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Elder Ezra Taft Benson December 10 1963
A Race Against Time
AN ADDRESS GIVEN TO THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY STUDENT BODY
ELDER EZRA TAFT BENSON
Member of the Council of the Twelve
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
with an introduction by R. Richards Rolapp President, BYU Studentbody
R. Richards Rolapp
Elder Ezra Taft Benson has been a member of the Council of the Twelve since 1943. He has always been one of the great missionaries of the Church and was just recently called to preside over the European Mission, with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. Prior to this calling he had served as a mission president and also as a stake president.
He earned the distinction of serving the second longest tenure in the office of Secretary of Agriculture when he served in the cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. While serving his country, community, and also his church, he met with prominent world leaders in many parts of the world, including Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Prime Minister Nehru of India.
A member of the Boy Scout National Executive Board, he has been chairman of Region Twelve for the past year and is the highest ranking L.D.S. Boy Scouter, having been awarded the Silver Buffalo and Silver Antelope Awards.
Elder Benson is no stranger to us here at B.Y.U. in that he has visited us many times before. He has traveled throughout the Church and his travels have endeared him to the hearts of thousands of members of the Church throughout the world.
I think that our attendance here this morning expresses to him our love and admiration, and we are united in this feeling this morning as we have the privilege and honor of hearing from Elder Ezra Taft Benson.
Elder Ezra Taft Benson
To address you this morning is a signal honor, a very great pleasure and a challenging responsibility. My gratitude for this opportunity is increased by the realization that it may be several months-possibly years-before I come to this campus again.
I am grateful for the call which has come to me to again preside over the European Mission, even though I leave my beloved country this time with greater anxiety for its future than ever before.
Because of the nature of the message I bring to you, I have committed most of it to writing. I shall speak to you frankly and honestly. Some of you may not agree fully with everything I say. Thank God in this blessed land we can still speak our convictions without fear. I have been in nations where this blessed privilege is no longer enjoyed.
What I shall say are my personal convictions borne out of an active life which has taken me into forty-five nations and brought me close to the insidious forces which would destroy our way of life in this choice land. I express these convictions and warnings today because of my love for you, the true Church of Christ, and our beloved country.
I am not here to tickle your ears-to entertain you. I will talk to you as one who loves this great nation. The message I bring is not a happy one but it is the truth, and time is always on the side of truth. "Truth must be repeated again and again because error is constantly being preached round about." (Goethe, 1749-1832, quoted in The Freeman, July, 1958.)