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Rh referred to, the riches of the world had induced stubborness and rebellion towards God, combined with the insane desire to rob, plunder and murder their fellow-men. If there ever were a people swift to do evil, they were the Nephites of that generation. In the year B. C. 26, Cezoram, the chief judge, was murdered by an unknown hand, as he sat on the judgment seat, and his son, who succeeded him, suffered in like manner within the year. The Gadianton robbers grew in strength, numerically and morally, and were actually fostered among the Nephites, while the more righteous Lamanites utterly destroyed all that they found within their borders. The one people dwindled in unbelief, the other grew in grace and in the power of God's divine Spirit.

Nephi tarried on the northern continent until the year B. C. 23, when, his teachings and his prophecies having been rejected by its inhabitants, he returned in sorrow to Zarahemla; but he found no comfort there. The Gadianton robbers filled the judgment seats, and perverted the law to their own avarice and lust. The life, the property, the liberty, the virtue of righteous men and women were counted as things of naught, their playthings or their spoil.

Nephi's house in Zarahemla was situated on one of the principal thoroughfares which led to the chief market-place. In his garden, near the highway, he built a tower, whither it was his wont to repair for prayer. On one occasion, shortly after his return from the north, he became so deeply concerned because of the iniquities of the people, that in earnest supplication to the Lord he raised his voice so high that he was heard by the passers-by in the street below. A listening crowd soon gathered, and when the prophet had ended his devotions and become aware of their presence, he commenced to teach them. His words were not sugar-coated, to adapt them to the predelictions