DAVID BRAINERD, the pioneer missionary to native Americans, died from tuberculosis on 9th October 1747. He was only 29. Two years later Jonathan Edwards, with whom he lived for the last few months of his life, produced his famous Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd with Notes and Reflections. This work has been a challenge and a blessing to countless thousands since.
The Life is based chiefly on the meticulous spiritual diary that Brainerd had kept for much of his life. This document was put into Edwards' hands by David's brother John. In a recent biography of the pioneer missionary, John Thornbury gives us the background to the writing of the book and reminds us of the impact it has had over the years.
Edwards, Thornbury tells us, was not the first to make use of the diary. In 1746 William Bradford in Philadelphia published portions of it under the title Mirabilia Dei inter Indicos or The Rise and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace Amongst a Number of the Indians in the Provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1748 an abridged edition covering 1745 to 1746 appeared in England with a preface by Philip Doddridge.
As well as his personal diary, Brainerd composed a journal in which he chronicled the story of his ministry among the Indians. In this he explained in detail Indian customs and manners, what he preached to them and the difficulties and successes he knew. He prepared the Journal for the leaders of the missionary society from whom he received financial help (The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in the Highlands of Scotland and in popish and infidel parts of the world). They published it just before his death.
This account of the great revival became an important instrument in stirring up interest elsewhere in missionary work among native Americans. Both in America and in Britain many eagerly read it.
It was the private diary, however, that formed the basis of Edwards' Life. His edition became the standard one, although over the years it has been published many times with various editorial notes and alterations.
A complete edition appeared in 1765 in Edinburgh and an abridged American edition was published in 1793. In 1843 the Presbyterian Board of Publications printed an abridgement entitled The Missionary in the Wilderness or Grace displayed among the heathen. John Wesley included the Life in abridged form in Volume 12 of his collected works (Bristol, 1771-1774). A complete edition was printed in London in 1851 in the Christian's Fireside Library series.
The diary continues to be in print in various forms.
By 1749 Edwards was already a well-known writer. His first publication in 1731 was God Glorified in Man's Dependence, a sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:29-31. Others followed, such as A Narrative of Surprising Conversions (1736) dealing with the Great Awakening, the famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1742) and Religious Affections (1746).
Perhaps no book by Edwards was to be more significant than this one, however.
Brainerd has been spoken of as the phantom figure in Edwards' Religious Affections. The Life gave a flesh and bones example of the sort of thing that Edwards was commending.
Norman Pettit has written: “If it is true that his treatises were too abstruse to make an impact on the spiritual life of the ordinary person, then his Life of Brainerd represents an effort to reach a larger audience and to teach by example.”
It is no surprise that the life of Brainerd, one that exemplifies spiritual intensity and zeal for the salvation of souls, had such a profound impact on all who read about this brief but powerful ministry.
One writer quoted by Thornbury remarks: “Indeed, David Brainerd dead was a more potent influence for Indian missions and the missionary cause in general than was David Brainerd alive.”
Iain Murray in his life of Edwards goes as far as to say: “No book did more to create concern for wider missionary endeavour than Edwards' Life of Brainerd.” He mentions Gideon Hawley, Edwards' assistant at Stockbridge, as the first in a long line of Calvinist missionaries to benefit from the book. He carried it in his saddle-bag as he pioneered among the Iroquois.
Howell Harris, we know, was one who was reading an edition of Brainerd's life in 1761. Philip Doddridge had read Edwards' work much earlier and was among the first in England to do so. “I have been reading the life of excellent Mr. Brainerd,” he writes, “and it has greatly humbled and quickened me.” He recommended it widely, as did John Wesley. Though no Calvinist, Wesley once said, “Find preachers of David Brainerd's spirit, and nothing can stand before them, but without this what will silver or gold do?” Methodist preachers in those days were all required to carefully read Edwards' Life of Brainerd.
Later, at Princeton Seminary too, the Life was often commended, though without Wesley's cautions about Brainerd's failure to understand Christian perfection.
William Carey, pioneer missionary to India, had three great heroes - Paul the Apostle, John Eliot (also a pioneer missionary to native Americans) and David Brainerd. John Ryland spoke of Brainerd's diary as “almost a second Bible” to Carey. Early in life he read of how Brainerd “in three seraphic years had burned himself out for these Indians”. Whenever he found his heart growing cold he would rekindle it by turning to the Life. When the missionaries in India drew up a covenant, one of the things they committed themselves to was to read Edwards' Life three times a year. “Let us often look at Brainerd in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God. Prayer, secret, fervent, expectant, lies at the root of all personal godliness,” it said.
At home, the men who held the ropes for Carey - Sutcliff, Ryland and Fuller - were just as enthusiastic. At the end of 1781 we find Sutcliff writing to Fuller to know if he can borrow Edwards' Life. Fuller has to disappoint him as he does not have a copy of his own. Sutcliff obviously did get to read it eventually as it later became top of his recommended reading list when anyone asked about missionary work.
Henry Martyn, like Carey and Brainerd, was another godly pioneer missionary who died young. He read Brainerd's story in his twenties and wrote, “I long to be like him; let me forget the world and be swallowed up in a desire to glorify God.” Walter Searle has pointed out how Brainerd foreshadows Martyn's famous ambition “to burn out for God” in his longing “to be a flame of fire continually glowing in the divine service and building up Christ's kingdom to my last and dying breath”.
Another man of God to die young was Robert Murray M'Cheyne. In 1832 he wrote of Brainerd, “Most wonderful man! What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, thy torn bosom! I cannot Express what I think think of thee.”
In More recent times, Jim Elliot's journals, like those of Brainerd and Martyn, have been an inspiration to many. Elliot again died young, martyred by Auca Indians in 1956. He was also inspired in his pioneer work by reading Brainerd's diary.
The Scotsman Horatius Bonar and A J Gordon of Boston, the South African Andrew Murray and Oswald J Smith of Toronto, were all influential pastors and authors in the 19th cna 20th centuries. Again, they each had a high regard for Brainerd. Bonar wrote a preface commending the work in 1851. Gordon gained great inspiration from a visit to Brainerd's grave. Murray advocated the Diary's use as a means of stimulating to prayer. Smith named his youngest son after him. “No man ever had a greater passion for souls” he wrote. “To Live holy for God was his one great aim and ambition.”
We worship God not men but here is a reminder of how one life, and more specifically one book on that life, can have a profound effect in the providence of Almighty God.
This article first appeared in The Evangelical Library Bulletin
