The Indomitable Brainerds: The Gospel Legacy of David and John Brainerd’s Mission to the Indians, by Mack M Tomlinson, published by Reformation Heritage Books, hardback, 168 pages, £21.99.
David Brainerd (1718-47) is still well known. His ministry was brief; he died young, but God blessed his earnest efforts as a missionary to the Native Americans. John Brainerd (1720-81) was his younger brother and followed him in his ministry among the Indians. A minister of another generation was to say it was believed “that John was as godly a man as his brother David, but was not equal to him in ability. . . . Certainly in both men there was biblical orthodoxy, humility, spiritual passion, pastoral gifts, self-denial and faithfulness.”
In a letter to his brother, who was then preparing to become a missionary to the Indians, David wrote: “Time is short. O let us fill it up for God! Let us count the sufferings of this present time as nothing, if we can but run our race and finish our course with joy. O let us strive to live for God! I bless the Lord that I have nothing to do with earth, but only to labour honestly in it for God. I do not desire to live a minute for anything which earth can afford! O that I could live for none but God until my dying moment!” his words breathe the spirit of holiness which was so characteristic of the writer. In his last
1Both books reviewed are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
letter to John, he told him: “O my brother, pursue after holiness – press towards this blessed mark; and let your thirsty soul continually say, ‘I shall never be satisfied till I awake in Thy likeness’”.
David Brainerd worked diligently, preaching and visiting the Native Americans, but also preaching to white people. The author states, “Brainerd, in retrospect, viewed his work [over two years] at the first two Indian missions . . . as lacking any substantial spiritual success”. But in a chapter entitled, “A Day of God’s Power”, the author tells about Brainerd’s work in a settlement in New Jersey, at Crossweeksung. The author reports, “Those who had never heard the Christian message and who were wholly given to idolatry and ancestor worship were suddenly experiencing God’s saving power and grace among the entire tribe”. Perhaps it was an Indian who said they were very much moved “to hear that Christ suffered to save such wicked Indians as they were”.
An Indian, under Brainerd’s preaching, thought that, if he could become good enough, Christ would accept him, but one day, as he listened to Brainerd, he saw himself as spiritually helpless and he lost all hope. Yet at this point he was enabled to believe to the saving of his soul.
Brainerd died at the age of just 29, having suffered for some time from tuberculosis. For the last months of his life, he was nursed in Jonathan Edwards’ home. Edwards edited Brainerd’s diary and journals and published them. This greatly helped to preserve Brainerd’s memory till today.
It is interesting to note that David Brainerd was supported financially by the SSPCK, the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (not, as the book states, the SPCK, the name of an English society); his brother also received support from the SSPCK. The noted American minister Samuel Davies visited John Brainerd and was very pleased with an account of the progress of religion among the Native Americans under Brainerd’s preaching. When support from the SSPCK ceased, John became minister of a Presbyterian church, although his health was declining. One of his successors wrote that he “was instrumental in doing much good among the inhabitants of this place and also among a tribe of Indians in the neighbourhood”.
The book is somewhat expensive for a short volume, but well worth reading. It should stir us up to pray for the success of the gospel, even when that seems rather unlikely. It is disappointing that the book quotes the Scriptures from the NKJV, rather than from the Brainerds’ Authorised Version.
Eternal Truth, A Complete Reprint 1959-1961, edited by John J Murray, Ettrick Press, paperback, 178 pages, £9.95.
This book is a reprint of a small magazine that ran for just nine issues, when
Mr Murray was a young man. The individual issues contained several short extracts from writers such as Thomas Watson, Ralph Erskine, Robert M’Cheyne and C H Spurgeon. They also contain editorials and other pieces by the Editor, largely addressing the shortcomings in the religion of the period. In his first editorial, he asserted, “It is evident . . . that the first want of the day is a return to the God-honouring doctrines of free and sovereign grace, which are in very truth the doctrines of God’s Holy Word”.
One of the extracts, from John Willison, an eighteenth-century minister in Dundee, entitled “Zion’s Travellers”, reads: “Sojourn in this world as travellers, keeping so loose from the world as to be able to pack up and be gone from it upon short warning (1 Pet 1:17; 1 Cor 7:29-31). We have no continuing city or certain abode here; therefore, let us always be ready to rise and depart. And if we would be right travellers towards Zion above, we must have Christ in our hearts, heaven in our eye, and the world under our feet. We must take God’s Spirit for our guide, God’s Word for our rule, God’s glory for our end, God’s fear for our guard, God’s people for our companions, God’s praise for our recreation, and God’s promises for our cordials. We must make religion our business, prayer our delight, holiness our way, and heaven our home.
