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On precisely the day that marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall, seventeen-year-old Joseph Smith learned of the Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni. It is appropriate that the book, destined to be the restored church’s greatest missionary and a primary sign of the gathering of Israel, would first be made known on the day that officially begins the harvest season.

On that day, 21 September 1823, Moroni showed to Joseph Smith in vision the Nephite and Lamanite civilizations and gave a brief sketch of their origin, culture, and history. He told the youthful prophet about a box buried in a hill, containing engravings on plates of gold written by ancient American prophets that gave an account of those civilizations. The angel also informed Joseph Smith of two stones fastened to a breastplate, which God had prepared to help translate the book. (See JS—H 1:27–47.)

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Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was little understood by the people of the nineteenth century and may be even more of an enigma to those who live at the end of the twentieth. “No man knows my history,” he said once. “I cannot tell it: I shall never undertake it. I don’t blame any one for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I would not have believed it myself” (History of the Church, 6:317).

Like his Master, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith was called upon to endure a certain kind of loneliness in life. This farm boy who grew to become a prophet’s prophet could bear a personal witness of the divine Redeemer, for, like Jesus, Joseph was also, to some degree at least, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (see Isa. 53:3). His life was characterized not only by persecution and suspicion, but also by an isolation known only to those who walk in the glorious rays of the noonday sun and yet must minister among others content to walk in the fading light of dusk.

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On this beautiful Easter Sunday, I have chosen to speak about the Prophet Joseph Smith, and to emphasize some lesser-known aspects of his life that further affirm his prophetic calling.

During my college studies at BYU, I was introduced to the History of the Church, an edited compilation of the writings of Joseph Smith and others. After I graduated from law school, I carefully read all seven volumes. I also pursued personal research in original records in Illinois, where the prophet Joseph lived the last five years of his life.

The man I came to know in this way was not the man I had imagined. When I was a boy, growing up in the Church, I imagined the Prophet Joseph to be old and dignified and distant. But the Joseph Smith I met in my reading and personal research was a man of the frontier—young, emotional, dynamic, and so loved and approachable by his people that they often called him “Brother Joseph.” My studies strengthened my testimony of his prophetic calling. What a remarkable man! At the same time, I could see that he was mortal and therefore subject to sin and error, pain and affliction.

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The words of William W. Phelps’s great hymn always stir me: “Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah! Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer. Blessed to open the last dispensation, Kings shall extol him, and nations revere” (“Praise to the Man,” Hymns, no. 27).

The life and ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith are indeed the substance of great things and remarkable events. They have created a legacy that will continue to increase among mankind. He was the Lord’s latter-day servant who was chosen to bear witness anew of the resurrected Christ.

To a world plagued with doubt over the actuality of the Resurrection, Joseph Smith testified unequivocally of the risen, living Christ. That testimony was spoken in many ways and under many circumstances.

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“When I study the scriptures and history, I find my interest being focused on the organization of events, the chemistry and human relationships of the individuals involved, and I marvel at the evidence of the Lord’s hands in the events that occur.

“I have always been intrigued with the account of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. I have tried to place myself many times in the position of the young Prophet Joseph Smith as this very weighty responsibility fell on his shoulders. At the time he received the plates for translation, he was still a new bridegroom, having been married just a few days over eight months. To complicate his life, his father-in-law had not been too happy about the marriage. In this situation the Prophet was entrusted with this very valuable record, which had not been given to a mortal for over 1,400 years. Just protecting the plates from the curious and from treasure seekers was a challenge in itself. Almost driven from his home near Palmyra, New York, he traveled to Harmony, Pennsylvania, his wife Emma’s hometown, where he hoped he could begin the translation. Within three months of receiving the plates, he was finally settled in his own home, where he could work in some peace.

“Between December 1827 and February 1828, he spent considerable time becoming familiar with the language of the plates and learning how to translate.”

L. Tom Perry

“All that Joseph Smith did was to preach the truth—the gospel as the Lord revealed it to him—and tell the people how to be saved, and the honest in heart ran together and gathered around him and loved him as they did their own lives”

Brigham Young, Deseret News, 10 Aug. 1864

“In 1844 Josiah Quincy (a non-member), a respected mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois. He toured the city, visited with the Saints, and interviewed the Prophet Joseph Smith. Mr. Quincy later wrote a book titled Figures of the Past and included a chapter on the Prophet with this prediction: “It is by no means improbable that some future text-book for the use of generations yet unborn will contain a question something like this: ‘What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?’ And it is by no means impossible that the answer to the interrogatory may be thus written: ‘Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.’”

–John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith: An American Prophet (1946), 3-4. Quoted by Tad R. Callister, “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration,” Ensign, June 2002, 62

“As I submit to you my testimony of Joseph Smith, I acknowledge his humanness along with his great spiritual powers. He did not claim to be divine, nor a perfect man. He claimed only to be a mortal man with human feelings and imperfections, trying honestly to fulfill the divine mission given to him. He so describes himself in recorded counsel given to some of the members of the Church who had just arrived in Nauvoo on October 29, 1842. Said the Prophet, ‘I told them I was but a man, and they must not expect me to be perfect; if they expected perfection from me, I should expect it from them; but if they would bear with my infirmities and the infirmities of the brethren, I would likewise bear with their infirmities’ (History of the Church, 5:181).”

James E. Faust

“An unusual thing happened after that great first vision. The Prophet Joseph received no additional communication for three years. However, he did not wonder, he did not question, he did not doubt the Lord. The Prophet Joseph patiently waited. The Prophet Joseph taught us the principle of patience–by example.”

Boyd K. Packer

“Ages ago in the Great Council, Jesus was the prepared but meek Volunteer. As the Father described the plan of salvation and the need for a Savior, it was Jesus who stepped forward and said humbly but courageously, ‘Here am I, send me.’ (Abr. 3:27; see also Moses 4:2.) Never has anyone offered to do so much for so many with so few words!

“It is through the Prophet Joseph Smith, whom the resurrected Jesus called, that we learn these things and so much more about Jesus–long before Bethlehem and well beyond Calvary.

“Whenever we speak of the Prophet Joseph Smith, therefore, it should be in reverent appreciation of the Lord who called him and whom Joseph served so well.”

Neal A. Maxwell

“An acquaintance said to me one day: ‘I admire your church very much. I think I could accept everything about it—except Joseph Smith.’ To which I responded: ‘That statement is a contradiction. If you accept the revelation, you must accept the revelator.’

“It is a constantly recurring mystery to me how some people speak with admiration for the Church and its work while at the same time disdaining him through whom, as a servant of the Lord, came the framework of all that the Church is, of all that it teaches, and of all that it stands for. They would pluck the fruit from the tree while cutting off the root from which it grows.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

“I bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God, ordained of God to lay the foundation of His Church and kingdom in the last dispensation and fulness of times. . . . The Prophet Joseph laid down his life for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ, and he will be crowned as a martyr in the presence of God and the Lamb. In all his testimonies to us, the power of God was visibly manifest in the Prophet Joseph.”

Wilford Woodruff