Siouxie and the Laces Blog

The journal of missionaries in centuries past are of great interest to many Christians as well as others. David Brainerd, once a missionary to the Native Indians, kept an inspiring journal which is still being read more than 250 years later. After Brainerd died of tuberculosis at the Edwards home in 1748, Jonathan Edwards read through Brainerd’s manuscript diaries. Impressed, he resolved to prepare them for the press. Exalting Brainerd’s self-sacrificial faith in the cause of converting the “heathen,” Edwards presented Brainerd as a concrete example of sainthood as laid out in Religious Affections. In order to prevent readers from knowing the emotional extremes experienced by Brainerd, Edwards omitted many portions of the diary. If he did not take this step, Edwards feared that Brainerd would be dismissed as an “enthuiast” or as melancholic. Since its first publication, “The Life of David Brainerd” has never been out of print, providing a major impetus to the missionary movement of the late 18th and 19th century.  Through his diary as well as his life, it seems that the prayer of David Brainerd to “make a difference for (God) that is utterly disproportionate to who I am”  truly was answered.