Oh My Fair Ones

Mormon and twenty-four others survived the battle of Cumorah.  From the top of the hill, Mormon looked down upon the almost complete annihilation of his people.  He had hidden all of the Nephite records somewhere in the bowls of Cumorah, a small mountain in an earthquake and volcanic zone still riddled with caves.  The exception was the set of plates which contained his abridgment of the records and a small handful of the most precious heirlooms.  These he gave to his son, Moroni. 

The survivors knew that it was only a matter of time before their enemies would climb the hill and find them.  There was not place left to go.  Complete destruction of the Nephites as a people was the only possible outcome.  Moroni needed to leave before the dawn and somehow steal past the armies below to escape with the precious record of his father.

One of the most poignant pleas in all of holy writ was the soliloquy of Mormon as he looked  down at the devastation below from the top of Cumorah.  He wrote of his sorrow:

And it came to pass that there [more captains] who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even all my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a few who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.
 

And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried: O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.

 

O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return. And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.

 

O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy. (Mormon 6: 6-22)

 

We don't know how Mormon died, for his son, Moroni, left with the records before that occurred.  What we do know is that, like Paul, he had fought a good fight, finished [his] course, [and] kept the faith. (see 2 Timothy 4:7) 

 

I hope when my time comes, I can say the same.

 

Text copyright February 2014, Gebara Education

Pictures from www.lds.org

except

picture of the mountain taken from the plain from www.allmexicohotels.com