President Joseph Fielding Smith, author of The Restoration of All Things, is gifted with unusual spiritual insight and has a profound interest in things spiritual. Through diligent study and patient research he has developed an understanding of the doctrines of the Church and a comprehension of the magnitude of the gospel which has made him an authority in this field. Ordained an apostle in 1910, he served the Church as a General Authority for 62 years. His sermons and writings have been published in 24 books, plus numerous tracts and pamphlets. Back of all his endeavors is a deep desire to help mankind. His books and pamphlets have been written with this thought in mind. "Like Alma of old," President Smith has said, "I have felt keenly the responsibility upon me and my fellows, of proclaiming to the world the words of eternal life and the crying of repentance.... I have kept this in mind, that I might stand before the judgment seat free from the blood of this generation, that no hand or voice might be raised against me in accusation for failure to give the warning."