CU : What were the implications for future Ivy League colleges , Princeton and Dartmouth ? |
DS : Princeton was founded as a New Side ( i . e . pro-revival , or evangelical ) Presbyterian school in 1746 , while Brainerd was at work among New Jersey Delawares . Before Nassau Hall was raised in 1756 , classes met in the homes of Princeton ’ s presidents . The Rev . Jonathan Dickinson , Princeton ’ s first president , served a Presbyterian church in Elizabeth , New Jersey ( called Elizabethtown back then , in the era when Princeton was called the College of New Jersey ). Inasmuch as Brainerd lived in Dickinson ’ s home during the winter of 1746 / 47 ( suffering from the illness that would kill him soon thereafter , we think tuberculosis ), Brainerd participated in the launch of Princeton . More importantly , perhaps , by the mid-1740s , Yale ’ s leaders had grown suspicious of evangelicals like Brainerd and Princeton had come to be a better fit for them .
Dartmouth was established long after Brainerd died , in 1769 , by Eleazar Wheelock . But Wheelock had been a friend and admirer of Brainerd , inspired by his example to serve the Iroquois people . In 1748 , a year after Brainerd died , Wheelock opened a boarding school for both Iroquois and Anglos in Lebanon , Connecticut , later moving it to Hanover , New Hampshire , Dartmouth ’ s home . The Rev . Samson Occom , one of Wheelock ’ s first converts , helped Wheelock raise money for this missionary venture , spending over a year in Britain preaching sermons for the cause ( 1766-67 ), raising money for the college from King George III himself . Occom later felt betrayed when Wheelock used these funds more for Anglos than Native Americans , who would never constitute a high percentage of Dartmouth
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students . Nevertheless , Dartmouth emerged from early evangelical missions — and went on to boast more Native American alumni than all other Ivy League institutions combined ( nearly 1,000 ).
David Brainerd
CU : Why did Brainerd possess such a passion for Native Americans and those that didn ’ t know Christ ?
DS : His life had been transformed by the power of the Gospel . He had been changed from an arrogant evangelical adolescent to a humble servant of Christ , full of love for God and neighbor . His experience had taught him what the love of God can do when it fills someone ’ s life , and he longed to share that love with those around him .
One of my favorite sections in Brainerd ’ s diary testifies to this . He wrote it on April 19 , 1742 :
In the forenoon , I felt a power of intercession for precious immortal souls , for the advancement of the kingdom of my dear Lord and Saviour in the world ; and
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withal , a most sweet resignation , and even consolation and joy in the thoughts of suffering hardships , distresses , and even death itself , in the promotion of it . . . . God enabled me so to agonize in prayer that I was quite wet with sweat , though in the shade , and the wind cool . My soul was drawn out very much for the world ; I grasped for multitudes of souls . . . . I enjoyed great sweetness in communion with my dear Saviour . I think I never in my life felt such an entire weanedness from this world , and so much resigned to God in everything . Oh , that I may always live to and upon my blessed God !
Brainerd ’ s diary is full of such raw spirituality .
CU : Despite failing health and terrible conditions , what kept Brainerd strong in faith ?
DS : After God changed his life , Brainerd ’ s hunger for intimacy with God grew so strong that it distracted him from caring for his body . Here ’ s another typical passage from his diary , penned November 4 , 1742 :
But of late , God has been pleased to keep my soul hungry , almost continually ; so that I have been filled with a kind of a pleasing pain : When I really enjoy God , I feel my desires of him the more insatiable , and my thirsting after holiness the more unquenchable ; and the Lord will not allow me to feel as though I were fully supplied and satisfied , but keeps me still reaching forward ; and I feel barren and empty , as though I could not live without more of God in me . . . Oh , that I may feel this continual hunger , and not be retarded , but rather animated . . . to reach forward in the narrow way , for the
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w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 : : c h r i s t i a n u n i o n . o r g
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