Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/190

Jesus Christ. three hours only, but during its short continuance the whole face of Nature was changed. Mountains sank, valleys rose, the sea swept over the plains, large stagnant lakes usurped the place of flourishing cities, great chasms, rents and precipices disfigured the face of the earth.

Three days of unnatural and impenetrable darkness followed the horrors of the tempest, and from the heavens the voice of the Lord was heard by the affrighted people, proclaiming in their terrified ears the destruction that had taken place.

Terrible was the catalogue of woes which that heavenly voice rehearsed. Nearly all their cities, great and small, were destroyed by flood or fire, by earthquake or hurricane. The desolation was complete, the face of the land was changed, tens of thousands, probably millions, of souls had been suddenly called to meet the reward of their sinful lives; for this destruction came upon them that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from the face of heaven, and that the blood of the prophets and saints might not come up any more in appeal unto God against them.

When the heavenly voice had finished the recital of the calamities that had befallen the land and its inhabitants, the Speaker appealed to those who yet lived to repent of their sins and return unto Him, and they should have eternal life, and revealed to them who He was. He declared unto them:

I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified His name.

I came unto my own, and my own received me not. And the Scriptures concerning my coming are fulfilled.

And as many as have received me, to them have I given to become the sons of God, and even