![]() ![]() We held our first meeting in the restored Seventies Hall, where in the 1840s men prepared themselves, through study and through teaching one another the doctrine of the Kingdom, to go out to declare the message of the gospel to the world. The tourist season was over, and the old city was quiet and beautiful. The touch of autumn was on the land-the leaves golden, a little haze in the air, the nights cool, the days warm. Two weeks ago today I was in Nauvoo, the City of Joseph, with two of my brethren of the First Quorum of the Seventy and twelve mission presidents and their wives for a mission presidents’ seminar. And long after this man and others of his kind have gone down to silence, the name of Joseph Smith will ring with honor and love in the hearts of an ever-growing band of Latter-day Saints in an ever-increasing number of nations of the earth. It may topple a few of the weak, but it will only strengthen the strong. I do not know whether anything will come of his campaign whatever happens, it will not be significant. I am led to this subject by a letter, which I read only Friday, written by a New York evangelist who with diatribe and hate lashed out against the Prophet Joseph, calling him a wicked imposter, a fraud, a fake, and a deceiver and declaring that he was undertaking a national campaign to prove it. Perhaps I shall not say anything that is new to you, but I hope and pray that the very repetition of matters with which you may be familiar will stir within you a renewal and strengthening of your testimony. In harmony with that principle, I wish to say a few words tonight about Joseph Smith. President Lee once said that our testimonies need renewing every day. I think that all of you go through similar experiences. However, that conviction never left me entirely and it has grown stronger through the years, partly because of the challenges of those days which compelled me to read and study and make certain for myself. It is true that during the years which followed there were times when that testimony wavered somewhat, particularly in the seasons of my undergraduate university work-not at this university, but at another. I knew then, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God. In my childhood I had been taught much of him in meetings and classes in our ward as well as in our home but my experience in that stake priesthood meeting was different. They were singing of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and as they did so there came into my young heart a great surge of love for and belief in the mighty Prophet of this dispensation. ![]() Kings shall extol him, and nations revere. Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah! Together these men lifted their strong voices, some with the accents of the European lands from which they had come as converts and all singing with a great spirit of conviction and testimony: There were perhaps as many as four hundred there, for it was a very large stake. The meeting was called to order, the opening song was announced, and-as was then the custom-we all stood to sing. He walked up to the stand, and I sat on the back row, feeling a little alone and uncomfortable in that hall filled with strong men who had been ordained to the priesthood of God. I recall that we went to the Tenth Ward building in Salt Lake City. In those days these meetings were held on a week night. Many years ago when at the age of twelve I was ordained a deacon, my father, who was president of our stake, took me to my first stake priesthood meeting. I am responsible for the singing of that first song by the congregation: “Praise to the Man.” I would like to say a word or two about that great hymn from the pen of W. I seek the direction of the Holy Spirit, because I wish for nothing more than to say to you those things which will add to your faith as we are met together in a spirit of worship. Tonight you are numbered in the thousands, and we have neither hearth nor fire but I hope we can speak together as friends, and in a rather informal manner. The word connotes a small group of friends sitting about the hearth where a warm fire burns, talking with one another in an informal way. I do not know why we call them firesides. It is always an inspiration to come to these firesides. I would like to say first that it is a very genuine pleasure to be with you tonight. ![]()
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