Chapter I: A Great Possibility

"It is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the
use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something
like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has
exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his
countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to
that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon
Prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men
now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants.
History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as
this. The man who established a religion in this age of free
debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds of thousands as
a direct emissary from the Most High--such a rare human being is
not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory
epithets."

Reading that passage a few days ago, I asked the question: Is this rather remarkable semi-prediction of Quincy's in the way of fulfillment? Tomorrow will be the one hundred and second anniversary of our Prophet's birth. It is more than one hundred years since he came to earth, and sixty-three years since he departed from it. What evidence is there before the world that would lead any serious-minded person to believe that this prediction I have read in your hearing may find fulfillment? "Certainly," men will begin to say, "enough time has elapsed to develop the character of your Prophet's work; whether he built of wood, hay, stubble, or of gold or precious stones. Is his influence to be merely transient and local or did he really deal with some universal and permanent truths that must remain to influence mankind?"