38 Yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations. O how merciful is our God!
39 And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright,
40 Let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us, and has made us clean thereby.
41 And now my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords; yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.
42 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man's blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth;
43 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man's blood;
44 And this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren, they would give up their own lives;
45 And rather than take away from a brother, they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness, they would labor abundantly with their hands;
46 And thus we see that when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death, rather than commit sin:
47 And thus we see, that they buried the weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.
48 And it came to pass that their brethren the Lamanites made preparations for war, and came up to the land of Nephi for the purpose of destroying the king, and to place another in his stead, and also of destroying the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi out of the land.
