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��WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.
��had learned them from the Sermon on the Mount and the example of its great Author, might have clarified and quick- ened his vision, mentally and spiritually.
At any rate, he subsequently re-ex- amined the doctrines and dogmas of the evangelical sects, their avowed faith in the plenary inspiration of the scriptures, included. As one result of such further investigation, he attended a convention in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1S53, called to consider the claims and character of the Jewish and Chris- tian Scriptures. The meeting was very numerously attended, most of the Northern and Western states having representation, and continued four days, with three long sessions each day. In one of them Mr. Garrison offered, and defended very ably, a series of res- olutions, the first of which was to this purport :
Resolved, That the doctrines of the American church and priesthood, that the Bible is the word of God ; that whatever it contains was given by di- vine inspiration, and that it is the only rule of faith and practice, is self-evi- dently absurd ; is exceedingly injurious both to the intellect and the soul ; is highly pernicious in its application, and a stumbling-block in the way of human redemption."
And yet to the end of his life, no man more venerated, or made wiser, better or more frequent use of the Bible than did Mr. Garrison. In an article from his pen, now before me, he writes : "I have lost my traditional and educational notions of the holiness of the Bible, but have gained greatly, I think, in my es- timation of it. * * I am fully aware how grievously the priesthood have perverted it and wielded it as an instrument of spiritual despotism, and in. opposition to the sacred cause of humanity. Still, to no other volume do I turn with so
��much interest. No other do I consult so frequently ; to no other am I so in- debted for light and strength ; no other is so identified with the growth of hu- man freedom and progress ; to no other have I so effectively appealed in aid of reformatory moverhents I have espoused ; and it embodies an amount of excellence so great, as to make it in my estimation, the Book of Books."
Garrison long ago learned to doubt nothing only because it was new ; and to accept nothing unless it had more than the moss and mold of age to rec- ommend it. He found the world, even the best of it, most enlightened of it, most Christian, " dead in the trespasses and sins of Intemperance, Slavery, War, Capital Punishment, and Wo- man's Enslavement." He lived to set on foot, or largely and liberally to co- operate in enterprises and instrumen- talities for correcting all these fearful abuses, righting all these wrongs.
Then another stranger came to his door. With characteristic hospitality that door was again opened. The new guest was Spiritualism ; another " sect everywhere spoken against," as anti-slavery had been, half a genera- tion before. Even abolitionists, many of the most zealous of them, treated the new stranger with scorn.
Not so Garrison. And in giving the new idea recognition, lie found, and ever after confidently believed, that he had been literally "entertaining angels ;" though not " unawares !"
And spiritualism too, he yoked to his great " chariot of salvation ;" per- haps in the full faith and hope of the eminent Lord Brougham, when he said : " Even in the most cloudless skies of skepticism, I see a rain-cloud, if it be no Inggcr than a muni's hand ; and its name is Modern Spiritual- ism."
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