At some point I wish (Lord willing) to write more extensively about David Brainerd, same as tht of William Cowper.  Yet of all the worthies of that time and kind that come to mind, Brainerd is the one I relate to most. He knew the misery of a life while chronically ill, lacking comfort, and the agony he felt at his lonliness and isolation.   Whether Cowper or Brainerd, it seems there was a stronger Christian in the picture to help make these men or the legacy they have left us and the church in general by the stories of their lives; the stories of great perseverance against incredible odds.

But for now I want to talk about Jonathan Edwards as he is related to Brainerd’s story. Out of all Edwards works, his work on Brainerd and the diary of Brainerd’s that Edwards published after Brainerd’s death is the one thing that has outsold all his other works.  If not for Brainerd’s connection with Edwards, we may not now have the great testimony and encouragment that lies in Brainerd’s story; in his diary.  His papers may well have been burned or just kept in family chests, and never seen light of day, far less publiclitation.

It is widely thought that Edwards daughter, Jerusha was the woman that Brainerd fell in love with.  Brainerd of course died in the home of the Edwards, and having Brainerd there with the highly infectious condition of tuberculosis, ultimately cost Edwards his daughter Jerusha’s life . Within a short time of Brainerd’s death, Jerusha succumbed to the same illness and within days she died.   Brainerd and Edwards daughter’s graves lie side by side.  But what an impact Brainerd must have had upon Edwards, when even knowing that taking him into his home for him to die there had cost his daughter’s life, that two years later, when Edwards published Brainerd’s diary, he could write these words in full  knowledge of the very personal loss he had endured as a result of Brainerd spending his last days in his home and Jerusha being the one to constantly nurse him.

Despite his own personal loss, he gave thanks that, Brainerd “should be cast hither to my house, in his last sickness, and should die here.”  There speaks a man that despite his very great loss, knew it was the Lord’s will and accepted it unflinchingly, without any regret for the kindness and charity he showed towards his young friend.

It is said that both Edwards and Brainerd mirrored each other in many ways of how they thought about things of faith.  The older man was like a father  and the younger man reflected the views of the elder, like will happen commonly among natural generational relations.

One thing I personally take comfort from, is that if God has not cast Brainerd upon that bed of suffering he found himself, where at times he was in total misery,  but if not for the bed of suffering the story of David Brainerd would not be the powerful one it has become.  And Edwards was to write of the young man, despite the total misery he was often consumed by, the deep fits of paralyzing depression and melancholia, where he couldn’t “do” that he was “a remarkable instance of true and eminent Christian piety in heart and practice… most worthy of imitation.”

Yet Brainerd’s diary seems to have two types of readers. Those who loath it and criticise Brainerd’s dejection of spirit and  and the misery of mind and soul he endured, or those who find in it, a light of encouragement;  a beacon for the church to use and it is still used in the field of missions and has been since first published, stronger than any other story on the missionary field.  Those who criticize Brainerd, it is my opinion from my own experience in my own misery at times, are those who are presumptious of their comforts, and have not one iota a clue what Brainerd suffered,  because it is easy to criticize what one does not understand.  It is easy to stomp underfoot someone as weak as Brainerd, and its the way often with the strong and poweful that they think they have some God given right to, where but for the grace of God could they be in Brainerd’s shoes too. And the riches that keep them comfortable and complacent today, and looking down on the Brainerd’s could all be taken from them in the blink of an eye, but they way they look down on Brainerd speaks of great presumption that way, because if they really believed they could find themselves on a similar bed of suffering,  they would be far more cautious and reticient about criticizing Brainerd, because if they were, perhaps they would not show the courage that  Brainerd did, but they may be even more miserable even more melacholy than he was.  Folks who sit in comfort and still expereince deep melancholia  and yet criticize someone like Brainerd has double standards.

