been faithfully discharging the responsibilities of the executive office while continuing to carryon his responsibilities as a pastor. Instead of turning their attention to another candidate, the Board did an about-face on their concept of an acting president. "The men who originally were in favor of acting president now made it plain that they felt differently." The Board unanimously voted to drop the word "acting" and asked James T. Jeremiah to become president of Cedarville College.lO In reflecting back to those days, Jeremiah has said: As it would seem, as a last resort, the invita– tion was extended to me. Many arguments, ex– cuses, and what I considered plausible reasons were given to God as to why such a responsibil– ity should not be mine. The college was almost at an end academically and financially but God repeatedly brought my attention to II Corinthi– ans 9:8: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." In those days, apart from the grace of God, it was difficult, if not well nigh impos– sible, to fit "all grace," "always," "all sufficien– cy," and "all things" into the pictureY These were trying times for the Jeremiahs. To come to Cedarville would mean the termination of a highly successful pastorate. His church had just completed a huge building project costing in excess of $112,000. As an established Regular Baptist pastor, he was advised by many of his colleagues not to take the Cedarville job. When visiting his alma mater, Baptist Bible Seminary in Johnson City, New York, Jeremiah encountered two dear friends. Mead Armstrong told him, "It will never go. It will never work. They've lost their recognition. They've never had accreditation and they have lost their teacher training. jim, it will never go, it will die." Several years later, Jeremiah invited Armstrong to join the Cedarville faculty, and Armstrong did so, teaching Theology and Baptist History until his retirement. Dr. Paul Jackson, president of Baptist Bible Seminary, warned: "Don't take it. Don't be president of that thing. Don't do it, Jim, it will kill yoU."12 But in spite of all the warnings coupled with their own forebodings, Jim and Ruby Jeremiah laid claim to God's faithfulness, and in the firm conviction that God would honor the words of II Corinthians 9:8, they accepted the challenge of leading Cedarville College. Looking back, Ruby Jeremiah said, "Jim tried everybody he knew to try to get them to come, but nobody would come. I don't blame them. 108/Chapter XIII Really, we didn't want to either but we didn't dare do anything else."13 With this unshaken confidence in the call of God deep in his heart, jim Jeremiah resigned his prospering ministry in Dayton, Ohio, and accepted the challenge that in human terms seemed impossible. By the time the Jeremiahs moved into their rented house on Chillicothe Avenue, the new school year was already under way. The student population in the fall of 1954 was 103. The faculty numbered nine, including Jeremiah, who planned to teach Evangelism, Baptist History, and Baptist Polity.14 The Jeremiahs came to Cedarville with faith in God to provide for their needs and the needs of the school, but their faith was very active. They seemed to have a good sense of the concept that faith without works was dead! But they discovered that the work which needed to be done was not always the sophisticated kind of thing you would expect from a college president and his wife. There were times when President Jeremiah was busily engaged with Maintenance Director Pop Marshall in making cement blocks! Some people were critical of this, but someone had to make the cement blocks! Another time he was found shoveling in a ditch; still others recall him driving to Springfield to Reiter Dairy to pick up milk for the cafeteria. Meanwhile, in addition to being a homemaker, Mrs. Jeremiah was also the college printer. But in her new enterprise, she had only a few of the tools of her trade. "There was an old broken down typewriter, a mimeograph machine that seldom worked, and a hand-operated addressing machine."15 Jeremiah asked the trustees to purchase a Multilith for his wife. When they refused because money was so scarce, Jeremiah bought it himself. He installed it in his basement, which became the official print shop. Eventually the trustees caught a vision of how important advertising was and purchased a new machine which was much easier for Mrs. Jeremiah to operate. She taught students how to handle the equipment in order to assist her, but many times she ended up with ink on her hands and elsewhere, including her nose! President Jeremiah had purchased the original Multilith machine from an elderly gentlemen in Springfield, who came to Cedarville daily for two weeks to teach Mrs. Jeremiah how to do the printing. By the time her tenure as printer was completed, she was so accomplished at the task that she was
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