President McKay, my beloved brothers and sisters: This is always a very humbling experience. I too seek the faith of your prayers in my behalf. I have been most uplifted, as I have sensed you have, by the great messages of this conference, the sweet testimonies that have been borne, the great truths that have been emphasized again.

These experiences and messages have brought to my attention, as it relates to our responsibility, an experience I had a few years ago while serving as a religion teacher on the University of Southern California campus.

Incident at PTA convention

Because of my particular position in directing the institute program, I was invited by that great institution to participate in what was known as a PTA convention discussing the problems concerning our youth. I suppose I was invited as a member because of the great work that this Church does for its young people.

I remember that the president of the university himself was sponsoring a little luncheon to be held before the conference. As I entered the cafeteria, there assembled around the table were those who would participate in the meeting that was to ensue. I had not met my colleagues who were to discuss the problems of youth with me, and this was a chance for us to get acquainted. I noticed when I went in to take my seat that there were appropriate name cards identifying each one of us and that I was to be seated next to a full navy commander.

As we sat down, the navy commander leaned over and said to me, "You're the Latter-day Saint, aren't you?" And I wondered what I had done to tip him off.

I said, "Yes, sir, I am, how did you know?"

"Well," he said, pointing to the cup that I had turned over as I took my chair, "I noticed you weren't going to partake of that liquid."

I said, "Yes, sir, but I happen to know a lot of people who aren't members of my faith that don't use that liquid. How would you know?

He said, "Well, it is the way you turned your cup over." He said, "You have that Mormon twist in your wrist."

A salute to the Church

I immediately started to exercise my own faith as a missionary and attempted to teach him a little about the Word of Wisdom. He interrupted me and said, "Young man, I didn't invite this conversation to get a dissertation from you at this time. But I would like to take this opportunity, if I may, to salute you. May I do that?"

Well, now, to a former PFC, that is great tribute. I said, "Please, sir, go right ahead."

"Well," he said, "I don't mean you personally." I must confess that hurt my ego a little.

He said, "I would like to take this opportunity to salute your church and that great body you represent here today. As you know, I am directing one of the navy testing programs educationally throughout the United States, and wherever I go I watch you people with great interest, and I suppose I have seen many of you without your knowing it, and I would like you to know, Mr. Dunn, that I feel secure in the presence of the Latter-day Saint people."

He said, "You have something, I don't know what it is [you and I do—the priesthood, the Spirit of the Lord which beckons all to come], but," he added, "I feel that one day this country—in fact the world—will look to you for direction. Thank you, sir, for being what you are and for the great influence of your church."

Can you appreciate in some small measure the thrill that was mine as a representative of God's true Church? You have had like experiences, and I thought about that again today and these past days as we have been reminded of our great responsibilities, as parents, as teachers, and as leaders.

Tribute to parents

I would like to pay a tribute to you wonderful parents who have trained up your children in the way that they should go, that you might send into the mission field the choice spirits that you have. My, what a leaven in the worldly loaf they are. And I testify to you that they are great men and women, testifying to the divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

I am located in an area where there is a great cultural and traditional influence, where intellectualism abounds. I would just like to share a few thoughts that I might direct to those people, particularly as they relate to this time of year.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we with many others of the Christian world have anticipated the coming of Easter and its celebration in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Meaning of Christ for our times

Anticipating Easter in an era that has been described as "post-Christian"; in an age when modern science and technology have given rise to the "secular city," as they prefer to call it; when an analytical philosophy has described as meaningless all propositions that go beyond certain defined limits of sense experience; when biblical scholarship has mythologized the New Testament, and a new radical theology has proclaimed the death of God, I think we need to raise anew the question of the meaning of Jesus Christ for our time. Of course, for many of our contemporaries, caught up in the cross currents of a predominantly secular culture, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ can have little or no meaning.

I raise the question—What is the meaning of Jesus Christ for our times?—not as preliminary to the presentation of a legal brief in defense of the fact of the resurrection, nor to afford an opportunity to argue in support for our belief in the resurrection. This is not the occasion for religious argument. This is an occasion to bear witness to the hope, the joy, and the faith that we have in the divine message that Christ lives. Our presence here today is evidence of that faith, and what I hope to say is intended as an added witness to that faith.

Faith of early Christians

Jesus Christ has meant many things to many people, but there can be no mistake about what he meant to the early Christians. New Testament faith was based upon the belief that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God, our Father, in a decisive manner, had prepared the way for man to enter the world, live the complete life, and again regain his presence. Motivated by this belief, early Christians went forth to proclaim the gospel, or the "good news." It was the overwhelming impact of the "good news," centering in the resurrection, that caused Christians to face the threat of the dungeon, the sword, and the cross. Early Christianity moved forward under the compelling faith that the resurrected Jesus was Christ, the Lord.

That the resurrection was central to the early Christian message cannot be doubted. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said, "if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain"  1 Cor. 15:17 Read in its context, it is clear that Paul is not trying to prove the resurrection of Christ in this statement. He is here appealing to the one thing that all Christians accepted in order to prove another point, namely, that because of his resurrection Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior; and through the redemptive mission of Jesus, as the Christ, as the Savior, man's own immortality and eternal life were assured. This was the gospel. This was the "good news." This was the faith of early Christianity.

