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associated themselves for mutual conversation and assistance. one of these occasions Mr. Brainerd and two or three of his companions remaining in the Hall, where a Mr. Whittelsey, one of the tutors, had just been praying with the scholars in an unusually pathetic manner; one of Mr. B.'s friends asked him what he thought of Mr. Whittelsey; to which Mr. B. replied He has no more grace than this chair.' This expression was overheard by a person without the Hall, and reported to the rector, by whom an inquiry was instituted, and the persons present compelled to state what had past. Mr. B. was then required to make a public confession, and humble himself before the whole college, as though he had been guilty of some open notorious crime. Declining to make this confession, and having gone once to a separate meeting at Newhaven, he was expelled the college; about a year after in consequence of his own application, and the intercession of some valuable ministers, who felt that he had been most harshly treated, the rector and trustees consented that he might return; as however they declined allowing him to proceed to his degree at the usual time, and as a longer residence in college would have interfered with his other engagements, Mr. B. declined availing himself of the concession. In a subsequent part of his journal, Mr. Brainerd speaks with great humility of the rash judgment he had formed of Mr. Whittelsey, and of his insubordination in going to the meeting at Newhaven, but few, we apprehend, will attempt to justify the inquisitorial inquiry into a private conversation by the superiors of the college, or the harsh and excessive penalty of expulsion which followed.

On leaving college, Mr. Brainerd proceeded to the house of the Rev. Mr. Mills of Ripton, under whose

superintendence he prosecuted his studies with a view to the ministry; and in July 1742, was examined by the association of ministers at Danbury, and licenced to preach. In November of the same year, he was requested by the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, to proceed to New York, and consult with himself and some other gentlemen of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, who were employed by the Society established in Scotland for the propagation of Christian Knowledge, as agents in behalf of the North American Indians. These gentlemen had previously. induced Mr. Azariah Horton to engage in this service; and his exertions had met with such encouragement, that they were now desirous of obtaining an additional labourer. Mr. Brainerd proceeded accordingly to New York, and on this self-denying service being proposed to him, though deeply impressed with a sense of his own insufficiency, and invited in other quarters to a comfortable and desirable settlement among the English, he deemed it his duty to accede to the invitation, and returned home to wait for spring, and employ the interval in suitable preparations. Conceiving that, now he was engaging in the work of a missionary, his necessities would be supplied from other sources, he determined to devote his property to God's service; and accordingly having selected a suitable person for the ministry, he took upon himself the expenses of his education, and supported him through college.

In April 1743, Mr. Brainerd proceeded to a place called Kaunaumeek, about twenty miles from Albany, in the province of New York, where he laboured with many difficulties and much discouragement for about a year. There were however several on whose consciences the word appeared to make a serious impres

sion. Some of whom came to Mr. Brainerd of their own accord, to converse with him about the things which belong to their eternal peace; several inquired, with tears in their eyes, "What they should do to be saved?" He could not, indeed, say that he had satisfactory evidence of the conversion of any of them, but there was a considerable reformation of manners among them. Their idolatrous sacrifices were entirely abolished; their heathenish dances were, in a great degree, abandoned; their habits of drunkenness were, in some measure, corrected; and the observation of the Sabbath was established among them and their children. By his advice, most of them, after he had spent about a year among them, removed to Stockbridge, which was only about twenty miles distant, and placed themselves under the care of the excellent Mr. Sergeant.

In May 1744, Mr. Brainerd proceeded to the Forks of Delaware, in the province of Pennsylvania. Here the number of his hearers was at first extremely small, often not exceeding twentyfive; and even afterwards, they seldom amounted to more than forty. The Indians in this quarter were now greatly diminished, most of them being either dispersed, or removed further back into the country. There were not more than ten houses which continued to be inhabited, and some of these were several miles distant from the others, so that it was very difficult for his little congregation to assemble together as often as he wished.

Among these Indians Mr. Brainerd pursued his labours with unwearied diligence and zeal; but, as he was deeply sensible that no human exertions could command success, he combined with his assiduous endeavours the most earnest and affectionate supplications for the Divine blessing upon them. Of his importunity in prayer, we

