From Deseret News archives:
Millions hail the prophet
LDS pay homage to founder
Speaking from Sharon, Vt., to thousands in the church's Conference Center in Salt Lake City and more thousands in countless sites beyond, President Gordon B. Hinckley recalled the legacy of the man "whose written testimony is repeated, it is echoed and re-echoed in scores of languages throughout the world."
President Hinckley's remarks were presented from a spot next to a life-size bronze statue of Smith on the grounds of the Sharon visitors complex. The center itself was decorated for Christmas, with artists' depictions of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The current church leader's remarks closed the 90-minute program in Vermont, which occurred simultaneously and was interwoven with an observance in the Salt Lake LDS Conference Center, with a capacity 21,000-person crowd. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir provided musical numbers at the Salt Lake site.
President Hinckley said the sense of history at marking Smith's bicentennial "overwhelms me. I feel as if I am straddling the centuries," as he recounted Smith's accomplishments.
The firmness of Smith's convictions about the work he said God had given him to do including translation of the Book of Mormon stand solid two centuries after his birth, President Hinckley said. Some 130 million copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed in 77 languages, with 4 million additional copies printed each year.
"In an age of skepticism and doubt, his witness is unequivocal and certain" that God speaks to men from the heavens and restored the gospel of Jesus Christ and its priesthood to the Earth, President Hinckley said.
He and his counselors in the First Presidency, who presided in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, lauded the sweep of the faith that now numbers 12 million members worldwide some 175 years after it was organized on April 6, 1830.
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