Faith today in Christ's mission

Now, after almost two thousand years, in the passing time of a century characterized by a decline in religious faith, the restored gospel joyfully proclaims anew, with as much enthusiasm and vigor as did the first century Christians, that Christ is risen. Our confidence in man's salvation through the atonement of Christ is a matter of faith, not completely understood, yet the central meaning of Jesus Christ for our time, as for all time, is to be found in that faith—faith in man's salvation through the resurrection.

Salvation in this sense is a gift to a man through the grace of God. But those who are familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints know that it is also a religion of merit. Our concern is not only with the future but also with the past, and especially with the present. Mormonism touches every phase of life; it is a gospel of work, of play, of service, of prayer, of hope. And belief in immortality looms large in this picture.

What eternal life embraces

Eternal life, however, does not merely embrace the future; it also embraces the past and the present. This means that the present is determinative of what the future holds for man, both as an individual and as society. This world, therefore, is not regarded as some condemned region in space where man awaits transportation to heaven or hell.

Man and the world share a common destiny—man and the world are to be saved together. Man's purpose in the world is to progressively know and to live the revelations of God reflected in his own soul and the creations about him. Man will never be worthy of or capable of appreciating a more glorious state of existence until he has in some measure learned to appreciate the meaning, beauty, and problems of the one in which he now finds himself. This means that while the past and future are important, the present is the greatest of all time, because it holds the promise of all that is to come.

Jesus taught divine principles

With this view in mind, I raise again the question of the meaning of Jesus Christ for today. Within this dimension of the gospel we find the meaning of Christ in the very urgent and serious problems that we face as individuals and as a nation. Some of these problems come from the past and continue to haunt us; other problems are of modern making and are peculiar to our age—peculiar at least in the sense that they are in a new setting. It is in the imaginative and creative solution of old problems and in the struggle with novel problems against the gospel of Jesus Christ that he takes on new meaning for us today.

Jesus taught in terms of universal, divine principles, and men were left with the responsibility, and their free agency, to implement those principles. When he was asked how often another should be forgiven, he answered with a statement that urged a limitless spending of forgiveness. When asked what acts were legal on the Sabbath, he answered with a statement that made it plain that people should be considered over institutions. When asked, "Who is my neighbor?"  Luke 10:29 he answered with a parable in which a neighbor was described as "a certain man"  Luke 10:30 who was in need of help.

If Jesus had merely given moral rules in terms of the culture of his times, his teaching would have long since been out of date. But his teachings are bound to no single culture, nor to any age. Each succeeding age is left to discover a way of making the gospel principles of Jesus Christ live in terms of its own conception of society. When this is done, we are compelled to recognize that his ideal goes far beyond not only what man has put into practice but also what most men have thought possible.

Merging of real and ideal

To speak of our age, therefore, as the "post-Christian" age is a mistake for age, in any real sense, has not yet the simple reason that the Christian been fully achieved. If the fault is said to be in Jesus because he was too idealistic for this hardheaded, practical world, our witness is that Jesus was as much of a realist as an idealist—the real and ideal merge in his life and teachings. It is the world that has not been realistic and has not been able to take him at his word. He said that mankind is a brotherhood. The world has said that mankind ought to be a brotherhood. We have failed to take his realism seriously, and our problems multiply and grow in complexity.

In regard to the frustration, futility, and meaninglessness in which an increasing number of individual lives are submerged, our witness is that the passing years continue to establish the validity of Jesus Christ's estimate of human personality as the supreme value in the universe. To the disturbed, wandering youth of our time, we testify that personality, that people, that human beings are precious, and that life is worth living.

As to the solution of many of the personal problems with which contemporary man is plagued, our witness is that modernity as well as antiquity give support to Jesus' view that personality is fulfilled not in the self-centeredness of either the occidental or oriental variety, but rather in service to humanity. Human experience today, as always, confirms that whosoever would save his life will lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life in the interest and service of others shall save it  Matt. 10:39

Solution of personal and social problems

I have said that the meaning of Jesus Christ for our time is to be found in his death and resurrection, which assures man's immortality. We have also said that the application of his ideal to the central and crucial problems of our day gives us further insight into his meaning for us. He stands as an eternal symbol of our Heavenly Father's interest in and suffering for the needs of humanity. As we see God's will revealed through him for the solution of our personal and social problems, so our faith is made sure that he will be forever meaningful in the lives of men.

We believe that the best and most effective efforts being made today to ward the elimination of ignorance and human suffering are in accordance with the Savior's inspiration and revelation. In him and his gospel are to be found the faith and hope of the future. So it is with a deep sense of its permanent and universal meaning that we read his statement as he departed from his disciples: ". . . lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"  Matt. 28:20

May the experience of this Easter season make us more responsive to his inspiration and more conscious of our responsibilities, I pray, as I give you my solemn witness that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, in the name of our beloved Savior, even Jesus Christ. Amen.