My beloved brothers and sisters, this is
a humbling moment. I have been very much
touched and impressed by the singing of
this beautiful chorale, by the inspiring
and moving prayer by Brother Porter.
In fact, coming at the end of the trail,
as it were, as far as campus
activities are concerned, I seem to have
the yearning of the poets, somewhat
paraphrased:
"Backward, turn backward oh time, in thy flight.
Make me a freshman again—just for tonight."
Brothers and Sisters, I sincerely pray that the Spirit
of the Lord will be with us in rich
abundance as it has been thus far, that the
things I say may be edifying, uplifting,
and worth your coming here this morning.
There was a man who was invited to a
masquerade ball. He decided he would go
in an unusual costume, so he rented a
costume of the sectarian's idea of the
devil. As he walked to the place where
the masquerade ball was being held, rain
began to fall. He darted into the first
open door available along the street,
which happened to be the door leading
into a church. The minister was in the
pulpit, and he was haranguing his audience
against that fellow, the evil one.
He looked up from his text, and there
standing in the doorway in the foyer was
the fellow he had been talking against.
He immediately made a hurried exit right
through the plate-glass window at the
back. The audience, wondering why the
pastor had made such a hurried exit,
looked back and they saw the
devil standing there and all of his
diabolical glee. That
particular church was evacuated in
record time—all but a heavyset lady who
found it difficult to get out of the pew.
She finally made her way to the aisle
was trying to hurry down the aisle to
the exit when she fell flat on her face.
The devil, gallant fellow that he
turned out to be, came over there to help her up. 
As she looked into his diabolical face,
fear and consternation
written all over hers, she blurted out,
"I've been a member of this church for
the last thirty years, but I've really
been on your side all the time."
Well, as President George A. Smith often said, 
he knew a lot of Saints in pioneer days that served the
Lord like the very devil. The Prophet
Joseph Smith taught us how to serve the
Lord as the Lord would have us serve Him.
In fact, he said if we aren't drawing
near the Lord in principle, we are going
from him and drawing towards the devil.
There wasn't anything that was so dear
to the heart of the Prophet Joseph Smith
as friendship. How the Prophet Joseph
loved his friends! President Brigham
Young said that August day of 1844:
"Joseph's soul of this people that he
gave his life for them. He loved them
unto death. You did not know it until
after his death." As the Prophet was
leaving Nauvoo to go to Carthage, he
stopped before the temple, which was up one story,
he looked over the city that housed the
Saints that he loved, and he exclaimed,
"This is the loveliest place and the best
people under the heavens; little do they know
the trials that await them."
He could see no fault in the Church. He loved the
majority of the Church members so well
that he wanted to be resurrected with
them. He was not concerned whether they
were resurrected in heaven or in hell.
In fact, he was to say if we find ourselves
in hell, we will turn the devils out of
doors and make a heaven of it.
Wherever the Saints should be Joseph knew there
would be good society.
Joseph loved the people.
He ended a letter to a recent convert in
words something like these: "I love your
soul and the souls of all men, and do all
I can to bring them salvation."
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that
"love is one of the chief characteristics
of Deity, and ought to be manifested by
those who aspire to be sons of God. A man
filled with the love of God is not
content with blessing his family alone,
but ranges through the whole world,
anxious to bless the whole human race."
He loved the Saints, but he was not blind
to their misgivings or their
shortcomings. During the last conference
address he gave and mortality, he said,
"I love you all; but I hate some of your deeds.
"I am your best friend, and if persons
miss their mark
it is his own fault. If I reprove a man,
 and he hates me, he is a fool; for I love
all men, especially these my brethren and sisters." 
The Prophet was not too
concerned as to a man's character if he
was his friend. In fact, he said, "I will be
a friend to him and preach the Gospel...
to him...helping him out of his difficulties."
Joseph also taught, "Friendship is one of the
grand fundamental principles of
'Mormonism'; [it is designed]
to revolutionize and civilize the world,
and cause wars and contentions to cease and
men to become friends and brothers.
The spirit of and practice of friendship, my
brothers and sisters, is contagious.
Said the Prophet Joseph Smith: "It is a
time-honored adage that love begets love.
