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166 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

for it. I told him I had but just escaped from slavery, and was of course very
poor, and had no money then to pay for it. He was very willing to take me
as a subscriber, notwithstanding, and from this time I was brought into con-
tact with the mind of Mr. Garrison, and his paper took a place in my heart
second only to the Bible. It detested slavery, and made no truce with the traf-
fickers in the bodies and souls of men. It preached human brotherhood; it
exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places; it denounced oppression,
and with all the solemnity of "Thus saith the Lord," demanded the complete
emancipation of my race. I loved this paper and its editor. He seemed to me
an all-sufficient match to every opponent, whether they spoke in the name of
the law or the gospel. His words were full of holy fire, and straight to the
point. Something of a hero-worshiper by nature, here was one to excite my
admiration and reverence.

Soon after becoming a reader of the Liberator it was my privilege to
listen to a lecture in Liberty Hall, by Mr. Garrison, its editor. He was then a
young man, of a singularly pleasing countenance, and earnest and impres-
sive manner. On this occasion he announced nearly all his heresies. His Bible
was his text book—held sacred as the very word of the Eternal Father. He
believed in sinless perfection, complete submission to insults and injuries,
and literal obedience to the injunction if smitten "on one cheek to turn the
other also." Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all days were Sabbaths, and
to be kept holy. All sectarianism was false and mischievious—the regener-
ated throughout the world being members of one body, and the head Christ
Jesus. Prejudice against color was rebellion against God. Of all men beneath
the sky, the slaves because most neglected and despised, were nearest and
dearest to his great heart. Those ministers who defended slavery from the
Bible were of their "father the devil"; and those churches which fellow-
shiped slaveholders as Christians, were synagogues of Satan, and our nation
was a nation of liars. He was never loud and noisy, but calm and serene as a
summer sky, and as pure. "You are the man—the Moses, raised up by God,
to deliver his modem Israel from bondage," was the spontaneous feeling of
my heart, as I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words,—
mighty in truth,—mighty in their simple earnestness. I had not long been a
reader of the Liberator, and a listener to its editor, before I got a clear com-
prehension of the principles of the anti-slavery movement. I had already its
spirit, and only needed to understand its principles and measures, and as I
became acquainted with these my hope for the ultimate freedom of my race
increased. Every week the Liberator came, and every week I made myself
master of its contents. All the anti-slavery meetings held in New Bedford I