The expression “to cite one’s mind forward” is definitely unusual, and one wonders if there might not be some error here. One possibility, for instance, is that the verb cite is an error for cast (which is visually similar to cite). There are, in fact, two scriptural passages which use cast with mind:
The second example is from a revelation given through Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery that dates from the same time period as the Book of the Mormon translation (April 1829). However, in both these instances of “cast (in) one’s mind”, the expression is not used causatively, as it would be if the text here in Alma 13:1 originally read “I would cast your minds forward to the time … ” (as if Alma were causing each person in his audience to cast their own mind on that time”).
Another difficulty with the expression “to cite one’s mind forward” is the use of the adverb forward. Douglas Stringer (personal communication, 2 November 2003) notes that forward seems unusual here since Alma is referring to an event in the past. Perhaps the text should read “I would cite your minds back to the time which the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children”.
Although I have not been able to find any evidence in English for the precise expression “to cite one’s mind forward”, there is some indirect evidence from earlier English that the verb cite will work here. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this verb can mean ‘to arouse’ (see definition 2 under the verb cite); it derives from the Latin citare ‘to set in rapid motion, rouse, stimulate’ (see the OED definition under the verb incite). Although this meaning for cite is now archaic in English, that seems to be the intended meaning here in Alma 13:1. Given the earlier meaning of the words cite and incite in English, the use of the word forward may be related to the idea of “inciting” (or “citing”) one’s mind to go forward in confronting a new thought. In any event, the expression “I would cite your minds forward” appears to be an idiomatic expression that means ‘I would urge you to consider’. Its unique use in Alma 13:1 appears to be intended, and the critical text will therefore retain the expression, despite the difficulty in interpreting it.
Summary: Retain in Alma 13:1 the expression “I would cite your minds forward”, which involves an archaic use of the verb cite and apparently means ‘I would urge you to consider’.