The heart of the study of the New Testament, according to the Sunday School general presidency, is from the clarion call President Howard W. Hunter issued June 6, the day after he was ordained president of the Church: "I would invite all members of the Church to live with ever-more attention to the life and example of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially the love and hope and compassion He displayed." (See Church News, June 11, 1994.)

The Sunday School general presidency - Elders Charles Didier, J. Ballard Washburn and F. Burton Howard of the Seventy - spoke with the Church News about the New Testament, which is the 1995 course of study for adults and youth, ages 14-17, in Sunday School.Elder Didier, who is the general president of the Sunday School, and his counselors said this year's Sunday School course of study will provide members an opportunity to follow the counsel and advice of the prophet in learning more about Christ, trying to live a more Christlike life, displaying more love and compassion, and having more hope.

"It's exciting that this year's course of study coincides with the prophet's statement," Elder Didier said. "If we take to heart the words of President Hunter when he became president of the Church, we will welcome this great opportunity for us to focus on the New Testament. How can we live with more attention to the life and example of the Savior without knowing the New Testament?"

The Sunday School presidency noted that with the directive to study the Book of Mormon, some members might have overlooked the importance of studying other books of scripture, including the New Testament. "Some might not realize the important role of the other scriptures," Elder Didier said. "Let's consider missionary work. The New Testament often is the only common ground we have for teaching some investigators.

"I'm a convert. How did I know about Jesus Christ? It was through the New Testament. That was the only book that we were taught in the church I attended before the missionaries taught me. When the missionaries come into your life, and you have been prepared with the New Testament, the foundation is already there. The only thing you have to do is move a little bit more forward. Missionaries and members who teach the gospel message will be better prepared if they know the New Testament.

"The New Testament is really a preparation for the Book of Mormon, it's a preparation to make a covenant to heed what the Lord Jesus Christ taught and exemplified. When you read `New Testament,' testament means covenant. And you are entering a new testament, a new covenant with the Lord. Maybe it's an idea also to be prepared, to renew, to make a covenant with the Lord again, to live what a modern prophet is emphasizing."

Elder Washburn added: "We're not just studying the New Testament. We're trying to live more Christlike lives. We're studying so that it will be more a part of us. We're studying so that we can do more what the prophet is asking us to do. This is not a theoretical study course; it's a life application. We live what we're studying. Christ has invited us to do that. Living prophets have invited us to do that. That should be the thrust of study in Sunday School."

Elder Howard said: "I would hope that we don't get so caught up in the geographical details and the `tour-guide mentality' that we forget that one of the great gifts of studying the New Testament is to be able to ask, `What would Christ do?' I hope teachers and class members will make some application of the teachings into the modern setting. Many times we get an exposition rather than a provocation. We learn how deep the well is rather than about the Living Water.

"We should look at what we're trying to achieve. The first result that we're trying to get is to be touched by the spirit of the message of the New Testament.

"The New Testament tells us about more than just the life of Christ. It tells us what His apostles did while He was still with them and after His ascension. If we would - using the Book of Mormon expression, `soften

ourT hearts,' be teachable - then we would really listen to the voice of the prophet, and open our hearts to a new benefit of receiving the teachings of Christ in our lives.

"Yes, it's interesting to know the details, to know about the geography, the customs and other facts about the New Testament times, lands and peoples, but what is more important is how the New Testament has touched our lives, and the lives of others as we change, as we absorb the teachings of Jesus Christ in our lives."

The members of the Sunday School general presidency said those who have had the privilege of going to the lands of the New Testament certainly have been blessed. However, they emphasized that going to the Holy Land is not as important as gaining an understanding of what the Savior and His apostles taught there.

Elder Howard said: "There is a poem by Whittier, `Palestine,' in which he describes being in the Holy Land, of standing in the shade of its palms, by the shores of the sea, on the beautiful hills. Then the poet says:

With the eye of a spirit I look on that shore,

Where pilgrim and prophet have lingered before;

With the glide of a spirit I traverse the sod

Made bright by the steps of the angels of God. . . .

What if my feet may not tread where He stood,

Nor my ears hear the dashing of Galilee's flood,

Nor my eyes see the cross which He bowed him to bear,

Nor my knees press Gethsemane's garden of prayer.

Yet, Loved of the Father, thy Spirit is near

To the meek and the lowly, the penitent here;

And the voice of thy love is the same even now

As at Bethany's tomb or on Olivet's brow. . . .

Elder Howard said, "I take comfort in this poem because I have never been to the Holy Land, and I doubt I'll ever be able to go to Jerusalem. So what if my feet don't stand there, nor my eyes see the cross, nor my knees press Gethsemane's garden of prayer? `The voice of thy love is the same. . . .'

"I'd like to see people filled with the Spirit without the necessity of going on a Holy Land tour. Those tours are wonderful; the people who go will come back and never be the same. But the majority of Church members need to get the spirit of what was there and apply it in their lives. They may not ever stand over there, so they `look with the eye of the Spirit on that shore.' That's what has got to come out of these lessons."

Elder Washburn said: "More important than walking where Jesus walked is to walk as He walked. There are too many of us in the Church today who are physicians, carpenters or school teachers who give a little bit of time to the Church, and too few of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ who make a living by practicing medicine, building things or teaching school. The Savior doesn't have enough true disciples. We would hope that this year's Sunday School course of study would make many more of the Church members become true disciples of Christ.

"We hope members will not just attend a Sunday School class and then go home and forget about it. The whole purpose of the Sunday School class is, in reality, to promote home study and further practice of what they have learned on Sunday. The Sunday School teacher is there only as an initiator. We're hoping that he or she does it well, that the families and individuals who attend the class would do something during the week to further their study of the New Testament, to learn more of the Savior's life and teachings, and to become more like Him."

Elder Didier said: "The New Testament has the power to inspire, if we will open ourselves up to it. Because of the New Testament, Joseph Smith was inspired to pray. And because he prayed, the gospel was restored in its fulness and we now have the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ."