God has gathered us together tonight in the
house of the Lord to worship Thee.
We thank Thee for the work of God
here.
We rejoice, Lord, that Thou hast opened a
door here, which, if it's a door that
God has opened, no man can ever shut.
Lord, we pray that Thou wouldst continue to
bless Thy servant, bless his ministry, bless those
who faithfully stand with him.
Lord, we pray Thou wilt give the increase
in these days.
Even in this week of meetings, we pray
that Thou wilt come down our souls to
greet, and that Thy glory will crown the
mercy seat.
Lord, send us revival.
We pray there will be a stirring of
our hearts as we study the lives of
men of God.
For, Lord, You have said that the memory
of the just is blessed.
We pray, Lord, that it truly will be
a blessing to our souls to consider the
lives and the ministries of those of a
former day whom Thou hast used.
We pray, Lord, Thou wilt stir us up
to serve Thee, bless Thy people, cause us
to be challenged and convicted and encouraged.
And we pray for any without Christ, that,
Lord, even tonight You'll speak to them and
save their precious souls, bring them to the
knowledge of the truth as it is in
Jesus.
Be with us now.
We do seek Thy help.
We do desire that we might be filled
in the preaching of the word with all
the fullness of God.
We pray that Thy Spirit will take us
up as an instrument to the glory of
Thy name.
For we ask this for Jesus, our Savior's
sake.
Amen and Amen.
Tonight I want to continue with the second
message in the series, which we commenced this
morning, on favorite scriptures of famous saints.
There are certain Bible verses that appear to
have had special significance for some of the
Lord's choicest servants.
There are many Christians who have a number
of favorite verses in Scripture, not just one.
And I suppose I would be one of
those people.
I'd be hard-pressed to give you just
one favorite text.
Some of the men that we are going
to consider in this series may not actually
have had just one favorite text, but several.
And in their writings or sermons, sometimes we
can trace a number of references to the
same text of Scripture, which might lead us
to believe that that was, in fact, a
favorite verse of that individual.
The text that I have chosen for this
evening seems to have been a favorite of
the man of God who I wish to
focus upon in this service.
He was a godly minister of the gospel,
a man of prayer, and a fervent missionary
of the cross.
One who had, like Robert Murray McShane, whom
we looked at this morning, a very brief
but a powerful ministry.
And who has been called the morning star
of modern missions.
And his name, of course, is the Reverend
David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians.
The text that really marked his life and
ministry is John 7, verse 37.
In the last day, that great day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If
any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink.
David Brainerd's favorite text, I would suggest, was,
If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink.
This text appears, I say, to have been
a favorite verse of his, for on a
number of occasions in his journal and in
his diary, he does refer to it as
a scripture from which he preached.
Sometimes it's marked down as a fault in
preachers when they preach the same text over
and over, but David Brainerd certainly was one
who employed this text on far more than
one occasion.
If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink.
I want us to look at this text
of scripture and seek to weave around it
the life of David Brainerd.
As we look at the text in relation
to Brainerd, we can say, first of all,
it was a text that mystified him.
It mystified him.
Now, you might look at the text and
think, well, there's nothing difficult about it.
There's nothing mystical about this.
There's nothing that is hard to understand.
Jesus clearly stated, If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink.
But I'm going to show you how the
text mystified and confused, in a way, David
Brainerd.
It was something that he could not come
to grips with for a period in his
life.
Let me begin by saying that David Brainerd
was born on April 20th, 1718, in Puritan
New England.
He was born of godly parents, brought up,
therefore, in the gospel, but in a somewhat
hard and narrow way, a way for which
some of the Puritans were noted in that
day.
I don't mean to be overly critical of
the Puritans, but it is true of many
of them that their mode of operation was
hard and it was narrow.
And young David Brainerd could never understand the
great invitation that was employed in this text.
If any man thirst, let him come unto
me.
And the thing that mystified Brainerd was, what
does it mean to come?
He could not understand what the Lord was
saying here.
What does it mean?
Let him come unto me.
But, history tells us and his biographers tell
us that during the great awakening, the revival
that took place at the early part of
the 18th century, Brainerd was led to believe
and he was soundly converted to Christ.
