The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 784 pages, £17.00, obtainable from the F P Bookroom.
David Brainerd gave himself wholeheartedly to missionary endeavour among groups of American Indians in what is now north-eastern USA. He was spared to this work for only a few years, dying of tuberculosis in 1747 at the age of only 29. But these were years packed with self-sacrificing labour consecrated to the glory of God and the good of souls, and he has left us a remarkable example of devoted godliness.
The book principally consists of two distinct parts. First, there is Brainerd’s Diary, which was written for no eyes but his own; there he ingenuously records his spiritual experiences. Second, there is his Journal, which was produced as a series of reports to the correspondents in America who managed his mission on behalf of the Scottish society which was supporting him. While clearly the documents overlap, one does not have the feeling that they are covering the same ground. Both the Diary and the Journal were edited for publication by Jonathan Edwards, in whose home Brainerd was devotedly cared for in his final illness.
At times, in spite of failing health, Brainerd was remarkably bright spiritually. On 19 February 1746, he wrote, “My heart was comforted and refreshed, and filled with longings for the conversion of the Indians here”. And two days later: “My spirits were much supported, though my bodily strength was much wasted. O that God would be gracious to the souls of these poor Indians! He has been very gracious to me this week, in enabling me to preach every day;
2This book has recently been reprinted by the Banner of Truth under the title, Repentance.
and has given me some assistance and encouraging prospects of success in almost every sermon. Blessed be His name. Divers of the white people have been awakened this week, and several of the Indians much cured of the prejudices and jealousies they had conceived against Christianity, and some seemed to be really awakened.” From an earlier stage in his life comes this wonderful example of submission to God’s will: “Felt exceeding happy in secret prayer tonight, and desired nothing so ardently as that God should do with me just as He pleased”.
But, as Edwards notes in his Preface, Brainerd was prone to depression, which was no doubt aggravated by repeated bouts of debilitating illness. Yet, even when his spirits were low, he knew where to go for support. On the last day of August 1746 he noted: “Found a weight upon my spirits and could not but cry to God with concern and engagement of soul. . . . Near night, was a little refreshed in mind with some views relating to my great work. O how heavy is my work when faith cannot take hold of an almighty arm for the performance of it! Many times have I been ready to sink in this case. Blessed be God, that I may repair to a full fountain.” Throughout his life Brainerd gave himself much to earnest prayer.
And the almighty arm of God did bless his conscientious and prayerful labours. In his journal entry of 19 June 1746 he noted that, during the previous 11 months, he had baptized 38 adults and 39 children, and all the adults “appeared to have a work of special grace wrought in their hearts”.
A feature of this edition, which has been omitted from many others, is Edwards’ “Reflections and Observations” on what Brainerd had written. For instance, he points out that Brainerd’s “first faith did not consist in believing that Christ loved him, and died for him in particular”; rather it was the result of “a manifestation of God’s glory, and the beauty of His nature as supremely excellent in itself, powerfully drawing and sweetly captivating his heart . . . and also a new sense of the infinite wisdom, suitableness and excellency of the way of salvation by Christ, powerfully engaging his whole soul to embrace this way of salvation and to delight in it”.
A further point about Brainerd which Edwards makes in his Preface is repeatedly illustrated in the book: “As he had a great insight into human nature . . . he excelled in his judgement . . . especially in things pertaining to inward experimental religion, most accurately distinguishing between real and solid piety and enthusiasm [extravagant emotion]”. Accordingly, there is much to be learned about spiritual experience from this book, though one must bear in mind that there are variations between the experience of one believer and another and that the experience of some is more vivid than is the case with the others. And anyone who is in the least spiritually-minded
should be stirred up by reading this book to pray for the extension of Christ’s kingdom in all parts of the world and, in particular, that God would send out ministers of David Brainerd’s spiritual calibre.
The Introduction is carried over from the 1902 edition, from which this reprint is taken, and is not of the same spiritual quality as the rest of the volume. In particular the reference to a novel strikes a very different note from Brainerd’s religion. But The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd should be very widely read. Those who neglect it are passing by a valuable resource from which they might derive much spiritual benefit. Robert Murray M’Cheyne described this pioneer missionary as a “most wonderful man”, and exclaimed: “O to have Brainerd’s heart for perfect holiness!” Perfect holiness is now his. That is what he was longing for near end of his life: “O the glorious time is now coming! I have longed to serve God perfectly; now God will gratify those desires.”
Protestant View
Government Cancels Plans to Amend Act of Settlement
It is with relief and thankfulness to the Lord that faithful Protestants have learned that the Government has laid aside proposals, initiated by the last Government, to allow a Roman Catholic monarch to reign. The Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform, Mark Harper, said recently in answer to a parliamentary question: “There are no current plans to amend the laws on succession”.
