3. Early Missionary Work
On 2 February 1743 Brainerd set off for the district where he would begin work among the Indians. He was to spend time in East Hampton until the cold of winter would be over. In early March he rode 16 miles to Manatauk, where he spoke to the local Indians. Then he went away on his own to pray, but found himself “awfully deserted and had an afflicting sense of my vileness”. Yet he did preach, on Christ, from Isaiah 53:10: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him”. The missionary did acknowledge: “Had some assistance; and, I trust, something of the divine presence was among us”.2
Back in East Hampton, on a Sabbath in mid-March, he thought it would be impossible for him to preach because of how weak he felt in his body and how dead he felt in his soul. Yet again he had to acknowledge that he spoke “nearly an hour and a half with sweet freedom, clearness and some tender power”. His text was: “And Enoch walked with God”. He noted, in contrast to his earlier feelings, “I was sweetly assisted to insist on a close walk with God, and to leave this as my parting advice to God’s people here: that they should walk with God. May the God of all grace succeed my poor labours in this place!” (p 72).
In March, Brainerd again met the men who represented the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), who directed him to go to evangelise some Indians at a place, in New York state, called
1A further part of a longer version of a paper given at last year’s Theological Conference. Last month’s instalment covered Brainerd’s preparation for the ministry and his meeting with some men that were in correspondence with the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), who were anxious to promote missionary work among the American Indians. Brainerd was appointed as a missionary to them.
2Jonathan Edwards, editor, The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, Banner of Truth Trust, 2023 edition, p 72. Page references in brackets, in the body of the text, are to this edition of the Diary and Journal.
Kaunaameek. At the beginning of April, he went there and slept on a little heap of straw for the first time. That day he suffered from spiritual depression, which continued for most of the next five days. Soon afterwards, he recorded that he “was exceedingly pressed under a sense of pride, selfishness, bitterness and party spirit” when, in the past, he had tried “to promote the cause of God”. “Of late”, he added, “I have thought much of having the kingdom of Christ advanced in the world; but now I had enough to do within myself.” He went on to record the petition, “The Lord be merciful to me a sinner, and wash my soul” (p 75).
He noted of his second Sabbath in Kaunaameek that, at the two services, the Indians “behaved soberly in general: two or three in particular appeared under some religious concern” (p 75). When he spoke to them privately, one of them told him that her heart had cried ever since she first heard him preach. One Saturday, an Irishman and a Dutchman came to Kaunaameek with a view to hearing Brainerd preach. But he was very disturbed by their “profane talk”. The next day he tried to teach them, in his sermon, “something about sanctifying the Sabbath”, but afterwards, when a little distance away from Brainerd, “they again talked freely about secular affairs”. He added, “I thought what a hell it would be to live with such men to eternity” (p 76).
Later that week, he turned 25 and “set apart this day for fasting and prayer, to bow my soul before God for the bestowment of divine grace, especially that all my spiritual afflictions and inward distresses might be sanctified to my soul” (pp 76-7). He also tried to remember God’s goodness to him over the previous year. But he also wrote, “My soul was pained to think of my barrenness and deadness; that I have lived so little to the glory of the eternal God. . . . O that God would enable me to live to His glory for the future!” (p 77).
By early May, Brainerd was hard at work building a small cottage, so that he could live among the Indians. Meanwhile he lived first with a poor Scot and his wife; it would seem that she could only speak Gaelic; and afterwards, till his house was ready, he stayed in a wigwam – presumably with the Indians to whom it belonged.
Clearly Brainerd was a man of prayer, and conscientious in all his spiritual duties. He noted, “A seasonable, steady performance of secret duties in their proper hours, and a careful improvement of all time [that is, making the best possible use of it], filling up every hour with some profitable labour either of heart, head, or hands, are excellent means of spiritual peace and boldness before God. Christ indeed is our peace, and by Him we have boldness of access to God; but a good conscience void of offence is an excellent preparation for an approach into the divine presence. There is a difference between self-confidence, or a self-righteous pleasing of ourselves – as with our own
duties, attainments and spiritual enjoyments – which godly souls sometimes are guilty of, and that holy confidence arising from the testimony of a good conscience, which good Hezekiah had when he said, ‘Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart’” (p 83).
Edwards notes Brainerd’s happiness over the next week. He noted too how he more than once blessed God for giving him “a little cottage, where he might live alone and enjoy a happy time on his own, free from noise and disturbance, and could at any hour of the day lay aside all studies and spend time in lifting up his soul to God for spiritual blessings” (p 83).
