CHAPTER XXXI.
Return to Richmond.—Our Family all Together.—Our Daughter's Marriage to R. L. Cave.—Covington Meeting.—Bro. Lape's Letter.—Call to Louisville.—Acceptance.—Motives Actuating Him.—Life in Lexington.—Removal.—Raises Money to Finish Church.—Wm. C. Dawson.—T. P. Haley.—Mission Work.
After two months' delightful but arduous work, we returned to Virginia, and found as warm a welcome as we had received in our old home. From the time of the Doctor's return he labored with renewed zeal for the church, and met with success and encouragement.
We now had a delightful family circle—father, mother, Sadie, Mr. Cave, Dr. Jenifer Garnet, the Doctor and myself—all members of the church. The following year Mr. C. decided he would like to become a member of our family, and the 16th of May, 1867, he was married to our daughter at Old Sycamore Church; by Dr. Hopson himself, at her earnest solicitation.
In the spring of 1868 he held a meeting for the church in Covington, Ky. Bro. P. B. Wiles was pastor of the church at that time. He and Dr. Hopson had long been warm friends, though Bro. W. was several years his junior. In answer to some questions in regard to the meeting, I received the following from Bro. Lape:
"NEWPORT, KY., Dec. 8th, 1886.
"My Dear Sister:-Your favor of the 4th inst. at hand, relative to the meeting held in Covington, Ky., in the year 1868, at the Fifth Street Christian Church, by Bro. Hopson. In reply I
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say, Bro. D. R. Van Buskirk was holding a meeting for the brethren at that place. Bro. V. having suddenly taken very ill, was compelled to return home. Bro. P. B. Wiles, pastor, called and informed me of the fact, and wished to know whom I would suggest as a person who could hold our audiences and continue the meeting. He said he knew of but one man. I remarked, that was Dr. Hopson. He responded, 'That is the man.' I asked him if he wished the Doctor to come 'Yes,' said he; but being engaged in Richmond, Va., and a long way off, it was a question whether or not he would come. I wrote out a dispatch and sent it, and before dark the answer came: 'D. v., Mrs. Hopson and I will be in Covington Lord's day morning.' The Doctor was on time, and preached at 11 A. M. and at night, and continued, if my memory be correct, about two weeks. I sat in the gallery and had a good opportunity of judging the effect his sermons had upon his audience. Never in all my life, since the days Bro. Challen preached in the 'old cooper shop,' in 'an upper room,' at the corner of Vine and Columbia streets, Cincinnati, (when I was a boy about three feet high), have I seen such profound attention as was given by his hearers. It seemed the people sat with ears, eyes and mouths open to hear the Doctor's clarion voice proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. If I recollect, some thirty persons were gathered into the kingdom and patience of Jesus, and I will say further that that meeting gave am impetus to the six people living in Newport, and that not a long while after, the brethren built a house, and have ever since employed a preacher.|
"Your Brother in Christ,
"Wm. H. Lape."
We returned to Richmond the last of March, as soon the meetings closed. The Doctor had numerous invitationsto remain in Kentucky and hold meetings, but had to refuse.
On our arrival at home, the first news that greeted us was that a new member had been added to our household in the person of a grandson—Winthrop Hopson Cave. Mathematics can not furnish figures enough to compute the height of the Doctor's delight. He was like a child who has just come in possession of a
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long-coveted treasure, and though eight more have since been added to the family jewels, I do not think any have ever been so precious as that first one.
Soon after his return to Richmond he received a call from the Fourth and Walnut Street Christian Church, of Louisville, Ky. He at first declined the call on account of an opposing element in the church—a very small minority of, I think, forty, all told, out of the five or six hundred members. Subsequent correspondence developed the fact that it was solely on account of politics. When he learned this to be the case, he accepted the call, and made arrangements to go to Louisville in September. He said the war was over; he had as much to forget and forgive as any one, and that he did not have in his heart a feeling of enmity toward one human being. He felt confident that he could overcome any prejudice growing out of his conduct during the war. His opinion proved correct, for we found no better friends than those afterward became, who voted against his coming. Some of them wished to talk the matter over with him and make explanations, but he told them to endeavor to forget it all, as he had, for he had not the least unkind feeling in his heart towards them; and he told the truth, for it was entirely foreign to his nature to harbor malice. They were most excellent people and their love was worth winning, and we recall with pleasure the many acts of kindness they showed us while we had the happiness to live among them.
The Doctor was fortunate in obtaining Mr. Cave's consent to accompany us to Kentucky. I do not know that he could have been prevailed upon to have left little Winthrop, even if he could the rest of the family. There was mother, the Doctor, Sadie and baby—four
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generations. They must not be separated, if possible.
One motive that actuated Dr. Hopson in accepting the call to Louisville was, that he might be able to have the society of his brother preachers sometimes. In Richmond he was very much isolated. Occasionally Bro. R. Y. Henley, Dr. Duval, Bro. Cutler (then a young and promising speaker), and Bro. Walthal would call a few minutes on him, perhaps once or twice a year. Bro. Shelburn was our only regular visitor, and how the Doctor did enjoy his visits! Bro. Abel left Virginia soon, so that he saw but little of him. After Bro. Parrish and Dr. H. began to publish the Christian Examiner, the Doctor saw more of him, but still there was from necessity a lack of social intercourse among the preachers.
