9. Wanting Christ to Wipe Their Hearts Quite Clean
Brainerd was back in Crossweeksung at the beginning of August 1745. He “found them serious and a number of them under deep concern for an interest in Christ”. Before leaving them in June, Brainerd had advised the Indians to ask William Tennent, a Presbyterian minister in the neighbourhood, for spiritual help, and they had profited from his labours. Brainerd’s first sermon on this visit was on the words: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). Brainerd believed that the Lord had enabled him to set before the people “the Lord Jesus Christ as a kind and compassionate Saviour, inviting distressed and perishing sinners to accept everlasting mercy. And a surprising concern soon became apparent among them.”2 There were about 20 adults present, but many others were absent because they had not heard about Brainerd’s return. At most, two of those who heard him preach at this time had dry eyes.
Brainerd was invited to assist a nearby minister, whose name was Mac-knight, in administering the Lord’s Supper on the next day, a Sabbath. He accepted the invitation and took the Indians with him, nearly 50 of them. Brainerd comments on the change that had taken place in their behaviour. Now, when they came together to eat, they would not begin until they got Brainerd to come and ask God’s blessing on their food. Brainerd reminded them that, in the past, they would eat their feasts in honour of devils and did not thank God for their food.
On the Monday of the communion season, another minister preached first, and Brainerd then preached on John 7:37, which gives us the first part of Jesus’ call, on the last day of a feast, to come to Him and drink. One or two of them were struck with deep concern who had not been moved previously. In the evening, Brainerd spoke with the Indians and found that they were all taken up with soul concerns. The great question among them was what they should do to be saved. He mentions that all their conversation among themselves was about religion and that his interpreter was a great help to them. Brainerd also wrote, “This day there was one woman who had been
1A further part of a longer version of a paper given at last year’s Theological Conference. Last month’s instalment mostly consisted of Brainerd’s account of his interpreter’s conversion. Brainerd had begun visiting Crossweeksung in New Jersey as a new place for missionary work. It was to become the place where his work was most blessed.
2Jonathan Edwards, editor, The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, Banner of Truth Trust, 2023 edition, p 272. Page references in brackets, in the body of the text, are to this edition of the Diary and Journal.
much concerned for her soul, ever since she first heard me preach in June last, who obtained comfort, I trust, solid and well grounded; she seemed to be filled with love to Christ; at the same time [she] behaved humbly and tenderly and appeared afraid of nothing so much as of grieving and offending Him whom her soul loved” (p 273).
The next afternoon, Brainerd preached to about 55 Indians on 1 John 4:10: “Herein is love . . .”. He noted, “They all, as one, seemed in an agony of soul to obtain an interest in Christ; and the more I discoursed of the love and compassion of God in sending His Son to suffer for the sins of men, and the more I invited them to come and partake of [the fruits of] His love, the more their distress was aggravated, because they felt themselves unable to come. It was surprising to see how their hearts seemed to be pierced with the tender and melting invitations of the gospel, when there was not a word of terror spoken to them” (pp 273-4).
That day two people “obtained relief and comfort, which . . . appeared solid, rational and scriptural. After I had enquired into the grounds of their comfort and said many things I thought proper to them, I asked them what they wanted God to do further for them. They replied, they wanted Christ to wipe their hearts quite clean. . . . Surprising were now the doings of the Lord that I can say no less of this day (and I need say no more of it) than that the arm of the Lord was powerfully and marvellously revealed in it” (p 274).
Two days later, Brainerd preached to about 65 Indians and felt uncommon freedom in speaking. Afterwards he spoke to some of them individually and he could see they were under great concern for their souls. He describes the result: “The power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly ‘like a rushing mighty wind’, and with an astonishing energy bore down all before it. I stood amazed at the influence that seized the audience almost universally, and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent or swelling deluge that, with its unsupportable weight and pressure, bears down and sweeps before it whatever is in its way. . . . Old men and women who had been drunken wretches for many years, and some little children not more than six or seven years of age, appeared in distress for their souls, as well as persons of middle age” (pp 274-5).
He understood that at least some of these children were not merely frightened by the general concern. They had been made conscious “of their danger, the badness of their hearts, and their misery without Christ, as some of them expressed it”.
One of the Indian chiefs had previously been most confident and self-righteous. He thought his spiritual state was good because he knew more than most of the other Indians. The previous day, he had told Brainerd that
he had been a Christian for more than 10 years. He “was now brought under solemn concern for his soul and wept bitterly”.