"Let us pour forth love—
show forth our kindness unto all mankind,
and the Lord will reward us with everlasting
increase; cast our bread upon the waters
and we shall receive it after many days,
increased to a hundredfold. Friendship is
like Brother Turley in his blacksmith
shop welding iron to iron; it unites the
human family with its happy influence."
The spirit of friendship is the essence
of charity, which Moroni I defined as
the pure love of Christ. Channing Pollock
once called love "friendship put to music"
and said, "I thank God for the love of
life."
Joseph taught, "I do not dwell on your faults, 
and you shall not upon mine"–
good counsel for us all.
He said,
"Charity, which is love, covereth
the multitude of sins, and I have covered
all the false among you, but the
prettiest thing in the world is to have
no faults at all. We should cultivate a 
meek, quiet, and peaceable spirit."
The Prophet Joseph Smith despised sham.
Pretense to him was folly.
Once he said, "I love that man
better who swears a stream as long as my arm,
yet deals justice to his neighbors
and mercifully deals his substance to
the poor,
then the smooth-faced hypocrite. I do not
want you to think that I'm very
righteous, for I am not. There was one
good man, and his name was Jesus."
There came to Nauvoo a Baptist priest
to determine the piety of the
Prophet Joseph. When he saw Joseph,
he folded his arms and, weighing his words, uttered,
"Is it possible that I now
flash my optics upon a prophet, upon a
man who has conversed with my Savior?"
"Yes," said the Prophet, "you've had that privilege.
Now how would you like to wrestle with me?"
During those trying days
of persecution in Missouri,
William W Phelps apostatized and turned
against the Church. He signed his name to
a false affidavit that brought much
suffering to the Saints and imprisoned
the Prophet Joseph. In a short time he
realized the error of his ways and asked
forgiveness and readmittance into the
Church. He wrote the Prophet:
"I have seen the folly of my way and tremble at the
gulf I have passed. I have done wrong,
and I am sorry.
The beam is in my own eye.
"I asked forgiveness in the name of Jesus
Christ of all the Saints. For I will do right,
God helping me.
I want your fellowship, for we are brethren,
and our communion used to be sweet."
The Prophet's reply reveals the
admirable quality of love and
forgiveness for the wayward. Wrote the
Prophet in reply to William W. Phelps's
request to be readmitted into the Church:
"I feel a disposition to act on your case
in a matter that will meet the
approbation of Jehovah, whose servant I
am, and in as much as long-suffering,
patience, and mercy have ever
characterized the dealings of our
Heavenly Father towards the humble and
penitent, I feel disposed to copy that example,
cherish the same principles,
and by so doing
be a savior to my fellow man.
Believing your confession to be real and
your repentance genuine, I shall be happy
once again to give you the right hand of
fellowship and rejoice in the returning
prodigal. Come on, dear brother,
since the war is past, for friends at
first they're friends again at last."
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, 
"Ever keeping exercise the principle of
mercy and be ready to
forgive a brother on the first
intimation of repentance and asking
forgiveness. And should we even forgive
our brother, or even our enemy, before he
repents, or ask forgiveness, our Heavenly
Father would be equally merciful to us."
Is it any wonder, my brothers and sisters,
that Joseph's contemporaries, those who
knew him best, were to comment as
President Wilford Woodruff did:
"When I look at the history of Joseph Smith,
I sometimes think that he came as near
following the footsteps of the Savior as
anyone possibly could."
To bring about peace on the earth and
the millennial reign of the Christ, the
Prophet Joseph taught that the act of
kindness must extend to the animal kingdom.
Said he, "Men must become harmless
before the brute creation, and when men
lose their vicious dispositions and
cease to destroy the animal race,
the lion and the lamb can dwell together,
and the suckling child can play with the
serpent in safety."
Someone has written:
"Be kind to all dumb animals, and give
small birds a crumb.
Be kind to human bein's too,
For they are sometimes dumb."
Joseph Smith possessed the secret of making friends.
His radiant personality, his
acceptance of man's in a goodness,
and his love for all man one for him many friends.
Josiah Quincy was to observe
that Joseph was one of two men, among all he had ever met, who seemed best endowed
with that kingly faculty
which directs, as by intrinsic right,
the feeble and confused souls who are
looking for guidance.
Parley P. Pratt described Joseph Smith as
"possessing a noble boldness,
an independence of character.
His manner was easy and familiar,
his benevolence unbounded as the ocean.
