them, but the effects of this heavenly visitation were short lived.
Laman and Lemuel were now very anxious to return to the wilderness, but Nephi would not consent. He was determined that, by the help of the Lord, he would not go back without the records. Accordingly, he resolved to make the next attempt himself; so when night came, he walked towards the city, being followed at some distance by his brothers. They do not appear to have had the courage to enter the gates, but stood without the walls, while Nephi entered the city, not knowing exactly where he should go, or what he should do, being led by the Spirit of the Lord within him. As he approached the house of Laban, he perceived a man lying on the ground in a drunken stupor. A brief examination showed him that the man was Laban. The Spirit of the Lord directed Nephi to slay Laban, for he was a robber and, at heart, a murderer. He had robbed the sons of Lehi of the property they had taken to him in their effort to exchange it for the records, and had afterwards sought their lives. But, though fully justified, Nephi shrank from taking the life of a fellow being. Never before had he shed human blood. But the Spirit of the Lord whispered to him it was better that one man should be slain than that a whole people should perish in ignorance. If Lehi's company and their descendants should go to the new land, which would afterwards be their home, without any account of the dealings of God with their forefathers, the mighty works He had done for their preservation, and the laws which He had given that they might please Him, they would gradually grow in darkness in all these respects, and by and by lose sight of their Creator, and become a wicked, degraded and unbelieving people.
Nerved by this monition, Nephi drew Laban's
