deems wise, this faculty is restored! Surely it will increase our gratefulness for God’s long-suffering and for Jesus’ atonement! Hence one of the great blessings of immortality and eternal life will be the joy of our being connected again with the memories of both the first and the second estates.” (Men and Women of Christ, p. 132)