In these days there was much peace in the land of Zarahemla. The Lord blessed the people and they became very numerous, contented and wealthy. When Benjamin was king his people appear to have all resided in and immediately around the city of Zarahemla, as the king directed his son to gather them at the temple on the morrow, and on the morrow they were all there, which would have been impossible had they lived at any great distance from headquarters. We judge that at that time the majority inhabited the city and farmed the land around. Up to this time no other city than Zarahemla is mentioned in that land, but now the people began to spread abroad, building, as the historian states, large cities and villages in all quarters of the land. We may reasonably suppose that at this epoch were founded the cities of Aaron, Ammonihah, Gideon, Manti, Melek and others mentioned in the annals of the succeeding twenty years.
Notwithstanding the great good they had done, the sons of king Mosiah were not content to confine their labors to the land of Zarahemla. They longed to carry the glad tidings of salvation to the benighted Lamanites. Ignoring the dangers and despising the pains of such a mission, they plead with their father many days for his consent for them to go to the land of Nephi. The blood-thirsty, revengeful character of the Lamanites was too well known to the king for him to think of his sons going into their midst without causing him feelings of dread and apprehension, but he had no desire to quench their holy zeal towards God and their love towards their unfortunate fellows, lest he should sin by so doing, and rob thousands of the opportunity of hearing the everlasting truths through obedience to which mankind is saved. He therefore inquired of the Lord. The answer came, Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life, and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites. With this divine assurance Mosiah consented, and shortly after, with some other missionaries, whom they had chosen, these four valiant, God-fearing youths started on their perilous mission.
CHAPTER XVIII.
MOSIAH'S SONS REFUSE THE KINGDOM—HE GRANTS THE PEOPLE A CONSTITUTION—THE PEOPLE TO ELECT THEIR RULERS—ALMA, THE YOUNGER, FIRST CHIEF JUDGE.
(MOSIAH CHAP. 29.)
MOSIAH now felt that it was time that the question of the succession to the throne should be settled. In his magnanimity he sent among the people to learn whom they would have for their king. The people chose his son Aaron, but Aaron would not accept the royal power; his heart was set upon the conversion of his fellow-men to the truths of the gospel. This refusal troubled the mind of Mosiah; he apprehended difficulties if Aaron at some future time should change his mind and demand his rights. Mosiah therefore issued another address to his much-loved subjects, as usual full of the spirit of divine wisdom and love. In it, after recounting the peculiarities of the situation, he says: Let us be wise and consider these things, for we have no right to destroy my son, neither should we have a right to destroy another, if he should be appointed in his stead. And if my son should turn again to his pride and vain things, he would recall the things which he had said and claim his right to the kingdom, which would cause him and also his people to commit much sin. * * * Therefore, I will be your king the remainder of my days; nevertheless, let us appoint judges, to judge this people according to our law, and we will newly arrange the affairs of this people; for we will appoint wise men to be judges that will judge this people according to the commandments of God.
Inspired and directed by the Lord, the king further advised many changes of the law, so that all things might be done by the voice of the whole people. These changes were gladly accepted by the people, as they gave them greater liberty and a voice in all important national affairs. As a law-maker Mosiah may be ranked among the most eminent this world has produced. We regard him in some respects as the Moses, in others as the Alfred the Great, of his age and nation. But besides being a king he was also a seer. The gift of interpreting strange tongues and languages was his. By this gift he translated from the twenty-four plates of gold, found by the people of king Limhi, the records of the Jaredites. No wonder that a man possessed of such gifts, so just and merciful in the administration of the law, so perfect in his private life, should be esteemed more than any man by his subjects, and that they waxed strong in their love towards him. As a king, he was a father to them, but as a prophet, seer and revelator he was the source whence divine wisdom flowed unto them. We must go back to the days of the antediluvian patriarchs to find the peers of these three kings (the two Mosiahs and Benjamin), when monarchs ruled by right divine, and men were prophets, priests and kings by virtue of heaven's gifts and God's will.
His sons having started on their mission to the Lamanites, Mosiah chose Alma, the younger, and gave the sacred plates and the associate holy things into his care. The elder Alma made this same son the presiding high priest of the church, and the people chose him for their first chief judge. The church, the records, the nation, all things being thus provided for, Mosiah passed away to the joys of eternity, B. C. 91. He was sixty-three years old, and he had ruled his people in righteousness thirty-three years. When he passed away no fierce convulsions wrecked the ship of state, the political atmosphere was calm, the people joyfully assumed their new responsibilities, and the first of the judges succeeded the last of the kings without causing one disturbing wave on the placid waters of the national life.