But he does speak of those years prior
to his saving experience.
And he says this, While I was in
this distressed, bewildered, and tumultuous state of mind,
I was irritated through not being able to
find out what faith was.
What was it to believe?
What was it to come to Christ?
I read the calls of Christ to the
weary and the heavy laden, but I could
find no way that He directed me to
come in.
I thought I would gladly come, if only
I knew how.
For I was not effectually and experimentally taught
that there could be no way prescribed whereby
a natural man could have his own strength
to obtain that which is supernatural and which
the highest angel cannot give.
Brainerd was mystified by the invitation, Come unto
me.
Perhaps I'm speaking to one or several tonight
and you too are wondering how you can
come to Christ.
How may I come to Him?
After all, does the Bible say that none
can come?
Does the Bible not say that except the
Father draw him, there is none that can
come to Christ?
The Bible does in fact say that, yes.
But the Bible also says, Come unto me,
all you that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
The Bible says, If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink.
This word, come, is a wonderful Bible word.
It's found some 600 times in Scripture.
And one of those places where the word
is employed is Isaiah chapter 55 and verse
1.
Listen to what it says.
Again, when we keep in mind Brainerd's text,
this is a similar text.
Isaiah 55 verse 1 Notice
how several times over the Lord says, Come.
Come ye to the waters.
Come ye, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price.
This is God's command and this is God's
demand of you as a sinner that you
come to Christ.
John chapter 4 then.
We read of our Lord's words to the
woman at the well.
What did He tell her?
He said there in John 4 verse 13,
Whosoever drinketh of this water, that's the water
that's in this physical well.
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life.
What a tremendous statement that is.
And when we go over further in John's
Gospel to chapter 6 and verse 35, Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of
life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
And he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.
And therefore we find that that's what believing
is.
It's coming to Christ.
And that's what coming to Christ is.
It's believing on Christ.
He that believeth on me shall never thirst.
There's nothing at all mysterious about the invitation
of the Lord Jesus.
Do you desire Christ today?
Well, if you do, it's God who put
that desire there.
And you can come and welcome to Jesus.
Don't stay away, but come to Him.
Even a little child can come.
I myself came to know the Saviour as
a young child.
And I came to Jesus as I was.
And He received me.
And He saved me.
And He can do the same for you.
John 6 verse 37 says, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me.
And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out.
That means there's not a circumstance and there's
not a situation that we can think of
that would cause the Lord Jesus to turn
us away when we come to Him.
He will, He will save us when we
come to Him.
Brainerd, though for a time, was mystified by
the text.
But at the age of 20, Brainerd, we
find, was mastered by the text.
It was a text that mystified him.
But it became, at the age of 20,
I say, a text that mastered him.
This verse, If any man thirst, let him
come unto me and drink.
This verse and its great message captivated the
heart of David Brainerd.
He couldn't get away from it.
Let me give you his own testimony in
his own words.
And I quote, I hungered and thirsted and
was not refreshed and satisfied.
My soul longed for God, the living God.
I thirsted night and day for a closer
acquaintance with Him.
David Brainerd came to see that Christ was
freely offered to sinners just like himself.
And he came to Christ for pardon and
cleansing from sin.
You listen again to his own testimony.
He's talking about this period of his life.
At this time, Brainerd says, the way of
salvation opened unto me with such infinite wisdom
and suitableness and excellency that I wondered that
I should ever have desired any other way
of salvation.
I was amazed that I had not dropped
my own contrivances and complied with this lovely
and excellent way before.
If I could have been saved by my
own duties or any other way that I
could formerly concede, my whole soul would now
have refused it.
I wondered that all the world did not
see and comply with this way of salvation.
The Lord brought him to that point where
he could see the simplicity and the sincerity
of the offer of the Lord Jesus come
unto me.
David Brainerd had thirsted, but coming to Christ,
his thirst was quenched.
And rejoicing in the assurance of sins forgiven,
he penned the following words.
This is from his diary.
Unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view
and apprehension of my soul.
I don't mean any external brightness, for I
saw no such thing.
It was a new view of God such
as I had never had before.
I stood still, wondered and admired.
