THE BOOK OF ENOS.
CHAPTER I.
BEHOLD, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father,
that he was a just man:--for he
taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord.--Aand blessed be the name of my God for
it.--
2 And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before
that I received a remission of my sins:.
3 bBehold, I went to hunt beasts
in the forests; and the words which I had often heard
my father speak, concerning eternal life, and the joy of the
saints, and the words of my father, sunk deep into my
heart.
4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto
him in mighty prayer and supplication, for mine own soul; and
all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night
came, I did still raise my voice high, that it
reached the heavens.
5 And there came a voice unto me,
saying,: Enos, thy sins are
forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.
7 And I sayeth said,:
Lord, how is it done?
8 And he sayeth said unto
me,: Because of thy faith in
Christ, whom thou hast not never
before heard nor seen. And many years passeth
away, before that he shall manifest himself in
the flesh; wherefore, go to it, thy faith hath made thee
whole.
9 Now, it came to pass that when I had heard these words, I
began to feel a desire for the welfare of my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore,
I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them.
10 And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the
Lord came into my mind again, saying,: I will visit thy brethren,
according to their diligence in keeping my commandments. I have given unto them
this land;, and it is a holy land;
and I curse it not, save it be for the cause of iniquity;
wherefore, I will visit thy brethren, according as I have said;
and their transgressions will I bring down with sorrow upon their own heads.
11 And after that I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith
began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long
strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites.
12 And it came to pass, that after I had
prayed, and labored with all dilgence, the Lord said unto
me,: I will grant unto thee
according to thy desires, because of thy faith.
13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of
him:--Tthat if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites,
should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites
should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people,
the Nephites; even if it so be, by the power of his holy arm,
that it might be brought forth, at some future
day, unto the Lamanites, that,
perhaps, they might be brought unto
salvation:--
14 fFor at the
present, our struggles strugglings were vain, in restoring them
to the true faith. And they swore in their wrath,
that, if it were possible, they would destroy our
records and us;,
and, also, all the traditions of our
fathers.
15 Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I
cried unto him continually;, for he
had said unto me,: Whatsoever
thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of
Christ, ye shall receive it.
16 And I had faith, and I did cry unto God, that he would
preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that
he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites, in his own due
time.--
17 And I, Enos, knew it would be according to the covenant which he had made;
wherefore, my soul did rest.
18 And the Lord said unto me,:
Thy fathers have also required of me this thing; and it shall be done unto
them according to their faith,; for
their faith was like unto thine.
19 And now it came to pass, that I, Enos, went about among
the people of Nephi, prophesying of things to come, and testifying of the things
which I had heard and seen.
20 And I bare bear record that
the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true
faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they
were led by their evil nature, that they became wild, and
ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people;, full of idolatry, and filthiness;
feading upon beasts of prey,;
dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness, with
a short skin girded girdle about
their loins, and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the
bow, and in the cimeter, and the
axe.--And many of them did eat nothing save it
was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us.
21 And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land, and raise
all manner of grain, and of fruit, and flocks of herds, and flocks of all manner
of cattle, of every kind, and goats, and wild goats, and also
much many horses.
22 And there were exceedingly many prophets among
us. And the people were a stiff-necked people, hard to
understand.
23 And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness,
preaching, and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and
destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of
eternity, and the judgments and the power of God;, and all these things--stirring
them up continually, to keep them in the fear of the Lord.
I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going
down speedily to destruction. And after this manner do I write concerning
them.
24 And I saw wars between the Nephites and the
Lamanites, in the course of my days.
25 And it came to pass that I began to be old, and an hundred and seventy and nine years had passed away from the time that our father Lehi left Jerusalem.
26 And as I saw that I must soon go down to my grave, having
been wrought upon by the power of God, that I must preach and
prophesy unto this people, and declare the word according to the truth,
which is in Christ. And I have declared it, in
all my days, and have rejoiced in it, above that of the
world.
27 And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my
rRedeemer; for I know that in him I
shall rest:.
aAnd I rejoice in the day when
my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before
him:; then shall I see his face with
pleasure, and he will say unto me,:
Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place
prepared for you in the mansions of my FATHERather. Amen.