Ralph Erskine
Do not expect to be always dandled by conscious communion with the Lord. It is indeed sweet to be lying in the lap of sense; but you must be set down on your feet, to walk by faith; and this life of faith is as sure as the other is sweet. By a life of sense, we get the more comfort; by a life of faith, our Lord gets the more glory; for faith works by love, and love is the heart and soul of all gospel obedience. Yes, though saving faith and conscious spiritual feeling go frequently together – there being a joy and peace in believing – yet faith must be content sometimes to live upon a bond when there is no present payment to be given or expected. And we may be well satisfied that a faithful and true God gives us such good security as the bond of His promises, and we ought to allow Him His own day for the accomplishment of them. The more believably and patiently we wait, till the fruit that hangs on the tree of the promises is ripe, it will be the bigger and the sweeter.
Yet I think it is a sweet battle and pleasant disagreement that there sometimes is between the two graces of faith and love – while love says, I must have Him now, faith says, I must wait for Him patiently. Love says, I cannot be without Him; and faith says, I cannot limit Him. Love says, Let me rejoice in His sweet presence; and faith says, Let me rest upon His sure promise.
Love, I think, is more selfish and speaks for itself; but faith is more noble and speaks for God. What a noble life then it is to live by faith, even in a day of hiding [of God’s favour] and darkness, and against hope to believe in hope and to be strong in faith, giving glory to God.
Though love may excel faith for length, as it is a triumphant grace (1 Cor 13:13), yet faith excels love for strength, as it is a militant grace. Hence, as love is strong as death, yet faith is stronger, for all things are possible to it.
1An edited extract from a letter to a Mrs Mary Stuart and her younger sisters and brother, in The Life and Diary of Ralph Erskine by Donald Fraser.
Why? Faith borrows the arm of omnipotence and sets the power and the promise of God together on its side; it puts the God of truth to His word, and the God of power to His work, being fully persuaded that He who has promised is able to perform (Rom 4:21). And as faith most ordinarily is exercised in prayer, so when it comes to the open field, the pitched battle, to be wrestling with God for the blessing, then Jehovah condescends to yield and own that He has been overcome – yet so as the conqueror shall not boast in himself but glory in the Lord, in whom alone he is more than a conqueror (Rom 8:37).
David Brainerd1
7. “I Long to Preach to the Whole World”
On 7 March 1745 Brainerd set out on a five-week journey. Having spent two years on his own, he wanted to discuss with other ministers the possibility of raising money “among Christian friends to support a colleague”. He was thinking of Christ’s example in sending out “His disciples two and two”2 and consulted with quite a number of ministers in at least three American states. He returned home on April 13 and blessed “the Lord, who has preserved me in this tedious journey and returned me in safety to my own house. Verily it is God that has upheld me and guarded my goings.” The next day, a Sabbath, Brainerd felt “disordered in body”. Yet, though he was very tired, he mentions that he “had much more assistance than I expected” in preaching to a considerable number of white people (p 156).
That week, Brainerd rode to Philadelphia. He hoped to ask the Governor to persuade the “chief man of the Six Nations” to give Brainerd permission to live at Susquehannah and teach the people there about Christianity. On his way to Philadelphia and also on his return journey, he stayed with Charles Beatty,3 a young Presbyterian minister, and he enjoyed “sweet spiritual refreshment” with him. The two men rode together to Abington, where the Lord’s Supper was to be observed – “according to the method of the Church
1A further part of a longer version of a paper given at last year’s Theological Conference. Last month’s instalment saw Brainerd continuing his missionary work, which was then centred on the Indians at the Forks of Delaware.
2Jonathan Edwards, editor, The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, Banner of Truth Trust, 2023 edition, p 155. Page references in brackets, in the body of the text, are to this edition of the Diary and Journal.
3A brief “Memoir” of Beatty appears in The Log College by Archibald Alexander (Banner of Truth, 1968, recently reprinted). Beatty belonged to the North of Ireland and emigrated to America, where he became a minister at Neshaminy.
of Scotland” – in the congregation of a minister by the name of Treat.4 The local minister was preaching when they arrived; afterwards Brainerd preached on: “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . ” (Mt 5:3).
Brainerd commented, “God was pleased to give me great freedom and tenderness, both in prayer and sermon”; and noted further that the congregation “was sweetly melted, and scores were in tears”. It was, he believed, “a word spoken in season to many weary souls” (p 156).
During the communion service on the Sabbath, taken by the local minister, Brainerd enjoyed thinking about “the blissful communion of God’s people when they shall meet at their Father’s table in His kingdom, in a state of perfection”. In the afternoon, Brainerd preached outside, as the church building was too small to accommodate even half of those present. He spoke on: “These are they which follow the Lamb . . . ” (Rev 14:4). After two services on the Monday, one taken by Brainerd, he and Beatty set off for their homes. The two men had profitable conversation on divine things as they rode along together. Brainerd spent the night in his colleague’s home and completed his journey the next day. Riding home alone, he “enjoyed some sweet meditations on the road, and was enabled to lift up my heart to God in prayer and praise” (p 157).
On April 30 Brainerd was very ill; he could scarcely walk about and spent most of the day in bed; he felt unable to read or meditate or pray and felt time pass very slowly. Yet he wanted to live to God, to delight in Him and to draw his highest satisfaction from Him. But two days later he was well enough to walk into the woods in the evening and pray there; he enjoyed meditating on Psalm 17:15: “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness”. He noted, “I long to preach to the whole world; and it seemed to me they must needs all be melted in hearing such precious divine truths as I had then a view and relish of” (p 158). Yet, of course, he very well knew that only the Holy Spirit can bring about that kind of melting; yet his remark demonstrates his strong desire for God to be glorified in applying the truth to the hearts of sinners through the preaching of the gospel.
