When the angel departed Alma was overcome, and dismayed and soul-stricken, he sank to the ground. When his companions gathered around him, they found he could not move, neither could he speak. Outwardly he was dead to the world; but the torments of the damned had taken hold of his soul, and in the most bitter pain and mental anguish he lay racked with the remembrance of all his past sins. The thought of standing before the bar of God to be judged for his iniquities overwhelmed him with horror. He desired to become extinct both body and soul without being brought before his Creator. Thus he continued for three days and three nights to suffer the pains of hell, which, to his racked conscience, must have seemed an eternity. When his companions found that he could neither speak nor move, they carried him to his father, and related all that had happened. Strange as it must have seemed to them, the elder Alma's heart was filled with joy and praise when he looked upon the body of his much-loved son, for he realized it was God's power that had wrought all this, and that his long-continued prayers had been answered. In his joy he gathered the people to witness the mighty manifestation of the goodness and power of Jehovah. He assembled the priests, sought their co-operation, and unitedly, in God's own way, they prayed and fasted for the stricken youth. For two days they continued their cries to heaven, at the end of which time Alma stood upon his feet and spoke. He comforted them by declaring, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord, behold I am born of the Spirit. In later years, Alma, in relating to his son Helaman the details of his conversion, thus describes the causes that led him to bear this testimony. He says: Behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world. Now as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart, O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who art in the gall of bitterness and art encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain; yea, I say unto you my son, there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as my pain. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy; yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, my soul did long to be there. From that time to the end of his mortal career, Alma labored without ceasing to bring souls to Christ, and to guide his fellow-man in the paths of salvation.