PROVO, Utah — The largest graduating class in BYU history heard admonition from a counselor in the First Presidency, an apostle, an international human-rights advocate who is the wife of a legendary world leader, and a prominent author April 22.

President Thomas S. MonsonPhoto by Chuck Wing

President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, presided at and conducted the 124th annual Spring Commencement Exercises. He also addressed the graduates as did President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve; Jehan Sadat, wife of assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat; and Madeleine L'Engle, whose works of fiction include A Wrinkle in Time.

Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Seventy and BYU president awarded presidential citations to two distinguished Church members: L. Ralph Mecham, director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, and Asael Delbert Palmer, former Chilean Mission president who helped establish the Canadian Studies program at the BYU David M. Kennedy Center.

A total of 5,830 degrees were awarded, including associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Of that total, 1,651 December graduates were combined with the 4,179 April graduates.

President Monson touched briefly on three truths that seem to be spoken by those who have gone before:

• The past is behind; learn from it. "Remember that the roads you travel so briskly lead out of dim antiquity, and you study the past chiefly because of its bearing on the living present and its promise for the future," he said. "When one fails to learn from the lessons of the past, he is doomed to repeat the same mistakes and suffer their attendant consequences.

"From the yesterdays of recorded history come thrilling lessons for our lives," President Monson declared.

• The future is ahead; prepare for it. "No graduate can afford to close his textbooks or his mind; for learning is not just an in-class activity, but an all day, everywhere process," President Monson said. "It is not all formal, rarely neat, and not at all cut and made to order. The truth is that the person who quits learning upon leaving the university is giving in to an idea of limited usefulness, limited satisfaction and limited happiness.

"You have developed the skill to study; use it. You have learned the value of effort; apply it. You have pursued the quest for excellence; continue it. Your future will present insurmountable problems only when you consider them insurmountable. Your challenge is to keep faith with the past while you keep pace with the future."

• The present is here; live in it. "Ahead is the open road," he said. "Those who walk it successfully ignore irrelevant attractions and refrain from activities which do not contribute to the attainment of their purpose. They disregard the billboards designed to divert them into this or that blind alley of ease and pleasure. They stand on their own feet, set their own goals, and win their own victories.

A total of 5,830 degrees were awarded to students graduating from BYU.Photo by Chuck Wing

"Lessons from the past, challenges of the future display dramatically the need for heavenly help today. Earnestly seek it and you shall surely find it," President Monson counseled.

In his address, President Packer focused on the desire of most college graduates to "get somewhere in life" and the occasional lament, "I'm just not getting anywhere in my life!"

"Do you know where this somewhere is located or this anywhere you think you may not reach?" he asked. "I know where somewhere is. I will try to tell you how to find it."

Before doing so, he listed three places, or "mirages," where many people unsuccessfully try to find the somewhere: (1) prosperity — money, wealth, riches. "You can get them and still not be anywhere; (2) fame and acclaim. "You may reach the pinnacle of popularity and find you are really nowhere; and (3) intellectual achievement. "You may end up 'ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.' (2 Tim. 3:7) and still not be somewhere.

"Where is somewhere to be found?" he asked. "You have been told over and over and over and over and over and over again where to find it. It is within you. It is home. It is the family.... There is a map to somewhere in the books written by prophets. There is a key to somewhere in the temple. There is an ever-present guide to somewhere reminding you what is right and what is wrong."

Mrs. Sadat, whose accomplishments include passage of the Egyptian Civil Rights Act of 1979 that broadened the rights of women in Egypt, warned graduates that the most important test still awaits them.

"It will be far more comprehensive, far more meaningful than any examination you have ever taken before," she said. "(It) is the one that life imposes, the one that measures the quality of your life, the extent and depth of your character, the magnitude of your soul. It will take measure of what you give in this life and the legacy you leave for future generations. The answers will not be found in libraries or discovered on the Internet. How well you do will not be enhanced by your individual wealth or fame, your position or power, but rather by the content of your heart."

Mrs. L'Engle told of visiting Egypt and observing the natural stone pyramids that bore the same mathematical shape as the man-made pyramids in that country. The former contrast with the latter, in that they are solid and unchanging despite the forces of nature around them, she said.

"As I look on you, I can see that you are like the natural pyramids in the desert, holding your unique shape through uncertainty and change," she said. She challenged the graduates to offer and uphold that which does not change: honor, integrity and the precepts of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pres. Bateman said that in addition to being the largest graduating class in BYU history, this class is extraordinary for a number of reasons. "The youngest graduate is 18 years of age and the oldest is 72," he said. "There is also a mother with 10 children who returned and has now completed her studies. There's also a father graduating today who has three BYU students here, and he's going to graduate one year ahead of them. The class includes a Rhodes Scholar, eight National Science Foundation fellows, a Fulbright, a Phi Kappa Phi scholar, and Melon Fellow, a Goldwater scholar, a State Farm Exceptional Student fellow and three medical science fellows."

He gave graduates a two-fold challenge: to continue learning and to be lifelong servants of mankind.