Even his most bitter enemies were generally
overcome if he could get once get their ears."
William Taylor, a brother of
President John Taylor, was a personal
companion to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
These are the words that he says in
describing that wonderful man Joseph:
"Much has been said of his geniality and
his personal magnetism. I was a witness
of this. People old or young loved him and
trusted him instinctively. I have never
known the same joy and satisfaction in
the companionship of every person—
man or woman—that I felt with him, 
the man who had
conversed with the Almighty. He was
always the most companionable and
lovable of men, cheerful, and jovial."
There was Dan Jones, a mite of a man
physically and a college graduate who
left the field of learning to become a
sailor, he sailed the five oceans and had
set foot in almost all of the ports.
He ran a seaman ship that brought
Dan Jones to the Prophet Joseph Smith. 
He ran a steamboat called The Maid of Iowa up
and down the Mississippi River.
One day he landed a boatload of Saints
at Nauvoo, and the Prophet came to
the wharf to meet him. He walked up to
the little captain, put his hand on his shoulder,
and said, "God bless this little man."
Dan Jones never forgot that benediction.
He was with his beloved Prophet in the
Carthage Jail the night before the
martyrdom when the Prophet asked,
"Brother Jones, are you afraid to die?"
Dan Jones replied, "has it come to that,
Brother Joseph? Being engaged in such a
work as we're engaged in, I don't think
death would have any terror for me."
The Prophet said, "Brother Jones, you shall
not die, but you shall go to Wales and
fulfill the mission assigned you."
After the martyrdom Dan Jones sailed for Wales,
where he performed a most
successful mission,
setting an all-time record for convert
baptisms. He testified, "I have come in
obedience to the counsel of the martyred
prophet, as a messenger of to my native
land to bear testimony of the work for
which his brother Hyrum died, and which he
sealed with his own blood."
The Prophet Joseph on one occasion was to say,
"I'm not an enemy of mankind'
I am a friend of mankind. I have
no enemies but for the gospel's sake."
The Lord promised the Prophet Joseph that he
could have anything that he desired, and
the Prophet was to say, "I have been
afraid to ask God to kill my enemies
lest some of them, perchance, repent."
During the troublesome days at Far West,
Missouri, there came to the home of the
Prophet's parents eight men from Daviess
County, Missouri, who believed the lies
circulated about Joseph Smith and the
Mormons. They had come to kill the
Mormon leader. Mother Smith greeted them
at the door and invited them to come in.
They refused to sit down;
in fact, they informed the mother of the Prophet,
"We have come to kill him."
Mother Smith was to say, "If you were to
see Joseph you would not want to kill
him."
At that particular point the Prophet
Joseph Smith entered the room, and Mother Smith
introduced the eight men to him.
They stared at him in mute silence.
The Prophet smiled, extended his hand, and
invited him to be seated. His friendly,
cordial manner convinced them that he
was neither guilty of murder nor of any
other crime. A pleasant half hour was
spent, during which time the Prophet
explained his views, his feelings, his
mission, the purpose of the Church, and
the brutal treatment he and the Saints
had so unjustly received.
He then excused himself, stating that he
must be on his way home. Immediately two
of the man sprang to their feet and
offered to escort him home as they
considered it not safe for him to travel alone.
He thanked them but did not accept
their offer. As the eight men were
leaving the house, Mother Smith overheard
their departing words. One said,
"Did you not feel strange
when Smith took you by the hand?"
Another man replied,
"I could not move. I would not harm 
a hair of that man's head for all the world."
The third one said,
"I never saw a man more harmless,
innocent appearing man than the Mormon Prophet."
"Yes, indeed," said the fourth, "that story
about him killing those men was a
lie, but they'll never fool me again."
The Savior, in his inspiring Sermon on the
Mount, taught,
"Ye have heard that it hath been said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor and
hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love
your enemies, bless them that curse you,
and do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you,
and persecute you; That ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven."
The Prophet Joseph Smith
practiced this most difficult of all the
Savior's teachings. The Prophet was
betrayed into the hands of the mob-militia
in Missouri. He was
court-martialed and sentenced to be shot.
One of the officers of the mob-militia,
Moses Wilson, came to one of the Prophet's friends,
Lyman White, and tried to bribe
him into testifying against Joseph.
