“the Spirit of the Lord was upon him; and his face shone with exceeding luster” (Mosiah 13:5)

Mosiah 15 through Mosiah 24 of the Book of Mormon are chapters rich with the spoken word.  Chapter 15 starts out with a sermon from the prophet Abinadi, which continues until chapter 17.  In chapter 17, there is a dialogue between King Noah and Abinadi, like a trial, where they sentence him to death.  Then, in verse 15, Abinadi begins sermon-like prophesying.  Soon afterward, in Chapter 18, verse 8, Alma begins to deliver a sermon at the waters of Mormon.  In verse 12 he says a prayer, and in verse 13, he vocally carries out a baptism ordinance.  In chapter 20, Limhi, the king of the Lamanites, and Gideon, have a dialogue to settle some post-battle confusion.  In chapter 23, Alma delivers a sermon about kings.  Finally, in chapter 24 the voice of the Lord Himself is heard comforting Alma’s people, and giving instructions to Alma.

Despite there being so many voices heard in these chapters, I would really like to point out Abinadi’s rhetorical abilities displayed in his sermon to King Noah and his priests.  First off, the audience is a hostile one.  Abinadi, finding himself in chains before them, must use a highly confident, direct, commanding, and somewhat harsh tone is demonstrated in chapter 15, verse 26, where he says “But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins.”  Throughout his sermon, his tone and word choice is meant, maybe, to instill fear (of sin) into the hearts of his audience, and maybe a little bit of hope (in Christ) as well.

His sermon also uses similes, descriptive language, and metaphors in order to increase his audience’s comprehension of the atonement and its effects.  Phrases like “he shall be led…as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,” or, “Christ, who has broken the bands of death”, or, “the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ,” or even, “He is the light and the life of the world,” bring to the mind a mental image, and a simpler way of understanding how the acts of a man (who hadn’t even been born at this point) can apply so heavily to someone’s life.

Even if his sermon did not change the minds of the entire audience, Abinadi’s speaking ability, and the Spirit, brought about a mighty change in at least one of them; and the results of that are immeasurable.

Curious Traditions of Mormon Oratory

“Hello, my name is Sister Jones*, and last week the bishop texted me (called me, cornered me, etc…) to ask me to speak on faith. I really didn’t want to at first, but…” And so the intro goes. It’s an interesting phenomenon, the seemingly requisite sacrament meeting introduction. Yet I’ve never seen precedent for this unusual manner of speaking in any other forum, be it a professional presentation, a general conference sermon, or a university lecture. Despite this, it seems that a Sunday cannot pass without this perfunctory prologue.

Last month, as I sat in a church meeting, the opening speaker began her talk in this manner. That alone isn’t enough to stop me from trying to understand the message she was trying to convey, but once she threw in a smattering of “likes” and “ums” I started to check out. Try as I might, I couldn’t help but wonder if her husband would struggle with the same mannerisms.

Once she had finished speaking, her husband confidently stood up. He smiled and began straight into a story. It was one I had heard previously in general conference. And yet, he told the story in his own words, not reading from the page with his head down, as some are wont to do. There was not a hesitant or apologetic nature to his sermon, and he spoke with conviction and inflection. Perhaps it was the contrast between husband and wife, but that day I saw the importance of confidence and directness in effective speaking.

*names have been changed