The destruction of the Nephite people is one of the most important lessons in the Book of Mormon. Alongside the destruction of Jerusalem, which looms unseen over the entire first two books of the Book of Mormon, and the fratricidal genocidal self-destruction of the Jaredites, which acts as both prequel and sequel to the destruction of the Nephites thanks to the placement of the Book of Ether after Mormon’s own writings, these civilizational apocalypses serve as warnings about what happens to individuals, communities, and nations which abandon their covenants with God, forsake totally the commandments of God, and give in totally to the urges of the Natural Man, the Enemy of God. And at times throughout our history, members of the church have tried to capture in verse the horrors of that self-destructive moment, and the warning it should provide us today, through the eyes of its last surviving member, Moroni. The lost LDS Classics below are two just such attempts.
The first comes from the July 1836 edition of the newspaper Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, edited by Assistant President of the Church Oliver Cowdrey. Because the poem is unattributed, it may be that someone contributed it to the paper, but Cowdrey didn’t include the name or it may be that Cowdrey included a poem that he himself wrote. In either case, I chose the poem not necessarily for its perfect prose, but because of its emphasis on the brutality of the Nephite extinction. Men, women, and children are described as being strewn upon the ground in blood and gore. Moroni’s own horror and sorrow, as the last survivor, is powerfully captured in the shock and terror of being the sole surviving Nephite and final witness to the extermination of everyone and everything he has ever loved.
At the national level, the poem is a witness to what happens to a people who forsake God and His commandments. On the personal level, it is a stark warning about the decimation that abandoning our covenants brings upon our lives and the lives of those we love. Whether literal or metaphorical, sorrow, blood, and horror are the consequences of sin and our only hope for joy can be found in repentance and returning to Jesus Christ.
This second poem on the same subject comes from from over a century and a half later. Published in the September 2001 edition of the New Era magazine and written by Kara Dixon. Also talking about sorrow, this poem is more evocative of the moment that Moroni found himself in as he watches the lives of those he knows and loves being snuffed out like fires dying in the cold of night. If the previous poem is about the decimation that comes upon a people who abandon God, this poem is about the horror of being the last light in an ever increasing darkness.
Dixon’s words reminds me a great deal of what it feels like to be the last faithful member when all your friends and family have put out the watchfires of the Restored Gospel and wandered from the truth into the mists of the darkness of the world. The tears Moroni cries in this poem could easily be the tears that your or I weep for our loved ones who have lost their way and lost themselves to the darkness of Death and Hell. Likewise, her poem captures well the frustration of one who, while watching those he cares and loves be destroyed by the wickedness and evils of the world through sin and apostasy, cannot do anything but write words which feel like they accomplish nothing to help those who need it the most. I myself have felt that same sorrow whilst writing the articles on this page. So, this poem carries a great deal of pathos in that image.
Brothers and Sisters, let us remember and take warnings from Moroni and those latter-day poets and poetesses who have tried to capture the horror that he saw in order to avoid the fate of his people and that which he suffered himself.