Alma 24:6 - 24:10

Alma 24:6 Now there was not one soul among all the people who had been converted unto the Lord that would take up arms against their brethren; nay, they would not even make any preparations for war; yea, and also their king commanded them that they should not.

No one in this meeting wanted to go to war against those who might want to kill them for their beliefs. The king was against it as well as those Lamanites who had been converted to the gospel.

Far few wars if we all refused to fight in them, however, we do need to defend ourselves when attacked and we know our freedoms would be taken from us.

Alma 24:7 Now, these are the words which he said unto the people concerning the matter: I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, and to convince us of the traditions of our wicked fathers.

The king said to his people that he was so thankful for the efforts of Ammon and his companions to bring the gospel to them to convince them of the false traditions they believed in. He knew that it was God that inspired them to come to the Lamanites to change their minds concerning the Nephites and bring peace and joy of the gospel to them.

Alma 24:8 And behold, I thank my great God that he has given us a portion of his Spirit to soften our hearts, that we have opened a correspondence with these brethren, the Nephites.

In addition he was thankful that they no longer had a mind to destroy the Nephites or go to war with them, but to begin to open relations with them.

Alma 24:9 And behold, I also thank my God, that by opening this correspondence we have been convinced of our sins, and of the many murders which we have committed.

And that they were not convinced that they were in the wrong in their assessment of the motives of the Nephites and realized that they were the aggressors.

Alma 24:10 And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son.

Further more, he was extremely thankful to God that they now felt that they had been forgiven of their sins of murder and other bad things they as a people had done in the past and that he had taken from them the guilt they had experienced as they came to know of the how bad they had been. That they now knew that it was the atonement that was the reason for the removal of this guilt.