By REV. J. P. MACQUEEN.
THE following account of his conversion, by the Rev. David Brainerd, the magnanimously self-denying and self-sacrificing missionary to the North American Indians, cannot be told better than in his own words: —“Having been thus endeavouring to pray—though as I thought very stupid and senseless—for near half an hour, then as I was walking in a dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing, nor do I intend any imagination of any body of light somewhere in the third heavens or anything of that nature, but it was a new inward apprehension view that I had of God, such as I never had before, nor anything which had the least resemblance of it. I stood still, wondered, and admired! I knew that I never had seen before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty, it was widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had of God or things Divine. I had no particular apprehension of any one Person in the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost, but it appeared to be Divine glory. My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such a glorious Divine Being, and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that He should be God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him, at least to that degree that I had no thought that I remember at first about my own salvation, and scarce reflected that there was such a creature as myself.”
The foregoing vivid description by Rev. David Brainerd of the enduring and indelible impression made upon his soul by his first supernatural faith’s view of God, in Christ, may not be a generally applicable one, relative to the effect of Divine light and glory as many other believers experienced it, but we have read in the diaries and autobiographies of other outstanding believers and divines exactly similar descriptions to the foregoing. Those who have thus been highly favoured and unspeakably privileged from Heaven, in their personal experience of the fulfillment and supernatural application of the truth:—”For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. iv. 6) can easily follow Rev. David Brainerd when he writes of his soul rejoicing, and his being “inwardly pleased and satisfied,” his “soul captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God.” Where, however, some of them may not be able to follow him is when he says, “I had no particular apprehension of any one Person in the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost, but it appeared to be Divine glory.”
This at once shows how dangerous it would be to make the personal experience of one, regarding this blessedly glorious manifestation, and apprehension of it by supernatural faith, a universal standard for all. Many believers have an indelible vivid impression, regarding their first faith’s view, of Christ crucified for them and by them, as God manifest in the flesh, yet in all the transcendent excellency, glory, loveliness, and greatness of the Divine perfections, together with an experimental consciousness of the eternally harmonious unity and delight of the Trinity in this supernatural manifestation to the individual soul. Every true Christian is thus an experimental Trinitarian. Though his faith’s view or apprehension affected Rev. David Brainerd in that particular manner, yet God was in his case also, in Christ reconciling him to Himself—a Trinity of Persons in an eternal unity of essence—the Holy Spirit being equally, and simultaneously, gloriously employed applying the redemption purchased by Christ.
We have also read in the diaries and autobiographies of godly men and women that in their first faith’s view of Christ, they too were “so swallowed up in Him, at least to that degree that I had no thought that I remember at first about my own salvation, and scarce reflected that there was such a creature as myself.” Other believers, on the other hand, though thus swallowed up in Him, regarding Him “as among ten thousand altogether lovely,” nevertheless vividly retained a sense of their personal identity as members of His mystical body, and who would charge them with selfishness for being so? A joyful consciousness of one’s own personal eternal salvation in this blessedly solemn and transcendently glorious manifestation of God in Christ, to the individual soul, is surely a righteously legitimate cause of rejoicing, while still admiring those who lost sight of themselves, being absorbed in the glorious loveliness of the God-Man, Christ Jesus.
In conclusion, why should those thus unspeakably blessed and privileged, with a supernatural faith’s apprehension of God in Christ, ever afterwards allow themselves for a moment, to be dejected and depressed by the infidel criticisms of intellectually brilliant and scholarly men who attack, in the name of modern scholarships, the veracity, authenticity, inspiration, and authority of the eternal Word of God, as revealed in the Bible? “If the light that is in them, be darkness, how great is that darkness.” “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. ii. 14). On the other hand, “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant” (Psalm xxv. 14). I would especially warn divinity students and young ministers in evangelically-orthodox churches, never to put mere intellectual and academic attainments, in themselves, above sincere piety, consistent practical godliness of life, and uncompromising fidelity to Scriptural ordination vows, even when attached to slender educational attainments and intellectual mediocrity.