One of the most profound influences on modern missionaries has been the ministry of a man who only lived to be 29 years old. David Brainerd served the Lord in colonial America, striving to reach the American Indians for Christ. Because David Brainerd kept a personal journal throughout his short life, which was later published by Jonathan Edwards, the father of his fiancé, his legacy has impacted many thousands of missionaries and servants of the Lord over the last three centuries.
David Brainerd was born in Haddam, CT, in 1718.
Though he sought the Lord throughout his youth, he wasn’t sure of his own salvation until he was 21. He went to study for the ministry at Yale. In the early part of 1741, during Brainerd’s sophomore year, the effects of the Great Awakening hit the Yale campus. Students were meeting for Bible study and prayer; at one such meeting, a Yale professor named Mr. Whittlesey led a prayer meeting of students. Mr. Whittlesey was particularly passionate in prayer that day.
When the prayer meeting was over, no one was left in the room but David Brainerd and a few of his friends. Someone asked David, in private conversation, what he thought of Mr. Whittlesey. David answered, “He has no more grace than this chair.” A freshman student walking nearby heard the conversation, reported it to the college administration, and it led to David Brainerd being expelled from Yale.
In those days, no one could preach anywhere without being licensed by the church. And no one would license anyone who had been expelled from Yale. He had apologized for the remarks that got him expelled, but his apology made no difference. That left 23-year-old David Brainerd in an impossible position. He had a burning passion to preach God’s Word, yet there was no place for him to preach because he hadn’t been licensed.
That spring, he went to live with a pastor in Ripton, CT.
The pastor there, Pastor Mills, helped David continue his studies, training him to become fit for the work of the ministry. David spent most of his time there but also traveled to churches in other towns, such as Stratford, Southbury, and Bethlehem, CT.
On Thursday, July 29, 1742, a group of pastors met in Danbury, CT, and examined David Brainerd to determine if he was fit to be licensed to preach the Gospel. He wrote in his diary on that day, “I was examined by the Association, which met at Danbury, as to my learning and also my experiences in religion, and received a license from them to preach the Gospel of Christ. Afterwards felt much devoted to God; joined in prayer with one of the ministers, my peculiar friend, in a convenient place; went to bed resolving to live devoted to God all my days.”
The next day, Friday, July 30, 1742, David Brainerd rode his horse 30 miles to the town of Bethlehem, CT, where Pastor Joseph Bellamy, one of the significant influences of the Great Awakening in Connecticut, was the pastor.
David preached that night from I Peter 4:8, “And above all things have fervent charity.” In his journal that night, he wrote, “Had much of the comfortable presence of God in the exercise. I seemed to have power with God in prayer and power to get hold of the hearts of the people in preaching.”
After he was licensed, David Brainerd would live just five years and three months. His spiritual battles, both the defeats and the victories, are recorded in the words of his journal.
He served in a church in Long Island, New York, for several months.
Then in April of 1743, he began his mission to reach native Americans in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. He had success in many settlements, and he also endured many difficulties. He struggled with loneliness, hunger, physical illness, and depression. His diary records multiple instances where he wished he could die. But his passion for the Lord, and his faithfulness to the Gospel, are evident on every page.
Listen to his journal entry for Sunday, July 21, 1745, nearly three years after he was licensed: “Preached to the Indians first, then to a number of white people present, and in the afternoon to the Indians again. Divine truth seemed to make very considerable impressions on several of them, and caused the tears to flow freely. Afterwards I baptized my interpreter and his wife, who were the first I baptized among the Indians.”
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“Had much of the comfortable presence of God in the exercise. I seemed to have power with God in prayer and power to get hold of the hearts of the people in preaching.”
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David Brainerd would continue his ministry to the American Indians for about a year and a half after that.
He would ultimately wind up at the home of Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, MA. David never recovered from tuberculosis. He died in Jonathan Edwards’ home on October 9, 1747, and is buried nearby.
There is a marker located on the roadside road in Haddam, CT, at the place of David Brainerd’s birth; it reads: “Opposite this spot was born, April 20, 1718, David Brainerd, a servant of God, wise in his knowledge of men, self-forgetful in his devotion, of single-hearted humility, careless of the dangers of the frontier, undismayed before failing health, he gave his brief manhood to the material and spiritual upbuilding of the Indians. He died at Northampton, Massachusetts, October 9, 1747.” The marker also tells of the life of his brother John, who carried on David’s work after his death.
Every believer ought to read the Diary of David Brainerd.
It’s very easy to find online. It was published by Jonathan Edwards after Brainerd’s death. Although Jonathan Edwards is known as America’s first theologian, Brainerd’s Diary has outsold every other book that Edwards ever published. It’s never been out of print since it was first published in 1749. John Wesley said that every preacher of the Gospel should carefully read David Brainerd’s diary.
There’s no accounting for how David Brainerd’s five-year ministry has had such a powerful impact on multitudes of people; all the glory goes to the powerful God he loved and served.
Christian, God has inexplicable opportunities prepared for you; stay the course!