In this edition our thoughts turn to the young man who has been well named "The Morning Star of the Missionary Movement". It was the 20th April, 1718, that David Brainerd was born in the little town of Haddam in Connecticut. As a child, he said of himself, he was "somewhat sober and inclined to melancholy"; and perhaps this retiring nature fitted him well for the solitude that he was to face in later life.

David Brainerd began to preach when he was 24, and for 5 years laboured among the Indians of New rsey and Pennsylvania until 1747, when ill-health forced him to give up his work of love for Christ. He died in the house of the famous Jonathan Edwards when he was still in his 29th year, proving himself to be a true "morning star" that had blazed in the heavens only until the day was ready to break on the missionary scene.

"What can be done", asked the great Methodist John Wesley. "What can be done to revive the work of God where it has decayed?" And then he answers his own question …"Let every preacher read carefully the life of David Brainerd!" In accordance with John Wesley's counsel, William Carey set to, to read Brainerd's Journal and from that caught the vision of a world for Christ. Henry Martyn too, and Dr. A. J. Gordon were influenced in their missionary enterprises by digesting the life and labours of the young missionary to the Redskins, and in more recent years, Dr. Andrew Murray of South Africa could write of Brainerd's biography: "Read and pause, and read again, as in God's presence, until you hear the voice of the Spirit CALLING YOU to follow in the footsteps of God's servant."

David Brainerd was indeed an early light to guide many. But, from what source did he draw his strength of influence which still is alive even today to all who will take time to read his life and diary? As we've said already, he could write of himself that he was "somewhat sober and inclined to melancholy"; and as we remarked, this may have been an essential NATURAL attribute to his service of later years. "But I do not remember anything of conviction of sin", he could also write; and so, regardless of what natural attributes he possessed, he would still have to be endowed with the supernatural attribute of salvation before he could influence anyone.

But it must come as a blow to any spiritual pride of service that we may possess when we learn that it was not until Brainerd was 21 – just 8 years before his death – that the light of the Gospel began to work in his heart and mind. "At this time", he says of it, "The way of salvation opened to me with such infinite wisdom, suitableness and excellency that I wondered that I should ever have desired any other way of salvation …If I could have been saved by my own duties, or any other way that I had formerly conceived, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation …"If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink!"

But how could the world "see and comply with this way of salvation?" The greatest part of the world had never even so much as heard that there was such a way. "If any man thirst", thought Brainerd; "ANY man." But how could he reach the mass of the world with this message that had completely transformed his own life? The Missionary Societies were still unknown, and even unthought of; how could he span the ocean to seek out the primitives and tell them about the love of God in Christ Jesus the Saviour? But, did he need to do that? Did he need to cast his eyes to such far away shores? Was there not a whole mission field almost on his doorstep? And so, David Brainerd, 3 years after his conversion, turned to his red-skinned fellows to call them to "come and drink of the water of life freely".

Two things became his desire, he writes in his diary: "Sanctification in myself, and the ingathering of God's elect". Among those savages on the American prairies, David Brainerd could see with the eye of faith a great company of the multitude for whom Christ laid down His life. It was the life of personal devotion to duty and love to Christ which sprung from this great desire that made David Brainerd such a powerful influence to those who were to later blaze in the missionary sky.

Above all things, his life of prayer has been a constant holy challenge. When William Carey offered a word of encouragement and instruction to his fellow workers, that word nearly always contained the words: "Think of Brainerd wrestling in prayer among the solitudes".

In 1747 David Brainerd rode back from "The solitudes" for the last time. He was not yet 30, but he had no regrets. "Now that I am dying," he exclaimed, "I declare that I would not for all the world have spent my life otherwise." And then, casting his eye on the Bible, he cried out with his last breath: "Oh that dear book! That lovely book! I shall soon see it opened!"

"He climbed the steep ascent to heaven, Through trouble, toil and pain; O God, to us may grace be given, To follow in his train".

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This Page Title – This Month Long Ago (David Brainerd) The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 42 – placed on line May 2003 Wicket Gate contact address – Mr Cliff Westcombe cw@wicketgate.co.uk If you wish to be notified when each new edition goes on line please send an e-mail to the above address Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk Labelled with ICRA