If We Faithfully Perform Our Callings, God Will Prosper and Protect Us
Doctrine and Covenants 9:12–14
12 For, do you not behold that I have given unto my servant Joseph sufficient strength, whereby it is made up? And neither of you have I condemned.
13 Do this thing which I have commanded you, and you shall prosper. Be faithful, and yield to no temptation.
14 Stand fast in the work wherewith I have called you, and a hair of your head shall not be lost, and you shall be lifted up at the last day. Amen.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said:
“We have no hesitancy . . . in stipulating that Joseph was, by the standards of the world, ‘not learned.’ Isaiah foresaw it (see Isaiah 29:11–12). Joseph did not have the skilled, formal tutoring [Paul] had at the feet of Gamaliel (see Acts 22:3). Emma Smith reportedly said that Joseph, at the time of the translation of the Book of Mormon, could not compose a ‘well-worded letter let alone dictating a book like the Book of Mormon . . . [which was] marvelous to me, a marvel and a wonder, as much as to anyone else.’ This obscure young man apparently paused while translating and dictating to Emma . . . concerning the ‘wall of Jerusalem,’—and said, in effect, ‘Emma, I didn’t know there was a wall around Jerusalem.’”
(“Joseph, the Seer,” Ensign, Nov. 1983, 54.)
