The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-10
Eloquent Sermons of Ministers
Dead and Gone Preached by
Modern Pulpiteers.
The Flourishing Business of Re-
vamping Them Imported
from England.
Sermon Factories Are Quito Prevalent
on the Other Side-A Dealers
Open Confession.

of the Catholic churches. are not original,
but are either type written or Autographed
copies of discourses composed BY men who
make this their business. Quite a number
of those pre- ched appear to be extenpora-
neous, as they are delivered without notes.
but they are really memori2ed.
Thus says an old book dealer not far from
Aston place and the Bible house to q report
or of the New York News. ut is perfectly
amazing the demand l have for collections
of sermons by the diviue OF the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries,' he remarked.
'Tho moment l get hold OF any they are
Immediately sobb,ea up 10y the preachers
OF nearly all denominations.
"SStrange. isn't it? Clergymen who every
Sunday recite the eighth commandment to
their congregations, deliberately steal their
sermons III the way | have suggested, II
they do not pilfer them, then by the rur-
chase of M 9efsscript sermons written by
others, they at least show that there ought
to have been an eleventh commandment for
their especial benefit, and thar | suggest
should be, Thou shalt not commit false
pretenses.'"
This sort of thing is not new" the
IA "SlAt o-le ~ Aitto tNNhA tttSNASb IL
England for years and centuries. Adver-
tisements, like tho following, appear quite
regularly:
Manuscript Sermons-Seven hundred
origiuGl manuscript sermons, written and
preached between lS4o and 1866, by the late
Rev. iIa,tin Iwiss, D. d., Rector of
Mawdesley, Lancashire, price one pound
one shilling per hundred, or six pounds six
shillings the lot.
Now that is the way we pick up most of
our manuscript sermons" resumed the
bookseller: land they largely come tom
the other side. In England there are quite
a number of sermon factories, 1t is really
a profession. l was taught my trade in
London, so | know considerable about it.
Twenty years ago, a dealer OF any position
retained a staff of sermon manufacturers.
A subject was given or a text selected, and
in from twelve to twenty-fou- hours the
manuscript was ready for the preacher. If
ne was in want of an up-to-date discourse
half a guinea to a guinea, that is about $500
to $5.25 was the charge. Or if a manu-
script in stock suited the purp ose the price
was from half a crown to five shillings,
equivalent to say 60 cents to $l.25. 1t was
the practice in the fo,ties to keep u supp ly
Ol uftllu. lLtSS were PlGSou-LOlGl Ill
alphabetical order, according to theme or
according to subject. The plgeonhole sup
ply was common property. Duplicates were
more frequent than not. Many were we'll
thumbed and invariably were dead mems
leayings, most often obtained for cash
down from executors or other representa-
lives of deceased ~clergymen
But the latest phase in the science is to
b4ild up sermon by mental absorption" he
went on. ut is no rare occurrence for a
preacher to make it has daily task to peruse
a printed sermon by a suggestive preacher,
and in his own way from the pulpit to run
through the sieve another hinker's bon
mots. Sometimes it is only the skeleton
that is taken. At others it is body and soul
that is attached.
Another sermon monger is tho elegant
extract man. A well-known and appre-
ciated London preacher Of this order was
a vandal in such matters. He would not
take the trouble to write out his extracts.
lie would cut whole pages of snippets out
of his book and paste them on his manu-
script. When the other day his books came
under the hammer there was great search
ing of heart about their lmperfections.
I'VE are not a bit BETTER" the speaker
proceeded, I'm the United States than thew
are i'll England. I've known books sold at
auction on Broadway that had been treated
in this same barbarous manner. Some of
the domlnles had not contented themselves
with cutting up mere volumes of sermons,
but had apparently even worked up Emer-
son, Ihoreau and al old-timer like Addi-
son. | suppose their congregations thought
their pastors to be men of the highest intel
lectuallty and great poetic imaginative
power, but they were only charlatans and
frauds.S
'What are sermons worth a volume, and
has there been much rise in prices?' was
asked.
They range in Value was the answer,
from SO cents to $l.5O. The same, wears
ago, ran from 10 cents to % cents. But as
we have to supply from New York the most
remote villages in the United States the
price has had to 90 up. 1t is astonishing,
the call for the old diylnes such as South,
C~hllllngworth, and even the seventeenth
century Puritans who have had to be re-
printed to meet the ~exigencies of those rev
erend embezzlers of sermons. ] firmly be
lieve that ere long the supply Will be en-.
tirely shut off, and the parsons will have to
depend entirely upon copies turned off
from photographic presses or typewriter
ones done by the hundreds from the mime.
ograph.'
Are there any sermon factories in New
York, the same, as You say, there are il
London?' was asked.
There are several men whom | know
who do these fake sermons and very inter
esting people they are, too. One is a cler
gyman who lost his church on account OF
immortality. Some of the very ministers
who tried him, and who insisted on his be
ing untrocked, are now preaching his ser
mons regularly every Sunday. This
know for a fact, as | sell them myself"
How do you charge for these sermons?'
u sell them for about fifty cents apiece
to 81 for single copies," was the boob
mans response. 81 prefer, however, t,
make a contract Tor a year with a clergy
man, and will provide him with two ser.
mons Tor every sunday, that is. 104 for Sit
year. No clergyman ought to haggle Owe
that. OF course, he will preach probabi,
the same sermon on the same SuDdn1
that, perhaps, $50 other ministers mr..
eloquently delivering, but | have moth.
ing to do with that. / cannot let hin
have an unique, original sermon under TIVE
10 three collars. as | have TO make my prof
1t. Even at that price no parson Shout,
complain, as their incomes range, as Il rule
from Sl,5U to 5000 A year. would mucl
like to give you the names of some of m,
clerical customers, but it would cause m
awful connection. Very often it haDpen,
that discourses | have furnished appear in
the Monday newspapers, and then | chuck
when know that the regulations of thos,
reverends have been sold to them right her
in my little store and are actually the in
spiration of their disgraced bibulou
brothers.. Well, what of 1t? If clergymrl
have not the ability, nave not the magma.
tive power, | am erfectly willing to b
paid for giving them alleged brains"
Il know at least two or three ecclesiast
cal dignitaries who never wrote a serno
in their lives, but are entirely depender
upon their wives, who are really bette
doctors of divinity thnn they are" the boo
man said further. ~ snppDse those unma