Battle Axe Series – David Brainerd

Many Christians in our generations are probably not familiar with the name of David Brainerd. He was an American missionary to the Native Americans and had a particularly fruitful ministry among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey, as well as natives in New York and eastern Pennsylvania. His story published in the Heroes of Faith on Pioneer Trails, is a testament to the supernatural power of God
who called him, equipped him and enabled him to accomplish in five short years, what few men accomplish in their lifetime.

Brainerd was born in the New England village of Haddam, Connecticut, on April 20, 1718, to Hezekiah and Dorothy Brainerd. In 1663, his grandfather, Peter Hobart, had fled England to avoid religious persecution and settled in Massachusetts. Young Brainerd had a staunch Puritan upbringing with parents who were devoted to God and spent hours in the Congregational (Puritan) Church. His father was a representative in the Connecticut Colony government and a successful landowner. When he was only nine years old, his father died suddenly while attending to his senatorial duties at Hartford. Five years later, he lost his mother to severe illness.

 Following the loss of both parents, Brainerd turned his aspiration to the clergy and a life of study. Their early death combined with a naturally melancholy personality, caused him to be morose and to fixate on the brevity of life. Consequently, his religious life was characterised by prolonged depressions punctuated by ecstatic experiences of God. He began to study for ministry at Yale College in 1739. During his first year, he showed signs of tuberculosis that was to end his life prematurely.

 During the following year, the New Light preaching of George Whitefield and other itinerants like Gilbert Tennent and James davenport gained many adherents at the college, including Brainerd. He became involved in a separate church founded by students. In 1741, he was quoted as saying that one of the local ministers who was college tutor had “no more grace than a chair”. Determined to snuff out the New Light among the students, the Yale Corporation led by its Rector, Thomas Clap, expelled Brainerd for refusing to make a public confession.

 In his youthful enthusiasm, or “indiscreet zeal”, as he later called it, he was convinced that the Rector would eventually agree with him. Heartbroken at his expulsion, he packed his belonging and left Yale, his dreams of ministry crushed. Since he could not preach without the Yale degree and a Congregational license, he thought all possibilities for ministry in New England had been destroyed. In deep melancholy, he travelled from New Haven to Ripton, Connecticut, just ten miles from the college.

Still longing to serve the Lord, he continued his ministry studies with Rev. Jedediah Mills, a minister who had been stirred by the Great Awakening and became a ‘New Lights’ Pastor. Several Congregational ministers had joined the revival and formed their own ministerial association known as ‘New Lights’. In fellowship with these men of God, Brainerd could continue his biblical studies and preach the gospel.

As he sought God’s comfort during this time, his lifetime commitment to secret prayer and fasting was established. Feeling God’s peace in the outdoors, he took long walks in prayer, offering his heart and soul to Christ’s service.

 In his diary, he wrote, “I set apart this day for fasting and prayer to God for His grace; especially to prepare me for the work of the ministry, to give me divine aid and direction in my preparations for that great work, and, in His own time, send me into His harvest”. Another entry in the diary reads, “I never could feel any freedom to enter into another man’s labours and settle down in the ministry where the gospel was preached before”.

The opportunity to fulfil his calling came when the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge offered to sponsor his ministry work among American natives in New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Excited about his first ministry assignment, on April 20, 1743, his twenty-fifth birthday, he spent the day in prayer and fasting in the woods in close communion with God. That day, his diary entry ended with the cry, “O that God would enable me to live for His glory for the future!”

Brainerd’s first ministry assignment was among the Housatonic Indians of Kaunaumeek, New York, eighteen miles from Albany. When he arrived Kaunaumeek in late April 1743, he lived in a log cabin with a poor Scottish couple. He walked through rough terrain a mile and half each day to visit the Indian settlement. Although he was convinced that he was following God’s will for his life, Brainerd still suffered with extreme bouts of melancholy. Whether his depression resulted from spiritual attacks or emotional and physical illness is unknown.

On March 11, 1744, he preached his last sermon to the natives at Kaunaumeek, as he had been asked to report at the new mission field in the dense forests of Pennsylvania, among Delaware Indians. As he rode his horse through the forest, he came to a clearing and decided to camp there before continuing with the journey. He was however unaware that eyes were peering at him through the foliage.

