Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-02-22
A Plagiarizing Parson.

One of the most remarkable cases OF
sermon stealing on the part OF a pro-
fessed preacher of the Gospel is report
ed from the town of C~ummington, one
Of the sparsely-populated mountain
sections in Hampshire County, in the
western part of the State. 1t was not
one of the vulgar cases vi stealing the
the livery of Heaven to serve the devil
in, but an insance in which rare good
taste was exercised in p%urloining the
sermons of leading divines for the pur-
pose of enforcing religious doctrines up
on a community which appreciated its
need of religious enlightenment, and
was thirsting for q constant and abund-
ant supply. The town of Cummington,
it may be mentioned, is n of those
out-of-the-way sections. Of which there
are not a few in Massachusetts, that
would rarely have been heard from if
some person subsequently famous had
not happened to have been born there.
In this case the person was no less than
William Cullen Bryant, the distin-
guished poet and accomplished editor.
Not since the death of Mr.. Bryant has
the town had q topic so fruitful Of opin-
ions and discussions as the entrance in
to and exit from it of an accomplished
young preacher, who dropped off there
from the Hinsdale stage early last sum-
mer. He said that he came from Glen
ham, N. Y, that his name was Whalen,
and that he had been authorized to dis
pcnse the Gospel in West Cummington.
The standard religion there, as well as
in most of the towns within a radius of
ro-4 ~,1., =, - xl>1 @r%1,~J~,- No.,
gregational order, stripped Of all mod
ern innovations. Though the new
conner was a dapper young fellow, yet
he believed in the cast-iron orthodoxy
of our fathers. For these combined
reasons, no less than on account Of his
remarkable and eloquent sermons, the
importation from Glenham was at once
the pet of both the old and the young
in the moral community Of the Hamp-
shire hills. At the very outset his SER
mons were brilliant and captivating,
and as they multiplied in number so did
they increase in merit Of construction
and eloquence of delivery. Now and
then a man happened in town who had
heard Beecher, Brooks, Sturgeon and
other famous preachers, aud they one
and all declared that young Whalen
was destined to be the rival Of the best
of them.
Among the listeners to one of his es,
pecially brilliant discourses was old
Father Baldwin, who himself had occu-
pied the same pulpit in Cummington
over forty years ago. A few days later
Father Baldwin happened to pick up a
religious monthly published in New
York, and he found that it contained
the identical sermon which he had lis
tened to from Whalen, and that the
same had been preached by Rev. DR..
Deems in the church of the Strangers
in New York q long time before. On
further investigation it was found that
the young preacher had also delighted
the Cummlngtonians with another dis
course which appeared in the same
number OF the magazine, and which had
been or ginally delivered by Rev. DR..
Armitage, of New York. Before an
other Sabbath rolled around these facts
were pretty well spread throughout the
small town, and the accused preacher
could not very well ignore what had
been the subject of common gossip. He
stood up in the pulpit and declared that
the stories We're ali false. More than
this, he assumed such an air of injured
innocence that the majority of the con
gregation at once gave an impromptu
vote of their confidence in his Integrity
and statements. Shortly after this the
pulpit of a church in the n%eighborino
town of Plaintield happened to be with
out a pastor on a certain Sabbath, and
one of the deacons of the church had
arranged to read a sermon to the con-
gregation. At the last moment Young
Whalen was invited to preach one, and
he accepted, and report a y by a sin
gular coincidence he preached the iden-
teal discourse which the deacon was
about to read from the New York mag
azine above alluded to. About this time
the young divine's popularity began to
have a downward tendency in the Cum
mington market. The final overthrow
was not long delayed. Ex-senator
james White, of Boston, is q native of
Hinsdale, a town not far from Cum
mington, and every summer he visits
the home of his youth to get a breath Of
fresh air. Mr.. White came near enter
ing the ministry at one time, and he has
always been an active and enthusiastic
churchman. . He had head about VIVA.
len. and one Sunday he went over to
Cummington to hear him preach. The
sermon was an excellent one and elo-
quently delivered, but, unfortunately
for the status OF the preacher, MIR.
White subsequently, found it, it is said,
in a work published nearly a century
ago After so many conclusive proofs
Of his ways, Mr.. Nhalen wisely left
town and he has not been heard from
since. It is stated that, in spite of his
deception, he created a sincere religious
awakening in Cummington, and his
presence among the people is believed
to have been in the highest degree ben
eficial.-B0ston Herald.
WHATS this-what's this?:" said
Congressman Bedford, of Colorado, in a
hotel lobby the other morning, as he