For Part One, Part Three or Part Four, choose the appropriate link.
Okay, This is Weird...
We aren't very used to hearing senators talk about God anymore in the public sphere, but it used to be much more common than it is now.
Elder (later President) Ezra Taft Benson, who worked as the Secretary of Agriculture before he became an apostle, had many political connections. This one was from one of his personal friends who had already passed away at this point, Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois.
Did I mention Senator Dirksen is the husband of my fifteenth cousin three times removed, Louella Carver? And that Ezra Taft Benson is my eighth cousin once removed? This is fun. :-)
The Quote
“If a man die, shall he live again?” asked Job, the prophet, anciently. (Job 14:14.)
My good friend Senator Everett Dirksen, shortly before his death, responded impressively to Job’s question in these words: “What mortal being, standing on the threshold of infinity, has not pondered what lies beyond the veil which separates the seen from the unseen?
“What mortal being, responding to that mystical instinct that earthly dissolution is at hand, has not contemplated what lies beyond the grave?
“What mortal being, upon whom has descended that strange and serene resignation that life’s journey is about at an end, has not thought about that eternal destination and what might be there?
“Centuries ago the man Job, so long blessed with every material blessing, only to find himself sorely afflicted by all that can befall a human being, sat with his companions and uttered the timeless, ageless question, ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’
In the Easter Season, when all Christendom observes the Resurrection and seeks answers to many questions, there in the forefront is the question raised by Job, ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’
“If there be a design in this universe and in this world in which we live, there must be a Designer. Who can behold the inexplicable mysteries of the universe without believing that there is a design for all mankind and also a Designer? …
“‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ Surely he shall, as surely as day follows night, as surely as the stars follow their courses, as surely as the crest of every wave brings its trough.” (U.S. News & World Report, November 8, 1965, p. 124.)
Finding the Quote
There was an online vault of past issues of the US News & World Report, but their collection ceases a few years before 1965. A couple of colleges had a collection of US News & World Report in their libraries, but I didn't have access to those, so I was unable to read the full article.
Might try the library at my school. Oh the joys of microfiche!
Job's Literary and Scriptural Value
I never realized that people outside of my faith actually studied the book of Job as literature until I was in high school, and we studied it in my English class. It was strange to study it as if it was fiction when I didn't believe it was, but there is certainly much there as literature. The book of Job has been done in play form, and is an extremely complex story of great beauty.
For my faith, we study it as scripture, and consider that Job was a real person. I've often gone to the book of Job and read it when I've gone through periods of great chaos and distress in my life. It brings great peace and comfort as well as a measure of hope in times like that.
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