Looking Back at King Benjamin's Great Sermon

I'm a little sad to be finished studying King Benjamin's speech.  There are so many life-changing teachings there.  I've tried to visualize what it was like to be there, and really can't imagine it.  But we do know that the people truly repented and were born again; that they fell to the earth because they were so overcome by the Spirit; that they entered into a covenant to take Christ's name upon them.

We also know that when an exploration party returned to the land of Nephi to find the Nephites who had returned to that land, one of the first things Ammon did as he greeted King Limhi and addressed the people was to tell them about the teachings of Benjamin.

 Mosiah 8:3 And he also rehearsed unto them the last words which king Benjamin had ^ataught them, and explained them to the people of king Limhi, so that they might understand all the words which he spake.

That tells me two things.  First, the sermon was one of the major events in the time the groups were separated.  Second, Ammon had studied and pondered the sermon enough that he could rehearse and explain it to the people.  If someone asked me what our President Monson said in our last conference, I might be able to discuss it for a couple of minutes and give a few highlights, but not rehearse and explain the whole sermon.  It surely changed those people.

One more piece of evidence of the impact of the sermon.  Chapter 26 of Mosiah tells us this:

1 Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the ^awords of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did ^bnot believe the tradition of their fathers.

2 They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.

 3 And now because of their ^aunbelief they could not ^bunderstand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened.

So these of the rising generation did not believe and their hearts were hardened because they were too small at the time of the sermon to understand his words.  This tells me that for almost an entire generation, all of the people DID believe and it changed their entire lives.  That was the impact of Benjamin's great sermon.