When the wicked Zoramites heard of the kind reception their injured fellow-citizens had received in Jershon they were greatly angered. They were not content to spoil them themselves, but they wanted to make them fugitives and vagabonds on the face of the whole earth. Their leader, a very wicked man, sent messages to the Ammonites, desiring them to expel the refugees, adding many threats of what would follow, should his cruel demand not be complied with. But the Ammonites were a brave people; they had already suffered unto death for the cause of God; and they were not of the stamp to desert their afflicted brethren. Rather than do so, they would again forsake their homes and find in some other region a land of peace: for we must remind our readers that the Ammonites had entered into covenant with God never again to bend the bow or draw the sword to take human life. They, therefore, withdrew to the land of Melek, and the armies of the Nephites occupied the land of Jershon. CHAPTER XXVIII. ANOTHER WAR--MORONI, THE LEADER OF THE NEPHITES--THE TACTICS OF THE LAMANITES--ZERAHEMNAH--THE BATTLE AT RIPLAH--DEFEAT OF THE LAMANITES. (ALMA CHAP. 43 AND 44.) The cause which led the Nephite armies to occupy Jershon was that the Zoramites, finding that their haughty and unjust demands would not be complied with, had excited the Lamanites to invade the territory of the Nephites. The Lamanite forces which were commanded almost entirely by Nephite apostates, on account of their fierce hatred to their former associates, marched first into the land of Antionum, where they were joined by the Zoramites. Then the whole of the invading hosts, under the command of a dissenter named Zerahemnah, advanced northward towards the land of Jershon. This was a day of peril for the Nephites. Their enemies were much more numerous than they, and were filled with a savage thirst for blood, which was especially felt against those who were of their own race and kindred who had bowed in obedience to Heaven's commands. At this juncture the Lord raised up one of the greatest heroes ever born on American soil. He was not only a military leader, but a priest and prophet, and by his inspiration and devoted courage the Nephites were for many years led to uninterrupted victory. Such was Moroni, who now, though but twenty-five years old, took the chief command of the armies of his nation.