Then Jesus with his finger touched the nine who were to die, but the three who were to live he did not touch; and then he departed. And behold, the heavens were opened, and the three were caught up into heaven, and saw unspeakable things.
And it was forbidden them that they should utter, neither was it given unto them power that they could utter, the things which they saw and heard;
The sacred record gives no information as to who the three were who were not to taste of death. Mormon was about to write their names, but the Lord forbade him.
Some have supposed that Nephi, the senior of the disciples, was one of these three undying ones, who remained to minister on the earth to the people of the latter days; that is hid from our knowledge, no doubt for a wise purpose. If he was, he lived through that most happy era of Nephite history, when all was righteousness, and joy, and peace throughout America's vast domain; he lived to suffer, with his two brethren, all the persecutions which the wicked, in later days, so frequently imposed upon these three favored servants of the Lord, and in the end he retired from the midst of mankind when overwhelming corruption again paralyzed the life of the Nephite nation. If he was one of the nine who passed away to the presence of their Savior and their God after they had dwelt three score and twelve years in mortality he must have laid aside his earthly tabernacle under as happy circumstances as ever prophet or apostle died, surrounded by a loving, faithful people, amongst whom the practice of iniquity was a remembrance of the past. No ruffian hands cut short his life, or tortured his latest hours, but in the midst of the most holy peace he passed away to the glories of the eternal world.
CHAPTER XLIX.
THE LONG CONTINUED ERA OF PEACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS—DEATH OF NEPHI—HIS SON AMOS—AMOS THE SECOND.
(IV. NEPHI.)
WHEN Jesus left the Nephites to the care of his disciples he had so thoroughly filled the people with the influences and powers of the eternal worlds that evil utterly ceased in their midst; they were united in all things temporal and spiritual. Universal peace prevailed. Love, joy, harmony, everything desirable to make the life of man a perfect condition of unalloyed, holy happiness reigned supreme. Indeed, it may be said that a type, a foreshadowing of the millennium for once found place and foothold among the erring sons of humanity.
At this blessed period Nephi, the son of Nephi, received the sacred plates. His duty, as the recorder of the doings of his people, was a most happy one; he had nothing but good to relate of their lives and actions, and to record that perfect peace prevailed on all the vast continent. The Nephites increased in numbers (Lamanites there were none), they prospered in circumstances, they grew in material wealth, all of which was held in common, according to the order of God. They colonized and spread far abroad; they rebuilt their ancient capital and many other cities; they also founded many new ones. Above all, they were rich in heavenly treasures; the Holy Spirit reigned in every heart and illumined every soul.