In the summer of 1873, cholera swept through Nashville. Close to 1,000 people died, roughly one in every 25 residents. Many who could afford it fled the city. David Lipscomb lived ten miles out in the country, but he stayed in Nashville to help the sick. He drove Catholic sisters to their patients in his buggy and cared for the sick and dying himself, including African Americans. Young men from the church of Christ worked especially in the neglected villages of freed slaves, bringing medicine and food. Afterward Lipscomb wrote that faith which does not make us willing to brave death for suffering people is little more than empty profession. Different churches and races served side by side. Mercy crosses every line we draw.
