Elder Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote some years ago:
The love of John Taylor for the Prophet Joseph Smith can easily be felt in the words he wrote about him. The prophet had been martyred. John Taylor was with him at Carthage. Here are his words from what is now the 135th section for the Doctrine and Covenants:
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, than any other man that has lived in it. In the short space of twenty year’s he has brought forth the book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained too the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose the book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his words with his own blood, and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they are not separated!
You may read that as a loving tribute. But to me it is more than that; it is a statement of fact. “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that lived in it.” And the sentences that follow suggest why that could be true. Joseph translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God and was the prophet of the Restoration which began this last dispensation. That dispensation will extend to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, and—through the spirit of Elijah and the sealing power—offer the gospel to all who ever lived on the earth. By that giant step alone, reaching out to the hosts of God’s children, living and dead, the Prophet Joseph’s contribution to the human family is unique among prophets who have served the Savior on this earth.
But there’s another way to think about the Prophet Joseph’s contribution. Yes, his work will touch the lives of all who lived on the earth. That is a contribution of breadth. But how has it touched your life? That is another way to think about it: as a contribution of depth. And for you, that will matter more.
There is a danger in deciding who your favorite prophet is, just as there is in having a favorite General Authority or a favorite bishop of your ward or a favorite visiting teacher. The danger is that you may not listen to the most important messenger to you, who is always the one God sends to you now. Ezra Taft Benson said—before he became a prophet—that the most important prophet to you is the one, who is at the moment, the Lord’s prophet to you. But that is precisely why the Prophet Joseph means so much to me. He has taught me how to listen for God’s message, both to me directly and to the words of his servants. Let me tell you how that changes my life every day.
More than any other prophet, we have a clear and lengthy record from Joseph Smith of how we can communicate with God. Because of Joseph’s example and teaching, I can hear what God would have me do from a living prophet, a bishop of my ward, a home teacher, a child asking questions in my family home evening, or an impression to my mind and heart as I pray.
Your problem and mine is not to get God go speak to us; few of us have reached the point where he has been compelled to turn away from us. Our problem is to hear. The Prophet Joseph is our master example in that art. It helps to think of the process of hearing, which he exemplifies for me as being in four parts.
First, his words and example teach me what to listen for. I can illustrate that best with a true story. I was asked to visit a country in Central America where political conditions required meeting in homes rather than in chapels to worship. On my arrival, I met with local priesthood leaders. They showed statistics of attendance, of missionary baptisms, of retaining new members, and of advancements in the priesthood. On every measure they reported to me, the gospel seemed to be entering the hearts of the people better than it had in the past. And yet they had so much less of what we have come to expect and what they had come to expect of facilities and organization.
The happy anticipation I felt in the evening faded some the next morning, a Sunday, as we approached a row of tiny houses down a dirt lane. They were small, so unlike a church. My heart sank. But we approached one house, humble enough that you might call it a shack. I looked down and saw that someone had raked the dirt leading form the lane to the front door. The tines of the back and forth to make a perfect artistic pattern on the hard ground. There was a dog at the front door, shudders, but no glass or screens on the windows, and one man in a short-sleeved white shirt standing at the door to greet us.
Inside, ten or eleven people were arranged on boxes and chairs in one of the two rooms. A tiny table stood before the people in the center of the room, with one white cloth on it and another over the emblems of the sacrament. There was no piano or organ and there was no hymnbooks. The two speakers were a girl of ten and a boy of eight. The Sacrament was blessed by the only man, who was an Elder, and passed by only the one Aaronic Priesthood teacher, a young boy. The Sunday School lesson was taught without a manual except for the scriptures. and the two meetings were finished within an hour and a half. No one left when we excused ourselves to go to another meeting at another home. And when they did go, it was to visit a few who belonged to their little congregation who had not come.
I pondered, and you might, too. Why did I hear so clearly in my heart and mind the voice of God speaking to me through that little boy and girl, and from all who spoke—and nearly all spoke—in that Sunday School class? When so much was missing from that place of worship, what allowed that to happen? You would have noticed, as I did, only one striking peculiarity: everyone, as he or she spoke, even those who raised a hand to comment in the class—without exception and apparently unable to keep from doing it—bore testimony. They did not speak of the Savior; they said that they knew he had made it possible for their sins to be washed away. The did not speak about Joseph Smith ; They did not speak about Jesus Christ; they said that they knew by the power of the Holy Ghost that he was a prophet. They did not simply discuss Chasity or love of neighbor; they said that they knew God Blessed them with peace when they kept those commandments.
Because I knew what to listen for in those meetings, I heard it. Joseph Smith taught you and me what to listen for this way: “Salvation cannot come without revelation; it is in vain for anyone to minister without it. No man is a minister of Jesus Christ without being a Prophet. No man can be a minister of Jesus Christ except he has the testimony of Jesus; and this is the spirit of prophecy. Whenever salvation has been administered, it has been by testimony.” Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. and arr. Joseph Fielding Smith: [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938], p. 160.)
