hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you. And behold instead of gathering you, except ye will repent, behold he shall scatter you forth that ye shall become meat for dogs and wild beasts. Oh! how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you? But behold, it is to get gain, to be praised of men; yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world, for the which ye do murder, and plunder, and steal, and bear false witness against your neighbour, and do all manner of iniquity; and for this cause wo shall come unto you except ye shall repent. For if ye will not repent, behold this great city, and also all those great cities which are round about, which are in the land of our possession, shall be taken away, that ye shall have no place in them; for behold, the Lord will not grant unto you strength, as he has hitherto done, to withstand against your enemies; for behold, thus saith the Lord, I will not shew unto the wicked of my strength, to one more than the other, save it be unto those who repent of their sins, and hearken unto my words; now therefore I would that ye should behold, my brethren, that it shall be better for the Lamanites than for you, except ye shall repent; for behold they are more righteous than you, for they have not sinned against that great knowledge which ye have received; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them; yea he will lengthen out their days and increase their seed, even when thou shalt be utterly destroyed, except thou shalt repent; yea, wo be unto you because of that great abomination which has come among you; and ye have united yourselves unto it; yea, to that secret band which was established by Gadianton; yea, wo shall come unto you because of that pride which ye have suffered to enter your hearts, which has lifted you up beyond that which is good because of your exceeding great riches; yea, wo be unto you because of your wickedness and abominations. And except ye repent ye shall perish; yea, even your lands shall be taken from you, and ye shall be destroyed from off the face of the earth. Behold now I do not say that these things shall be, of myself, because it is not of myself that I know these things, but behold I know that these things are true, because the Lord God has made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be.

3. And now it came to pass that when Nephi had said these words, behold there were men who were judges, who also

belonged to the secret band of Gadianton, and they were angry, and they cried out against him, saying unto the people, why do ye not seize upon this man and bring him forth that he may be condemned according to the crime which he has done? Why seest this man, and hearest him revile against this people and against our law? for behold, Nephi had spoken unto them concerning the corruptness of their law; yea, many things did Nephi speak which cannot be written; and nothing did he speak which was contrary to the commandments of God. And those judges were angry with him because he spake plain unto them concerning their secret works of darkness; nevertheless they durst not lay their own hands upon him, for they feared the people lest they should cry out against them; therefore they did cry unto the people, saying, why do you suffer this man to revile against us? For behold he doth condemn all this people, even unto destruction; yea, and also that these our great cities shall be taken from us, that we shall have no place in them. And now we know that this is impossible, for behold we are powerful, and our cities great, therefore our enemies can have no power over us.

4. And it came to pass that thus they did stir up the people to anger against Nephi, and raised contentions among them; for there were some who did cry out, let this man alone, for he is a good man, and those things which he saith will surely come to pass except we repent; yea, behold all the judgments will come upon us which he has testified unto us; for we know that he has testified aright unto us concerning our iniquities. And behold they are many, and he knoweth as well all things which shall befall us as he knoweth of our iniquities; yea, and behold if he had not been a prophet, he could not have testified concerning those things. And it came to pass that those people who sought to destroy Nephi, were compelled because of their fear, that they did not lay their hands on him; therefore he began again to speak unto them, seeing that he had gained favour in the eyes of some, insomuch that the remainder of them did fear; therefore he was constrained to speak more unto them saying, behold my brethren, have ye not read that God gave power unto one man, even Moses, to smite upon the waters of the Red Sea, and they parted hither and thither, insomuch that the Israelites, who were our fathers, came through upon dry ground, and the waters closed upon the armies of the Egyptians and swallowed them up?

5. And now behold, if God gave unto this man such power

then why should ye dispute among yourselves, and say that he hath given unto me no power whereby I may know concerning the judgments that shall come upon you except ye repent? But, behold, ye not only deny my words, but ye also deny all the words which hath been spoken by our fathers, and also the words which were spoken by this man, Moses, who had such great power given unto him; yea, the words which he hath spoken concerning the coming of the Messiah. Yea, did he not bear record, that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come. And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so, as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal.

