Shortly after a visit with President Lorenzo Snow near the close of his life, a Protestant minister from South Carolina, the Reverend Doctor Prentis, described his experience: "Well, I had expected to find intellectuality, benevolence, and dignity on the face of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But I was startled to see the holiest face I have ever been privileged to look upon. The man is not reducible to ordinary description." On a spring day, April 3, 1814, a future prophet of the Lord was born in a tiny settlement in Ohio, then the Western frontier of the United States. Earning a living in Mantua, Ohio, was not easy. It took six months to make the roundtrip to New Orleans, the nearest farmer's market. So as Lorenzo grew to his teens, it became his job to care for the farm in his father's absence. He once wrote in his diary that he forcefully learned the importance of hard work and the disgrace of wasted time: "With us, book studies and schooling were ever present. We never knew what it was to be idle." In the Snow home, religion was important also. Scripture study and prayer were the daily custom. Throughout his youth, Lorenzo was known for his orderliness and precision. Inwardly, he longed for a military career. And years later, his desire was fulfilled in part when he became a captain in the Nauvoo Legion. His youthful military ambitions led him to Oberlin College in Ohio. It was here that he received a letter from his sister, Eliza, urging him to join her in Kirtland to enroll in a newly organized school where he could fulfill an ambition to study the Hebrew language. Eliza R. Snow had found the Mormons and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the spring of 1835. She was now living in the home of Joseph Smith and tutoring his children. At her invitation, Lorenzo moved to Kirtland, where he met the Prophet Joseph Smith and other Church leaders. These associations led to his baptism in the Chagrin River running through Kirtland in the early summer of 1836. Lorenzo later wrote that two or three weeks after his baptism and confirmation, he was filled with an intense desire for a full testimony of the truth, and thus sought seclusion in a wooded area: "I had no sooner opened my lips in an effort to pray, than I heard a sound just above my head, like the rustling of silken robes, and immediately the Spirit of God descended upon me, completely enveloping my whole person, filling me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and O, the joy and happiness I felt! "I then received a perfect knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, of the restoration of the holy priesthood, and the fulness of the gospel. It was a complete baptism--a tangible immersion in the Holy Ghost--and even more real and physical in its effects upon every part of my system than the immersion by water. "The sweet remembrance of those glorious experiences, from that time to the present, bring them fresh before me, imparting an inspiring influence which pervades my whole being, and I trust will to the close of my earthly existence." A few years afterward, he was favored with another personal revelation from the Lord: "The eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. As man now is, God once was. As God now is, man may become." This doctrine had previously been revealed to Joseph Smith. In the spring of 1837, Lorenzo set off--afoot and alone--as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This first short mission was spent in his home state, and he was privileged to convert many of his relatives. He gained a deep insight into the missionary work of the restored Church, and later commented that of all his missions, none was more thrilling or of greater profit to him.

In 1849, when Lorenzo was 34 years old, he was ordained an Apostle. Soon after, he was called to open the Italian Mission--a difficult assignment because of religious persecution in Italy. For months, the missionaries were unable to preach in public. Then one day, the young son of a Protestant family in the Piedmont area of northern Italy lay dying. Elder Snow and his companion realized that if he were healed through their priesthood administration, the people would finally accept them as true servants of God. The elders fasted, then went up on a mountainside to plead with the Lord for the life of the child. Lorenzo Snow later wrote of his feelings on that occasion: "As I reflected on the course we wished to pursue, the claims that we should soon advance to the world, I regarded this circumstance as one of vast importance. I know not of any sacrifice which I can possibly make, that I am not willing to offer, that the Lord might grant our requests." The child was healed. And within two weeks, a branch of the Church was organized in Italy. But in Salt Lake City, Lorenzo Snow's wife, Charlotte, suddenly became ill. She died within three weeks after Elder Snow had offered to make his sacrifice to the Lord.

After his return from Italy, Elder Snow was called to take 50 families to Box Elder County in northern Utah to strengthen the settlements there. Settling in Brigham City, he continued as a Church leader and community builder for nine years, when he was once again called abroad. This time to Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands. There, Walter Gibson, an apostate elder, had reorganized the Church according to his own ideas. He required payment for ordaining the native Saints to offices in the priesthood and in other ways violated authorized Church procedures. Upon arriving at the island of Maui, Lorenzo Snow and his party were rowing ashore when their small boat capsized in the narrow passage between the coral reefs. All except Elder Snow were accounted for in a few moments. But it was 15 minutes before his body was found and brought to the surface.

After an hour of attempting to revive him with methods common to the times, one brother was impressed to use mouth to mouth resuscitation, which was then unknown. And soon, Elder Snow regained consciousness.