I never before had seen anything comparable to
it for excellency of beauty.
It was widely different from all the conceptions
that ever I had had of God or
things divine.
I felt myself in a new world and
everything about me appeared with a different aspect
from what it was wont to do.
My soul was captivated and delighted.
I rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of
glory.
You know, sometimes when people think about David
Brainerd, and especially when they read his diary,
they think of him as a melancholy type,
as someone who was mournful and downhearted and
downcast.
But here he tells us when he came
to know Christ, he rejoiced with joy unspeakable
and full of glory.
And I say to you tonight, so you
will find it to your own soul, if
you truly come to know the Saviour, He'll
put a joy and a peace in your
heart that the world can't give and that
the world can't take away.
A century and a half later, after the
time of Brainerd, Horatius Bonner, whose hymn we
sang tonight, penned those words which could well
have been the personal testimony of David Brainerd,
and in fact is the experience of every
redeemed soul.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold,
I freely give the living water, thirsty one,
stoop down and drink and live.
I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream.
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and
now I live in Him.
You know, it was a remarkable feature of
David Brainerd's later ministry, after he was converted,
that he made much of the willingness of
Christ to freely receive all that come unto
him.
On one occasion he said this, The Lord
enabled me to set before them, and that's
the Indians, the Lord Jesus Christ as a
kind and compassionate Saviour, inviting distressed and perishing
sinners to accept everlasting mercy.
And I say to you this evening, this
is the Saviour that I am presenting to
you today.
This is the same Saviour, one who is
not unwilling, but one who is willing to
receive sinners.
See, the old devil wants to tell you
and to tell me that the Lord is
not willing to receive us, that He doesn't
want to accept us, that He is more
likely to turn us away from Him.
But that's not the God of the Bible.
For He is one that delighteth in mercy.
You don't find in Scripture that it ever
says that God delights in damnation.
But it does say that He delighteth in
mercy.
That's the Saviour I present to you tonight.
He is one that receiveth sinners, who is
not only able, but is willing to save
you if you come to Him.
And I trust that this great text, therefore,
will not mystify you, but as it did
with Brainerd, that it will master you, that
it will master your heart, that you'll come
on the basis of this invitation.
If any man thirsts, let him come unto
me and drink, that the Lord will enable
you to come and drink that living water
to me.
David Brainerd was one whom this text mastered
as his preaching showed.
Again, a direct quote of his, I cannot
but take notice that ever since my first
coming among these Indians in New Jersey, I
have, in general, been favoured with that assistance
which to me is uncommon in preaching Christ
crucified, and in making Him the centre and
the mark to which all my discourses among
them were directed.
To show them their absolute need of Christ,
to redeem and save them from the misery
of their fallen state, to open His all
-sufficiency and willingness to save the very chief
of sinners, the freeness and riches of His
divine grace, proposed without money and without price
to all that will accept the offer, and
thereupon to press them without delay to betake
themselves to Him under a sense of their
misery and undone state, and to show them
the abundant encouragement.
If any man thirsts, let him come unto
me and drink.
Here is a text that mystified him, couldn't
understand what it was to come to Christ,
but it was a text that mastered him.
The Lord showed him how simple the invitation
is, and how sincere the Lord is in
offering salvation to us, and enabled him to
come, as I trust He will enable you
to come if you are not the Lord's.
But concerning the truth of this text, if
any man thirsts, let him come unto me
and drink, I would say it was a
text that motivated him.
And here I want to come to the
heart of Brainerd's ministry, because this glorious gospel
of free grace, David Brainerd began to preach
at the age of 24.
He could well have had a comfortable charge
in some church somewhere, and been relatively at
ease.
He was an acceptable preacher.
He was one who could have found a
charge, there is no doubt.
But Brainerd's heart was burdened not for the
ministry per se, but for missions.
His heart was stirred to be a missionary.
He had a vision which was worldwide, China,
India, Africa, but all of those for him
were out of the question.
Yet he realized that he did have a
mission field right at his door.
And he thought of the canoes, and the
wigwams, and the frayed leggings, and the feathered
headgear, and the bows, and the quivers, and
the arrows, and the scalping knives, and the
tomahawks, and the powwows, and the peace pipes
of the Indian braves.
