Alma 5:26

Alma 5:26 — Full Text

"And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"

Spoken by Alma the Younger in his extended sermon to the church in Zarahemla, this verse is the emotional and diagnostic center of one of the most searching discourses in all of scripture — a chapter that asks more than forty questions to provoke honest spiritual self-examination.

Understanding Alma 5:26

Alma does something unusual in this verse: he acknowledges that his audience likely has had real spiritual experiences. He does not question whether they were ever converted. He assumes they were — they have experienced a change of heart, they have felt the joy he calls "the song of redeeming love." The past experience is granted. The question is about the present.

"Can ye feel so now?" is one of the most direct and penetrating questions in all of scripture. It is not asking about doctrine, behavior, or church attendance. It is asking about the interior state of your heart today. Can you access the spiritual reality of your conversion right now? Does it live in you currently, or has it become a memory you reference without actually inhabiting?

"The song of redeeming love" is a vivid phrase. It evokes something spontaneous, joy-filled, and personal — not a formal recitation of theological positions but the experience of having been loved and rescued by God. To "sing" it implies that it is welling up from inside, that it has not been suppressed or forgotten. Alma is asking whether that experience of rescue and gratitude is still live and active in his listeners.

The verse is not designed to produce guilt but to produce honest attention. If the answer is "yes, I can feel it now" — that is information for gratitude and continued cultivation. If the answer is "no, not really" — that is equally valuable information, pointing toward the specific spiritual practices and choices that have allowed the experience to dim. Neither answer ends the conversation. Both answers begin something.

What was happening in the story

Alma is addressing the church in Zarahemla — not unbelievers, not enemies, not the unconverted. He is talking to his own people, many of whom had grown up in the church and experienced genuine spiritual life. And he is concerned. The church in Zarahemla has grown prosperous. The people are comfortable. The external dangers that once kept spiritual life urgent are temporarily absent. And Alma knows what comfort does to spiritual vitality: it softens it, quiets it, allows it to drift without anyone particularly intending to let it.

His own story is the backdrop. Alma was dramatically converted — knocked from his horse, as the account goes, and brought to the edge of spiritual agony before experiencing a transforming rescue by Christ. He knows what genuine conversion feels like from the inside. He knows the "song of redeeming love" intimately — he sang it at the moment of his own transformation. And he knows that the memory of that experience is not the same as living in its ongoing reality.

The chapter (Alma 5) builds toward verse 26 through a series of increasingly pointed questions. By the time Alma arrives at "can ye feel so now?", his audience has already been asked about their image before God, whether they have been spiritually born, whether they have shed their sins, whether their garments are clean. The verse is the distillation of all those questions into a single diagnostic: whatever your past answers, what is true right now?

Theological significance

Alma 5:26 establishes a principle that runs through all of scripture: conversion is not a permanent achievement but a present reality that requires ongoing renewal. The great danger for established covenant people is not dramatic apostasy but quiet drift — the slow dimming of spiritual vitality as the urgency of early conversion gives way to the comfortable routines of practiced religion.

The verse implies that the spiritual life has a temperature — it can be genuinely alive and warm, or it can cool and grow dull without any single dramatic failure. Alma is providing a thermometer. "Can ye feel so now?" measures the temperature of the heart today. Regular use of this question as a spiritual self-check is one of the most productive habits of ongoing discipleship.

There is also a message here about what genuine conversion produces. The "song of redeeming love" — joy, gratitude, a felt sense of having been rescued by God — is not a one-time emotional event. It is a spring that should keep running. When it goes dry, that is not normal spiritual maturity. It is a sign that something upstream needs attention.

Living Alma 5:26

• Make "can ye feel so now?" a regular check-in. Use this question weekly — perhaps on the Sabbath, or in monthly fasting, or in personal prayer. Not as a guilt-producing inquisition but as an honest spiritual inventory. The answer tells you something real about the current state of your discipleship.
• Identify what has cooled the temperature. If the honest answer to "can ye feel so now?" is "not really," the follow-up question is "why not?" Common culprits: decreased prayer, scripture study that has become mechanical, unresolved sin, spiritual isolation, or the simple anesthesia of comfortable prosperity. Name the specific thing and address it specifically.
• Return to the moment of conversion. Recall — in writing if possible — the specific experiences when you felt the "song of redeeming love" most clearly. What were the conditions? What were you doing? What did God feel like in that moment? Those memories are not just nostalgia — they are data about how your spiritual life comes alive, and you can recreate those conditions intentionally.
• Do not settle for institutional religion when personal faith is what the verse requires. You can attend every meeting, fulfill every calling, and recite every doctrine correctly while the answer to "can ye feel so now?" is quietly no. Alma is asking about the interior, not the exterior.

Related scriptures

Reflection questions

1. Alma assumes his audience has had genuine spiritual experiences. He is not questioning whether they were ever converted — he is asking about right now. What is honest answer to "can ye feel so now?" for you today? Not a theological affirmation, but a real felt-sense answer.
2. The "song of redeeming love" implies something spontaneous and joyful — not a duty but an overflow. When did you last feel that overflow? What were the conditions? What happened between then and now?
3. Alma is warning against the anesthesia of comfort and prosperity. What in your current life is most likely to quietly cool your spiritual temperature without you noticing? How would you know if it was happening?
4. This sermon was delivered to people who were already members of the church, fulfilling their responsibilities. What does that tell you about the limits of institutional participation as a measure of genuine spiritual vitality?

Common questions about Alma 5:26