ry
of a mother long dead, whose darling was James, he was nursed and
watched over with deep and pious love. There were sad lapses of the
profligate man even in the sanctuary of his brother's home. The craving
for liquor was omnipotent in the wretched creature, and he was attacked
by uncontrollable desire for drink. But William's patience was infinite,
and his yearning and pity at such times were as sweet and strong as a
mother's. Death rung the curtain down in the fall of 1842, on this
miserable life with its sorry and pathetic scenes.

About this time a trial of a different sort fell to the lot of Garrison
to endure. The tongue of detraction was never more busy with his alleged
infidel doctrines or to more damaging effect. Collins, in England,
seeking to obtain contributions for the support of the agitation in
America found Garrison's infidelity the _great lion_ in the way of
success. Even the good dispositions of the venerable Clarkson were
affected by the injurious reports in this regard, circulated in England
mainly by Nathaniel Colver, a narrow and violent sectary of the Baptist
denomination of the United States. It was, of course, painful to
Garrison to feel that he had become a rock of offence in the path of the
great movement, which he had started and to which he was devoting
himself so energetically. To Elizabeth Pease, one of the noblest of the
English Abolitionists, and one of his stanchest transatlantic friends,
he defended himself against the false and cruel statements touching his
religious beliefs. "I esteem the Holy Scriptures," he wrote her, "above
all other books in the universe, and always appeal to 'the law and the
testimony' to prove all my peculiar doctrines." His religious sentiments
and Sabbatical views are almost if not quite identical with those held
by the Quakers. "I believe in an indwelling Christ," he goes on to
furnish a summary of his confession of faith, "and in His righteousness
alone; I glory in nothing here below, save in Christ and in Him
crucified; I believe all the works of the devil are to be destroyed, and
Our Lord is to reign from sea to sea, even to the ends of the earth; and
I profess to have passed from death unto life, and know by happy
experience, that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." These were
the pioneer's articles of faith. Their extreme simplicity and
theological conservatism it would seem ou