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This devotional address entitled,

Remarks at the dedication of the Joseph F. Smith Building at Brigham Young University,

was given on September 20th of 2005 by Gordon B. Hinkley,

then president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It's a wonderful thing which we do in honoring the memory of President Joseph F. Smith

as we dedicate the magnificent new building which carries his name.

He was the sixth president of the church.

I am the 15th and I feel like a pygmy

when I think of standing in the same circle with him.

I felt to talk about him in this gathering

with the hope that each one here might profit from his life and words.

Much of what I say will be familiar to many of you, but it bears repeating.

He was the last president of the church who was personally acquainted with the prophet Joseph.

He was of course a nephew of the prophet, the son of Hiram Smith, Joseph's esteemed older brother.

Of his familiarity with the prophet, he said on one occasion, as a child I knew the prophet Joseph Smith.

As a child, I have listened to him, preach the gospel, that God had committed to his

charge and care. As a child, I was as familiar in his home, in his household, as I was familiar under my own father's roof.

I have retained the witness of the spirit that I was imbued with as a child

and that I received from my sainted mother the firm belief that

Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that he was inspired as no other man in his generation,

...