In the midst of a host of temptations.

Influence of female society.

guarded the peace and protected the destiny of this dear youth. Speaking of his situation at this time, he says: "There was not a Christian in the place, so far as I knew; while gambling, drinking, horse racing, fighting, profane swearing and lewdness were so common as to excite no surprise. My employer himself was addicted to all these vices, and they were not considered disreputable. He has had a gambling party in his counting room, where I slept, all night! Sometimes he would take me as his partner." Of his achievements in still baser and more disgusting scenes of iniquity, he was very communicative to his young and guileless clerk, as also were certain young men of the place, who gloried in their shame. If the reader wonders he did not fall into these snares of the devil, so did Walton. He said he believed they were spread for his ruin, but "the accounts they gave of the effects of their wicked practices upon themselves made me afraid to venture upon that dangerous ground." The dread of such consequences—the fear of the impending penalty does not deter thousands of other young men from the commission of secret crime. Why did it deter him? Because a merciful God overruled the motive and made it effectual to his preservation from the paths of the destroyer. From profaneness and intemperance, too, he was equally preserved, though blasphemy daily filled his ears, and though he lived in the midst of bottles and barrels. Another circumstance exerted a favorable influence upon him. Much of his leisure time was passed in the society of refined and virtuous females, where decency of manners and purity of morals of course met with an approving smile, and where vice should ever meet the indignant rebuke which its meanness and vileness deserve. When it shall become a standing rule of virtuous and dignified society, to exclude from its privileges and honors the tainted in character, as well as the openly dissolute and abandoned, till the pressure of public reprobation shall have produced the sorrows of a genuine repentance

The grace of God preserves him.

Hears his first sermon in his sixteenth year.

then a most valuable point will be gained in our progress towards what so many have desired-a perfect community.

But so long as any class of men use the title of a gentleman, to cover the vices of a profligate, and the arrogant assumption is conceded by the better portion of society, so long will virtue be grieved, and vice be triumphant; so long will the dignity of the former be violated, and the assurance of the latter encouraged; so long will the power of motives to virtuous action be deplorably diminished, and the power of motives to criminal indulgence be fearfully increased.

With a grateful heart did Walton, in reviewing this perilous period of his life, say, after attributing all due influence to the subordinate causes, of which we have been speaking: "The GRAND CAUSE of my preservation from ruin was the secret, invisible hand of God, which kept me back, when every possible bad influence that the world and the devil could exert, seemed to combine for my destruction." And this is one theme of gratitude, on which the ransomed in Heaven will dwell with ever new delight through all their future happy existence.

"I

During his residence in Frankfort, he heard one sermon from a Methodist minister. He was now in his sixteenth year, and it was the first sermon he recollected ever to have heard! One expression in it seized on his memory: don't want to see you go to hell." But it did not seem to grapple with his conscience. His mind was taken up with less important things. He resolved on cultivating as well an elegant style of conversation, as a taste for reading. To this end, he kept a little blank book, in which, from time to time he inserted a considerable number of appropriate words and phrases, to be used as the occasion should arise. This practice must have resulted from an ardent thirst for intellectual improvement, for so far from being encouraged in this very laudable work by his young friends and acquaintances, he was ridiculed by them, when the object of the

An expedient for improvement.

Leaves Frankfort for Winchester.

book was ascertained. Little did our young student think that in the method of mental improvement which he adopted, he was repeating the plan which some of the most eminent minds have chosen as suited to their mode of action.*

The time had now arrived, when a change of place was to open a change of scene to the thoughtful and inquiring mind of the subject of this biography. His mother had removed to the vicinity of Winchester, where a daughter of her's was residing, and on visiting this sister, she expressed her wish that William would come to Winchester and reside. On inquiry, it was ascertained that employment would be found for him in the store of Mr. B———, a respectable merchant of Winchester, and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. An arrangement to that effect was concluded. He returned to Frankfort-settled all his affairs, and parted from his friends, who gave him up with a reluctance proportioned to the integrity of his character, the amiableness of his deportment, and the uniform dignity with which he had demeaned himself. Mutual tears were shed, mutual regrets were expressed, and with that undefinable feeling of sadness, which will cling to the soul, when taking leave of accustomed scenes, to pass even into new and more pleasant ones, he wended his way to the new field, which was opening before him. With what prospects he entered, and with what profit he occupied this field, remains to be seen.

*That distinguished, but corrupt man, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is said to have manufactured some of his keenest shafts of wit in the retirement of his study. Moore's Life of Sheridan.

CHAPTER II.

His first convictions.

He stifles them.

MR. WALTON, being now in the family of a Presbyterian Elder, went regularly to Church, an event of which he says: "It was something new and strange for me to be at Church; but I never received any solemn impression, until on the evening of the first of January, 1811, Dr. Hill read a discourse of SAMUEL DAVIES, on the text, • This year thou shalt die. My attention was arrested by the striking considerations contained in that discourse, and several times during the reading of it, I almost resolved to begin immediately to seek salvation. And if at the close of the service, serious persons had been invited to remain for conversation and prayer, the probability is, that I should that night have been converted. But the assembly was dismissed, and I soon mingled with the society of those, who dissipated all my seriousness. The impression was entirely gone the next day." And so does the sinner dare to trifle with sacred things, resist the heavenly messenger that seeks admission into his heart, and welcome the unhallowed influences that come in from the world to extinguish the first germ of holy resolution. What multitudes from such a fatal moment have dated their final abandonment of God, and the irremediable loss of their deathless souls! Who

Guilt and folly of dancing.

Plays cards on the Sabbath.

can magnify the importance of seizing the present moment to secure the interests of eternity? Again the Spirit of God returned to the bosom of the rebel, and whispered, this is the way walk in it, but while he resolved he would be a Christian, the resolution disappeared, like the morning vapor, before the breath of temptation.

In a few days there was to be a ball. The fascination succeeded. He concluded to defer the consideration of his soul's concern until the ball was over. Here was seen the natural fruits of the dancing school, of which he was so fond, and where he had duly learned the art of spending money, of wasting time, belittling the dignity of human nature, and demoralizing the principles of the soul. But, what was more alarming than all this-his knowledge of this heathenish and contemptible art now thrust itself between his immortal soul and the imperative claims of the Holy Spirit. In reflecting on his conduct at the time, he was constrained to say, " There God might have justly given me up. But blessed be his name, He continued to strive with my obstinate heart." And yet he went on to sin, and to add insult to injury. He secretly played cards on the Sabbath in the counting room of his employer, not, it is true, with a keen and well enjoyed zest, but with slowness of assent before the act, many bitter reproaches of conscience while in the actual commission of it, and still more stinging reflections after the conclusion of it. The whole matter, indeed, cost him very dearly, especially in consideration of the expenditure of conscience, and afforded him a thorough illustration of the Bible principle, that "The way of the transgressor is hard."

On the evening of that Sabbath, he strolled to the Methodist meeting, rather to pass away the evening than to obtain any spiritual benefit. Mr. Wall, an aged, local Methodist Preacher, occupied the pulpit. His venerable appearance, his simplicity of manner-his apparent singleness of pur