Additional information can be found on Plumer’s Wikipedia page; Caleb Cangelosi’s article at This Day in Presbyterian History; and Barry Waugh’s article at Presbyterians of the Past. Several of his commentaries, treatises, and other works are available via the Internet Archive.
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Plumer User Guide
Robert H. Ellison
The User Guide for the Library of Appalachian Preaching is a Google Sheet that can be searched, sorted, and downloaded for offline use.
This part of the Guide provides information about Plumer’s sermons and other discourses. It includes the title, scripture text, date and place the address was delivered (if known), and so on. This information is available in the master list of sermons as well.
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Inaugural Address
William Swan Plumer
This address was delivered on October 20, 1854 and published in Addresses Delivered at the Inauguration of Rev. Wm. S. Plumer, D. D., as Professor of Didactic and Pastoral Theology in the Western Theological Seminary (Pittsburgh: W. S. Haven, 1854). It is not a sermon, but it is included in the Library to help give a complete picture of Plumer’s oratory.
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Incomprehensibility of God's Nature and Ways
William Swan Plumer
This sermon, on Job 11:7-9, was originally published in the August 1853 issue of the American National Preacher. Plumer was working outside Appalachia at the time, as the pastor of the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore; the sermon is included in the Library to help give a complete picture of his oratory.
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Efficiency of the Church
William Swan Plumer
This sermon, on Acts 12:21, was delivered on November 20, 1849, and published in Discourses at the Inauguration of the Rev. James W. Alexander, D. D., as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in the Theological Seminary at Princeton (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1850). It was preached outside Appalachia, and Plumer was pastoring in Baltimore at the time, but it is included in the Library to help give a complete picture of Plumer’s oratory.
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Short Sermons to Little Children
William Swan Plumer
In a preface entitled “A Few Words to all Little Boys and Girls,” Plumer writes, “I never saw most of you who will read this book. But I hope you will read it. It is not long, and it is not hard. I use short and plain texts and easy words. If you will heed what I tell you, it will do you good all your life” (1).
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Substance of an Argument against the Indiscriminate Incorporation of Churches and Religious Societies. Delivered before the Committee of Courts of Justice of the House of Delegates of Virginia, on the Evening of the 8th of January, and on Subsequent Evenings, in A.D. 1846, in Reply to James Lyons and Wm. H. Macfarland, Esqs.
William Swan Plumer
In this 80-page, multi-night discourse, Plumer addresses the question, “Shall the Legislature by a general law create as many religious corporations as there are congregations and religious societies in the State?” (p. 8). As the title suggests, he argues the negative side of the issue, a position he believes is supported “by the uniform principles of human nature, and by the history of the world for fifteen hundred years” (p. 3). The “argument” was presented outside Appalachia, while Plumer was serving as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Virginia, but it is included in the Library to help give a complete picture of Plumer’s oratory.
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Scripture Doctrine of a Call to the Work of the Gospel Ministry
William Swan Plumer
This sermon, on Matthew 4:18-22, was preached at Virginia’s Union Theological Seminary in April 1831 and published the following year. Plumer was working outside Appalachia at the time, as the pastor of Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, Virginia; the sermon is included in the Library to help give a complete picture of his oratory.
