We sometimes glide over these words, but they are beautiful. These phrases may puzzle and inspire us. Alma said that as this seed begins to “swell … it beginneth to enlarge my soul” (32:28). Have you felt the gospel enlarging your soul? And how is that manifested? And is your soul still being enlarged from day to day?
When we accept the gospel and understand it, how does it taste? Alma tried to describe it in verse 28: “it is delicious to me.” He even described this fruit in terms of light, “After ye have tasted this light” (Alma 32:35). Alma is weaving together many different images—delicious taste, clear light. In a way, his use of this analogy is reminiscent of the Savior’s use of details in His parables.
Alma said, “Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart” (Alma 32:28). Things tend to crowd out the gospel, and we need to give it an unmistakable position. It will shrivel if we discard it off in some nethermost part of our lives; we need to give it a well-defined and ample place.
Giving the word a place in our hearts, also implies that we must give it prominence. In a similar way, Deuteronomy 12 speaks repeatedly of given the holy name of God “a place” where it could dwell, namely the temple in Jerusalem, and required that His people love him with all their hearts, mights, and strength. All that speaks volumes about prominence. If we love other things too much, or if we are getting too involved in things that take us away from the gospel, it will lose prominence. We cannot forget to nourish it properly, or else the seed will begin to wither. This is a dynamic process, as we help the tree to continue to grow and continue to bear fruit. Compare Alma’s words here with Zenos’s parable of the olive tree in Jacob 5, which speaks often of giving “place” (Jacob 5:13), and of nourishing “the root” (e.g. Jacob 5:18), preserving the tree and yielding fruit (Alma is well aware of Zenos’s biologically authentic allegory! And indeed, he will quote another text from Zenos farther down this speech, in 33:3–14.). We cannot just plant the seed once and then hope it will grow: “But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out.” (Alma 32:38).
As the seed begins to swell, Alma told them, it will “enlarge your soul” (32:28). This is the litmus test for how we can tell whether something is really good or not. We have to give it some space. Give it a try, and if it enlarges your soul, we know it to be a good seed.
Book of Mormon Central, “Why Did Alma Use Creation Imagery in His Sermon on Faith? (Alma 32:40),” KnoWhy 140 (July 11, 2016).