Abraham Lincoln's letter to his step brother.

1. Gospel Baptist Tabernacle
1
781 Salem Road, Rossville, GA 30741
Where the Love of God
abounds, everyone is
welcome.
www.rossvillechurch.com
Children’s Church taught
by Paul and Marsha Davis
during preaching.
November 5, 2014

2. 2
Proverbs 24:24 He that saith unto
the wicked, Thou art
righteous; him shall the
people curse, nations shall
abhor him: 25 But to them that
rebuke him shall be delight,
and a good blessing shall
come upon them.
A court of law must
be a place of
righteous judgment.
As the children of God, we must be just
and fair in all our dealings.

3. 3
Isaiah 5 20 Woe unto them that call evil
good, and good evil; …

4. 26 Every man shall kiss his lips
that giveth a right answer.
(NIV) 26 An honest answer is
like a kiss on the lips.
To give an honest and straightforward answer
4
is to demonstrate love and affection.
Friends must be honest with one another.

5. 5
27 Prepare thy work without,
and make it fit for thyself in
the field; and afterwards
build thine house.
Making certain that you
have a way to provide food
must come ahead of shelter.

6. 6
First things first

7. 28 Be not a witness against thy neighbor
without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.
7
Get along with your neighbors.
They may not need to
be your best friends.
But you surely don’t want
them to be enemies.
Be a good neighbor yourself.

8. 8
29 Say not, I will do so to
him as he hath done to me:
I will render to the man
according to his work.
Just leave it in
God’s Hand.

9. 9
30 I went by the field of the
slothful, and by the
vineyard of the man void of
understanding; 31 And, lo, it
was all grown over with
thorns, and nettles had
covered the face thereof,
and the stone wall thereof
was broken down.
Would you think
well of this person?

10. 10
32 Then I saw, and
considered it well: I looked
upon it, and received
instruction. 33 Yet a little
sleep, a little slumber, a
little folding of the hands to
sleep: 34 So shall thy poverty
come as one that travelleth;
and thy want as an armed
man.

11. 11
Laziness is a thief.
As his station in life slowly improved over that of his
poor relatives, Lincoln was frequently called upon for
assistance. He always displayed a keen interest in the
welfare of those who had been close to him in his
youth, especially his stepmother, and gave liberally to
their aid from his limited means. The following letter
to his step brother, however, shows that he was not to
be imposed upon in this respect. It also bespeaks a
regard for the dignity and value of labor that is in the
best American tradition.

12. Dear Johnston: Your request for eighty dollars I do
not think it best to comply with now. At the various
times when I have helped you a little you have said to
me, "We can get along very well now"; but in a very
short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now,
this can only happen by some defect in your conduct.
What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy,
and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw
you, you have done a good whole day's work in any
one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and
still you do not work much, merely because it does not
seem to you that you could get much for it.
12

13. This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole
difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still
more so to your children, that you should break the
habit. It is more important to them, because they
have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle
habit before they are in it, easier than they can get
out after they are in.
13

14. You are now in need of some money; and what I propose
is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for
somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and
your boys take charge of your things at home, prepare for
a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best
money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that
you can get; and, to secure you a fair reward for your
labor, I now promise you, that for every dollar you will,
between this and the first of May, get for your own labor,
either in money or as your own indebtedness, I will then
give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at
ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more,
making twenty dollars a month for your work.
14

15. In this I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the
lead mines, or the gold mines in California, but I mean for
you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to
home in Coles County. Now, if you will do this, you will
be soon out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a
habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But, if
I should now clear you out of debt, next year you would be
just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give
your place in heaven for seventy or eighty dollars. Then
you value your place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure
you can, with the offer I make, get the seventy or eighty
dollars for four or five months' work.
15

16. You say if I will furnish you the money you will
deed me the land, and, if you don't pay the money
back, you will deliver possession. Nonsense! If you
can't now live with the land, how will you then live
without it? You have always been kind to me, and I
do not mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary,
if you will but follow my advice, you will find it
worth more than eighty times eighty dollars to you.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/source/sb2/sb2f.htm
16

17. To help those who can and should help
themselves is a disservice, not only to
17
ourselves, but also to them.
All who are able to work, should work.
If they are wasting God’s Provision, they
need to learn to take care of it.
If sin is leaving them desolate, they
must be brought to repentance.