have an interesting example in the exercises of his mind, one day soon after his arrival in this part of the country. This morning,' says he, I was greatly oppressed with a sense of guilt and shame, from a view of my inward vileness and depravity. About nine o'clock, I withdrew to the woods for prayer, but had not much comfort. I appeared to myself the meanest, vilest creature upon earth I thought I could scarcely live with myself, and that I should never be able to hold up my face in heaven, if God, of his infinite mercy, should bring me thither. Towards night, the burden of my mind respecting my work among the Indians began to increase, and was much aggravated by hearing several circumstances of a discouraging nature, particularly, that they designed to meet together next day, for an idolatrous feast and dance. My mind was agonized at the prospect. I thought it would be my duty to endeavour to break to break up the assembly; but how to do it, I knew not. In this dilemma, I withdrew for prayer, hoping for strength from on high. While engaged in this exercise, I was exceedingly enlarged: my soul was as much drawn out as I almost ever remember it to have been in my life. I was in such anguish, and pleaded with so much importunity, that when I rose, I felt so extremely weak that I could scarcely walk; my joints were loosed; the sweat ran down my body; nature seemed as if ready to dissolve. What I experienced was inexpressible. All earthly things vanished from my sight: Nothing appeared of much importance to me, except progress in holiness, and the conversion of the Heathen to God. All my cares, desires, and fears, which might be considered as of a worldly nature, disappeared, and seemed of little more importance than a breath of wind. I longed exceedingly that

God would glorify his name among the Heathen. I appealed to him with the greatest freedom, that he knew I preferred him "above my chief joy." Indeed, I had no idea of joy from this world: I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I might have to endure, if I might only gain souls to Christ.'

Though Mr. Brainerd was now settled at the Forks of Delaware, he by no means confined his labours to the Indians in that part of the country. Having heard of some of these poor people at a place about thirty miles distant, he proceeded to visit them; but as they were then on the point of removing to the river Susquehannah, he could only preach to them twice. In general, they appeared sober, friendly, and attentive. Two or three of them, indeed, suspected he had some ill design upon them, urging that the white people had maltreated them, and taken their lands from them: it was not reasonable, therefore, to think they were now concerned for their happiness, but rather that they designed to make them slaves, or to carry them on board their ships, and cause them to fight with the people over the water, meaning the French and Spaniards. But notwithstanding these insinuations, most of them appeared to entertain no jealousy of Mr. Brainerd's design, and invited him to visit them after their return home, and to instruct them in the principles of religion.

In May 1745, Mr. Brainerd, agreeably to his promise, renewed his visit to the Indians on the river Susquehannah, accompanied by his interpreter from the Forks of Delaware. In travelling through the wilderness, he suffered, as usual, excessive fatigues and hardships. After lodging one night in the woods, he was overtaken by a terrible storm, in which he was in danger of losing his life. Having

no kind of shelter, and not being able to kindle a fire on account of the rain, he resolved to prosecute his journey in the hope of finding some place of refuge, without which, he thought it was impossible he could survice the night. But, unfortunately, the horses, both of Mr. Brainerd and of his interpreter, having eaten poison for want of other food, now became so sick, that our travellers could neither ride nor lead them, but were obliged to drive them on before, and to walk themselves on foot. Providentially, however, in the evening, they came to a bark hut, where they took up their lodgings for the night. Having at length reached the Susquehannah, Mr. Brainerd travelled about a hundred miles along that river, visited many of the Indian towns, and preached the gospel to some of different tribes through the medium of interpreters. He was sometimes greatly disheartened by the opposition which they made to Christianity; and sometimes he was much encouraged by the disposition which some of them manifested to hear the word. He spent about a fortnight among the Indians in this part of the country, during which his health suffered greatly, from frequently sleeping on the cold ground, and sometimes in the open air.

After his return from the Susquehannah, Mr. Brainerd was ready to sink into the depths of despair. As his body was extremely feeble, in consequence of his late illness, so his hopes of the conversion of the Indians were scarcely ever so low. He even began to entertain serious thoughts of relinquishing the undertaking; not that he was weary of the toils and trials of a missionary life, nor because he had freedom in his own mind to settle among the White people, but simply on account of the little hope he had of success among the Indians. But as the night is darkest

before the dawn, so it was from the midst of this thick cloud that the prospect began to brighten around him. Having heard of a number of Indians at a place called Crosweeksung, in New Jersey, about eighty miles from the Forks of Delaware, he proceeded to visit them; but, on his arrival, he found them scattered in small settlements, at a considerable distance from each other, and not more than two or three families residing in the same place. He preached, He preached, however, to the few he found, consisting only of four women and some children. So inconsiderable was the congregation, and so inauspicious the spot which was soon to be the scene of a most remarkable work of divine grace. After hearing Mr. Brainerd, these poor people set off and travelled ten or fifteen miles to give notice to their friends that a minister had arrived among them, by which means their little company was in a few days increased to between forty and fifty, including both old and young. No objections, no cavilling, no murmur of opposition was heard among them, though in time past they had manifested as strong a dislike to the gospel as any Indians whatever, and even lately several of them had been much enraged at his interpreter for telling them something about Christianity. Now, however, they were extremely anxious to obtain instruction; they asked Mr. Brainerd to preach to them twice a day, that so they might learn as much as possible during his stay and they appeared to listen to his discourses with the utmost seriousness and attention. This favourable disposition in these Indians he attributed to the exertions of one or two of their own people, who having heard him some time before, at the Forks of Delaware, had on their return endeavoured to shew their friends the evil of idolatry, and of other practices common among them: a cir