“O Zion’s travellers, distinguish yourselves from the men that dwell upon the earth. Let Christ always be precious to you, the Word sweet, sin bitter, the world a wilderness, and death welcome. Let Christ’s will be your will, Christ’s dishonour your affliction, Christ’s Cause your concern, Christ’s success your joy, Christ’s Day your delight, Christ’s cross your glory, Christ’s sufferings your meditation, Christ’s wounds your refuge, Christ’s blood your balm, Christ’s righteousness your clothing, Christ’s presence your heaven. While travelling here, let your hearts burn with love to Christ; love to think of Christ, love to hear of Christ, love to read of Christ, love to speak of Christ, love to speak for Christ, love to speak to Christ.”
Another extract is headed “Marks of Religious Declension”. It comes from The Watchword, a nineteenth-century magazine edited by James Begg. We quote just a few of these marks: You are in a state of declension (1.) “When you are reluctant to religious conversation, and the company of serious, heavenly-minded Christians, and enjoy yourself best with men of the world.” (3.) “When you are afraid to consider certain duties seriously, lest your conscience rebuke past neglect and insist on fidelity now.” (7.) “When you have little fear of temptation and can trifle with spiritual danger.”
Now a few brief quotations from various writers. First from B B Warfield: “Calvinism is the casting of the soul wholly on the free grace of God alone, to whom alone belongs salvation”. The second is from John Calvin: “The
sum of holy doctrine consists of just these two points: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves”. And the third of these quotations comes from Richard Sibbes: “The Spirit of God may be known to be in weak Christians. As the soul is known to be in the body by the pulses, even so the Spirit discovers itself in them by pulses, by groaning, sighing, complaining that it is so with them and that they are no better; so that they are out of love with themselves. This is a good sign that the Spirit is there in some measure.”
A final quotation is from the editor himself; it is effectively a footnote to a brief piece, from John Newton, against over-familiarity in prayer. Mr Murray comments that Newton’s piece is of special significance in view of the increasing use of “You” for “Thou” in addressing God in public prayer. This, together with the too oft repetition of the word “Father”, tends to lower rather than to higher thoughts of God.”
The quotations, as well as being useful in themselves, should give some indication of the material in this book. It should be particularly attractive to those who enjoy dipping into a book and reading a short piece at a time.
Protestant View
Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Spain
The largest national newspaper in Spain, El País, began an investigation into paedophilia in the Spanish Roman Catholic Church in 2018, following which there was a government-authorised investigation by the Ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo. According to El País, Spain has become a global exception among majority-Roman Catholic countries. It went from having no officially recognised cases of paedophilia within the Roman Catholic Church to being the country with the highest number of victims in the world. According to the survey carried out by the Ombudsman and published on 27 October 2023, it is estimated that 1.13% of the 38.9 million population of Spain aged between 18 and 90 (the age range covered by the survey), which amounts to 440 000 people, have suffered abuse in the religious sphere (by priests and lay people). Of the 1.13%, 0.6%, some 233 000 people, claimed to have suffered abuse from priests. More than 800 000 people were interviewed by the investigators.
Spain’s parliament, in approving the creation of an independent commission, wanted the Ombudsman to “shed light” on allegations of sexual abuse of “defenceless boys and girls” in the Roman Catholic Church. Having gathered the information, the Ombudsman criticised “the silence of those who could have done more to prevent paedophilia”. He also criticised the Church for its inaction and attempts to cover up or deny the abuse. The abuses had had
a “devastating impact” on victims, he said. “There are people who have died by suicide and people who have never put their lives back together . . . what has happened has been made possible by their silence,” said Mr Gabilondo. He highlighted the Church’s lack of interest in assisting with the report and the hostility of some of the bishops. The Church refused to carry out its own inquiry and declined to take part in the independent investigation, but it did co-operate by providing documents on cases of sexual abuse that had been collected by dioceses.
Abuses have been widely reported in the USA, Chile, Australia, Germany, Poland and Ireland, with the Irish government paying 14 500 people compensation for abuse received at juvenile facilities run by the Roman Catholic Church. A 2021 independent commission in France reported that 216 000 children, most of whom were boys, had been sexually abused by priests since 1950.
