Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/123

labored zealously in proclaiming His word. Theirs was a most happy task, for all the people heeded their sayings; and in a short time every soul on both continents had accepted the message they bore. It was now their joy to lead the people upward in all the laws of the everlasting Gospel, bringing them nearer to heaven and to God, each succeeding day. In this glorious ministry, and with these delightful and most peaceful surroundings, nine continued to labor until they passed away to the realms of the blessed. The other three continued their Godlike labors, year after year, until a change began to come over the spirit of the people. Little by little they lost their first love; little by little, but ever at increasing rate, iniquity grew in their midst. By and by, schismatic churches arose, dissenting sects multiplied, infidels abounded. As the decades rolled by, the people waxed greatly in iniquity and in impurity of life. After a time they began to persecute the more faithful and humble, even the three Disciples were not spared from their malignant hate. They were shut up in prison, but the prisons were rent in twain by the power of God; they were cast into fiery furnaces, but the flames burned them not; they were thrown into dens of wild beasts, but they played with the savage inmates as a child does with a lamb, and received no harm. Death had no power over them; swords would not slay them; fire would not burn them; prisons could not hold them; chains could not bind them; the grave could not entomb them; the earth would not conceal them, for they had passed through a glorious change which freed them from earthly pain, suffering and death. The age in which they ministered was a peculiar one. Under ordinary circumstances, the superhuman powers shown by them would have brought the wicked to repentance. But the happy age of peace and innocence that had followed the Savior's