In 1830, Alexander Campbell began publishing a religious magazine called The Millennial Harbinger. In the very first, Campbell expounded upon what he considered the "shameful" practice of plagiarizing sermons. Here a few of my favorite quotes:
"It must be a painful thing to an intelligent man to hear young men...repeat sermons full of rich thought, expressed in appropriate and eloquent language. It looks like the efforts of a giant put forth by an infant."
"The practice is now carried to a shameful extent -- and it ought to be exposed; the practice of committing to memory short sermons composed by others, and delivering them...with the profession...that they are extempore."
"We have ourselves heard eloquent sermons from young men who cannot spell correctly in two syllables; and who understand nothing, even the structure of a common English sentence. Nay, worse; we have heard Greek and Chaldaic quoted by a preacher who did not know a noun from a verb in his own nor any language. We guard our young men against this growing evil."
I've included an image of the original source below, and you can find the origianal sources in their totality HERE and HERE.