He thought about the Indians' haughty demeanor, but
he thought of the Indians' soul.
And David Brainerd made up his mind to
evangelize the lost who at that time were
on his very doorstep.
He made up his mind that he was
going to carry the light of the gospel
into the darkness of the wigwams of the
redskins.
Now David Brainerd, and another young minister who
went to the Indians on Long Island, New
York, were actually approached, strangely enough, by a
missionary society in Scotland.
You might find that surprising, but that society
was known as the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge, the SPCK, that actually to this day,
as I understand, have bookstores in the United
Kingdom.
But the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian
Knowledge had heard of Brainerd.
They had actually been impressed by the testimony
of several ministers who had talked about the
deplorable, perishing state of the American Indians, the
Native Indians of America.
And so the SPCK prevailed with David Brainerd
to actually turn down, to refuse several invitations
that had come to him to go to
places where he had the prospect of a
comfortable settlement among the English.
And rather to endure the fatigues and deprivations
that would be his lot in evangelizing the
Indians.
Because, you see, the Indians were not going
to be easy to reach.
It was going to involve a lot of
travel on horseback over mountain and through forest
and wilderness and over rivers and streams.
And he was going to find that it
was not an easy thing to reach those
secretive people.
But David Brainerd was willing to go.
Just as 100 years before him, a man
by the name of John Elliot, the apostle
to the Indians of New England, had been
willing to go.
And so although he was a frail young
man, Brainerd did not enjoy good health.
He was a consumptive, which in our language
is a sufferer with tuberculosis.
And although he was raped constantly with a
cough, oftentimes it was said that you could
tell where Brainerd had been on the snowy
days because he had coughed up so much
blood in the snow that there was a
trail that he left behind.
But although he was never free from pain,
he went on passing from tribe to tribe,
telling everywhere the story of the cross.
Finding his way through the dense forest, spending
days on end in the saddle and most
of the nights beneath an open sky.
He exposed himself to perils by day and
by night, but was enabled to continue for
five brief but strenuous years to evangelize the
lost among the native Indians of America.
You see, he was determined that thirsty souls
like himself might come to Christ.
That they might hear this message.
If any man thirsts, even if that man
be a red Indian, let him come to
Christ and drink.
He was determined that thirsty souls might have
their thirst slaked and their inward desires satisfied
in the blessed Savior of men.
Brainerd began his ministry in April 1743, but
like many who have gone to the mission
field, for a period of time he saw
no fruit.
In fact, for two years, he saw no
outward fruit for his ministry at all.
But yet the Lord was doing a work
in his own soul.
And many a man has found it to
be so many a minister, many a missionary,
that when the Lord doesn't make the place
better, He makes you better in the place.
That's what happened with Brainerd.
The Lord was doing a work in ploughing
up his own heart.
In fact, he records concerning this, There appeared
at this time to be nothing of any
considerable importance to me but holiness of heart
and life and the conversion of the heathen
to God.
David Brainerd gave himself to prayer and as
he went forth to preach to those pagan
savages, he wrote, Here am I, Lord.
Send me to the rough, savage pagans of
the wilderness.
Send me from all that is called comfort
even to death itself if it be in
Thy service and to promote Thy kingdom.
We see in our mind's eye young David
Brainerd sitting beside a river out in the
wilderness, away from his friends, away from his
home, far from his companions.
It's the early summer of 1744.
He's a young man, but he has an
old heart with a burden that is burned
into his inmost soul.
The burden to reach the red-skinned nations
with the blessed word of the living God
to share with them that same pardon that
he himself has received at the cross of
Christ.
He hears of a group of Indians who
have their lodges near the forks of the
Delaware River.
I now minister in Allentown, Pennsylvania a matter
of some 15 miles from there.
It's now called Easton, Pennsylvania.
The old name was the Forks of the
Delaware.
He's been told concerning these Indians that they
will attack him if he dares to go
and bring the gospel to them.
But despite that, he goes on his long
journey.
He discovers where they are and fearlessly he
approaches their wigwams.
