attending a place of worship, and for a short time I attended the Rev.
Mr. Campbell's church, by whom, as well as by several of his members, I
was treated with much Christian kindness. I was often invited to Mr.
Campbell's house, as well as to the house of some of his hearers, and
it seemed as if a favorable turning-point or crisis in my fortunes had
arrived. Mr. Campbell was good enough to manifest a very great
interest in my welfare, and frequently expressed a hope that I should
be enabled, although late in life, to obtain an education. And this I
might have acquired had not my evil genius prevented my making any
efforts to obtain so desirable an end. My desire for strong liquors
and company seemed to present an insuperable barrier to all
improvement; and after a few weeks every aspiration after better things
had ceased; every bud of promised comfort was crushed. Again I grieved
the spirit that had been striving with my spirit, and ere long became
even more addicted to the use of the infernal draughts, which had
already wrought me so much woe, than at any previous period of my
existence.

And now my circumstances began to be desperate indeed. In vain were
all my efforts to obtain work, and at last I became so reduced that at
times I did not know when one meal was ended, where on the face of the
broad earth I should find another. Further mortification awaited me,
and by slow degrees I became aware of it. The young men with whom I
had associated, in barrooms and parlors, and who wore a little better
clothing than I could afford, one after another began to drop my
acquaintance. If I walked in the public streets, I too quickly
perceived the cold look, the averted eye, the half recognition, and to
a sensitive spirit such as I possessed such treatment was almost past
endurance. To add to the mortification caused by such a state of
things, it happened that those who had laughed the loudest at my songs