Excerpt from Two Sermons Preached in the Church of the Unity: April 23, 1865

In 1809, in a little village in Kentucky, beneath the thatched roof of a poor man's cottage, was born a child, whose prospects for the future seemed very limited. He received from his parents nothing but poverty and a good name. His childhood was in no degree remarkable. There were no foreshadowings of the greatness to be achieved; and very few of those traditions of wonderful precocity, which, in some mysterious way, cluster about every eminent name. His library consisted of a well thumbed Bible and his fortune, of an empty purse. He passed the first thirty years of his life upon that monoto nous plane on which every poor farmer's boy lives. He spent his days in driving the team afield, in caring for the little flock as it wound slowly o'er the lea, and in the common drudgery which marks the lowly position he occupied.

When he Was on the threshold of middle life, a resi dent of a village in Illinois, he was intrusted with some Slight responsibility by his fellow-citizens. He was re garded with kindness because he had been something of a traveller, and an observer of men and things, - having made a voyage down the lordly Mississippi; and because he had given his services to the Government in the black-hawk War, and shown no lack of courage, but rather a quiet persistency and fearlessness, which added to the lustre of the shoulder-straps which made him a captain. Having served his constituents faithfully in a minor position, he began that slow and toilsome journey of promotion, which is marked at every step by honesty of purpose, and which ended when, obedient to the will of the North, he modestly assumed the position of President of the United States.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.