Eastern Mennonite School - Shenandoah Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

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ADMINISTRATION To carry on successfully a college which provides a high level of intellectual instruction is a task which makes exacting demands upon its faculty. They must have a natural gift to receive and impart in- struction. They must have the executive ability to conceive and carry out a large program which cares for present needs and plans for future development. To carry on successfully a Christian college is an even more exacting task. The same natural gifts and training are needed. In addition, each member of the faculty must have a living personal relationship with Christ and an aggressve interest in forwarding the spiritual lives of his students. We praise God that we have such a faculty. To them has been entrusted the responsibility of keeping the College true to Christ and the doctrines of His Church. By work and prayer they seek to advance Christ’s cause and to build on the sure foundation of the Word of truth. THY WORD IS TRUTH. [10]

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Chester K. Lehman Dear Graduates of 1948: Your privilege of standing at the threshold of life has come at last. Perhaps this hour is more sobering than you expected. The realities of the world are grim, if not hostile, and you may wish to escape the inevitable conflict. This feeling may be the effect that the centuries of persecution suffered by Mennonites have had on your personality. Instead of aggressively challenging the world with your faith and convictions you may prefer to hold them to yourself. Rather than to confront neighbors and strangers with the beliefs of Christianity, you avoid clash of ideas and viewpoints. But is this the spirit of Christianity? Was it the spirit of Isaiah and Jeremiah, of Peter and Paul, of Conrad Grebel and Menno Simons, of J. S. Coffman and Daniel Kauffman? No, these worthy men of God conceived it as their mission to engage hostile countrymen in spiritual combat. They blazed the truth of the Gospel, crashed through hatreds and prejudices, and conquered the hearts and affections of their foes. The Gospel first made its way into an enemy world through the apostles’ undaunted courage of conviction begotten bv what they had seen and heard. We trust that your experiences within these walls have begotten similar convictions in you. The Gospel must still destroy the strongholds of Satan, must still win the love of enemies. Will you carry this spiritual battle into the camp of the foe? Will your life make an impact upon the hearts of men to bring them to the foot of the cross? Will you Mennonite youths lead to Christ the agnostic, the atheist, the Hindu, the Moslem, the Buddhist? Your Alma Mater has brought vou to graduation “for such a time as this.” “Where- fore take up the whole armour of God . . . and having done all, to stand.” My prayers follow you in this conflict. Sincerely yours, Chester K. Lehman. [12]