On May 7 Brainerd was preparing for a trip to Susquehannah, with his interpreter. He was still weak and was concerned how he would be able to reach his intended destination. He spent some time in prayer for God’s blessing, direction and protection, but he did not have sufficient strength of body to spend the day in fasting and prayer – as it seems he wished to do.
4Treat is mentioned in Beatty’s memoir (see previous footnote). There we are told that he preached for several years before he was converted, but was awakened through a sermon of George Whitefield. Both Beatty and Treat later went as missionaries to the American Indians in Pennsylvania.
The next day he set out with his interpreter, but he found the journey very difficult and tiring. He spent one night in the open, and later a north-easterly storm arose. He had nothing to provide him with shelter; the heavy rain made it impossible for him to light a fire; he saw that he had no alternative but to ride on. He hoped he would find some shelter; without it he was afraid he would not live till the morning. But the horses must have eaten poison where they had spent the previous night; so the men had to go on foot and drive the horses before them until, “through the mercy of God” (as Edwards acknowledges in recounting this incident) they came to a bark hut, just at dusk, and there they spent the night.
After reaching Susquehannah, he travelled along the river for about 100 miles, over a fortnight, and visited many Indian settlements. There were seven or eight different tribes living there and he preached to the various tribes, with their differing languages, through different interpreters. He was sometimes discouraged by the opposition to Christianity shown by some of the Indians; at other times he was encouraged by the willingness of other Indians to listen and their readiness to be instructed. Among them were some who had listened to his preaching at Kaunaameek; they showed great joy in hearing the missionary once more. Yet again he became seriously ill, as he rode through a district that seemed utterly uninhabited; he had a fever and extreme pain in his head and abdomen; to make things worse, he suffered a large haemorrhage. But at last he came to an Indian trader’s hut, where he was able to stay for a week. After that, he felt fit to begin his journey home. Altogether his round trip involved riding about 340 miles, over 23 days.
Brainerd set off again on June 18, with a view to visiting Indians who lived nearly 80 miles from the Forks of Delaware, at a place called Crossweeksung, in New Jersey. This new field of labour was to be, as Edwards notes, the scene of “his greatest success, in his labours for the good of souls, and in his particular business as a missionary to the Indians” (p 162). The next day he reached Crossweeksung but very few of them were at home. Yet he preached to them and found them to be “very serious and attentive” (p 163).5
The Indians in this district were very scattered, perhaps only three families in any settlement, and the settlements were between six and 30 or more miles apart. Brainerd notes that these Indians were not inclined to raise objections,
5Up to this point, quotations have been taken from Brainerd’s Diary. From now on, some of the quotations come from his Journal, which covers the period of exactly a year; these can be identified by page numbers beyond 257. The Journal is also entitled, “The Rise and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace”. It was written because the society in Scotland which supported him financially instructed him to do so.
in contrast to what he had found elsewhere. After the service, he told the seven or eight women and children who made up his congregation that he would willingly come again the next day to speak to them. They readily set out on a journey of 10 or 15 miles to tell their friends elsewhere about the promised service, which was attended by several of these friends. The following day, Brainerd had almost 30 hearers, and a few days later there were 40. When a further week had passed, the Indians were asking for two sermons every day, which Brainerd was glad to provide, exhausting though such a schedule was.
On the Sabbath, Brainerd notes that “not a word of opposition was heard from any of them against Christianity, although in times past they had been as opposite to anything of that nature as any Indians whatsoever. And some of them, not many months before, were enraged with my interpreter, because he attempted to teach them something of Christianity” (p 264).
He notes also that they had taken three deer on two days very close to where the meetings were held. This left them with a lot of time to spend in learning about Christianity without having to go hungry. He believed this was God’s provision. Not surprisingly, after 11 days of repeated preaching, Brainerd was exhausted, especially because his health was so poor in any case.
On June 29 he preached twice “and could not but wonder at the seriousness and the strictness of their attention. Blessed be God that He has inclined their hearts to hear. And O how refreshing it is to me to see them attend with such uncommon diligence . . . with tears in their eyes and concern in the hearts!” (pp 164-5).
The next day was the second Sabbath that Brainerd spent in Crossweeksung. He noticed that there was even more concern among them for their souls, and they persuaded him to spend more time among them. He agreed to this, even though he felt very worn out.
The following day, he wrote that he “preached again twice to a very serious and attentive assembly of Indians, they having now learned to attend the worship of God with Christian decency” (p 265). He also spoke to them more privately and was amazed to discover how much the Indians had learned from his teaching in such a short time.
At this point he felt it his duty to leave Crossweeksung and return to the Forks of Delaware. He did so on July 2. Before going on his way, he spoke to each of them individually. They were all earnestly asking when he would return “and expressed a great desire of being further instructed” (p 265). Without prompting, they agreed that, when Brainerd would come back, they would all gather and live together as long as he was with them. They also promised to do as much as they could to bring to one place all the Indians in
these parts who lived farther away. Brainerd promised to come back to Crossweeksung as soon as possible.
When parting, a woman told him tearfully: “I wish God would change my heart”; another woman said, “I want to find Christ”; and an old man, a chief, wept bitterly through concern for his soul. Brainerd could scarcely believe that this degree of awakening would turn out so positively; he had so often previously “seen encouraging appearances among the Indians elsewhere prove wholly abortive”. He writes, “I have learned by experience that only [God] can open the ear, engage the attention, and incline the heart of poor, benighted, prejudiced pagans to receive instruction” (p 266).