You have been a great factor in whatever success has attended Harding College in this, her first year. You and your faculty have passed through the experiences, borne the burdens, and made the sacrifice incidental to the beginning of a great and important work. It has been your privilege to establish precedents for future student bodies. Students of Harding College in all the years to come will appeal to your acts in an effort to justify themselves in the doings of things they themselves may want to do. Traditions of the doings of this first student body will be handed down from year to year and from generation to generation, even so long as the institution shall live. From this day on, wherever you may go, whatever you may do, you will be a message from Harding College. It is our most sanguine hope that your lives may glorify her fair name by verifying the intrinsic value of the high and holy ideals for which she stands. Remember that her existence cannot be justified unless the lives of her students manifest the principles of our Lord, unless they are true to Him who took upon Himself the form of a servant and went about doing good. Remember that Harding College lives as the result of keen sacrifice; that every brick in her walls, every book in her library, and every piece of equipment in her laboratories are the result of the influence of Christ upon hearts. Remember that we who man the institution would betray most sacred trust did we not make first the instilling of the principles of Christianity into the hearts of her students. Remember, too, that wherein you fail to support in word and life the religion of our Lord, it shall be a source of deep regret to every member of your faculty. Remember that every word of God is as true as every other word of God, and loyalty to God means loyalty to every word he has spoken. As you become men and women of affairs, do not forget the world’s need of Christian schools and the debt that you yourself owe to them. Wherever your lot may be cast, give your unstinted support to their maintenance. Remember the Lord is counting on you. Our Father, bless these, our children. Make them a blessing to this needy world, and so long as they abide in thy work may thy Peace, which passeth all understanding, guard their hearts and their thoughts in Christ Jesus. Amen. “Remember that her existence cannot be justified unless the lives of her students manifest the principles of our Lords, unless they are true to Him who took upon Himself the form of a servant and went about doing good.” Brother and Sister Armstrong Reprinted from Petit Jean 1924-25
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