The Delaware chief, hidden with his warriors, gave the command, “let us go at once and kill this man whose people have taught us to drink firewater (alcohol), and then, while we are drunk, have taken our baskets and skins and even our lands for nothing”.

Silently, the warriors descended on the lone figure who was bowed, clutching something close to his heart. They heard the young man on his knees praying to God, “Let the natives embrace your salvation, Lord”. Stealthily moving forward, the warriors stopped suddenly as a rattlesnake slithered up to the young man and raised its head within inches of the bowed face. Then just as suddenly, the snake uncoiled, and, for no apparent reason, slithered away. Gazing at each other in surprise, the warriors did the same thing, leaving the praying man alone with his God.

The next morning, Brainerd walked into the Delaware camp and was welcomed by the curious and awestruck villagers. “The Great Spirit is with this praying white man”, the natives proclaimed. And so his ministry at the Forks of the Delaware River began. He would have great success among the Native Americans during his ministry years, but not before God brought him through a deep valley of testing, especially during his time with the people of Kaunaumeek. It was a time when he faced the darkest spiritual challenge of his life. His diary entry on May 18, 1743 echoed his distress.

My circumstances are such that I have no comfort, of any kind but what I have in God. I live in the most lonesome wilderness; have but one single person to converse with that can speak English…..I have no fellow-Christian to whom I might unbosom myself….and join in …prayer…My labour is hard and extremely difficult.

Anointed to preach to all the unreached natives, Brainerd did not limit his ministry to one tribe. In October 1744, he launched deeper into the Pennsylvania forests in search of the hundreds of natives who lived along Susquehanna River. His travelling companion was his fellow missionary, Eliab Byram, a 1740 graduate of Harvard. Making their way one hundred miles up the Susquehanna bank on foot, as their horse died on the way, they shared the sacrificial love of Jesus with the inhabitants. The spiritual warfare was intense because many of the natives were pagans who put their trust in their ‘powwows’ or medicine men.

When Brainerd returned to the Forks of the Delaware in early December, he found the village preparing for the great feast in honour of their pagan gods. Discouraged by the false spirituality of the Indian converts, he sought God in prayer and fasting. Within days, his prayer was answered as one of the leaders of the community repented along with his family.

In the summer of 1745, he moved to another mission field at Crossweeksung, New Jersey. By the first week, more than forty Indians gathered to listen to the gospel. On August 8, 1745, the Holy Spirit swept through the community in answer to Brainerd’s prayer. Among the converts was a former ‘powwow’, who had been linked with murder.

 In spite of his struggle with tuberculosis, Bernard took the gospel of Jesus Christ to many Indian settlements in the region and converted many of them. He also preached to white settlers, leading many of them to Christ as well. In one of his trips, he became seriously ill. In April 1747, he left New Jersey for the home of his friend Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts where he died in October, aged twenty-nine.

In 1749, Edwards published a book entitled, An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd, drawn from the latter’s extensive diaries. Over the centuries, the book has achieved international fame, has gone through countless printings, and has inspired many missionaries in pursuing their call. These include William Carey who served as a missionary to India, Henry Martyn, Robert Murray M’Cheyne and Jim Elliot. In the end, Brainerd’s own words clearly reveal the unquenchable passion of his heart:

Here I am Lord, send me to the ends of the earth, send me to the rough, savage pagans of the wilderness; send me from all that is called comfort in earth, send me even to death itself; if it be but in Thy service, and to promote Thy Kingdom.

What lesson has the life of Brainerd taught us? Personally I am amazed that a young man with his background turned his back on all that the world could offer to reach the loss for Christ. Many of us in our generation are creatures of comfort. We may not even attend Church service if the weather is not favourable, talk less of wading through the rainforest or the desert to reach unsaved souls.

And we wonder why we do not see the power of God in our lives! When the Lord told the disciple to tarry in Jerusalem until they are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49), it was not for jamboree. We claim to be filed with the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues, yet our lives do not model Jesus Christ. How can we give people what we do not have? We need to ask ourselves if we are hosting the same Holy Spirit that did the marvellous works through Christ or the early disciples and apostles. Self-deceit is a great folly.

Culled from God’s Generals by Roberts Liardon, Whitaker House, https://www.en.m.wikipedia.org and https://www.bu.edu