Wickedness Never Was Happiness

As Alma taught his son Corianton who had committed serious sin during his mission to the Zoramites he made this famous statement: “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10). For some reason I don’t think I’d ever considered the fact that of all Book of Mormon prophets, surely Alma knew this truth the best. He was speaking about something he knew not just from the Spirit but by his own experience because he had spent so many years in a life of sin. Mormon described him, before his conversion, with these words: “He became a very wicked and an idolatrous man. And he was a man of many words, and did speak much flattery to the people; therefore he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities.” Alma knew what it meant to fill his days with wickedness, and he could testify—especially after he saw the other side—that wickedness was not happiness. Surely there was some pleasure in his iniquities for some time, but it did not last. As he was awakened to his awful state before God he realized he was in “the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity.” He described it this way: “I was in the darkest abyss…. My soul was racked with eternal torment” (Mosiah 27:8, 29). Wickedness was not happiness for Alma and it never will be for us.

            This lesson from Alma reminds me of one thing my mission president used to teach: the principle of the stick. It is very simple—you can’t pick up one end of a stick without picking up the other. In other words, there are consequences associated with certain choices that simply cannot be avoided. You cannot pick up evil deeds and expect happiness too come with it; you cannot choose iniquity and have peace and the Holy Ghost be the result. This is what Alma hoped his son Corianton learned: “And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature? O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.” If you commit evil you will receive the consequences of evil with it; if you do good then ultimately good will be done unto you; if you are merciful then you will receive mercy. Alma continued, “Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again” (Alma 41:12-14). As we “pick up” the principles of righteousness, then this will naturally bring with it mercy and justice and good to us. We have the power to choose but we cannot choose the consequences that, sooner or later, always accompany those choices. You cannot pick up just one side of a stick. If we want truly to be in a “happy state” in our lives, we must pick up the other side of the stick as King Benjamin taught: “Keep the commandments of God” (Mosiah 2:41).