Gee, I've never heard that hymn. I've been to lots of baptism services. Please tell us all the name of it so I can verify your claim. I'm happy to post the entire text right here as soon as you show me where it is.
Waiting patiently...
Gee- its been several years since I sang it, so I don't rember the exact words. I do recall singing the verses and realizing many of things that, I, as a protestant, atribute to Jesus; the Mormon hymn was attribituting to Joseph Smith.
A quick search came up with a speech by LDS leader Richard C. Edgley which may have something to do with my bewilderment:
Joseph Smith lived the life of a prophet. He suffered the life of a prophet. He died the death of a prophet. Out of persecution, suffering, and the shedding of innocent blood, the stone carved out of a mountain without hands rolls forward. The words of John Taylor continue to ring with increasing power and clarity: “The Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world” (D&C 135:6).
John Taylor also said: “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it” (D&C 135:3).
Through trial and affliction Joseph brought together all the elements of the gospel, fitted together like a beautiful puzzle.
The true nature of God has been restored.
The priesthood is upon the earth.
Baptisms can be performed with authority.
Temple covenants bind families together forever.
The Atonement and the Resurrection are meaningful events affecting the lives of millions. And living prophets today bring divine light to a troubled world.
Without the Prophet Joseph Smith, with all his trials, sufferings, and even death:
The priesthood of God could not be found upon the earth.
Temple ordinances and covenants would not be found; hope would be replaced with loneliness, confusion, and despair.
The ordinances of baptism, confirmation, and endowment would have no efficacy.
The concept of God would remain the great mystery of an impersonal force that cannot be explained or understood.
The knowledge and understanding of the plan of salvation and the Atonement of Christ would be replaced with ignorance and superstition.
The prophets would indeed be dead, and revelation would be a thing of the past.
Without the Prophet Joseph Smith, spiritual darkness would continue to reign and hope would continue to wane.
The Lord promised, “If thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes” (D&C 121:8).
In his 1998 Christmas devotional, President Gordon B. Hinckley declared:
No one has borne more certain knowledge of the Son of God, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, than has this great prophet of this the dispensation of the fulness of times. Praise to his name. Honor to his memory. Reverence to him as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty in bringing to pass the restoration of His work in our time. [Gordon B. Hinckley, First Presidency Christmas devotional delivered at the Tabernacle on Temple Square, Salt Lake City, 6 December 1998]