He said, "We don't want to kill you, but we
have one thing against you, and that is
you are too friendly with Joseph Smith.
We believe him to be a rascal,
but you're a fine fellow. If you will swear
against him, we will spare your life
and give you any office you want. If you
won't you'll be shot at nine o'clock."
Wight looked Wilson squarely in the eye
and said, "Wilson, you have your men
entirely wrong—both in regard to myself
and to Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith is the
most philanthropic man I ever saw. He is
not your enemy;
he is a friend of mankind and a maker of
peace. In fact, he is the best friend you have,
for if it hadn't been for Joseph
Smith, you would have been in hell
long ago. I'd have put ya there myself by
cuttin' your throat, and Joseph is the
only man on the earth that could stop me
from doing it. You can just thank
Joseph for being alive."
Strangely enough, my brothers and sisters,
as Parley P. Pratt stated,
"If Joseph could get the ears of his most
devout enemies he generally made friends
of them."  Years afterward, Moses Wilson was
to say, "Joseph Smith was a most
remarkable man. I carried him a prisoner
in chains to my house in Independence,
Missouri, and he hadn't been there two
hours before my wife loved him
better than she loved me."
After being kidnapped by two sheriff's and brutally
treated by them, his life constantly being
threatened, the Prophet Joseph was
rescued by his friends. Instead of his being
escorted across the Mississippi River
into Missouri, he was brought to Nauvoo.
While in Nauvoo, the Prophet Joseph
Smith took the two sheriff's to his home,
placed them at the head of his table, and
his wife waited on him as though they
were the most honored guests that ever
graced her house. Joseph said,
"I have brought these men to Nauvoo, not as
prisoners in chains, but as prisoners of kindness.
I have treated them kindly. I have had the 
privilege of returning them good for evil."
The Prophet Joseph Smith
was quick to express his gratitude for
any little act of kindness or gift
given him. In fact, he was to say that
ingratitude was one of the most
offensive sins of his age. On one occasion
his friends gave him $64.50,
and this is what the Prophet Joseph said:
"My heart swells with gratitude
inexpressible when I realize the great
condescension of my Heavenly Father in
opening the hearts of these, my beloved brethren,
to administer so liberally to my wants."
While in the Liberty Jail he
received letters from his wife, Emma, and
other friends which certainly gave him
courage to face the loneliness of
imprisonment for Christ's sake.
Then he wrote, "One token of
friendship from any source whatever
awakens and calls into action every
sympathetic feeling."
The Lord assured his Prophet while in the Liberty Jail,
"Thy friends do stand by thee,
and they shall hail thee again with warm 
hearts and friendly hands."
When the enemies of the Prophet Joseph
were seeking his life during the Nauvoo period,
the Prophet was forced to go into hiding, 
and on one occasion some of his friends visited him.
After their departure he wrote, 
"How good and glorious it has seemed unto me
to find pure and holy friends who are
faithful, just, and true, and whose hearts
fail not and whose knees are confirmed
and do not falter. These I have met in
prosperity, and they were my friends,
and now I meet them in adversity,
and they are still my warmer friends." 
The Prophet Joseph sums up most impressively
why they were his friends:
"[First and foremost] these love the God that I serve;
[secondly] they loved the truths that I
promulgate; [thirdly] they loved those
virtuous, and those holy doctrines that I
cherish in my bosom with the warmest
feelings of my heart.
I love friendship and truth;
I love virtue and law; I love the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; and they are
my brethren, and I shall live; and because I
shall live they shall live also."
As he prayed for his friends, the still, small
voice whispered to his soul,
"These, that share your toils and with such
faithful hearts, shall reign with you in the
kingdom of their God."
What a glorious reward of friendship!
What wouldn't
one of us give to have the privilege of
being with the Prophet Joseph Smith in
the kingdom of God? While conversing with
his cousin George A. Smith on one
occasion, the Prophet wrapped his arms
around him and said with emotion,
"George A., I love you as I love my own soul!"
This left his cousin speechless. In fact,
George A. said,
"I felt so affected I could
hardly speak."
In a few moments, after
regaining his composure, he solemnly said,
"I hope, Brother Joseph, that my whole life
and actions will prove my feelings
and the depth of my affection for you."
Sectarian priests often asked concerning
Joseph, "How can this babbler get so many
followers around him and retain them?"
