St Olaf College - Viking Yearbook (Northfield, MN)

Page 9 text:

DR F MELIUS CHRISTIANSEN Z HE REPRESENTS, not the head of the department of music, but a spirit-a spirit of deep consecration and powerful praise in song to the Creator and Sustainer of life, and living and mov- ing in that spirit, he has attracted and inspired others to follow the Christ Who is the source of his strength and the center of his message. Despite the acclamation given him, and his acknowledged superiority in his Held, he goes about his work with a sincere humility and quiet faithfulness. His indepen- dence of thought and action, his courage, and above all, his consecration to his purpose have won the confidence and loyalty of the members of his choir and given him peace and power. He has called music the uesparanto of the nations, and losing himself in the universality of that message, he has become truly great!

Page 8 text:

,, , MH . . . WY.. 5'-W To THE VVORLD he is a name-Dr. F. Melius Chris- tiansen, director of the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir and composer par excellence of chorals and an- thems, to the average St. Olaf student, he is the mystic music monarch-F. Melius, the silver- crowned organist at St. Iohn's Church and the occasional accompanist at chapelg but to those who know him best and have worked under him, he is not a man but an ideal-- Christy, the personifica- tion of everything ennobling in music, the master who can inspire his pupils, musically, in the manner that the greatest of Masters could secure the con- secration of His disciples, spiritually.

Page 10 text:

GOD'S WORD IS IN 1938 PRESIDENT BOE said, No one can understand St. Olaf unless he views the college in the light of its religious objective. We are glad to advertise to the world that St. Olaf, in spite of human weaknesses and mistakes, has no higher aim than to teach the principles of our Christian faith as found in the Bible. During the fifty years since the graduation of its Hrst class, St. Olaf has remained true to its divine purpose of teach- ing and sending forth young men and women as witnesses, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. That objective has guided and moti- vated each of the activities and purposes of this institution, and today the college stands radiantly crowning the height, dis- tinctly and divinely different-a bulwark of testimony to the firmness of the Rock upon which it is founded!