The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. Kirtland, OH: P. P. Pratt and J. Goodson; printed by O. Cowdery & Co., 1837. iii–vi, 7–619 pp., plus two additional pp. The copy used herein is held at CHL. Includes signature marks.
all the land, among all the people of Nephi; yea, the cry of widows mourning for their husbands, and also of fathers mourning for their sons, and the daughter for the brother; yea, the brother for the father: and thus the cry of mourning was heard among every one of them: mourning for their kindred who had been slain. And now surely this was a sorrowful day; yea, a time of solemnity, and a time of much fasting and prayer: and thus endeth the fifteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi; and this is the account of Ammon and his brethren, their journeyings in the land of Nephi, their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy, and the reception and safety of the brethren in the land of Jershon. And now may the Lord, the Redeemer of all men, bless their souls forever. And this is the account of the wars and contentions among the Nephites, and also the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites; and the fifteenth year of the reign of the judges is ended; and from the first year to the fifteenth, has brought to pass the destruction of many thousand lives; yea, it has brought to pass an awful scene of bloodshed; and the bodies of many thousands are laid low in the earth, while the bodies of many thousands are mouldering in heaps upon the face of the earth; yea, and many thousands are mourning for the loss of their kindred, because they have reason to fear, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are consigned to a state of endless wo; while many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of never ending happiness: and thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and transgression, and the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men; and thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing: sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life. O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people; yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, [p. 320]