XXIII. BRAINERD AND ELIOT. THE PRAYERS OF BRAINERD. "All things are possible to God," was the thought that inspired Brainerd at the forks of the Delaware; and, broken in health, the student of Yale turned his back on the allurements of culture, friends and Christian society, and penetrated the wilderness to preach to the Red Man of the Susquehanna and the Jerseys. Men said such an undertaking was the mere impulse of enthusiasm, and would be fruitless; but forest altars arose wherever the young student preached, labored and prayed, and God poured his fires upon them. Edwards, in his life of Brainerd, thus speaks of his prayers: "His manner of praying was very agreeable; most becoming a worm of the dust, and a disciple of Christ, addressing an infinitely great and holy God, and Father of mercies; not with fluid expressions, or a studied eloquence ; not with any intemperate vehemence, or indecent boldness; at the greatest distance from any appearance of ostentation, and from anything that might look as though he meant to recommend himself to those that were about him, or set himself off to their acceptance; free, too, from vain repetitions, without impertinent excursions, or needless multiplying of words. He expressed himself with the strictest propriety, with weight and pungency; and yet what his lips uttered seemed to flow from the fullness of his heart, as deeply impressed with a great and solemn sense of our necessities, unworthiness and dependence, and of God's infinite greatness, excellency, and sufficiency, rather than merely from a warm and fruitful brain, pouring out good expressions. And I know not that ever I heard him so much as ask a blessing or return thanks at table, but there was something remarkable to be observed both in the matter and manner of the per formance. In his prayers he insisted much on the prosperity of Zion, the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the flour. ishing and propagation of religion among the Indians. And he generally made it one petition in his prayer, that we might not outlive our usefulness. This last petition was answered in Brainerd's own case. The sword was too sharp for the scabbard. He died young in years, but old in examples of wonder-working usefulness. JOHN ELIOT'S PRAYERS. Among the many remarkable incidents recorded by Cotton Mather, in his "History of New England," the following circumstances in the life of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, are worthy of remembrance: There were many manifestations, in Eliot's life, of the gifts of foresight and prophecy. And as some persons of delicate constitution will forebode the changes of the weather, so Eliot often had strange forebodings of things that were to come. "I have been astonished," says Mather, "at some of his predictions, both of more personal and of more general application which were followed with exact accomplishments. If he said of any affair, I cannot bless it,' it was a worse omen than the most inauspicious presages in the world. But sometimes, after he had been with God in prayer about a thing, I used to expect it to be successful, if he said, 'I have set a mark upon it. It will do well.' "I shall never forget that when England and Holland were plunged into the unhappy war, which the most sensible Protestants everywhere had the most sorrowful apprehensions of, Eliot, being privately asked in the height and heat of the war, what news we might look for next, answered, to the surprise of the inquirer, Our next news will be a peace between the two Protestant nations. God knows I have prayed for it every day; and I am verily persuaded we shall hear of it speedily.' And it came to pass accordingly. |