And they exhibit to him not the ferocity
that was anticipated, but a reverence that nearly
took his breath away.
And later he discovered the reason for that.
They had been watching him for many days.
They had noticed how at night he prayed
and how that the night before he approached
their village there was a rattlesnake that crept
up to his side.
How that it lifted its ugly head and
was about to strike with its forked tongue
but then for no apparent reason glided swiftly
away into the wilderness.
And what the Indians thought was the Great
Spirit is with this pale face.
We must do him no harm.
We must give him a prophet's welcome.
Do you see how the Lord was even
working providentially in that way?
But we see this young man, Brainerd, and
he's sitting in the wilderness.
His eyes are fastened upon his Bible.
And what is the portion of Scripture that
his Bible is opened at?
What is the chapter of Scripture that's more
thumb marked than any other part of his
Bible?
What's that passage that he's constantly and continually
reading?
Well, you guessed it.
It's the seventh chapter of John's Gospel.
And it's verse 37.
In the last day, that great day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If
any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink.
Brainerd is now a youth of 26.
At that very time, John Wesley and George
Whitefield are sweeping the land with their revival
preaching.
In the summer of 1745, God began to
display His grace and power in a place
called Cross Weeksong, an Indian name, in New
Jersey.
A most remarkable awakening commenced among the Indians
and it continued until it was one of
the most remarkable in history.
Now remember, Mr. Brainerd was in a very
poor state of health.
But it is said that with the coming
of that revival, his spirit triumphed over his
weak and diseased flesh.
In 1745, he rode over 3,000 miles.
I didn't say he drove over 3,000
miles, for that was impossible.
He rode on a horse over 3,000
miles, spreading the gospel along the Indian trails.
I was remarking just yesterday in his diary
for November 22nd in 1744, this is what
he said, Came on my way from Roxiticus
to the Delaware, was very much disordered with
a cold and pain in my head, about
six at night I lost my way in
the wilderness and wandered over rocks and mountains,
down hideous steeps through swamps and most dreadful
and dangerous places.
And the night being dark, so that few
stars could be seen, I was greatly exposed.
I was much pinched with cold and distressed
with an extreme pain in my head, attended
with sickness at my stomach, so that every
step I took was distressing to me.
I had little hope for several hours together,
but that I must lie out in the
woods all night in this distressed case.
But about nine o'clock, I found a
house through the abundant goodness of God and
was kindly entertained.
Thus, I have frequently been exposed and sometimes
laying out the whole night, but God has
hitherto preserved me and blessed be his name.
Going periods of time without food and without
proper rest, for what purpose?
So that he could preach to men that
if any man thirst, he should come unto
Christ and drink.
This was a man of God, a man
of God who loved to preach Christ.
It's very interesting to note some of the
records in the journal of Brainerd.
I marked four of them.
February 15th, 1745.
He said, This evening I was much assisted
in meditating on that precious text.
Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink.
I longed to proclaim such grace to the
whole world of sinners.
The second one, February 17th, 1745.
That's two days later.
On the sunny side of a hill in
the wilderness, I preached all day to people
who had come 20 miles to hear me.
And I preached on.
Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink.
I was scarce ever enabled to offer the
free grace of God to perishing sinners with
more plainness.
There were many tears.
April 22nd, 1745.
I preached with freedom and life on.
Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink.
And then August 5th, 1745.
Preached to the Indians from.
That's right.
Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink.
You can see how it was not difficult
for me to pick the text that was
his favorite.
He said, some who had never been affected
before were struck with deep concern.
And others had their concern deepened to a
considerable degree.
I'm sure all preachers of the gospel in
the day in which we live would wish
for the same in their own ministries.
That some who have never been affected before
would be struck with deep concern.
And those who have been concerned would have
that concern deepened to a greater degree.
There are other extracts that I will not
read to you.
But they show how God moved in great
power through the preaching of Brainerd.
But one instance does come to mind and
it needs to be mentioned.
And that is the time when Brainerd was
preaching to a group of Indians through an
interpreter who was actually drunk.
Indians have always gotten the name historically for
being fond of the booze.
Being fond of strong drink.
And this was certainly true in the day
in which Brainerd lived and ministered.
