Praise To The Man

Key Takeaways

A BYU devotional collection on Joseph Smith — sixteen talks by church leaders and scholars, indexed in full below. Kyle’s marked passages cluster on inquiry as the precondition for revelation:

• The Lord teaches inquiring minds. Russell M. Nelson, quoted here: “The Lord can only teach an inquiring mind” — the collection’s throughline, and why the Joseph Smith story starts with a question rather than an answer.
• Joseph’s method with criticism. “When I have heard a story about me, I sit down and think about it and pray about it” — deliberation before response.
• Authority amid drift. “Where is the clear voice of authority on right and wrong? Divided and drifting churches supply religious philosophers but no prophets.”
• What actually matters isn’t in the news. “What are the most important things in the world today? Do not look for them in the media.”
• Christ as the meek volunteer. The Great Council framing — Jesus “the prepared but meek volunteer” when the Father described the plan.

The talk index itself is the other value here: Richard Lloyd Anderson on Paul and Joseph Smith as parallel prophets, Leonard J. Arrington on the lighter side, M. Russell Ballard on Kirtland, Hugh B. Brown’s “Profile of a Prophet”, Neal A. Maxwell’s “A Choice Seer”, David L. Paulsen on the problem of evil, and Gordon B. Hinckley’s title talk.

Connections

Books: Rough Stone Rolling and Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet — the historical treatments alongside these devotional ones. Approaching Zion on the same tradition read critically.

Concepts: Religious Intellectualism · Revelation — “the Lord can only teach an inquiring mind” is a good anchor quote for both.

People: Joseph Smith · Gordon B. Hinckley · Neal A. Maxwell · Russell M. Nelson.

• Joseph Smith — the subject of the book; the title derives from the LDS hymn celebrating him as a Prophet of the Restoration.
• Mormonism · Restoration — the doctrinal and historical context the book inhabits.

Highlights

• “Parallel Prophets: Paul and Joseph Smith” by Richard Lloyd Anderson
• “Joseph Smith and the Lighter Side” by Leonard J. Arrington
• “What Came From Kirtland” by M. Russell Ballard
• “Joseph Smith: The Chosen of God and the Friend of Man” by Ivan J. Barrett
• “The Profile of a Prophet” by Hugh B. Brown
• “Joseph Smith: The Mormon Prophet” by James A. Cullimore
• “Joseph Smith’s Christlike Attributes” by Jack H. Goaslind
• “Joseph Smith The Prophet” by David B. Haight
• “Praise to the Man” by Gordon B. Hinckley
• “A Choice Seer” by Neal A. Maxwell
• “Joseph Smith: A Revealer of Christ” by Bruce R. McConkie
• “Joseph Smith and the Problem of Evil” by David L. Paulsen
• “But For Joseph” by Katherine D. Pullins
• “Stand by My Servant Joseph” by Cecil O. Samuelson
• “Joseph Smith: Lover of the Cause of Christ” by Heidi S. Swinton
• “Where is the clear voice of authority on right and wrong? Divided and drifting churches supply religious philosophers but not prophets. Yet Latter-Day Saints testify that Joseph Smith and his successors were called to rescue a world adrift in its own conceits and problems. Such a claim can be tested by the Bible, the record of prior prophets.”
• “What are the most important things in the world today? Do not look for them in the media, for the three best historians of the first century barely mention Christianity as a disreputable superstition, and no one mentions Paul.”
• “It was in such an environment that Joseph Smith grew up. But before he went through the stage of rebellion, before the development of a guilt complex, the Lord granted to him, at the age of fourteen, that glorious First Vision. The Lord got to him, in other words, before the religions of the day were able to deaden his youthful exuberance and openness, his capacity for enjoying the mental, cultural, and physical aspects of life. He thus avoided the artificially severe, ascetic, fun-abhorring mantle that contemporary religion seemed to insist upon. He was pious, but not inhibited; earnest, but not fanatical; a warm, affectionate, and enjoyable personality — a prophet who was both serious and playful — a wonderful exemplar of the precept “Man is that he might have joy.”
• “Elder Russell Nelson recently expanded on this important principle. He said, ‘The Lord can only teach an inquiring mind.’ What an important lesson. The Lord doesn’t generally come to us — he waits for us to come to Him and ask. Then he gives us the answer. How many times have you said, ‘I have not received direction lately’ or ‘I feel a void in my life.’ Do we inquire of the Lord? Do we ask, seek, and knock as the Savior directed? As you have problems and questions in your lives, do you follow this principle? I testify to you that as your minds are opened and as you truly inquire of the Lord, he will answer you. As we humble ourselves, he will lead us by the hand and give us answers to our prayers.”
• “Joseph Smith said something like this: ‘When I have heard a story about me, I sit down and think about it and pray about it, and I ask myself the question, ‘Did I say something or was there something about my manner to give some basis for that story to start?’ And often if I think about it long enough, I realize I have done something to give that basis. And there wells up in me a forgiveness of the person who has told that story, and a resolve that I will never do that again.”
• “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.’ Never has anyone offered to do so much for so many with so few words.”
• “Elder Neal A. Maxwell, in his last visit to BYU in the spring of 2004, shed some significant light on this matter. In his comments he included our excellent faculty and generous donors, as well as you special students, in his expressions of gratitude for what has been and is being accomplished here. Listen carefully to his words: “In a way, LDS scholars at BYU and elsewhere are a little bit like the builders of the temple in Nauvoo, who worked with a trowel in one hand and a musket in the other. Today scholars building the temple of learning must also pause on occasion to defend the Kingdom. I personally think this is one of the reasons the Lord established and maintains this University. The dual role of builder and defender is unique and ongoing. I am grateful we have scholars today who can handle, as it were, both trowels and muskets.”