This is encouraging to the Lord’s people who pray for the preservation of the Protestant constitution of the British throne. At present, members of the Royal Family are barred by the 1701 Act of Settlement from either converting to Roman Catholicism or marrying a Roman Catholic, unless they agree to be removed from the order of succession.
The Government’s decision is no cause for complacency. Campaigners continue to agitate to have the Act amended and to have what remains of our national Protestant heritage eradicated. May the divine Hearer of prayer preserve and strengthen that which remains. NMR
Problems and Prayers Regarding the Papal Visit
Should we cease praying for the Pope to be prevented from carrying out his projected visit to our country? Surely not. It is noteworthy that the visit continues to be beset by difficulties. Apart from the increasing revelations of child abuse by priests, other problems are causing difficulties for Rome. These include strong protests against the visit, the need to scale down what
was publicised as the main event of his visit (the beatification of John Henry Newman), the clash of a key appearance of the Pope with what is called “the holiest festival in the Jewish calendar” (Yom Kippur), the Queen’s reported belief that planning for the visit is a “mess”, and the ridiculing of the Pope by some staff at the Foreign Office. There is now deep concern about the cost of the visit to the British taxpayer. It has increased to around £12m (excluding security and policing costs, which are estimated to run into further tens of millions of pounds).
A measure of the problems is that the Prime Minister has appointed Lord Patten, the former Governor of Hong Kong and an ardent Roman Catholic, to co-ordinate arrangements for the visit. The visit will enhance the country’s standing worldwide, he says. He is also trying to restrain those who are legitimately voicing their protests against the visit; he states, “I don’t think these are moments for playing out these tensions”.
Rome has shown its concern about criticisms levelled against it by publishing 300 000 copies of a booklet, Heart to Heart, which seeks to justify the papal state visit. It will not remove, however, what most people perceive to be the biggest problem, the implication of the Papacy in covering up child abuse. No less a newspaper than The New York Times reports: “The future pope, it is now clear, was also part of a culture of non-responsibility, denial, legalistic foot-dragging and outright obstruction. More than any top Vatican official other than John Paul, it was Cardinal Ratzinger who might have taken decisive action in the 1990s to prevent the scandal from metastasising in country after country, growing to such proportions that it now threatens to consume his own papacy”.
Our prayers must continue. “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you”, said Samuel to the people of Israel (1 Sam 12:23). May we continue to plead for Britain – that the Lord, in mercy, will not permit the Pope to arrive here. NMR
Notes and Comments
“By the Foolishness of Preaching”
The prominence and centrality of the pulpit in the furnishings of our churches bears witness to the priority given to preaching in public worship. The placing of the Holy Bible on the pulpit underlines the fact that the preacher’s function is not to propound theories of his own but to follow the pattern set by Ezra and the Levites, who “read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the meaning” (Neh 8:9). “Preach the word” (2 Tim 4:2).
Preaching has always been the primary means used by God for the gathering in of sinners to Christ and for the edifying of believers. When God has blessing in store for His Church, His provision is: “I will give you pastors according to Mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer 3:15). The history of the Church has to a large extent been the history of preaching. The Old Testament prophets were preachers. Our Lord was a preacher. He sent forth His disciples and then His apostles as preachers. Paul was ready to engage in conversation and dialogue as opportunity arose, but he summed up his commission as being to “preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8).
In this four-hundred-and-fiftieth year since the Reformation was established in Scotland we remember that this transformation of Church and nation was largely brought about through preaching. In early days the Word often went where no preacher could go and it was blessed, but what consolidated the work and built up believers was the preaching of the Word. Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart were preachers, and John Knox by his own example, as well as by his precepts and arrangements, restored preaching to its central place in the work of the minister and in the worship of the Church. His conviction regarding the place of preaching comes out in the preface to one sermon which he published – on Isaiah 26:13-21: “Considering myself rather called of my God to instruct the ignorant, comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak, and rebuke the proud, by tongue and lively voice, in these most corrupt days, than to compose books for the age to come, seeing that so much is written (and that by men of most singular condition), and yet so little well observed: I decreed to contain myself within the bonds of that vocation, whereunto I found myself especially called”.
Throughout the centuries, the Church prospered to the extent to which the Lord raised up preachers faithful to His Word and accompanied the preaching with divine power. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Cor 1:21). The blessing of God on the preached Word in turn reformed society. We have to remonstrate with those in authority and testify against the sins of our day, as Nehemiah did when he contended with the nobles of Judah for not using their authority to maintain Sabbath observance, and testified against those who were engaged in Sabbath harvesting and trading (Neh 13). We have, however, to recognise that what will revive the Church and reform society is the blessing of God on the preached Word.
