The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-03-08
A Plagiarizlng 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 mountain
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 diyines for the pur-
| nose ~ anforcino RELIGIONS doctrines up-
! On a community which annreoiated its
need of RELIGIOUS enIightenment. and
WAS thirsting for constant and abund-
| any sunnlv. The town of Cumminpton.
Il NAV be mentioned. is one of those
out-of.the-wav sections, of which there
ara not n few in Massachusetts. that
would rarely have been heard from II
some person subsequently famous had
not hannened 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 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 HinsdaIe stage early last sum-
mer~ He said that he came from Glen
ham, N. Y, that his name was Nhalen,
and that he had been authorized to dis
pense the Gospel in West Cummington.
The standard religion there, as we'll as
in most of the towns within a radius of
twenty miles, is OF the orthodox Con-
oreoational order, stripped of all mod
ern innovations. Though the new
conner was dapper young fellow, vet
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 ut once
the pet of both the old and the yonng
in the moral community OF the Hamp-
shire hills. At the very outset his SER
mons were brilliant and captivating,
and MS they multiplied in number so did
they increase in merit of construction
) and elouuence of delivery. Now and
then a man happened in town who had
heard Beecher, Brooks, Sturgeon and
J other famous prea hers, and 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.
a peciallv brilliant diseourses was old
' Father Baldwin, who himself had occu
| pied the same pulpit in Cummington
! over forty wears ago. A few days later
: Father Baldwin happened TO pick up q
: religious monthly published in New
I York, and he found that il contained
t the identical sermon which he had lis
! tened to from Whalen, and that the
t same had been preached by Rev. DR.
Deems in the church of the Stranger:
in New York long time before. Or
/ further investigation 1t was found thai
a the Young preacher had also delighted
v the Cummingtonians with another dis
o course which appeared in the same
number of the magazine, and which hat
been originally delivered by Rev. DIR
Armitage, of New York. Before an
other Sabbath rolled around these fact
d were pretty we'll spread throughout tn,
small town, and the accused preache
= could not very we'll ignore what haC
d been the subject of common gossip HI
a stood up in the pulpit and declared tina
/ the stories were all false. More thai
- this, he assumed such an air Of injured
innocence that the majority of the con
r. gregation at once gave an imprompt
70 vote of their confidence in his integrit,
and statements. Shortly after this tn
/. pulpit of church in the neighborinl
& town of Plainfield happened to be with
10 out pastor on certain Sabbath, an
10 one of the deacons of the church ha
r arranged to read a sermon to the con
gregation. At the last moment youn
l. Whalen was invited to PREACH one, an
"a he accepted, and report says by sir
gular coincidence he preached the ider
t, teal discourse which the deacon wa