Just a few quick notes about today’s reading, Alma 50:
- It’s instructive that, even in a time of great peace, Moroni is preparing defenses in case of war.
- Moroni finds it comparatively easy to recruit soldiers because his preparations give them a sense of confidence. When morale is high, when confidence is justified, people want to join the army. Compare this to the problems that General George Washington was having in the early days of the American Revolution, when his troops melted away, sometimes by desertion and sometimes via failure to reenlist, while he was losing and the Continental Congress wasn’t supplying adequate support.
- In this chapter, we meet for the first time two figures who will be important in coming chapters: Teancum and Pahoran.
- Morianton wasn’t the first ambitious political leader, nor has he been the last, to be undone by his intemperance and lack of personal character and self-control.
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