William Cowper wrote that “when nations are to perish in their sins ’tis in the Church the leprosy begins”. Undoubtedly the decline in the moral state of our nation began with the backsliding in the Church which originated in the departure of the pulpits (and the colleges from which the preachers emerged)
from the preaching of the whole counsel of God. It is to be deeply regretted that many pulpits from which the Word of God was once proclaimed with power are now closed or occupied by those who prophesy “a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart” (Jer 14:14). If the leprosy in the Church and the perishing of the nation are to be remedied we need the preaching of the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven (1 Pet 1:12).
It should be a matter of great concern to ourselves that so many of our pulpits are empty and that there is currently so little prospect of them being occupied. We are indebted to faithful office-bearers who, in the absence of ministers, read suitable sermons by preachers of the past or themselves speak from a portion of Scripture. But we should not forget that the preaching of the Word by those sent by God for that specific work, though they are but earthen vessels, is a divine ordinance. The withholding of divinely-commissioned preachers should not be regarded with complacency but should be a matter concerning which we humble ourselves before the Lord. HMC
Homosexual March in Edinburgh
One of the most disturbing features of the so-called “gay pride” or homosexual march in Edinburgh on 26 June was the sponsorship that it received. The sponsors included the Conservative Party, British Transport Police, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, Lothian and Borders Police, NHS 24 and the Scottish Prison Service. Most of these are public bodies and they are spending public money, which was given to them for other purposes, on this evil cause which is not the business of any of them. The money that they have now mis-spent in promoting sin is no longer available for any beneficial use. Many people in the public sector are facing the loss of their jobs, and some of these, perhaps, could be preserved had it not been for the sponsorship of homosexuality.
Even if the cause they are supporting were less evil than it is, or were morally neutral, one would still feel that it was very dangerous for public bodies to be aligning themselves with certain sections of society. One would not be happy, for instance, to see the police or NHS 24 taking sides in a Celtic or Rangers march. How much less should the forces of law and order be siding with such an aggressive enemy of civil liberties as the homosexual movement. Even the Crown Prosecution Service in Scotland, though not sponsoring this march, is giving public money to the homosexual movement by paying for the use of the Stonewall logo on its stationery. The Crown Prosecution Service is thereby declaring that it supports those in Scotland who promote homosexuality against those who oppose it. Does this support mean that opponents of homosexuality are more likely to be prosecuted than homosexuals, or that
they are less likely to be employed by the Crown Prosecution Service? Either way manifest discrimination is intended.
While the laws that are being passed or proposed speak of discrimination against homosexuals, the example just mentioned, together with many other recent news items, show that the opposite is the truth in many contexts. Homosexuals are a highly-favoured section of society, fawned upon by politicians and the media, receiving considerable sums of public money, and already much better protected by the law than most other groups of people in Britain. Though they profess to be “proud” of their open sin, yet they seem in the main to be exceptionally sensitive and unable to endure the slightest criticism of their conduct. The homosexual movement has no regard for the liberties or consciences of others and is currently mounting a fierce campaign of discrimination against all who are unable to approve of them. Anyone wishing to work for the Strathclyde Police, for instance, will be interrogated on his views on homosexuality; and there are many other forms of employment which are becoming difficult for Christians to enter for the same reason.
The Lord rules, however, and the discriminatory and persecuting activities of the homosexual movement will soon have their day. “The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous” (Ps 125:3). How the homosexual movement will be overturned is an interesting question, as it becomes more and more deeply entwined in the fabric of the nation. One way would be by a mighty work of revival. If many people were converted, and many homosexuals among them, then public opinion would swing and recent laws in favour of homosexuality would be repealed. Many politicians who have given their cowardly support to homosexuality would then be found on the other side, trying to excuse away their former behaviour. What a bold figure Shimei was when David had to flee Jerusalem, but what a cringing penitent he was when David returned (2 Sam 16:7, 19:20). He was not a true penitent, however, and divine justice made an example of him (1 Ki 2:46). So it will happen to those presently giving their support to the homosexual movement, unless they repent.
DWBS
Confusion
In a bizarre recent decision, the Civil Appeal Court has ruled that a 68-year-old man who has had a “sex-change” operation is entitled to a woman’s pension, backdated to the age of 60 – though he is still married to his wife. The Department for Work and Pensions had argued that, under the Gender Recognition Act, he must first dissolve his marriage before he can be recognised as a woman, and that, if he wished, he could then enter into a civil partnership with his former wife. The Civil Appeal Court says that European rules require the payment of a woman’s pension even while the marriage continues.
It appears therefore that, according to the Gender Recognition Act, this person is a man, while according to the European rules he is a woman. Such inconsistency highlights the folly and absurdity of the principles of political correctness, and also the recklessness with which momentous legislation is being adopted in Britain and in Europe. We believe that, according to God’s law, the person in question is a married man with a mutilated body, who takes female hormones, dresses in women’s clothing, and is greatly in need of the peace and truth which the gospel of Christ brings to troubled sinners. DWBS