I knew then that we were good for another ten minutes' delay, for that great heart of his, that went out to every kinsman as well as to the little children, could not be torn away quickly from anyone claiming kinship with him.
I have visited at his home when one of his children was down sick. I have seen him come home from his work at night tired, as he naturally would be, and yet he would walk the floor for hours with that little one in his arms, petting it and loving it, encouraging it in every way with such tenderness and such a soul of pity and love as not one mother in a thousand would show.
While he was a hard-headed, successful business man, yet very few in this dispensation have been more gifted with spiritual insight than he. As we were returning from an eastern trip, some years ago, on the train just east of Green River, I saw him go out to the end of the car on the platform, and immediately return and hesitate a moment, and then sit down in the seat just ahead of me. He had just taken his seat when something went wrong with the train. A broken rail had been the means of ditching the engine and had thrown most of the cars off the track. In the sleeper we were shaken up pretty badly, but our car remained on the track.
The President immediately said to me that he had gone on the platform when he heard a voice saying, "Go in and sit down."
He came in, and I noticed him stand a moment and he seemed to hesitate, but he sat down.
He said further that as he came in and stood in the aisle he thought, "Oh, pshaw, perhaps it is only my imagination;" when he heard the voice again, "Sit down," and he immediately took his seat, and the result was as I have stated.
He, no doubt, would have been very seriously injured had he remained on the platform of that car, as the cars were all jammed up together pretty badly. He said, "I have heard that voice a good many times in my life, and I have always profited by obeying it."
On another occasion, at a function which was held in the palatial home of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. McCune, he made an extended talk to the gathering. He then said that when a certain brother who had been called to a responsible position in the Church was chosen for that position, he himself had never heard this spiritual voice more plainly and more clearly telling him what to do, than in this naming of the individual who was to be called for that certain office.
He lived in close communion with the Spirit of the Lord, and his life was so exemplary and chaste that the Lord could easily manifest himself to his servant. Truly he could say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Not every servant can hear when He speaks. But the heart of President Smith was attuned to the Celestial melodies—he could hear, and did hear.
What shall I say of the grand and glorious work that he has done in rearing the large and splendid family that he leaves behind? What a noble work for any man! Indeed no man without great nobility of soul could have accomplished it. Is not this bringing up a good family, and a large family of good citizens, good men and women, good for the Church, for the State, and for the Nation? Is not this, I say, about the most God-like piece of work that a man can do in this world? The thinking mind, who goes into this question deep enough, will see that here is the work, not only of a man, of a great man, but of a God in embryo. The whole Church can take pride in the vindication of this great principle which he had so successfully wrought out. No ordinary man could accomplish that. Happy the wife who can call him husband. Happy and blessed indeed the children who call him father. Never was man more moral and chaste and virtuous to the last fiber of his being than he. Against all forms or thoughts of licentiousness, he was set, and as immovable as a mountain. "Blessed are the pure in heart," and as he was the very purest—he shall see God.