这位年轻的弟兄，将自己奉献给神。在18世纪中叶，被神兴起，离开家乡，开始传福音给美国印第安人。6年间，没有休息过一天，在马背上每一天过信心的生活，6年后因患病过世，死时还未满三十岁。若不是因着临死前遇到另一位弟兄 Jonathan Edwards(后成为普林斯顿大学第三任校长），他的日记，他的所作不会被记录下来，不会被人所知道。然而一粒麦子死了，结出了百倍。 Edwards整理出版他的生平与日记，成为后来弟兄们信心的榜样，先后激励摩尔维亚弟兄们，到中国来的戴德生弟兄，埃里克弟兄，还有数不尽年轻的西方的弟兄姊妹们奉献自己，放弃自己已有的一切，奉神的差遣来到远东。在他们的记录中都不约而同提到这一位生前默默无闻的小弟兄， David Brainerd。神藉着一位爱祂，愿意接受祂托付的人，兴起一群前赴后继的人，转移了时代。下面是当他20-21岁时的一篇日记。
Tuseday, April 6.
I walked out this morning to the same place where I was last night, and felt something as I did then; but was something relieverd by reading some passages in my diary, and seemed to feel as if I might pray to the great God again with freedom; but was suddenly struck with a damp from the sense I had of my own vileness. Then I cried to God to wash my soul and cleanse me from my exceeding filthiness, to give me repentance and pardon; and it began to be something sweet to pray:
And I could think of undergoing the greatest suffering in the cause of Christ, with pleasure; and found myself willing(if God should so order it) to suffer banishment from my native land, among the heathen, that I might do something for their souls’ salavation, in distress and deaths of any kind. Then God gave me to wrestle earnestly for others, for the kingdom of Christ in the world, and for dear Christian friends. I felt weaned from the world and from my own reputation amongst men, willing to be despised, and to be a gazing stock for the world to behold. ‘Tis impossible for me to express how I then felt: I had not much joy, but some sense of the majesty of God, which made me as it were tremble: I saw myself mean and vile, which made me more willing that God should do what he could with me; it was all infinitely reasonable.
Page 158-159 from Works of Jonathan Edwards Volume 7
Tags: Jonathan Edwards, the life of David Brainerd, 中國的福音, 传福音, 印第安人