Noted BYU in Provo, Utah, professor emeritus of philosophy and author Truman Madsen, and his wife Ann, took turns during the Nov. 13 devotional sharing first-hand testimonies and insights into the life and character Joseph Smith, former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ann started by remembering she asked her husband why he was studying Joseph Smith one day when he was in graduate school at Harvard. "I remember his reply to this moment: 'Ann, I need to know what Joseph said about the issues I'm studying.' Happily, I understood. He has never stopped," she said.
"Our family feels profound love for the Prophet Joseph Smith because of Truman," she continued, pointing out they have lived with the first-hand accounts ever since. She added she would speak for the women, and her husband for the men.
"All these first-hand witnesses came to life spiritually because Joseph Smith taught them the way to the living Christ," Truman explained. "Our focus today will be mostly on those who knew him hour by hour for a lifetime. Those who were family or like family to him. Who knew his foibles, watched his growth, and in the most intimate ways, came to know his mind and his heart."
Ann said that the Prophet's sister Catherine Smith Salisbury, told her granddaughter that "Joseph was six feet tall, athletic and fair and loved to wrestle. She said that he was not in the least snobbish but treated all he met with kindness, consideration and respect... she said that on her rare visits to Nauvoo the Prophet treated her and her family with great generosity and sent her home laden with food, money and clothing."
Ann said that the Prophet's sister Catherine Smith Salisbury, told her granddaughter that "Joseph was six feet tall, athletic and fair and loved to wrestle. She said that he was not in the least snobbish but treated all he met with kindness, consideration and respect... she said that on her rare visits to Nauvoo the Prophet treated her and her family with great generosity and sent her home laden with food, money and clothing."
She pointed out that another woman, Emmeline B. Wells, described the Prophet as "gentle and kindly, and he was always affectionate to his friends, and at times demonstrative. He was strong and ardent in his nature and valued highly the quality of sincerity in friendship."
"He was manly to an unusual degree, yet tender-hearted as a woman on occasions. In his tastes he was literary as well as spiritual, fond of the drama, of music and of poetry. A very dear friend of mine who knew the Prophet intimately... [said] that she had known him to shed tears when hearing some specially fine vocal music, particularly old-fashioned songs and ballads. With such noble characteristics it is not strange that he was so intensely beloved."
"Those who clustered around Joseph learned that he was a prophet," Truman said, "but also he taught that nothing had been made known unto him but what would be made known to even the least Saint as soon as they were prepared to receive."
He also noted the prophet was very trusting of children and youth, calling them the "glory, honor and diadem royal of woman. On the one hand he identified with them in their activities and games, so much so that Hyrum sometimes remonstrated it was beneath his dignity. On record are sleigh riding, snowball fights, baseball, footraces, and checkers, and games with words. On the other hand he taught them the most sacred of Gospel truths and sent them on crucial and sometimes life-threatening missions."
Truman explained that when older men sometimes wanted to put youth out of meetings, Joseph would say, "Leave the boys alone. Some of them may give their lives in the cause."
Concern for others was a common theme: "One day the Prophet commented on how Emma set such a generous table and a guest said, 'Why don't you eat alone at a small table like Napoleon?' Emma replied, 'Joseph is a greater man than Napoleon. He can only eat with his friends.' Joseph said, 'Emma, that is the wisest thing I ever heard you say,'" Ann said.
She added that Joseph Smith "often referred to the feelings that should exist between husbands and wives...that they should be bosom companions, the nearest and dearest objects on earth in every sense of the word. He said men must beware how they treat their wives, that they were given them for a holy purpose that the myriads of spirits that were waiting for tabernacles might have pure and healthy bodies."
Truman quoted John Taylor as saying he found "Joseph the most educated and enlightened man he ever met in America, Europe or elsewhere. He describes Joseph's eyes sparkling with animation as his grasp of the divine plan of cosmos unfolded. Joseph, as it were, put an 's' on many terms heretofore faintly understood: creations, worlds without number, priesthoods, sacred books, keys, ordinances, degrees of glory."
He added that Lorenzo Snow said the prophet also had a "healing presence, that just to shake his hand or be in his presence was to feel the Spirit of God."
"My own grandfather knew many of the persons whose recollections we have cited today," Truman said. "It is important that we come to know these things for ourselves."
What these and their associates all have in common — a cumulative and comprehensive understanding — was that all things good and beautiful will ultimately be established; that Joseph Smith was sent as he said he was to be one of the instruments that would revolutionize the whole world."