But same as Brainerd, if the Lord had not put me on this particualr bed of suffering, maybe I would be totally ineffective,  living my life comfortable and  like many Christians sadly do, resting in those Comforts, rather than seeking to the do the Lord’s work no matter how small,  when lacking almost every comfort I desire.  To be on a sick bed, and abandoned by everyone you have known, parted from your loved ones through providence, and to not see a human soul day after day or week after week, is a peculiar greif of its own, one I believe Brainerd knew first hand as he sat in his hut, spitting blood up week after week, with agonizing pain in his chest and craving for Christian companionship.  And not just any Christian companionship but particular types.

Brainerd could have opted out, much like I have had opportunities in the past, which may have brought temporary relief but without a doubt would have been bad for my soul and long term eternal well being.  Yet you rarely see those who criticize folks like Brainerd, choose to put away their comforts for  a few weeeks, to do the Lord’s work, so they have no reason to think themselves better than Brainerd or Cowpwer or the Brainerd’s and Cowper’s of today.

Edwards had genuine affection for his young friend, and it showed.  And the sacrifice that Edwards made personally, to care for his young friend in his last days, when his daughter contracted the same disease as their guest and died, shows how he was not more intersted in  keeping his comforts than doing the Lord’s work, of love and charity.

There is so  much we today can learn from these mens’s stories and those of the same era. Those of whom the world was not worthy.  Though they be dead, yet speaketh.

Brainerd left behind his papers and journal and the labours of Jonathan Edwards on editing, and publishing them have left a great gift to the church.  These man like Brainerd and Cowper may on the surface seem like stories of men in abject misery, yet the balance is, whichever way one looks at it, they are also great stories of hope. Where the Lord working to keep them, the instruments he used to do so, when they were totally incapable to keep themseves even more than most, because of what tye suffered and how paralyzed they became by grief and longed for death more than they cherished life, displays God’s power and glory in a way that if they had suffered less,  it never could do.

Names instantly recognizable to many Christians today have had this to day about Brainerd and his life and his diaries.

Robert Murray McCheyne: “Most wonderful man! What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, advancements, victories within thy torn bosom!…Tonight more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.

David Brainerd dead more greatly influenced the missionary cause than David Brainerd alive, because of his depths of extradonariy suffering, and his persevering despite them.

Jim Elliot wrote: “Confession of pride—suggested by David Brainerd’s diary yesterday–must become an hourly thing with me.”

Anglican, Henry Martyn Carey,  considered Edwards “life of brainerd” to be a “sacred text.”

Francis Asbury, who in 1771 become the first methodist missionary to America referred to Brainerd’s oas “that model of meekness, moderation, tempation and labour and self denial.”  Thomas Coke, founder of world wide mission, [1747-1814] wrote: “His humility, his self denial, his perseverance and his flaming zeal for God, are exemplary indeed.”

But if not for what Providence had in store for Brainerd, how  he was ejected from Yale and lost his whole ambition, and missionary work was then one of the few real only opportunites left to him, and what he endured for the four years he was on the mission field, none of it would be known, and if not for that first instance when Brainerd’s dream was taken away from him of being an ordained minister,  for an act for which he profusely apolgized, and yet most people accept his apology should have been enough,  Brainerd’s life would have been very different indeed, and  I feel no doubt that it would not have left the powerful testimony he has left behind.  David Brainerd was a broken vessel of magnaminous proportions, but how God has used that broken man, for his own glory, for the good and edification  of the church, and even 300 years later, the story of Brainerd is still being used to inspire people and encourage missions.

Providence can be hard, dark and painful. What Brainerds life demonstrates, (one of the things) is that when things go totally opposed to how we hope and desire, you can without a doubt know and trust that God is at work.  The way the story of Brainerd has been used and continues to be, is overwhelming evidence of that.   In life he was not known, it was only after his death,  when his older friend, took his papers and published them, having invited the young  man into his home to die, which cost him his daughers life,  again, dark providnece at which God was at work for good.

But one thing stands out in the above story. Whether Brainerd or Edwards.  The spirit of self-denial to the utter most.  And till that is shed abroad again in the church on the scale it was in those days,  she will remain in the shadows as compared to the glory days, of  the puritan era, or the times of Edwards.