During our life in Lexington he could go out on the street any Monday or Saturday, and he would find Brethren Raines, Ricketts, Pinkerton, S. Rogers, Arnold, John I. Rogers, John Smith; and once a month, on court Mondays, brethren Gano, Bronson, Brooks, and McGinn were almost sure to be seen in the city. The Doctor used often to say, it was like an elixir to him to grasp the hand of a brother who knew and understood the trials of a preacher's life and could sympathize with him.
Notwithstanding the attractions in our old Kentucky home, it was with reluctance we left the tried and true friends we had made in Virginia, and many tearful and sad farewells were spoken by the many who followed us to the depot. We left Virginia after a residence of five years and four months, three years and three months being spent with the Richmond Church.
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When we arrived in Louisville we were not strangers, the Doctor having held a meeting of weeks there, in 1860, for the Hancock Street Church, which congregation was now worshiping at the corner of Chestnut and Floyd Streets. Very many of the members of the Fourth and Walnut Street Church had attended the meeting; thus we were familiar with the members of both churches, and at home in either.
The Doctor found the church in a good condition, and ready to cooperate with him in every good work. Bro. Thomas Arnold, of Frankfort, had preceded him, and made a good impression both in and out of the church. His leaving Louisville was not on account of any dissatisfaction, but simply because he did not like city life, and his family were unwilling to leave their beautiful country home for the dust and heat of the metropolis.
One great drawback was the unfinished condition of the church building. The windows were boarded up, no steps in front, the upper part a grand pigeon roost. The members had been worshiping in the basement for years. The Doctor's first work was to finish the house. The architect was consulted, and said that twenty-three or four thousand dollars would be ample. The Doctor told the church it must be raised at once. It was a large sum of money to be given by a church that had already contributed so largely, but in a few weeks he had twenty-seven thousand subscribed, and inside of a year it was ready for occupancy; but it took ten thousand more to finish it than the architect calculated. This amount he would not attempt to raise—it was borrowed; the debt was funded and paid afterward.
The Doctor was fortunate in having an efficient corps
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of officers in the church. His deacons were all men of good business sense, and the financial affairs ran smoothly. The Louisville Church spent more money on the poor fund than any church we ever lived in—house rent, coal and clothing was between $900 and $1,000. One year the church paid $400 for funeral expenses for its poor. Dr. Hopson always urged the church to take care of its worthy poor. If they were unworthy, exclude them, and not have the double disgrace of keeping bad people in the church and neglecting them.
Bro. Wm. C. Dawson was preaching for the Floyd and Chestnut Streets Church when we located in Louisville. He was in the transitional state between the Christian Church and the Episcopal. The idea that we were not under law as advocated by some of our teachers, had taken firm possession of his mind, and he reasoned that God gave definite and -specific laws at Mt. Sinai to govern the Jewish nation, his chosen people; but as he had not said, "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not," under the Christian dispensation; therefore the church was left to devise the best ways and means to govern herself, and every man became a law unto himself. In vain his uncle, Dr. T. S. Bell, and Dr. Hopson argued with him and showed him that "where there is no law there is no sin," for "sin is the transgression of law," and that God did not leave his last and crowning dispensation without laws to govern it. In the commission given in Matt. xxviii. 20 Christ said to his apostles, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." A command is the expressed will of God, and becomes a law without the "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt not." I. John iii. 23, "This is his commandment, That we believe." Acts xvii. 30, "The times of this ignorance God winked at;
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but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Acts x. 48, "And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," or by his authority. These were certainly commandments as binding and as distinctly embodying law as any in the Decalogue. If these three were binding upon man, were not the hundreds of others given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the the apostles in the Bible?
In spite of reason and revelation, he took the step which severed his connection with the church of his fathers, and sent him into undeserved obscurity. It was a source of deep sorrow to the Doctor, for he was very much attached to him.
Bro. T. P. Haley succeeded Bro. Dawson in the Floyd Street Church, and in him the Doctor found an earnest co-worker. There was perfect harmony between the churches, and they worked together as one, in building up the cause in Louisville. Brethren O. P. Miller, Owen, Baker, Miller, Crump, Snyder, et al., were always ready to cooperate with the Doctor. As soon as the church was completed, he turned his attention to the planting, of a mission church on Fifteenth and Jefferson Streets. With the assistance of his own congregation and the above-named, they soon had a neat little building ready to worship in, and a few months later Bro. James Keith was placed in charge, and in a few years he and the brethren associated with him built up a good congregation. By this mission, Fourth and Walnut lost several excellent members who lived in the vicinity of the new church.
By this time the spirit of missions had obtained full possession of our people in the city, and Floyd street made preparations to swarm. A location was selected in the
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upper part of the city, a hall secured, and Brethren Rubel and Baker began to gather the nucleus of another congregation, which has become a flourishing church.
I would not have any one suppose that I am intimating that Dr. Hopson was the sole instigator of the religious "boom" in the Christian Church in Louisville, but I mean to say he took a very deep interest in every movement made to build up the cause of Christ, and was always ready in every way to meet every demand made upon him.
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