The Life of David Brainerd Summary: Edwards' Book Chapter by Chapter
The Life of Rev. David Brainerd, Chiefly Extracted from His Diary tells the story of a young missionary to Native Americans, mostly in his own words. Jonathan Edwards built it from Brainerd's private diary after Brainerd died in Edwards' home in 1747. It follows him from his conversion in Connecticut, through his expulsion from Yale, to four years of preaching in the wilderness of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a revival among the Delaware Indians at Crossweeksung, and his death from tuberculosis at twenty-nine. Edwards ties the diary together with short passages of his own and closes with reflections on what Brainerd's life teaches.
This edition also includes Brainerd's public journal of the revival, which he kept for the Scottish missionary society that employed him. You can read the whole book free on its page in TheWay Library. Below is a guide to each part, with a link to open it in the reader.
How the book works
Most of the book is diary entries, dated by day. Brainerd wrote them for himself, not for readers, so they're short, honest and repetitive in a good way: prayer, preaching, sickness, travel, discouragement, joy. Edwards fills the gaps with a sentence or a paragraph, and adds notes marked with letters. Short headings at the top of each chapter list what it covers.
The edition is about nine hours of reading. It's easiest taken a chapter at a time.
Edwards' preface
Read the preface. Edwards admits Brainerd's faults up front. He was prone to melancholy, and he worked beyond his strength. Edwards argues that these don't cancel the reality of his faith, and he explains that Brainerd didn't want the diary published at all. He agreed only to let Edwards decide what to do with it.
Chapter I: conversion and Yale
Read chapter I. Brainerd's own account of his first twenty-three years. He was born in Haddam, Connecticut, in 1718 and lost both parents young. He tells at length how he tried to make himself right with God through religious duties, and how that hope collapsed. On a Sunday evening in July 1739, walking in a grove, he received a new view of God's glory and of salvation "entirely by the righteousness of Christ." He entered Yale that fall. The chapter ends with Edwards' account of his expulsion in 1742, after a private remark that a tutor had "no more grace than this chair."
Chapter II: preparing for the ministry
Read chapter II. Spring and summer 1742. Brainerd studies with a pastor in Ripton, Connecticut. These entries are some of the most intense in the book: long days of fasting, prayer in the woods, and a growing desire to preach to "the heathen." On his twenty-fourth birthday he wrote that he "wanted to wear out my life in his service, and for his glory." The chapter ends with his license to preach in July 1742.
Chapter III: licensed to preach
Read chapter III. He preaches around Connecticut and struggles with his own pride and his past harshness. In November 1742 he's called to New York and examined by the correspondents of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge.
Chapter IV: appointed a missionary
Read chapter IV. Winter 1742 to 1743. He uses part of his inheritance to pay for a young man's education for the ministry, preaches on Long Island, and takes leave of his friends. Instead of sending him to Pennsylvania as planned, the commissioners send him to Kaunaumeek, between Stockbridge and Albany.
Chapter V: Kaunaumeek
Read chapter V. About a year among a small group of Indians in the New York woods. He sleeps on straw, builds his own hut, starts a school, and learns the language at Stockbridge. He apologizes in writing to Yale for his remark about the tutor. He explains in a letter how he taught: plain truths first, prayers and psalms translated into their language, then the Gospel of Matthew. The chapter ends with his move to the Forks of the Delaware and his ordination at Newark in June 1744.
Chapter VI: the Forks of the Delaware
Read chapter VI. June 1744 to June 1745 in Pennsylvania. This is the hardest year in the book. He prays all evening against an idolatrous feast, rides over mountains to the Susquehanna River, gets lost in the wilderness at night, and builds another cabin. Late in 1744 his interpreter is awakened. The chapter ends with his first visit to a few Indians at Crossweeksung, New Jersey, in June 1745.
Chapter VII: the revival begins
Read chapter VII. The first part of his public journal. At Crossweeksung his hearers grow from a handful to dozens. His interpreter and his wife become the first converts. On August 8, 1745, he writes that "the power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly ‘like a mighty rushing wind.’" The chapter includes his visit to Indian towns on the Susquehanna, a sacrifice and dance on an island in the river, and his account of a powwow, or conjurer.
Chapter VIII: a church gathered
Read chapter VIII. The second part of the journal, November 1745 to June 1746. Brainerd starts teaching the catechism, a schoolmaster arrives, and he helps the Indians settle debts that threatened their land. He counts about a hundred and thirty people in the congregation. He serves the Lord's Supper to twenty-three Indian believers and receives into the church the former conjurer from the August revival.
General remarks
Read the general remarks. Brainerd's own reflections on the revival. He says the heart of his preaching was "Christ crucified," and that the change in the Indians' lives came from the doctrines of grace, not from lectures on morals. He also notes the work was largely free of wild excitement, and names the few cases of spiritual pride he saw.
Chapter IX: his last year
Read chapter IX. The longest chapter, from June 1746 to his death. He builds a fourth house, at Cranbury (the book spells it "Cranberry"), and rides once more to the Susquehanna with six Christian Indians. He falls ill, spends the winter in Elizabethtown, visits his people for the last time in March 1747, and hands the congregation to his brother John. He rides to New England, nearly dies in Boston, and spends his last weeks at Edwards' house in Northampton, cared for by Edwards' daughter Jerusha. Edwards records his final words and his death on October 9, 1747.
Chapter X: Edwards' reflections
Read the reflections. Edwards draws lessons in six short reflections. True conversion is a beginning, not a finish line. Brainerd's faith showed itself in practice, not only feelings. His life supports the doctrines of grace. Ministers and missionaries should learn from his diligence. All Christians should take up secret fasting and prayer for revival. He ends by thanking God that Brainerd was brought to his home to die. His word to missionaries is short:
To Missionaries in particular, may his example of laboring, praying, denying himself, and enduring hardness with unfainting resolution and patience, and his faithful, vigilant, and prudent conduct in many other respects, afford instruction.
The Life of Rev. David Brainerd, Reflection IV
The book's influence
Edwards first published his account in 1749, and it has stayed in print in many editions since. It became one of the best-known missionary books in English. Missionaries such as William Carey and Henry Martyn are among the many who were moved by it, and later readers, including Jim Elliot in the twentieth century, have named it as an influence. John Wesley recommended it to his preachers.
Readers have kept coming back to it for the reasons Edwards gives. It shows a real man, weak in body and often low in spirit, who kept praying and preaching for years with little to show for it until God moved at Crossweeksung.
Where to start
If you have time for only one part, read chapter VII for the revival, or the last pages of chapter IX for his death. Then go back to chapter I and read straight through.
For more, see:
- Who Was David Brainerd? for his life story
- David Brainerd Diary Quotes, dated entry by entry
- David Brainerd's Prayer Life, in his own words
- Men Are God's Method, on how E. M. Bounds used Brainerd's example
Or go straight to the book's page and start reading.