Where we are
Moroni 2 is three verses, and it preserves something Mormon's abridgment of 3 Nephi had passed over: the actual words Christ spoke to the twelve Nephite disciples when he gave them power to confer the Holy Ghost. At his first appearing (3 Nephi 11), the risen Lord laid his hands on the twelve and spoke privately to them — the multitude heard it not, but the disciples heard it (v. 3) — and Moroni, writing in his last days, recovers those words for us. The chapter is brief but weighty: it preserves both the authority (given by Christ himself, by the laying on of his hands) and the manner (mighty prayer to the Father in Christ's name, and the laying on of hands) of the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is one of the ordinance chapters with which Moroni closes the record, gathering up the practical pattern of the church so that a future people could administer the things of God exactly as Christ established them.
The chapter's three verses preserve: the occasion — Christ's words to the twelve as he laid his hands upon them (v. 1); the words themselves — Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, ye shall give the Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it (v. 2); and the result — on as many as they laid their hands, fell the Holy Ghost (v. 3). The pattern is exact: prayer to the Father in Christ's name, then the laying on of hands in Christ's name, then the gift.
The verses that carry the chapter are these. Verse 2 holds the whole pattern — call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer... and in my name shall ye give it. And verse 3 holds the confirmation — on as many as they laid their hands, fell the Holy Ghost. The chapter exists to preserve the words and manner by which the gift of the Holy Ghost is conferred, establishing that the ordinance is given by Christ's own authority, in Christ's own name, after the pattern Christ himself spoke to his chosen twelve.
The words of Christ to the twelve (verses 1–3)
And he called them by name, saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, ye shall give the Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it. — Moroni 2:2
The pattern Christ gives is precise, and every element matters. First, call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer — the conferral of the Holy Ghost begins not with the ordinance itself but with prayer, mighty prayer, to the Father in Christ's name. The power to give the gift is sought before it is exercised. Then, after ye have done this, the laying on of hands, and in my name shall ye give it. The whole act is done in Christ's name — the authority is his, not the disciples'; they are instruments through whom Christ gives his own Spirit. And the phrase for thus do mine apostles ties the Nephite twelve to the apostles at Jerusalem — the same ordinance, the same pattern, the same authority on both hemispheres. The gift of the Holy Ghost is not a Nephite innovation but the universal pattern Christ established for his church everywhere. Moroni preserves it so that a future people, restoring the church, would know exactly how the gift is given: by mighty prayer, by the laying on of hands, in the name of Christ, by his authority.
Now Christ spake these words unto them at the time of his first appearing; and the multitude heard it not, but the disciples heard it; and on as many as they laid their hands, fell the Holy Ghost. — Moroni 2:3
The chapter ends by confirming that the pattern works — on as many as they laid their hands, fell the Holy Ghost. The ordinance is not empty form; it conveys the actual gift, the Holy Ghost falling on those who receive it. And the detail that the multitude heard it not, but the disciples heard it preserves something tender about how Christ instructs his servants: some things are given privately to those ordained to administer them, the authority and manner of the ordinances entrusted to the leaders of the church. Moroni, recovering these private words, makes public what was once given only to the twelve — so that the whole pattern of the gift is preserved for the future church. The chapter is short, but it secures one of the central ordinances of the gospel: the gift of the Holy Ghost, given by the laying on of hands, in the name and by the authority of Christ, after the pattern he himself spoke to those he chose.
How the chapter is built
Moroni 2 is built as a preserved fragment, and its brevity is its faithfulness. Moroni does not expand or comment; he records the exact words Christ spoke, the precise pattern, and the confirming result. The architecture is documentary — occasion, words, result — exactly what a faithful record-keeper preserves when entrusting an ordinance to the future. The chapter is short because the ordinance is simple, and Moroni's task is not to embellish it but to preserve it whole, so that a future church could administer the gift of the Holy Ghost exactly as Christ established it.
The chapter is also built to recover what was hidden. The words were spoken privately — the multitude heard it not, but the disciples heard it (v. 3) — and Mormon's abridgment of 3 Nephi had not included them. Moroni, in his last days, recovers them and makes them public, so that the pattern entrusted privately to the twelve becomes the inheritance of the whole future church. The architecture is one of recovery and transmission: the private words of Christ to his chosen, preserved by the last witness for a people who would need to know exactly how the gift is given.
And the chapter is built to establish authority, not merely method. The repeated in my name (v. 2) and the tie to mine apostles locate the ordinance entirely in Christ — his name, his authority, his pattern, the same on both hemispheres. The brevity concentrates this: there is nothing here but Christ's own words and authority, the gift of the Holy Ghost grounded not in human practice but in the direct institution of the risen Lord. Moroni preserves the ordinance as Christ gave it, so that the future church might receive the Spirit by the authority and in the name of the One who alone can give it.