6. Revival of Secret Organizations.--The old secret societies were revived for robbery and plunder. Early in the fourth century (320 A. D.) Ammoran, who had charge of the Nephite records, hid them up, revealing the place of their concealment only to Mormon, a lad then ten years of age, giving him a charge to go, when he was twenty-four years old, and take the plates of Nephi and record on them the things he had witnessed among the people. About the same time the three Nephite apostles disappeared from among the people; the church no longer being worthy of their administrations, the Lord took them away. All miracles, healings, and other spiritual manifestations ceased. Mormon, a historian and a {200} righteous man, remained with them, but he was forbidden to preach to them. A black pall of spiritual darkness settled over the land and the minds of the people. 7. An Attempt to Reorganize the Church.--Forty years later, after a series of disastrous wars, by which one might reasonably expect the Nephites would be humbled and brought to seek the Lord, an attempt to re-establish the church was made. Mormon received a commandment to preach repentance and baptism to the people, a commandment which he willingly obeyed; but all to no purpose. The people would not repent. They hardened their hearts against God and made themselves fit only for destruction. 8. Utter Destruction of the Nephites.--That destruction was not very remote. Towards the close of that century which witnessed the climax of their wickedness saw their destruction. By permission of the Lamanites the Nephites assembled about the hill called by them Cumorah and prepared for the last great struggle. It took place in the year 385 A. D., and resulted in the entire destruction of the Nephite people, except, perhaps, a few who fled southward. Mormon was slain, and his son, the last of the Nephites, was preserved to record the destruction and the desolation which followed it, and hid up the records of the great race which had founded kingdoms and republics upon the western hemisphere that would vie with those of Persia, Macedonia or Greece; and cities that in extent and grandeur must have equalled those of Antioch, Alexandria, Tyre or Sidon. 9. The Reign of Anarchy.--That civilization was destroyed, the empires and republics were overthrown, government was destroyed, anarchy reigned. The people, chiefly Lamanites, who survived the terrible conflict about Cumorah, broke up into tribes, each fiercely contending with the other. Cities were laid waste to crumble into shapeless heaps of ruin, with here and there a monument that defied the ravages of time and {201} proudly stood a silent witness of the greatness of the departed race which reared it. Such was the apostasy on the western hemisphere, and such the result which followed it. REVIEW. 1. For how long did the Nephite Christian church keep the faith? 2. In the third century what occurred? 3. On what were their class distinctions based?