After affairs of the Church in Hawaii were set in order, Elder Snow returned to his previous assignment in Brigham City, where he successfully organized the Brigham City Cooperative Association, a mercantile and manufacturing cooperative which flourished until the Depression of the 1890s. The success of this and other similar endeavors attracted the attention of the entire Church.

Throughout his earthly mission, Lorenzo Snow was a great instrument for the Lord in working many miracles. This was a direct fulfillment of his patriarchal blessing, pronounced upon him when he was 22 years old by Joseph Smith, Senior, who said: "Thou hast a great work to perform in thy day and generation. Thou shalt have faith, even like that of the brother of Jared. There shall not be a mightier man on earth than thou. If expedient, the dead shall rise and come forth at thy bidding." This prophecy saw literal fulfillment many times. One such incident occurred when Elder Snow returned to Brigham City in 1891 on a conference assignment. While speaking, he was handed a note stating that a young girl, Ella Jensen, had died of scarlet fever and asking him to arrange the funeral program. Elder Snow excused himself from the meeting and left for the girl's home. Her father, Jacob Jensen, tells the story in these words: "President Snow asked if we had any consecrated oil in the house. I was greatly surprised, but told him yes, and got it for him. During the administration, he said, 'Dear Ella, I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come back and live. Your mission is not ended.' After he had finished the blessing, he turned to my wife and me and said, 'Now do not mourn or grieve anymore. We are busy and must go, but you just be patient and wait, and do not mourn.' "Well, about an hour went by. And all at once she opened her eyes. She looked about the room, and the first thing she said was, 'Where is he?' 'Where is he?' And we asked, 'Where is who?' 'Why, Brother Snow,' she replied. 'He called me back.'" Ella, who then gave a thrilling account of her visit to the spirit world, lived to become the mother of eight children. Lorenzo Snow indeed had a great work to perform in his day and generation. He was a schoolmaster, a champion of education, a manager of financial enterprises, and he served 30 years in the territorial legislature. He was one of the great missionaries of modern times. He was one of those privileged to offer a prayer atop the Mount of Olives at the rededication of Palestine for the return of the Jews. He was a counselor to President Brigham Young and the first president of the Salt Lake Temple. Then in 1898, at the age of 84, he met with a challenge which sent him into deep soul searching and intense supplication to the Lord. With the death of President Wilford Woodruff, he had become responsible for leading the Church because of his position as President of the Twelve. He questioned his ability to fulfill such a heavy responsibility at his advanced age. Then too, the Church was deeply in debt after long years of persecution under the anti-polygamy laws. He went to the Salt Lake Temple one evening, seeking the Lord's counsel concerning what he should do. In the temple, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him. He instructed him to reorganize the First Presidency at once, instead of waiting, as had been the custom until that time. A granddaughter of Lorenzo Snow gave further details of his experience: "And then grandpa told me what a glorious personage the Savior is, such a glory of whiteness and brightness that he could hardly gaze upon Him. And then grandpa put his right hand on my head and said, 'Now, granddaughter, I want you to remember that this is the testimony of your grandfather. That he told you with his own lips that he actually saw the Savior here in the temple and talked with him face to face.'" After such a manifestation, and in light of his basic humility, it is understandable that President Snow should later remark, "I do not want this administration to be known as Lorenzo Snow's administration, but as God's in and through Lorenzo Snow." He tried always to live so that he could utter this prayer: "Search me, O God, and know my heart, and try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the way of life everlasting." During his administration, President Snow was faced with lifting the burden of the Church's debts, incurred partly because of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which had required the Church to turn its resources over to the federal government. President Snow successfully diminished the debt by reemphasizing the law of tithing: "The time has now come for every Latter-day Saint who calls himself a Saint to pay his tithing in full from this day forward. That is the word of the Lord to you, and it will be the word of the Lord to every settlement throughout Zion. This is the answer to our financial problems. Even though as a church we are heavily in debt, I say unto you that if this people will pay a full and honest tithing, the shackles of indebtedness will be removed from us." In spite of his age, his three years as President of the Church were served with amazing vigor of mind and body. His gentle and humble nature drew the love of every Saint, especially the children, who took every opportunity to bring him flowers and show their affection.

When he died in Salt Lake City at the age of 87, the children again paid tribute to him. More than 1,000 well-scrubbed Sunday school children, forming an honor guard a mile long, threw flowers over the path of the funeral procession.

Indeed, his life was an extension of that noble countenance described by the Reverend Prentis, "I was startled to see the holiest face I have ever been privileged to look upon." Another Protestant minister also recognized in President Snow what the Saints themselves respected and cherished in their beloved prophet: "The tenor of his spirit is as gentle as a child. You're introduced to him. You're pleased with him. You converse with him. You like him. You visit with him long. You love him."