6. And now behold, Moses did not only testify of these things, but also all the holy prophets, from his days, even to the days of Abraham. Yea, and behold, Abraham saw of his coming, and was filled with gladness and did rejoice. Yea, and behold I say unto you, that Abraham not only knew of these things, but there were many before the days of Abraham who were called by the order of God; yea, even after the order of his Son; and this that it should be shewn unto the people a great many thousand years before his coming, that even redemption should come unto them. And now I would that ye should know, that even since the days of Abraham, there have been many prophets that have testified these things; yea, behold, the prophet Zenos did testify boldly; for the which he was slain. And behold, also Zenoch, and also Ezias, and also Isaiah, and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah being that same prophet who testified of the destruction of Jerusalem.) And now we know that Jerusalem was destroyed according to the words of Jeremiah. O then why not the Son of God come, according to his prophecy? And now will you dispute that Jerusalem was destroyed? Will ye say that the sons of Zedekiah were not slain, all except it were Mulek? Yea, and do ye not behold that the seed of Zedekiah are with us, and they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem? But behold, this is not all. Our father Lehi was driven out of Jerusalem because he testified of these things. Nephi also testified of these things, and also almost all of our fathers, even down to this time; yea, they have testified of the coming of Christ, and have looked forward, and have rejoiced in his day which is to come. And behold, he is God, and he is with them, and he did manifest himself unto them, that they were redeemed

by him; and they gave unto him glory, because of that which is to come. And now seeing ye know these things, and cannot deny them, except ye shall lie, therefore in this ye have sinned, for ye have rejected all these things, notwithstanding so many evidences which ye have received; yea, even ye have received all things, both things in heaven, and all things which are in the earth, as a witness that they are true. But behold, ye have rejected the truth, and rebelled against your holy God; and even at this time, instead of laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where nothing doth corrupt, and where nothing can come which is unclean, ye are heaping up for yourselves wrath against the day of judgment; yea, even at this time ye are ripening, because of your murders, and your fornication and wickedness, for everlasting destruction; yea, and except ye repent, it will come unto you soon; yea, behold it is now even at your doors; yea, go ye unto the judgment seat, and search; and behold, your Judge is murdered, and he lieth in his blood; and he hath been murdered by his brother, who seeketh to sit in the judgment seat. And behold, they both belong to your secret band, whose author is Gadianton and the evil one who seeketh to destroy the souls of men.

7. Behold now it came to pass that when Nephi had spoken these words, certain men who were among them ran to the judgment seat; yea, even there were five who went; and they said among themselves, as they went, behold, now we will know of a surety, whether this man be a prophet, and God hath commanded him to prophesy such marvellous things unto us. Behold, we do not believe that he hath; yea, we do not believe that he is a prophet; nevertheless, if this thing which he has said concerning the Chief Judge be true, that he be dead, then will we believe that the other words which he has spoken are true. And it came to pass that they ran in their might, and came in unto the judgment seat; and behold the Chief Judge had fallen to the earth, and did lie in his blood. And now behold, when they saw this, they were astonished exceedingly, insomuch that they fell to the earth; for they had not believed the words which Nephi had spoken concerning the Chief Judge; but now when they saw they believed, and fear came upon them, lest all the judgments which Nephi had spoken should come upon the people; therefore they did quake, and had fallen to the earth. Now immediately when the Judge had been murdered; he being stabbed by his brother by a garb of secrecy; and he fled, and the servants ran and told the peo

ple, raising the cry of murder among them. And behold the people did gather themselves together unto the place of the judgment seat; and behold, to their astonishment they saw those five men who had fallen to the earth. And now behold, the people knew nothing concerning the multitude who had gathered together at the garden of Nephi; therefore they said among themselves, these men are they who have murdered the Judge, and God has smitten them that they could not flee from us.

8. And it came to pass that they laid hold on them, and bound them, and cast them into prison. And there was a proclamation sent abroad that the Judge was slain, and that the murderers had been taken, and were cast into prison. And it came to pass that on the morrow, the people did assemble themselves together to mourn and to fast, at the burial of the great Chief Judge, who had been slain. And thus were also those judges who were at the garden of Nephi, and heard his words, were also gathered together at the burial.

9. And it came to pass that they inquired among the people, saying, where are the five who were sent to inquire concerning the Chief Judge whether he was dead? And they answered and said, concerning this five whom ye say ye have sent, we know not; but there are five who are the murderers, whom we have cast into prison. And it came to pass that the judges desired that they should be brought; and they were brought, and behold they were the five who were sent; and behold the judges inquired of them to know concerning the matter, and they told them all they had done, saying, we ran and came to the place of the judgment, and when we saw all things, even as Nephi had testified, we were astonished, insomuch that we fell to the earth; and when we were recovered from our astonishment, behold they cast us into prison. Now as for the murder of this man, we know not who has done it, and only this much we know, we ran and came according as ye desired, and behold he was dead according to the words of Nephi.

10. And now it came to pass, that the judges did expound the matter unto the people, and did cry out against Nephi, saying, behold we know that this Nephi must have agreed with some one to slay the Judge, and then he might declare unto us, that he might convert us unto his faith, that he might raise himself to be a great man, chosen of God, and a prophet; and now behold we will detect this man, and he shall confess his fault and make known unto us the true mur