As we drove along the miles during our recent family road trip, we listened to Hugh B. Brown's classic talk, Profile of a Prophet. In his distinctive, powerful voice, President Brown summarized the discussion he had, prior to the outbreak of World War II, with a prominent English statesman, presented in the form of a legal brief, outlining the logical reasons he believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
I had listened to this talk many times while serving as a missionary in England over 30 years ago. I was impressed then, and perhaps even more so now, by President Brown's closing statement:
Today in sacrament meeting, Ryan gave the same witness, that through personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, he knew that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. Ryan will carry that powerful witness with him to Croatia, where honest seekers of truth will respond like the English judge:"I have brought to you very briefly some of the reasons why I believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. But undergirding and overarching all that, I say to you from the very center of my heart that by the revelations of the Holy Ghost I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Although these evidences and many others that could be cited may have the effect of giving one an intellectual conviction, only by the whisperings of the Holy Spirit can one come to know the things of God. By those whisperings I say I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I thank God for that knowledge ..."
"He said, 'Mr. Brown, I wonder if your people appreciate the import of your message. Do you?' He said, 'If what you have told me is true, it is the greatest message that has come to this earth since the angels announced the birth of Christ.'"This was a judge speaking—a great statesman, an intelligent man. He threw out the challenge: 'Do you appreciate the import of what you say?' He added, 'I wish it were true. I hope it may be true. God knows it ought to be true. I would to God,' he said, and he wept as he said it, 'that some man could appear on earth and authoritatively say, 'Thus saith the Lord.''"
Let me add my witness to those expressed by Ryan and President Brown. I know, through a witness born to my spirit by the Holy Ghost, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the living God. He saw what he said he saw. He could indeed proclaim, "Thus saith the Lord."
He was an instrument in the hand of the Lord to restore the true and living Church to the earth in our time. And, we, the Dent-Dixon Zion Family, are the beneficiaries of his great service.
Love,
Dad/Mark
"We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object. . . The time is soon coming, when no man will have any peace but in Zion and her stakes."