Speaking to 4,000 members of Brigham Young University's faculty and staff Aug. 29 at a dinner in the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center, President Boyd K. Packer based his address on an account of an experience of an early president of the institution. President Packer titled his address "The Snow-White Birds."

President Packer spoke of BYU Pres. George Brimhall, who, in 1910, determined to establish a recognized teachers college. President Packer said: "He had hired three professors: one with a master's degree from Harvard, one a doctorate from Cornell, and the other a doctorate from Chicago. They hoped to transform the college into a full-fledged university. They determined that `practicality and religion, which had characterized the school, must now give way to more intellectual and scientific philosophies.'"The professors held that `the fundamentals of religion could and must be investigated by extending the

empiricalT method into the spiritual realm.' (Ernest L. Wilkinson, BYU: First One Hundred Years, :415.)

"The faculty sided with the new professors and the students rallied to them."

President Packer said that Horace Cummings, superintendent of Church schools, wrote in a report to the board: "The teachers carried philosophical ideas too far: `They believed sinners should be pitied and enlightened rather than blamed or punished,' and they believed that `we should never agree. God never made two things alike. Only by taking different views of a thing can its real truth be seen.' "

Further, President Packer said that Superintendent Cummings noted that the professors taught that "all truths change as we change. Nothing is fixed or reliable." They also taught that "visions and revelations are mental suggestions. The objective reality of the presence of the Father and the Son, in Joseph Smith's first vision, is questioned."

The superintendent, President Packer said, concluded a report to the board by saying that the professors " `seem to feel that they have a mission to protect the young from the errors of their parents.' "

President Packer said: "President Brimhall, himself, defended the professors - that is, until some students `frankly told him they had quit praying because they learned in school there was no real God to hear them.' "

President Packer said that shortly thereafter Pres. Brimhall had a dream in which he saw several of the BYU professors standing around a peculiar machine on the campus. When one of them touched a spring a baited fish hook attached to a long thin wire rose rapidly into the air. Looking into the sky, the school's leader saw a flock of snow-white birds circling among the clouds, seemingly very happy. Presently one of them, seeing the bait on the hook, darted toward it and grabbed it. Instantly, one of the professors on the ground touched a spring in the machine, and the bird was rapidly hauled down to the earth.

As the dream continued, Pres. Brimhall saw that the bird, on reaching the ground, proved to be a BYU student, clad in an ancient Greek costume. The student was directed to join a group of other students who had been brought down in a similar manner. The university president noticed that all of them looked very sad, discouraged and downcast. He asked them why they were so sad and downhearted. They replied, " `Alas, we can never fly again!' "

President Packer said the university president realized that the students' `Greek philosophy had tied them to the earth. They could believe only what they could demonstrate in the laboratory. Their prayers could go no higher than the ceiling. They could see no heaven - no hereafter.' "

President Packer spoke of the challenges of a university such as Brigham Young to continue giving religion a pre-eminent place while, at the same time, it remains scholastically accredited and recognized.

"If students are going to partake of the fruit which is `desirable to make one happy,' yea `desirable above all other fruit,' which Lehi saw in his vision, they better have their ladder leaning against the right tree," President Packer said. "And they better hold on to the iron rod while they are working their way toward it.

"Now, in an absolutely remarkable consensus, leaders in politics, government, law enforcement, medicine, social agencies, and the courts recognize the breakdown of the family as the most dangerous and frightening development of our time, perhaps in all human history. They are casting around for answers.

"There is a desperate need for stable families and teachers who know how to teach values. . . . Have some among us measured themselves against the world and its sophisticated intellectual standard? Have they `cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed' and let go of the iron rod of Lehi's vision?"

President Packer spoke of the role BYU's faculty and staff have had in helping "refine the credentials for one who will influence these snow-white birds of ours. That standard is temple worthiness, with a recommend in hand for members and a respect for our standards by those who are not."

However, he added, that is not all that is required. "There must be a feeling and a dedication and a recognition and acceptance of the mission of our Church schools. Those standards will and must be upheld. . . .

Every department chair, every director, every dean, and administrator has a sacred obligation to assure that no one under their care will pull the snow-white birds from the sky or cause even one to say, `Alas, we can never fly again!' or to `believe only what could be demonstrated in a laboratory' or to think that `their prayer could go no higher than the ceiling, or to see no heaven - no hereafter.'

President Packer noted that all employees - not just teachers - have an obligation to maintain standards at BYU. He said their spiritual rewards will not "fall one bit below those who are more visible in teaching and in administration. All of you, together with the priesthood and auxiliary leaders from the community who devote themselves to these snow-white birds of ours, are an example, an ensign to the whole Church and to the world," he said. "The quality of our scholarship is unsurpassed. Your service and dedication a miracle in itself. There is not now, nor has there ever been, anything that can compare with you. Much of the future of the restored Church depends on you. Your greater mission lies ahead."

Referring to BYU Pres. Rex E. Lee's announcement on June 16 that he had asked for and had been granted an honorable release from his post, President Packer referred to the occasion on Aug. 29 as "a graduation" for the two of them. President Packer announced: "After 34 years on the Board of Trustees for BYU, most of it on the Executive Committee, I have been released. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve will now be rotated on the board. That is as it should be, for the Twelve, under the direction of the First Presidency, are responsible to watch over and `set in order' the Church in all the world."