In these verses Anti-Nephi-Lehi is reported by Alma to have given his converted people several good and forthright reasons why they should not take up arms to destroy the lives of their brethren. These reasons are clear, and we intend to show under these selfsame verses that similar reasons, probably handed down by former generations, moulded the way of life in which the American Indians banded together to preserve peace and to keep intertribal harmony before it was all disrupted by European conquest. A form of such a submissive or patient quality is evidenced by the people of Asiatic India, and known as Passive Resistance. In Asia or America, now or in the remote past, the idea is the same. It connotes, not weakness, but strength. It cannot be defeated. Men's unbridled passions succumb to its powers. It means, briefly, receiving or enduring harm without resistance or emotional reaction.
Without repetition, many volumes could be written concerning the different reasons for not going to war with their brethren as Anti-Nephi-Lehi outlined them. From what, only a short time before was a savage beast, came forth a proclamation of pure Christian love. Never before or since has mortal man even suggested such a Christlike sacrifice in the face of danger as did the Lamanite King at that time. Only the Spirit of the Lord, whose cause they had espoused, could lead a whole people, as they were led, to rejoice in His Name. Martyrdom, in the cause of peace, was to be preferred by them to shedding the blood of their brethren. They, at last, had been awakened unto God, and no provocation, no matter how grievous, could put them back to sleep. They were united as one in the determination to sin no more. Their lofty ideals were the gift of God, and He sustained them when all the powers of Hell sought their destruction.
Anti-Nephi-Lehi showed his great faith in attributing to the Lord, the Great Giver of All Good, the many blessings his people had so recently received; to Him he ascribed all goodness. To God, whom he affectionately called my God, he gave thanks that the Nephites had come to declare unto them the truth concerning their birthright. "I thank my God, my beloved people," said Anti-Nephi-Lehi, "that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, and to convince us of our wicked fathers." He praised God that their hearts had been softened by His Holy Spirit that therein his people, who were called after his own name, had been able to carry on an intimate correspondence with the Nephites who were so greatly blessed because God, himself, was their ruler as He also had become theirs. Anti-Nephi-Lehi looked forward to the time when his people would share with the Nephites the gifts God, with a bounteous hand, would spread among all His children. In this expectation the king was not mistaken, for, as we will learn, the Nephites took them under their protection, and soon the blessings of the Lord were had by them in rich abundance.
The ruler of these converted Lamanites readily admitted the errors they had committed in the past, also the sins that had so easily beset them, and the "many murders" that in their savage glee they had perpetrated, but of all these they had repented, and thank "My God," he said, "... that He hath forgiven us of those our many sins "... and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of His Son."
Anti-Nephi-Lehi saw, in retrospect, the lives of his people, and in meditation thereof reached the awful conclusion that "We were the most lost of all mankind." He remembered that they had been born to lives of idleness and shame, and that therefore it was not easy for them to cast aside the habits formed of many past generations. For God, he reasoned with his converted brethren, to take away their sins and for Him to remember their transgressions no more put burdens of restraint upon every back. He saw their past that it was stained with the blood of their fellow men, but from now on, he likewise reasoned, their swords would be bright with a celestial fire as a testimony to God that His children were forever free from any harm done by them, and that their brethren's lives were sacred in their sight.
Continuing his song of praise to God for his many blessings, Anti-Nephi-Lehi warned his people: "Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords again they can no more be washed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the Atonement of our sins." "That we might not perish," the great God has made these things and many more known unto us; He loves us well, and He loves our children too. In His mercy He has provided that holy angels from His presence have made known unto us His glorious Plan of Salvation so that not only we, but all our children who are yet unborn may also learn of His wondrous ways.