In the last Chapter we noted that when Alma and his companions reached the principal city of the Zoramites, they lost no time, nor did they leave a thing undone that would hasten the return to the right path those of their brethren who had been led astray. They began their labors by entering into the Zoramites' synagogues to declare the divine message they bore, "and also into their houses, and even they did preach in their streets."
It was not long, but, however, not without great effort on their part, until the labors of the missionaries, acting as husbandmen in the stony soil of this part of the Lord's Vineyard, began to bear much fruit.
As unfailing is the case, Satan's plan in ensnaring the Zoramites was to implant disunion and discord in their hearts. One of his favorite devices is not only to stir up rebellion among his servants, but to infuse those who would do his bidding with a sense of superiority over their co-laborers. Thus he creates class distinction among those who serve him. The rich and the poor are with him as tools with which he carves out the pattern of every apostate movement. First he instills ambition into the hearts of men; they seek unrighteous dominion and conquest, and with flattering words would make followers of the weak and unwary. How often this course was followed by many Nephites. Strife, contention, and angry passions, were the legitimate children of their way of life. Among the Zoramites, the rich "esteemed the poor as filthiness" and had no truck with them. Because of the coarse clothing worn by the poor, the rich cast them out of their places of worship, and refused them any kind of communion as brethren. The Sacred Record says "therefore they were poor as to the things of the world; and also they were poor in heart."