cumstance which may afford the Christian missionary some consolation under the severest of all his trials, the want of success; for though no success should, for a season, crown his labours in his own neighbourhood, yet, perhaps, some who have heard the gospel from his lips, may, in the meanwhile, be instrumental in preparing the way for its introduction even among distant tribes.

After spending about a fortnight at Crosweeksung, Mr. Brainerd returned to the Forks of Delaware; and from this period these two places were alternately the principal scene of his labours. Soon after his arrival, he had the pleasure of baptizing his interpreter, together with his wife, the first of the Indians whom he received into the bosom of the church. When Mr. Brainerd first employed him as his interpreter, he was in some respects well qualified for the office; as he was not only acquainted with the Indian and the English languages, but had a strong desire that his countrymen should abandon their heathenish notions and practices, and should adopt the manners and customs of the white people, particularly as to their mode of living. But he had little or no impression of religion on his mind, and on this account was very unfit for his work, being incapable of communicating to others many truths of the first importance, for want of an experimental, as well as a more doctrinal, knowledge of the gospel. Now, however, there was a material improvement in his performances as interpreter. Though it might naturally be supposed, that a discourse, in passing to the audience, through the medium of a second person, would lose much of its force and meaning, yet Mr. Brainerd's sermons did not ordinarily lose any thing of their original energy, unless it was sometimes owing to the want of suitable ex

pressions in the Indian language, a defect which his own knowledge of it could not have supplied. His interpreter addressed the Indians with admirable fervency; he scarce knew when to give over; and sometimes when Mr. Brainerd had concluded his discourse, and was returning home, he would stay behind to repeat and enforce what had been spoken; nor did this appear to arise from spiritual pride, or from an affectation of being a public teacher; but from a spirit of faithfulness, and an honest concern for their souls. As his indifference to religion was formerly a source of great distress to Mr. Brainerd, so now his zeal for the salvation of his countrymen was no small comfort to him.

On visiting the Indians at Crosweeksung, a second time, Mr. Brainerd was happy to find them not only still favourably disposed toward Christianity, but a number of them under serious concern for their souls, their conviction of their sinfulness and misery having been much promoted by the labours of the Rev. William Tennant, to whom he had advised them to make application. Scarcely had he returned among them, when these impressions increased and spread in a surprising manner. In two or three days, the inquiry was general among them, "What they should do to be saved." Such was their sensibility of heart, that a few words concerning their souls would make the tears flow in streams down their cheeks; in their public assemblies, a dry eye was scarcely ever to be seen; it was astonishing how they were melted with the love of the Redeemer, and with the invitations of the gospel, when not a word of terror was spoken to them...

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discourse, as he knew well, that no sinner will come to the Saviour unless he feel his need of him. Still, however, the awakening among the Indians was not produced by the terrors of the law; but by the grace of the gospel. Christ crucified was the grand theme of his preaching: this was the point in which all his sermons centred. It was often matter of wonder to himself, that whatever was the subject of discourse, he was naturally led, after having explained it, to speak of Christ. Jesus, and of its relation to him. If he treated of the existence and attributes of God, he took occasion to represent Christ as the only way to the Father. If he illustrated the sinfulness and misery of man, he proceeded to shew the need we had of Christ, to atone for our guilt, and to save us from everlasting woe. If he discoursed of the law of God, he did not forget to recommend Christ as "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Sometimes when he designed to say only a few words on a subject, he was insensibly led by the view of its connexion with Christ, to speak of his incarnation or satisfaction, of his qualifications as a Saviour, or of the gracious invitations which he addresses to sinners, to " come to him, and take of the water of life freely." The awakening, in short, was always most remarkable when he discoursed of the condescension and love of a dying Redeemer; of the ample provision he has made for the salvation of man, and of the free offers of mercy, which he makes to guilty miserable creatures.

This was strikingly displayed one day, when Mr. Brainerd, in preaching on the parable of the Great Supper, exhibited to the Indians, with uncommon fervour and freedom, the unsearchable riches of divine grace. During the sermon a deep concern was visible

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