Some years ago, in Nauvoo, a gentleman in my hearing, a member of the Legislature, asked Joseph Smith how it was that he was enabled to govern so many people, and to preserve such perfect order; remarking at the same time that it was impossible for them to do it anywhere else. Mr. Smith remarked that it was very easy to do that. "How?" responded the gentleman; "to us it is very difficult." Mr. Smith replied, "I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves."
"The Organization of the Church," Millennial Star, Nov. 15, 1851, 339.
We listened with joy and
profit to the words of instruction and counsel which fell
from the inspired lips of Joseph Smith, each word carrying
to our hearts deeper . . . convictions that we were
listening to a mighty Prophet of God. And yet there was not
the slightest appearance of ostentation or conscious power
on his part; he was as free and sociable as though we had
all been his own brothers and sisters, or members of one
family. He was as unassuming as a child. . . . I saw him
rejoicing with the people, perfectly sociable and without
reserve, occasionally uttering jokes for their amusement and
moving upon the same plane with the humblest and poorest of
his friends; to him there were no strangers and by all he
was known as the Prophet and a friend of humanity.
"Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith," Juvenile Instructor, July 1, 1892, 398–99; paragraph divisions altered.
