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 He
was a man with very little going for him. His father was an
uneducated laborer and his mother, a quite ordinary and humble
woman who died when he was only a boy. He grew up in a log
cabin home, had no formal schooling, little writing paper,
and even fewer books. He just worked hard. There were logs
to split, wheat to thresh, plowing to be done, corn to be
cut and husked. He was kept very busy.
 As
he neared manhood, he was too thin, too tall, and too big-boned.
In addition, his black hairwas coarse and stood on end, which
made his homely face even homelier. He was a failure as a
store clerk, his sweetheart died, his health was poor, and
he had a nervous breakdown.
Times
were hard. He was poor. But he bought a store on credit and
after several months, the store failed; he was left heavily
in debt. Finally, he entered politics. He was defeated for
the Legislature in 1832, defeated for Speaker in 1838, defeated
for Elector in 1840, defeated for Congress in 1843 and 1848,
defeated for the Senate in 1855, and defeated for Vice-President
in 1856.
To these
defeats were added unpolished speech problems, family problems,
and money problems. Yes, this was a man who had very little
going for him. Yet, this man was elected President of the
United States in 1860. And Abraham Lincoln remains one of
the world's greatest men.
Now, if
you think this is something, let me tell you about a poor
carpenter from a small town in the Mideast called Nazareth.
The emperor tried to kill him as a baby..................
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