The Prophet answered, "It's because I
possess the principle of love. All I have
to offer the world is a good heart and a
good hand."
Joseph's love and concern for his
brethren was shown in action. Word came
to Nauvoo on one occasion of a poor man
who had lost his house by fire. Nearly all the
brethren said they were sorry for the man.
The Prophet Joseph Smith put his
hand in his pocket and pulled out a five-
dollar gold piece and said,
"I feel sorry for brother so-and-so to the amount of
five dollars. How much do you feel sorry?"
Phineas H. Young, an older brother of
the Prophet Brigham Young, was once away in
Tiffin, Ohio. While there wrote Willard Richards,
the Prophet Joseph's secretary, and said,
"I long to see the day when
I can again visit my brethren and see the
Lord's Prophet, and hear the words of
life sweetly distilling from his lips.
"Give my love to Brother Joseph when you
see him. Tell him I'd come to the Rocky
Mountains to see him and fight my way
through an army of wildcats and Missouri
wolves and live on skunks the whole journey."
Well, meeting the Prophet Joseph
was an experience, my friends,
and those who had that opportunity
never forgot. Amos M. Lyman traveled some
six hundred miles to see
the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was the only member 
of his family to join the Church.
He arrived at the John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio, and received employment working
on the farm for ten dollars a month.
Shortly after his coming, the Prophet Joseph returned
from Missouri, and young Lyman had the
opportunity of meeting him.
The impression the Prophet made on the new 
convert was stamped indelibly
upon his mind, heart, and soul through the years:
"When he grasped me by the hand in
that cordial way, known to those who
had met him and the honest simplicity of truth,
I felt as one of old in the
presence of the Lord, my strength seemed
to be gone so that it required an
effort on my part to stand on my feet;
but in all of this there was no fear,
but the serenity and peace of heaven
pervaded my soul and the still small
voice of the Spirit whispered
its living testimony in the
depths of my soul, where it has ever remained,
that he was a man of God."
Now, the climax of all the
teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith on
love and friendship:
"Until we have obtained perfect love we are
liable to fall, and when we have the
testimony that our names are sealed in
the Lamb's Book of Life we have perfect love,
and then it isn't possible for false
Christs to deceive us."
One of the most touching scenes in the life of the
Prophet Joseph (and one of the most thrilling,
for it demonstrates the
unbounded love of his followers for
their beloved Prophet) was when, in the
summer of 1843, the Prophet Joseph Smith
rode triumphantly into Nauvoo after he
had been kidnapped by a couple of sheriffs.
His friends had come to the rescue,
and he entered Nauvoo in triumph.
The Saints had been notified
the day before of his coming,
and almost all the people came
out to meet him, with his wife, Emma,
and his brother, Hyrum in the lead.
After embracing his wife and his brother Hyrum,
he mounted his favorite horse,
Old Charlie. The band struck up "Hail, Columbia,"
and the procession started in the town.
Besides a long line of carriages
and persons horseback, the streets were
lined with people whose countenance were
joyous and full of satisfaction to see
their beloved Prophet once more safe.
The Prophet was greeted with cheers from the
people and the booming of gun and canon.
At his home he was embraced by his mother,
with tears of joy streaming down her cheeks,
while his little children clung
to him with feelings of enthusiastic and
enraptured pleasure. His little son
Fred exclaimed, "Pa, the Missourians
won't take you away again, will they?"
His friends from out of town looked on with
amazement and astonishment, but with
unconcealed pleasure at the loving
attachment of the Prophet's family and
his friends toward him. His friends were
loath to depart. One can feel the
Prophet's love for his friends as he blessed them:
"I thank you for your
kindness and love for me. I bless you all,
in the name of Jesus Christ."
Josiah Quincy spent two days in Nauvoo.
He followed the Prophet Joseph around.
He noted the power and influence of the
Prophet as he walked among his people.
It was then that Quincy said,
"General Smith, it seems to me that you have too much
power to be safely trusted in one man."
Joseph replied, "In your hands,
or that of any other man, so much power
would no doubt be dangerous. I am the
only man in the world whom it would be
safe to trust with it. 
Remember, I am a prophet."
And in all the solemnity soul I testify to you that he is and was a prophet, a servant of the Most High God,
a revealer of truth, a friend a man, 
in the sacred name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
