This landmark biography concerns David Brainerd, one of the most successful missionaries to live in the colonial era of North America. Although he lived a short life, perishing at the age of twenty-nine, David Brainerd distinguished himself as a missionary of supreme talent and capacity. Working in the barely charted wildernesses of North America in the early 18th century, his missions aimed to convert the Native American population to the Christian creed. Many converted, partly as Brainerd was capable of preaching sermons in the open air across the untrammeled countryside. After his missions lasted a little over three years, David was already famous for his successes. Overcoming fears of the Native Americans, he established whole communities of converts, and received several offers of work in large, existing churches in the safer, colonial towns. In rejecting these, he expresses his desire to keep converting the multitude of heathens naive to the greatness of God. A sensitive soul, David Brainerd suffered from a form of intermittent but severe depression, which was compounded by his lack of company in the wilderness. At times he was malnourished, and his mental and physical condition would become so poor that he was immobile. Eventually illness forced him to give up his ministry; retiring home, he was informed by a doctor that he had tuberculosis, and died in pain only a few months later. Brainerd's brief life, beset with struggles, was considered inspirational by many Christians. This biography, by Jonathan Edwards, is adapted from the journal that Brainerd kept throughout his life.

David Brainerd was a pioneer missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania in the 1700s. he died at the tender age of 29 from tuberculosis. This is his diary.

Pink's biography, first written by Iain Murray in 1981, is here revised and enlarged with the benefit of new material, including some of Pink's own re-discovered manuscripts. It is the heart-stirring and compelling story of a strong, complex character a 'Mr Valiant-for-truth' who was also a humble Christian. In 1922 a small magazine Studies in the Scriptures began to circulate among Christians in the English-speaking world. It pointed its readership back to an understanding of the gospel that had rarely been heard since the days of C. H. Spurgeon. At the time it seemed as inconsequential as its author, but subsequently Arthur Pink's writings became a major element in the recovery of expository preaching and biblical living. Born in England in 1886, A. W. Pink was the little-known pastor of churches in the United States and Australia before he finally returned to his homeland in 1934. There he died almost unnoticed in 1952.

Missionary to Native Americans Struggled with depression Had a short but deeply impacting life

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd with Notes and Reflections by Jonathan Edwards (Illustrated)David Brainerd (April 20, 1718-October 9, 1747) was an American missionary to the Native Americans who had a particularly fruitful ministry among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey. During his short life he was beset by many difficulties. Jonathan Edwards, a pastor during the first Great Awakening published is diary and his biography has become a source of inspiration and encouragement to many Christians, including missionaries such as William Carey and Jim Elliot, and Brainerd's cousin, the Second Great Awakening evangelist James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829).Much of Brainerd's influence on future generations can be attributed to the biography compiled by Jonathan Edwards and first published in 1749 under the title of An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd. Edwards believed that a biography about Brainerd would have great value and set aside the anti-Arminian treatise he was writing (later published as Freedom of the Will) in order to create one. The result was an edited version of Brainerd's diary, with some passages documenting Brainerd's despair removed. It gained immediate recognition, with eighteenth-century theologian John Wesley urging: 'Let every preacher read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd. The most reprinted of Edwards's books, it has never been out of print and has thus influenced subsequent generations, mainly because of Brainerd's single-minded perseverance in his work in the face of significant suffering. Clyde Kilby summarised Brainerd's influence as being based on the fact that, 'in our timidity and our shoddy opportunism we are always stirred when a man appears on the horizon willing to stake his all on a conviction'. From the eighteenth century, missionaries also found inspiration and encouragement from the biography. Gideon Hawley wrote in the midst of struggles: 'I need, greatly need, something more than humane [human or natural] to support me. I read my Bible and Mr. Brainerd's Life, the only books I brought with me, and from them have a little support'. Other missionaries who have asserted the influence of Jonathan Edwards's biography of Brainerd on their lives include Henry Martyn, William Carey, Jim Elliot. and Adoniram Judson.

The journal of the Brainerd Mission is an indispensable source for understanding Cherokee culture and history during the early nineteenth century. The interdenominational mission was located in the heart of Cherokee country near present-day Chattanooga. For seven years the Brainerd missionaries kept a journal describing their lives and those of their charges. Although the journal has long been recognized as a significant primary document, it was not fully transcribed or made widely available until now. The journal entries provide a richly textured and sensitive look at Cherokee life and American missionary activities during the early nineteenth century. They shed new light on the daily lives and personalities of individual Cherokees, as well as on poorly understood aspects of Cherokee politics and religion. The journal provides interesting ethnographic details concerning Cherokee council meetings, ceremonial occasions, gender relations, and the internal social and political tensions among families. Of equal interest are the complex and often conflicted attitudes of the missionaries, who were interested in Cherokee traditional culture but simultaneously worked to change it.

Frail, prone to depression, Brainerd was an unlikely candidate for missionary work. Yet in the 18th century, he converted hundreds of Native Americans through his example of self-denial, commitment to prayer, and devotion to Christ. Edited by Jonathan Edwards, Brainerd's firsthand account chronicles his amazing ministry-one that continues to shape today's missions.