Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1916-06-09
A VERMONT BILLY SUNDAY,

Of all dull and uninteresting books
old volumes of sermons are usually the
dullest and dryest. Even antiquarans
have little care for the ordinary relig-
ious treatses OF former generations.
Second hand book shops are full OF
them, to be had at a few cents each.
But any one who cares for the early
history of Vermont, especially of its
colleges, will find material of greatest
interest and value in couple of old
volumes containing the sermons Of
Jedidiah Burchard.
One such volume was published by
Chauncey Goodrich of Burlington in
1886, and a copy has recently come to
light. An earlier volume of Burchard S
sermons was published in Woodstock,
which the writer would like much to see
Jedidah Rurchard was an evangelist,
who held "protracted meetings in
Middlebury, Burlington, Hinesburg
Williston, and many other towns in
Vermont in the '30's of the last CEN
fury. His meetings were highly sue
cessful in point of attendance, interest,
and converts. Crowds came to hear
him night after night. Excitement was
intense. The front seats of churches
were filled with the repentant and he
claimed as many as fifty or sixty con-
verts night He was the sensation of
the day in many sections Of the state.
Just as opinion concerning Billy Sun
day is now divided in Boston, so men
differed about Jedidiah Burchard and
his methods in Vermont seventy-five
years ago. Middlebury College sup
ported and defended him. President
Bates followed him to different towns
and assisted in his meetings. Dr.
Thomas A. Merrill, long one of the
strongest men on the Corporation, en-
dorsed him heartily. On the other
hand the faculty of the University of
Vermont were critical. DR.. Marsh was
accused of engaging a stenographer to
take down Burchard's sermons and re-
marks to persons on the ''anxlous
seats" that their publication might
discredit the preacher. Both the ste
nographer and the publisher declared
the University had nothing to do with
it. But there was evidently bitter feel
ing between the two institutions over
the revivalist, and probably Burchard
was right in his feeling that the Bur
lington institution endorsed neither him,
nor his methods, nor the type of piety
which he represented.
The results of the controversy were
unfortunate for Middlebury College.
Up to that time the College had been
about twice as large as the University
and more prosperous financially. The
class of 1888 numbered 40 graduates
and adjacent classes were nearly as
large. A few years later the college
was graduating classes of 6, ID, and 8.
There was change of Presidents about
that time and the resignation of several
professors, including the GLORIOUS
Hough' in 1889, but if the true inward
ness of the trouble were known doubt
less it would be found that the enmtes
and divisions stirred up by the travelling
preacher were the real cause of the
difficulty. Religious feeling ran high
in those days and the differences stirred
up by Burchard went deep.
! 1t is always difficult to judge fairly q
man of an earlier generation, but if the
stenographic reports of Burchards har-
argues are accurate, Dr. Marsh and the
faculty of the University of Vermont