In these verses Mormon relates that when he was but fifteen years of age (about 326 A.D.), the Lord visited him, and he tasted of the "goodness of Jesus" in, we may imagine, a spiritual feast served as it were upon the Table of our Lord wherein he ate and drank of God's Holy Word. We can conceive the sweetness thereof. (See, I Nephi 8:11) For as a result of this marvelous outpouring of the Spirit, Mormon was anxious in the Work of the Lord. With a clarion voice he wanted to cry unto the people, "Repent ye, repent ye," but the Spirit restrained him; "My mouth," he says, "was shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them...."
It is recorded of this generation (the third after Christ), "They did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel against the Gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers." (IV Nephi 38) Mormon says of them, "They had wilfully rebelled against their God." We repeat a comment we made on this subject beforehand: "Amos, the son of Amos, and the grandson of Nephi, the Disciple, was the keeper of the Sacred Record during this period of Nephite history. He himself was a righteous man, but he witnessed an ever-increasing flood of iniquity break over the land. A phase of evil-doing that arose not from ignorance and false tradition, but from direct and wilfull rebellion against God, and apostasy from His laws. The wholesome checks to vice and misery found in the Plan of Salvation were knowingly done away with, or intentionally removed; the voice of reason was disregarded; the promptings of the Holy Spirit were defiantly repelled; man's unbridled passions again bore sway; disunion, dissension, violence, hatred, distress, dismay, bloodshed and havoc, spread the wide continents over; and from their high pinnacle of righteousness, peace, happiness, refinement, social advantage, etc., the people were hurled once more into an abyss of misery and barbarism, now more profound, more torturing, and more degrading than ever."
“I Did Endeavor to Preach Unto This People but My Mouth Was Shut”
In these verses Mormon relates that when he was but fifteen years of age (about 326 A.D.), the Lord visited him, and he tasted of the "goodness of Jesus" in, we may imagine, a spiritual feast served as it were upon the Table of our Lord wherein he ate and drank of God's Holy Word. We can conceive the sweetness thereof. (See, I Nephi 8:11) For as a result of this marvelous outpouring of the Spirit, Mormon was anxious in the Work of the Lord. With a clarion voice he wanted to cry unto the people, "Repent ye, repent ye," but the Spirit restrained him; "My mouth," he says, "was shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them...."
It is recorded of this generation (the third after Christ), "They did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel against the Gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers." (IV Nephi 38) Mormon says of them, "They had wilfully rebelled against their God." We repeat a comment we made on this subject beforehand: "Amos, the son of Amos, and the grandson of Nephi, the Disciple, was the keeper of the Sacred Record during this period of Nephite history. He himself was a righteous man, but he witnessed an ever-increasing flood of iniquity break over the land. A phase of evil-doing that arose not from ignorance and false tradition, but from direct and wilfull rebellion against God, and apostasy from His laws. The wholesome checks to vice and misery found in the Plan of Salvation were knowingly done away with, or intentionally removed; the voice of reason was disregarded; the promptings of the Holy Spirit were defiantly repelled; man's unbridled passions again bore sway; disunion, dissension, violence, hatred, distress, dismay, bloodshed and havoc, spread the wide continents over; and from their high pinnacle of righteousness, peace, happiness, refinement, social advantage, etc., the people were hurled once more into an abyss of misery and barbarism, now more profound, more torturing, and more degrading than ever."