There yet remains a timeless place that often comes to mind as I sometimes
turn the pages of my boyhood memories and in this place is a
quiet cabin sitting atop a bench of land up a steep hollow at
a place that once was called Willow Shoals at a little bend in
the green and ever flowing beautiful middle fork of the Kentucky
river in the rolling foothills, the lush green valleys and soft
river bottoms just southeast of Natural Bridge Kentucky, but
no one lives there anymore for the man who built that quiet cabin
and all who lived there with him at Willow Shoals in days long
since past, have all gone on to be at home with the Lord Jesus.
As
now I come back to remember
and visit it again as it was in my youth I cannot help, but to
want to share this place and the people who once lived there
with all of you and perhaps you, too, may be blessed with these
wonderful memories from the pages of my Childhood where I once
sat upon a hand made hickory hoop cane bottom chair beside my
uncle Willie Horn (1881-1977) as he read from his old Bible the
pages of which were worn and stained with the turning of time
and many a precious tear.
Uncle Willie was not a
preacher!... He was just
a simple hard working self-sufficient mountain man who lacked
for nothing as his barn was always full of hay for his mule and
the one brown cow he had, the corn crib was always overflowing,
the hen house was full of chickens that laid a basket full of
fresh eggs every day, the root cellar was always stacked to the
brim for the winter ahead with bushels of red and golden apples
and bright green hard pears that had been picked at just the
right time and the wooden bins in the cool root cellar were overflowing
with all kinds of vegetables carefully stacked and prepared to
last through the winter, there were big bunches of carrots, radishes,
onions, boxes of cabbages, potatoes and great big sweet potatoes
that when aunt Gertie would bake them in the oven of a wood burning
cook stove out in the summer kitchen they would pop open as though
they were looking forward to the home made butter that had been
churned out by hand by my loving, thoughtful and wonderful aunt
who was my mother's oldest sister who always had lots of hugs
and sweet kisses for that often sick little boy that I was who
always looked forward to the time each summer that I got to spend
with uncle Willie and Aunt Gertie Horn at Willow Shoals and to
visit my grandmother and stay a week or so with her, as well.
I
can still hear the soft sounds of
the cool summer evenings as the whip-poor-wills and turtle doves
sang in the soft green flowering meadows down a little path just
below uncle Willie's cabin as the crickets clicked and the frogs
sang forth around the well stocked fish pond at the edge of the
fruit orchard as the sun began to set over another day now long
since past. But, I remember those days so well and the precious
time I spent sometimes sitting at the feet of my Uncle Willie
Horn as he read the bible outloud and each evening he would start
off by saying; "Now Faith Is The Substance Of
Things Hoped For And The Evidence Of Things Not Seen!"...and
"Faith Cometh By Hearing And The Hearing Of The Word Of
God!"
Oh, how beautiful is the voice of Uncle Willie as now I can
hear him again just as if he were still here to read the word
of God and help to instill in me the love of Christ and the unchangeable
word of the living God and often as he read from the word he
would stop in the middle of a verse and shout;... "Oh HALLELUJAH!...Blessed
are the PURE of HEART for they shall see the KINGDOM OF GOD!"
"Blessed are the Pure Of Heart!"......"for they
shall see the Kingdom Of God!"..Oh how those precious words rang out loud and clear
down the nearby hollow and seem to come back to its' sender as
the frogs and the crickets stopped their singing each time Uncle
Willie would shout out those words as they moved my heart to
a precious understanding of those words that even now I can hear
them ringing across the soft green meadow as the sweet smell
of summer wild flowers and roses blooming at the garden gate
seem to sooth the evening hour as the sun began to follow its'
retreat behind a green timbered mountain from my front porch
view as I sat at the beautiful feet of my uncle Willie Horn!
Often as uncle Willie
read the word of God he would stop and say; "Davy there just ain't nothing in this old world
like the word of God!.it will
sooth a troubled or a broken heart, it will heal the sick , give
sight to the blind and make the lame to walk and heal a little
leper, it'll quench the fire of the fiery darts of the devil,
it will take you to a higher mountain, it will bring forth rivers
of living water from your belly and it will help you cross the
troubled water and help you to walk on top of the water. Yes,
if you will get into HIS word and honor God with your daily prayers
of thanks for all that HE has given you, you will lack for nothing
in this life that is good and honorable to have, if you will
just take this word and pour it into yourself every day my little
man God will bless you in abundance!" As that little boy
I could not help, but to believe every word that uncle Willie
said about the word of God for indeed Uncle Willie lacked for
nothing or for any good thing!
Uncle
Willie was loved and respected by all who knew him and he gave
to the work of the cross with his gift giving to the poor and
needy and to help with the mission work of the little church
that sat across the river at Willow Shoals which he and aunt
Gertie would walk down the long steep hollow to a hand made row
boat and row across the river every Sunday morning to hear the
word of God preached by a little old mountain preacher whose
name is now, but remembered only in Heaven!
I, too, during those wonderful Sunday summers sat on a pew in that little mountain
church house to hear the word of the Living God preached from
HIS Holy Bible just as it is written as that little congregation
would shout out....OH
HALLELUJAH!... as the
preacher filled with the Holy Ghost shouted forth the word of
God as a sinner came forth to give their life to Christ at the
foot of that little alter that is now long gone from this earth,
but is this day and hour in some green valley far over in glory
land and all of those that came to that little earthen alter
are now walking on the streets of Glory...their feet are now
shod in the precious fire jewels and the gold of heaven and I
know that uncle Willie and my aunt Gertie are walking there,
too, and some day I will again see them for I know that there
is a place called heaven because Uncle Willie said there was
and read about it to me from the living word of God and uncle
Willie was a man whom you could believe what he said...because
he honored his word and lived by the word of God every day of
his life and he lacked for nothing or any good thing his whole
life and then at the age of 96 God lovingly and softly took him
home as uncle Willie slept in that quiet cabin that was filled
with the love of Christ and steadfast faith in the living word
of God, there, at Willow Shoals!
Few people today even know where Willow Shoals was and the train depot, the little general
store, the log cabins along the river and the little mountain
Church that was there are all gone and even the dirt wagon road
that pitched it's self down a long dark hollow that led to Willow
Shoals is no longer usable and all that is left is the graveyard
which in it's self has been retaken by the forest and if you
did not know where it was it is unlikely you could even find
it. Over the last few years I have went back several times to
where the settlement of Willow Shoals was and I found a man with
a boat who could take me across the river and as I walked up
the long hollow to where Uncle Willie's cabin was and the closer
I got the more I could still hear Uncle Willie reading out of
his Old Bible!...."Now
Faith Is The Substance Of Things Hoped For And The Evidence Of
Things Not Seen!"...and "Faith Cometh By Hearing And
The Hearing Of The Word Of God!..........Thank You Lord Jesus!
Dr. Davy as a boy of seven!Wanted Dedicated Christians! "Who are not for sale; Who are honest, sound-true to the heart's core; Who condemn wrong in friend or foe; in themselves as well as others: Whose consciences are steady as a needle to the pole; Who will stand for the right if the heavens totter and the earth reels; Who can tell the truth and stand by it;Who will neither flag nor flinch; Who can have courage without whistling for it,and joy without shouting to bring it; Who have the current of everlasting life running deep, still and strong, Who know their message and tell it, know their duty and do it, know their place and fill it, who are not too lazy to work and sow into the the store-house of God for the work of his Kingdom so they may be blessed of God for their giving and who are willing to eat what they have been blessed with and use what they have paid for!" ~Dr. Davy
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