Where he first preached.
A special to the
Dispatch from
Pamplin City says:
The announcement of the death of
Dr. Hoge, the beloved minister, recalls the fact that his first sermon as an ordained minister of the Gospel was preached in
Walker's church, near this place, then an old weather-beaten building, with a central aisle dividing the sexes, as was the custom at that time.
On his return from
Lynchburg, whither he had gone on horseback to receive his ‘license’ from presbytery to preach, he stopped on a Saturday afternoon at the house of a friend to spend the night and ensuing Sabbath.
The next day he accompanied the family to church.
A revival was in progress, conducted by
Rev. William Taylor, of
Buckingham, a very popular minister of the
Baptist denomination.
The church was crowded with people, who had come to hear their favorite minister, and sectarian feeling in that day was very strong.
Under these circumstances
Dr. Hoge was invited into the pulpit, and accepted an invitation to preach.
As he went into the pulpit, an old lady was overheard to remark, ‘It is just like Brother Taylor to invite that stripling to preach at such a time as this.’
The sun of
Dr. Hoge's career, afterwards so bright and lustrous,
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had its dawning on that day. The old lady who made the invidious remark above quoted rode seven miles on horseback that afternoon to hear him preach again.
He was urged to remain and assist in the revival, and did so for several days, winning many souls to
Christ by his persuasive eloquence and fervor.
During the session of 1850-51, of the University of Virginia,
Dr. Hoge was one of a number of prominent ministers, who, by invitation, delivered a series of lectures before the students on the Evidences of Christianity (which was published in a handsome volume, with portrait, in 1853), and so signally logical and convincing was that of
Dr. Hoge, that it resulted in the conversion of many students.
Among them may be named
Rev. Richard McIlwaine, D. D.,
President of Hampden-Sidney College, and the late
Professor William J. Martin, of Davidson College,
North Carolina.
Thus for the magnification of the glory of God, was
Dr. Hoge an early instrument in sowing the seed.
Reference has been made to a fellow graduate from Hampden-Sidney College, of
Dr. Hoge, the late
Rev. W. T. Richardson, D. D., who preceded
Rev. James Power Smith, D. D., as editor and owner of that influential church organ, the
Central Presbyterian. In the conduct of this valued household visitant,
Dr. Hoge ever took the deepest interest, and many of its ablest editorials during the ownership of the late
Rev. William Brown, D. D., were written by
Dr. Hoge.
Thus, also, he contributed materially to the cause of education, and the furtherance of the work of The Master.
Our heart-impelled but hasty tribute to commanding excellences of purest ray, is almost done.
No medium of The Maker, we feel, has ever in devoted and useful life merited more lasting remembrance than has
Dr. Hoge.
Now, there remains but the reiteration, of a sublime trait.
He was thoroughly self-abnegative.
It is supererogatory with us of his home and the scenes of his devoted labors, to repeat this.
Although he had received for many years an appreciative salary, he died without estate and without a home of his own to shelter his honored head.
The remuneration of his life work, was all expended in the
Master's Cause, and in the alleviation of the wants of the needy and suffering—in Sweet Charity.
Of strongest devotion to local habitat, he had occupied the same domicile for two-score years, paying for it latterly, a rental, which its
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exterior, would in the estimation of any other, hardly have been held warranted.
“
Dr. Hoge's life was a prodigiously busy one.
He never seemed to be in a hurry; but he was never idle.
He was at work all the time.”
A year or two ago in deference to pressing request, he promised friends to commit to writing the so-appealing incidents of his blessedly protracted life.
It is feared that he had found the time to prepare but little of his ‘Reminiscences’ which would have proven so delightful, so helpful.
A distinguished divine in pithy review of the life of
Dr. Hoge, recently urged that he had been kept so busy in the
Master's Cause and in helpful deeds to his fellow-man that he had not taken the time to secure personal reward, or for any aggrandizement of his reputation and, in cogent summary, said: ‘He never wrote a book, he did not own a house!’
Dr. Hoge's accustomed mode of address was extempore.
Although no one exceeded him in the study of printed sources of information and in power to apply illustration, he but seldom committed to paper more than a skeleton of his line of exegis, and often made a jotting, simply, of illustrative points.
Consequently, of his wealth of itellect, but little tangible for print survives.
This is truly lamentable.
It has been stated that his nephew, who is happily competent,
the Rev. Peyton H. Hoge, D. D., has undertaken the preparation of Memoirs of his distinguished relative.