The Pope requested that the entire Spanish Episcopal conference, made up of almost 80 bishops, attend a meeting in Rome on 28 November 2023. The Pope can admonish the Spanish Church however he wishes, but the problem is endemic and as old as the papacy. As long as abusive priests are moved from parish to parish and not removed altogether, the situation will continue. The Reformers, Luther and Zwingli, in the early sixteenth century, railed against the unscriptural celibacy of priests and its wicked consequences, and here we are in the twenty-first century and the Church of Rome has changed not one whit.
FRD
Notes and Comments
Church of England and Same-Sex Blessings
In November 2023, the Synod of the Church of England narrowly passed a motion to trial “special stand-alone services” for blessing those in same-sex partnerships. This is to be for two years while debate on their ongoing status continues. However, can we realistically expect that after the two years’ trial period the pilot will be rescinded? I think not!
Rev John Dunnell, National Director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), stated; “CEEC is grieved and saddened that the General Synod passed a motion earlier this afternoon to continue with the implementation of the bishops’ proposals. These proposals depart from a biblical understanding of sex and marriage.”
Bishops of the Anglican Network in Europe urged the House of Bishops to repent, saying, “This action is offensive to the God of love. It replaces His
wonderful gospel of grace with a dislocated message, blessing what God calls sin. This is heartbreaking, wicked and outrageously arrogant.” The above quote, from the Anglican Network, adequately sums up what Bible-believing Christians hold to be true. FRD
Foetal Sentience
Lord Moylan, an English Conservative politician, has set out a Foetal Sentience Committee Bill in the House of Lords, where it received its first reading. The purpose of the Bill is to create a committee which will, on an ongoing basis, be a source of scientific expertise on the sentience of the human foetus (its ability to experience sensations) in the light of the rapid increases in scientific knowledge relating to the development of the unborn child. (Medical science has, of course, advanced significantly since the 1967 Abortion Act.) The Committee would also inform policy making.
In 2019, in answer to a question asked in Parliament on the subject of spinal surgery for spina bifida babies in the womb, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jackie Doyle-Price, answered that innovative treatment would be routinely available on the NHS for the first time. Pain relief would be delivered in the course of an operation, and the foetus would be monitored during the procedure by ultrasound to check the heart rate. This would be done between 20 and 26 weeks of gestation. This is in sharp contrast to the destruction of a healthy foetus, which is not given this consideration and is provided no pain relief.
The organisation, Right to Life UK, has commented that the killing of “protected animals” from “two-thirds” of gestation is subject to tighter legal regulation than unborn human beings aborted at the same stage. An example of the recent improvements in this area of medical science is that the survival rate for extremely premature babies has doubled over the last decade, for which there is new guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine that enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks’ gestation.
Lord Moylan’s Bill must pass through another reading in the House of Lords before being passed to the House of Commons for consideration. We should pray that the Bill will become law, that the proposed committee will be set up and that its advice to government will have a moderating effect on our legislators, and primarily, lead to a compassionate regard for the unborn child. FRD
The Scourge of Islam
Islam dates from the early seventh century and spread rapidly in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt was captured by Islamic invaders in 639 AD,
but remained predominately Christian until the twelfth century. Farther west, however, North Africa soon became overwhelmingly Muslim. Modern-day Turkey was part of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire but it started to succumb to Islam in the eleventh century, and the capital city Constantinople (now Istanbul) was captured in 1453. The spread of Islam was connected with serious doctrinal error in the Christian Church. Arianism, which denied the Divinity of Christ, had overrun North Africa, while Byzantine Christianity had largely degenerated into the worship of icons.
The spread of Islam in Europe was checked from the Reformation onwards, but it resumed in the twentieth century, and most major European countries have rapidly increasing Muslim populations. The name Muhammad (in various spellings) has been the most popular name for baby boys in Britain in 2023; and the demographics show that in 25 years’ time probably a fifth of the people in Germany will be Muslim.
The Lord is scourging atheistic Europe with this false religion, and none of the countries know what to do about it. Their atheism has blinded them, to the extent that they can hardly even admit that there is a problem. To make such an admission is regarded as a mark of extreme right-wing politics. Instead, the people in power occupy themselves with “diversity”, “gender”, “transgender”, “climate change” and, ever more, abortion. Yet the examples of North Africa, Syria and Turkey show us that Islam is not only intolerant towards atheism but has little regard for the existing history and culture of the nation. The whole European heritage is in jeopardy, and Britain’s precious Christian heritage along with it. It is sad to watch the process but it is what we deserve. If we provoke God with our atheism and rejection of Christianity, we are the ones who will suffer. “Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? (Jer 7:19). DWBS