Whither they were going they understood not, only they knew that the Lord was leading them. Like their forefathers under Moses, when in the wilderness of Sinai, they were taught continually by the word of Jehovah and were led by his arm. With preachings and prophesyings they crossed the wilderness and passed down into the land of Zarahemla.
On the west bank of the river Sidon the people of Mosiah found a populous city of whose existence they had never before heard. Its people were a semi-civilized and irreligious race, speaking a strange language, and with many habits and customs different from those of the new comers.
The meeting must have been a perplexing one to both people. Heretofore both had considered themselves the owners of the whole continent. Now they were brought face to face, but unable to understand each other by reason of their different modes of speech. We often read in history of the irruption of an inferior or more barbarous race into the domains of one more highly civilized, but it is seldom, as in this case, that the superior race moves in a body, occupies the country, and unites with the less enlightened people. It is probable that the first feelings of the old settlers were akin to awe and dismay as they learned of the hosts of the invaders that were marching upon them; but these feelings were soon soothed and an understanding arrived at by which the two people became one nation. Though the Book of Mormon gives us no details on this point, we are forced to the conclusion that this arrangement could not have been effected without the direct interposition of heaven, by and through which both people were brought to a united purpose and common understanding.
THE JEWS LED AWAY TO CAPTIVITY.
When the Nephites began to comprehend the language of their new fellow citizens, they found that they were the descendants of a colony which had been led from Jerusalem by the hand of the Lord in the year that that city was destroyed by the king of Babylon (say B. C. 589). In that little colony was a child named Mulek: he was the only son of king Zedekiah who had escaped the fury of the Babylonish monarch. After wandering in the wilderness, they were brought across the great waters and landed in the southern portion of the North American continent, and in after years moved southward to the place where they were discovered by Mosiah and his people. At this time their king or ruler was named Zarahemla (about B. C. 200). He was a descendant of Mulek, and consequently of the tribe of Judah and of the house of David. The reason assigned for their departure from the worship of the true God, their degradation and the corruption of their language, was that their forefathers brought from their ancient home in Palestine no records or copies of the holy scriptures to guide and preserve them from error in their isolated land of adoption.
When the two races joined, it was decided that Mosiah should be the king of the united people, though the Nephites were then the less numerous. This arrangement probably grew out of the fact that though less in numbers they were the most civilized, and being worshipers of the God of Israel they would not willingly submit to be ruled by those who had no knowledge of his laws.
The education of the people of Zarahemla to the standard of the Nephites, and the work of harmonizing the two races, were not the task of an hour. It required much wisdom, patience and faith. Mosiah gave stability to the new kingdom by his own virtues and wise example, by the just laws he established, and by placing the service of the Lord before all earthly considerations. It is evident that he built a temple in the new land, as its existence is particularly mentioned in the days of his son, king Benjamin, and as the people observed the law of Moses in the matter of sacrifices and offerings, a temple would be one of the very first necessities to enable them to carry out the requirements of their religion. But to the forms, types, shadows and ceremonies of the Mosaic law were added gospel principles, with a clear and definite understanding of the coming and divine work of the Messiah, all of which is very evident in the instructions given to their subjects by Mosiah's two successors.