The Brookhaven leader., 1884-01-31
A PIagiarizing ParsOn.

One of the most remarkable cases of
sermon stealing on the part of pro-
fessed preacher of the Gospel Is report
ed from the town of Cummington, one
of the sparsely-populated mounta n
sections in Hampshire County, in the
western part of the State. 1t was not
one of the vulgar cases of stealing the
the livery of Heaven to serve the devil
in, but an insance in which rare good
taste was exercised in purloining 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 constant and abund-
ant supply. The town of Cummington,
it may be mentioned, is one of those
out-of-the-way sections, of which there
are not 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 dlstin-
guished poet and accomplished editor.
Not since the death of Mr. Bryant has
the town had a topic so fruitful of opin-
ions and discussions as tie entrance in
to and exit from it of an n 'complished
young preacher, who dropped off there
from the Hinsdalc age early last sum-
mer. He said that he came from Glen
ham. n. Y, that his NAM was WhaIen,
and that he had been author Zed 10 dis
pense the Gospel in West Cummington.
The standard re igion there, as well as
in mot of the towns within a IA iius of
Dt hn rt.th 4
gregational order, stripped of all mod
ern innovations. Though the new
conner wa a dapper Young fellow, yet
he believed in the cast-iton orthodoxy
of our fathers. For these combine
reasons, no less than on account of his
remarkable ard clequent sermons, the
importation from Glcnham was at once
the pet of both the old and the young
in the moral community of the Hamp-
shire hills. At the very on set his Sc
mons were brill ant and captivating,
and as they mu tiplied in number SO did
they inc ease in merit Of construction
and eloquence of delivery. Now and
then man happened in town who had
heard Beecher, Bro k, Surgeon and
other famous prta hers, ard they one
and all declared that young Nhalen
was destined to be the rival of the best
Of them.
Among the listeners to one of his es-
pecially br liant Scout ses was old
Father Baldwin, who himself had occu
pied the same pulpit in Cummington
over forty years ago. A few dalS later
Father Baldwin happened to pick up
religious monthly published in New
York, and he found that it containcd
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 long time before. On
further investigation it was f und that
the young preacher had also delighted
the Cummngtonians with another dis
course which appeared in the same
number of the magazine, aud which had
been originally delivered by Rev. DR..
Armitagc, 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 were all 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 ne;ghborirg
town of Plainfield happened to be with
out pastor on certain Sabbath, and
one of the deaconS of the church had
arranged to read sermon TO the con-
gregatiOn. At the last moment young
Whalen was invited to preach one, and
he accepted, and report says by sin
gular coincidence he preached the iden-
tical 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 Ium-
mington market. The final overthrow
was not long delayed. Ex-senator
James White, of Boston, is a native of
Hinsdale, town not far from Cum
mington, and every summer he visits
the home of his youth to get 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 hea d about Wha-
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 o. the preacher, Mr..
White subsequently found it, it is said,
in a work published nearly century
ago. After so many conclusive proofs
of his ways, Mr.. Whalen wisely left
town and he has not been beard from
since. 1t 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 CHEST degree ben
eficial. Herald.
1t is all very well to have a sweet
heart who is spiritually minded, says
the Indianapolis journal, but the girl
who looks into futurity and sees death
reaching after her love. is not likely to
fill popular demand Miss Lemon, of
Millersburg, Ohio, was one of this Sort
Recently she was stricken with paraly-
sis. Before her death she said farewell
to her intended husband, informing him
at the same time that he would follow
her in a very short time. The young
man who was healthy and robust and