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The intelligent, college-educated Lorenzo Snow (1814-1901) — higher learning was a rarity in early nineteenth-century America — recalled seeing Joseph Smith for the first time: “I made a critical examination as to his appearance, his dress, and his manner as I heard him speak,” Snow said.
He was only twenty-five years of age and was not, at that time, what would be called a fluent speaker. His remarks were confined principally to his own experiences, especially the visitation of the angel, giving a strong and powerful testimony in regard to these marvelous manifestations. He simply bore his testimony to what the Lord had manifested to him, to the dispensation of the gospel which had been committed to him, and to the authority that he possessed. At first he seemed a little diffident and spoke in rather a low voice. But as he proceeded, he became very strong and powerful, and seemed to affect the whole audience with the feeling that he was honest and sincere. It certainly influenced me in this way, and made impressions upon me that remain until the present day.
As I looked upon him and listened, I thought to myself that a man bearing such a wonderful testimony as he did, and having such a countenance as he possessed, could hardly be a false prophet. He certainly could not have been deceived, it seemed to me, and if he was a deceiver, he was deceiving the people knowingly; for when he testified that he had had a conversation with Jesus, the Son of God, and had talked with Him personally, as Moses talked with God upon Mount Sinai, and that he had also heard the voice of the Father, he was telling something that he either knew to be false or to be positively true.[1]
Lorenzo Snow went on to become the fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
[1] Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet, 36-37.
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