And of course he did not have the
language of the people at his disposal.
But he did use interpreters.
And one day he was preaching through a
drunken interpreter.
These are his own words.
And through that drunken interpreter God moved in
mighty power.
And a group of Indians, there may have
been as many as 30 of them, were
converted to God through the preaching of God's
precious truth.
And glad to say also that later on
that same drunken interpreter came to know Christ
and gave every evidence of being a child
of God.
The Lord used this man in a mighty,
mighty way.
You might say, well where did his power
come from?
Well, that's easy to answer.
Brainerd was a man whose power came from
God.
And just as we said about McShane this
morning, so I say concerning David Brainerd tonight,
his power came from God but it was
sought from God.
And he agonized in prayer for that power.
On the occasion that I have mentioned, when
he preached through a drunken interpreter and the
Holy Ghost was so poured out that numbers
were savingly converted, it was after eight days
prayer in the woods.
Eight days.
He spent before God in the woods and
then he came forth endued with power.
And though preaching through a drunken Indian, the
Holy Ghost was poured out and souls were
saved.
This revival ministry of Brainerd was brief.
David Brainerd, again like McShane, did not live
long.
He only got to minister among what he
called his beloved Indians for only four short
years.
But yet, that was time enough for God
to move in such a way that churches
were established among the Indians.
And those who had hitherto been savages became
worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Brainerd spent his last days in the home
of President Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards, who was the president of the
then New Jersey College, later to become the
famous Princeton College.
Edwards' second daughter, Jerusha, was engaged to be
married to Brainerd.
But we read that in March 1747, David
Brainerd, in consequence of extreme ill health, had
to take leave of his Indians in New
Jersey and in the month of April came
into New England when he was invited by
Mr. Edwards to take up his abode in
his house.
He came there on the 28th of May,
apparently very much improved in health, cheerful in
his spirits, free from melancholy, yet at that
time probably in a confirmed consumption or tuberculosis.
Mr. Edwards had now an opportunity of becoming
most intimately acquainted with him and regarded the
residence of Brainerd under his roof as a
peculiar blessing to himself and his family.
Listen to what Edwards says about Brainerd.
We enjoyed not only the benefit of his
conversation, but had the comfort and advantage of
having him pray in the family from time
to time.
Now he was at this time very feeble
in health, but on the advice of his
doctor he left Northampton for the city of
Boston on the 9th of June in company
with the second daughter of Mr. Edwards, Jerusha.
They arrived on the evening of the 12th
among the family relatives of Jonathan Edwards in
Boston and for a few days Brainerd's health
appeared much amended.
But a relapse on the 18th of June
convinced his friends that his recovery was hopeless.
Contrary to their expectations however, he so far
revived that on the 20th of July they
were able to leave Boston in company with
his brother Mr. Israel Brainerd and on the
25th they reached Northampton.
Here his health continued gradually to decline until
early in October.
It was obvious that he would not long
survive.
On the morning of Lord's Day, October the
4th, says Mr. Edwards, as my daughter Jerusha
who chiefly attended him came into the room,
he looked on her very pleasantly and he
said, Dear Jerusha, are you willing to part
with me?
I am quite willing to part with you.
I am willing to part with all my
friends.
Though if I thought I should not see
you and be happy with you in another
world, I could not bear to part with
you.
But we shall spend a happy eternity together.
Brainerd died on Friday, October the 9th, 1747
and on the Monday following, Jonathan Edwards preached
the sermon at his funeral from 2 Corinthians
5 verse 8 where it speaks of being
absent from the body and being present with
the Lord.
And the title of his sermon which was
later published was True Saints when Absent from
the Body are Present with the Lord.
Brainerd, after destroying the early part of his
diary, had left the residue in the hands
of Mr. Edwards to dispose of it as
he thought best.
Jonathan Edwards concluded to publish it in connection
with a brief memoir of his life.
In the ensuing February, Jerusha, the second daughter
of Edwards, who had been engaged to be
married to Brainerd, was removed by death just
a matter of months after her beloved had
died.
Her father, in a note to the memoirs
of Brainerd Lutz, alludes to the distressing event.
