DAVID BRAINERD

 
This celebrated missionary to the American Indians was born at
Haddam, Connecticut, April 20, 1718. His parents were noted for their
piety and were closely related to high officials of the church and state.
In 1739 he entered Yale College, where he stood first in his class. He
was greatly favored of God in being privileged to attend the great revival
conducted by George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards and Tenent.
President Edwards says in his memoir of Brainerd:
“His great work was the priceless example of his piety, zeal and self
devotion. Why, since the days of the apostles none have surpassed him.
His uncommon intellectual gifts, his fine personal qualities, his
melancholy and his early death, as well as his remarkable holiness and
evangelistic
labors, have conspired to invest his memory with a book halo.
“The story of his life has been a potent force in the modern missionary
era. It is even related that Henry Martyn, while perusing the life of
David Brainerd, found his soul filled with a holy emulation of that
extraordinary man, and after deep consideration and fervent prayer, he
was at length fixed in a resolution to imitate his example.”
Brainerd was a representative man, formed both by nature and grace to
leave a lasting impression upon the piety of the church. Dying at
Northampton, October 9, 1747, the last words of this eminent apostle
were, “I am almost in eternity; I long to be there. My work is done. I
have done with my friends—all the world is nothing to me. Oh, to be in
Heaven to praise and glorify God with His holy angels!”