Another old man, “who had been a murderer, a powwow [a sorcerer] and a notorious drunkard, was likewise brought now to cry for mercy with many tears, and to complain much that he could not be any longer “unconcerned when he saw his danger so very great” (p 275). Brainerd added, “I must say, I never saw any day like it in all respects: it was a day wherein I am persuaded the Lord did much to destroy the kingdom of darkness among this people” (pp 275-6). Some of the whites who had come, out of curiosity, to hear what Brainerd would say to the Indians, were also awakened to a concern for their souls.
He gave what he called “a remarkable instance of awakening” that day. She was “a young Indian woman who, I believe, never knew before she had a soul, nor ever thought of any such thing”. She “heard that there was something strange among the Indians [and] came, it seems, to see what was the matter. In her way to the Indians she called at my lodgings, and when I told her I designed presently to preach to the Indians, [she] laughed and seemed to mock; but went however to them. I had not proceeded far in my public discourse before she felt effectually that she had a soul; and before I had concluded my discourse, was so convinced of her sin and misery, and so distressed with concern for her soul’s salvation, that she seemed like one pierced through with a dart and cried out incessantly. She could neither go nor stand, nor sit on her seat without being held up” (p 276).
When the service was over, she lay flat on the ground praying earnestly. Brainerd tried to make out what she was saying and he summed it up in the words, “Have mercy on me, and help me to give Thee my heart”. He commented, “This was indeed a surprising day of God’s power and seemed enough to convince an atheist of the truth, importance and power of God’s Word” (p 276-7).
The next day, the missionary preached on the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. He concluded his sermon by quoting the words of Matthew 11:28: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour. . .”. Some were very much affected by them. In the evening, while he was speaking to two or three of those who had been awakened, “a divine influence seemed to attend what was spoken to them, in a powerful manner, which caused the persons to cry out in anguish of soul, although I spoke not a word of terror; but, on the contrary, set before them the fullness and all-sufficiency of Christ’s merits and His willingness to save all that came to Him; and thereupon pressed them to come [to Christ] without delay” (p 277).
Another day, Brainerd was speaking to some of the new converts. He told
them of the perfect purity of the soul and its full enjoyment of Christ, immediately after it was separated from the body, and that it would be unbelievably more happy than anything they had ever experienced in this world – even when Christ seemed near to them in prayer or other duties. Then he said, “Perhaps some of you will say, I love my body as well as my soul, and I cannot bear to think that my body should lie dead if my soul is happy”. They responded with an emphatic, “No”, and told him that they “did not regard their bodies, if their souls might but be with Christ”. “Then”, Brainerd added, “they appeared willing to be absent from the body that they might be present with the Lord” (p 278).
The next day, a Sabbath, Brainerd preached in the morning on the parable of the prodigal son, but there was “no such remarkable effect of the Word upon the assembly as in days past”. And he mentions “numbers of careless spectators of the white people” being present. In the afternoon he spoke on part of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. After first preaching to the Indians, he turned to the whites, “and divine truths seemed then to be attended with power both to English and Indians. Several of the white heathen were awakened and could not longer be idle spectators, but found they had souls to save or lose as well as the Indians; and a great concern spread through the whole assembly. So that this also appeared to be a day of God’s power especially towards the conclusion of it” (p 279).
Over 70 Indians were now attending Brainerd’s services. He was, he says, “refreshed to see the tenderness of conscience manifest in some of them”. He gives one instance, a woman who had become very upset: “The difficulty was, she had been angry with her child the evening before, and was now exercised with fears lest her anger had been inordinate and sinful, which so grieved her that she waked and began to sob before daylight and continued weeping for several hours together” (p 279-80).
A few days later, he refers to an Indian man who, some time before then had put away his wife (a common practice among them) and had taken another woman. Brainerd continues, “Being now brought under some serious impressions, [he] was much concerned about that affair in particular and seemed fully convinced of the wickedness of that practice and [was] earnestly desirous to know what God would have him do in his present circumstances”. The missionary explained to him the law of God on the subject and then asked some questions about the circumstances.
Brainerd discovered that the woman had not been unfaithful. “She was willing to forgive his past misconduct, and to live peaceably with him for the future.” Brainerd told him that it was his duty “to renounce the woman he had last taken and receive the other, who was his proper wife, and live
peaceably with her during life. With this he readily and cheerfully complied and thereupon publicly renounced the woman he had last taken and publicly promised to live with, and be kind to, his wife during life, she also promising the same to him. And here appeared a clear demonstration of the power of God’s Word upon their hearts.” Even a few weeks before then, Brainerd believed, “the whole world could not have persuaded this man” to comply “with Christian rules in this affair” (p 280).