He says, She
was a person of much the same spirit
with Brainerd.
She had constantly taken care of and attended
him in his sickness for nineteen weeks before
his death, devoting herself to it with great
delight because she looked on him as an
eminent servant of Jesus Christ.
In this time, David Brainerd had much conversation
with her on the things of religion, and
in his dying state often expressed to us,
her parents, his great satisfaction concerning her true
piety and his confidence that he should meet
her in heaven and his high opinion of
her not only as a real Christian but
as a very eminent saint, one whose soul
was uncommonly fed and entertained with things which
pertain to the most spiritual, experimental and distinguishing
parts of religion and one who, by temper
of her mind, was fitted to deny herself
for God and to do good beyond any
young woman whatsoever whom he knew.
She has manifested a heart uncommonly devoted to
God in the course of her life many
years before her death and said on her
deathbed that she had not seen one minute
for several years wherein she desired to live
one minute longer for the sake of any
other good in life but doing good, living
to God and doing what might be for
his glory.
David Brainerd went to be with Christ his
sweetheart soon after went to be with Christ
but Brainerd left behind a tremendous testimony.
Like McShane of Dundee David Brainerd, although there
is some controversy concerning his true age but
I believe it to be right that he
died also at age 29 and through his
faithful labours many sinners were brought to drink
of the water of life.
David Brainerd's godliness is that which I think
should be emphasised in closing.
Just listen to these excerpts from his diary
and I quote Oh that I could spend
every moment of my life to God's glory
I know I long for God and conformity
to his will in inward purity and holiness
10,000 times more than for anything here
below Oh that my soul were holy as
he is holy Oh that it were pure
even as Christ is pure If I had
a thousand lives my soul would gladly have
laid them all down at once to have
been He was a godly man and the
Lord used him in a mighty way The
Lord used him even after his death The
testimony of Brainerd was a testimony that was
effective and effectual William Carey, the great missionary
to India was counseled by John Wesley to
read the life of David Brainerd In that
life, Carey got a vision for missions and
became the missionary pioneer of India Henry Martin,
whose life we will consider later this week
in The Will of God read the biography
of Brainerd also He also got a vision
for missions and became a great missionary pathfinder
So see how the Lord used this man
even after his death to be an inspirer
and a motivator of others who might go
and tell sinners if any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink Brainerd was
a leader, he was a pioneer he was
the morning star of modern missions and a
writer called Sherwood says and I quote His
story proves him to be one of the
most illustrious characters of modern times It has
done more to develop and mould the spirit
of modern missions and to fire the heart
of the Christian church than that of any
other man since the apostolic age One such
personage, one such character is a greater power
in human history than a finite mind can
calculate If you're not a believer tonight you
don't know Christ let me speak to you
as Brainerd would speak to you If any
man thirst, Jesus says let him come unto
me and drink I can do no better
to the memory of Brainerd than to set
before you the Christ that he preached and
to call upon you to come for all
things are now ready The Lord has prepared
the feast and all you must do is
to eat and to drink He that believeth
on me shall never hunger He that cometh
to me shall never thirst and I say
to you if you're a believer in Christ
pray that the Lord will give you the
zeal and the consecration to the service of
Christ that David Brainerd had Such a short
life but yet such a life that was
useful and effective for God and for truth
I trust that the Lord will make us
to be men and women of prayer that
the Lord would cause us to have a
vision for souls even as he did that
the Lord would cause us to be willing
even to give up our comforts and to
endure privations that we might get the gospel
out that we might be able to tell
others of Jesus the mighty to save What
a man David Brainerd was What a ministry
he had and of course we give the
glory to the Lord whom he served For
David Brainerd as you read his diary you'll
find felt himself to be nothing and less
than nothing We look upon him tonight and
we regard him as a mighty man of
God as one who was a giant of
the faith but that's not how he regarded
himself but his spirit was like that of
John the Baptist when he said he must
increase and I must decrease more of him
and less of me and surely that's the
spirit that ought to be found in the
heart of every preacher and in the heart
of every believer Lord let there be seen
in my life far less of me and
far more of the Lord Jesus Christ May
the Lord grant that to us all for
his glory Amen