Elon University - Phi Psi Cli Yearbook (Elon, NC)

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Rev. William Samuel Long, A.M., D.D. OV ever man can initiate great enterprises. Certain soul qualities are funda- mental in the men who can dream and then undertake. Such leaders in the realm of creative genius are possessed of unfaltering faith — faith in themselves, faith in their fellowmen, faith in the cause they would espouse, and faith in God. Thev are possessed also of giant will-power, inflexible, immovable, consistently iwicemrated on the enterprise in which they are engaged. The word substitute is offensive to such men and sidestepping is foreign to their thought vocabulary. They are men of energy, of terrific enery, which they can deliver with invincible impact in favor of their cause, as well as in opposition to any hindering circumstances. Such men are always the object of deep and abiding affection on the part of those who are willing to aid in the enterprises they inaugurate and of misunderstanding and misrepresentation on the part of those who espouse the status quo. Especially is this true of those who lead in enterprises for social, moral, and spiritual progress. Business men who captain great enterprises and succeed are acclaimed heroes because of the dividends and profits their genius earns for their investors, but Christian captains are oftentimes martyred. Vet they do not murmur. God gives them the grace to be faithful to the end. They labor for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It is to such a man that the Class of ' 24 has, in gratitude and devotion, dedicated their .Annual, tlie highest distinction a class can confer on those vhom they would honor. Pr. W. S. Long, founder and first president of Elon College, sums up in his commanding personality many of the elements that culminate in the leaders of men. He gave himself to the gospel ministry and to the training through education of the Christian t pe of leaders in pulpit and pew for the Kingdom of God. Dr. Long was one of the first men in Alamance County to enter a college. His example in his father ' s home led to the education of the other children, and in the county has induced a host of others to follow in his steps. The soil of Alamance on which he was born, October 22, 1839, had always been dear to Dr. Long. He has served his county in conspicuous ways, and it owes to him a debt of gratitude which cannot be repaid. As pastor of churches in the county, as founder of churches in the county, as county superintendent of schools, as chairman of the committee which located the Christian orphanage in the county, as founder of Graham Female Seminary and of Graham Normal College, he has placed Alamance in his debt, a debt which the people acknowledge, but which they cannot discharge save in grateful appreciation. But his chief contribution to Alamance County and to the Church of Christ was the founding of Elon College. He first dreamed that which is to many a heart the shrine of affection and devotion and the pride of a grateful church. Klon is now in her thirty-fourth year and in the midst of an unexampled rebuilding program. But Elon would not be but for William Samuel Long, and to him, as the far-seeing prophet of God; to him as the man of faith when vision was blurred and the path not only uncertain, but doubtful as well; to him the pioneer of unfaltering and intrepid courage; to him the energetic and unconquerable zealot of a cause that promised only hardship, criticism, and martyrdom, in grateful thanks and loving homage the Class of ' 24 affectionately dedicates the tenth volume of the Phipsicli, and with the dedication prays for him many added years of service and leadership in the cause of Christian education and the Church of Christ. (;rcat leader and great heart of the Christian Church, hail to you and again hail! V. A. IL