In mid August, Brainerd again noted his physical weakness. That day he spent most of his time gathering fodder to feed his horse through the winter. He had difficulty procuring suitable food for himself; he had to get bread from 10 or 15 miles away and sometimes it was mouldy and sour before he could eat it, if he bought any considerable quantity. He also had some maize, which he made into little cakes and fried them. “Yet”, he adds, “felt3 contented with my circumstances, and sweetly resigned to God. In prayer I enjoyed great freedom and blessed God as much for my present circumstances as if I had been a king, and thought I found a disposition to be contented in any circumstances. Blessed be God” (p 84).
In early October, Brainerd rode home and found the Indians glad to see him. He noted further in his diary: “Found my house and all things in safety. I presently fell on my knees and blessed God for my safe return after a long and tedious journey and a season of sickness in several places where I had been, and after I had been ill myself. God has renewed His kindness to me, in preserving me one journey more. I have taken many considerable journeys since this time last year, and yet God has never suffered one of my bones to be broken, or any distressing calamity to befall me, excepting the ill turn I had in my last journey. I have often been exposed to cold and hunger in the wilderness, where the comforts of life were not to be had: have frequently been lost in the woods, and sometimes obliged to ride much of the night, and once lay out in the woods all night; yet blessed be God, He has preserved me” (pp 91,92).
Later that month, Brainerd preached on a Sabbath morning on the glories of heaven and “in the afternoon on the miseries of hell and the danger of going there”. He noted, “Had some freedom and warmth, both parts of the day. And my people were very attentive. In the evening two or three came to me under concern for their souls.” He spoke earnestly to them, and his desire was, “O that God would be merciful to their poor souls!” (p 93).
3Note that Brainerd often omits the subject of a sentence in his diary.
On the last day of October, he wrote of riding “to Kinderhook, about 15 miles from my place. While riding I felt some divine sweetness in the thought of being ‘a pillar in the temple of God’ in the upper world, and being no more deprived of his blessed presence and the sense of his favour, which is better than life. My soul was so lifted up to God that I could pour out my desires to him for more grace and further degrees of sanctification, with abundant freedom. O, I longed to be more abundantly prepared for that blessedness, with which I was then in some measure refreshed” (p 94).
Shortly afterwards, Brainerd was noting that his sense of the evil of sin was such that he had completely all hopes of being made an instrument “of doing any special service for God in the world; it has appeared entirely impossible that one so black and vile surely should be thus employed for God”. But his spirits were lifted by reading Exodus 3-20, where he “saw more of the glory and majesty of God discovered than ever I had seen before”. As he read, he would often fall on his knees and cry to God for the faith of Moses and for the manifestation of God’s glory.
He continued, “My soul blessed God that he had shown himself so gracious to his servants of old”. He recalled “the season of my first spiritual comfort, when I had just got through the Red Sea, by a way that I had no expectation of. O how my soul then rejoiced in God! And now those things came fresh and lively to my mind; now my soul blessed God afresh that He had opened that unthought-of way to deliver me from the fear of the Egyptians when I almost despaired of life. Afterwards read the story of Abraham’s pilgrimage in the land of Canaan; my soul was melted, in observing his faith, how he leaned on God; how he communed with God, and what a stranger he was here in the world.
“After that, read the story of Joseph’s sufferings and God’s goodness to him; blessed God for these examples of faith and patience. My soul was ardent in prayer and was enabled to wrestle ardently for myself, for Christian friends, and for the Church of God. And felt more desires to see the power of God in the conversion of souls than I have done for a long season. Blessed be God for this season of fasting and prayer! May his goodness always abide with me and draw my soul to him!” (p 95).
In late November, Brainerd began to study one of the Indian languages, with John Sergeant, a missionary to the Indians at Stockbridge, where Jonathan Edwards was to labour after he was dismissed from Northampton. To study in Stockbridge meant a 20-mile ride in each direction and Brainerd had to face difficult weather conditions through the winter. He refers to the “extreme cold” on a ride back to Kaunaameek, but he refers too to “some refreshing meditations by the way”. He commented, “I trust I shall ere long
arrive safe at my journey’s end, where my toils shall cease”. Another day he got soaked by falling into a river. He complained of being “barren, wandering and lifeless, much of the day. Thus my days roll away, with but little done for God; and this is my burden” (p 98). Yet Brainerd was not the best judge of how much he was doing for God, especially when we view the matter in the light of his reference to being visited at Kaunaameek on December 20 by some who were under spiritual concern. God was working through him, even if the spiritual concern in some cases was to vanish.