Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/237

Rh go than when they were careless or rebellious. Some people have confused this ball, because it is called a compass, with the mariner's compass, that sailors use at sea to direct the course of their ships. But there is a great difference between the two. The Liahona pointed the way that Lehi's company should travel, while the needle in the mariner's compass points to the north. The one showed the way Lehi should go, the other informs the traveler which way he is going. The one was specially prepared by the Lord for Lehi and his companions, and was used through faith only; the other can be used by all men, whether believers in the true God, pagans or infidels. At times, also, writing would miraculously appear on the Liahona, giving directions or reproving for sin, as the company most needed.  LIB. A righteous king of the Jaredites, in whose reign the nation prospered and multiplied greatly. He was the son and successor of Kish. In the reign of a former monarch named Heth, the Lord had deeply afflicted the people, because of their sins; and among other things he had caused numbers of poisonous serpents to occupy the regions in the neighborhood of the Isthmus of Panama, and thus prevented the people from gaining access to the southern continent. In Lib's days these venomous reptiles were destroyed, and the land southward was found to be full of beasts of the forest. That country was preserved as one enormous hunting ground of the race, Lib, himself, becoming a great hunter. He also built a large city at the narrowest portion of the Isthmus, apparently for the purpose of guarding the regions south from settlement, so that it might be the source of their meat supply, for the country northward was covered with inhabitants. In this reign the people greatly developed in the arts of civilization, they prosecuted mining with much vigor, improved in the manufacture of textile 