Leviticus 1:6-13 And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.… David Brainerd was one of those who might be called God's men. From the first, it was the vision of God's splendour which subdued him; it was for the glory of God that he laboured; his nearness to the blaze of the Divine presence enabled him to kindle a light which will never be extinguished. Hear what he says concerning his experience when first he obtained a foothold in the kingdom, "My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God! such a glorious, Divine Being; and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that He should be God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him; at least, to that degree that I had no thought, that I remember at first, about my own salvation, and scarcely reflected that there was such a creature as myself." And, again, on his twenty-fourth birthday, "I hardly ever so longed to live to God, and to be altogether devoted to Him, I wanted to wear out my life in His service and for His glory." He wrote a journal, detailing the exercises of his soul, and recounting his experiences amongst the Redskins. Two early volumes of it he destroyed, lest he might be led to glory in anything he had felt or done; the remaining volumes he also desired to demolish when he came to die; but through the influence of Jonathan Edwards, who had caught a glimpse of their contents, and estimated their worth, he was induced to spare them, and even permit them to be published, though they had not been written with such an intention, but in the weary solitudes had been like a friend, to whom he could pour out the secrets of his heart. William Carey, the pioneer of modern missions, read these journals of Brainerd as he sat on the shoemaker's bench, and said to himself, "If God can do such things among the Indians of America, why not among the pagans of India?" He was thus led to offer himself for missionary work just one hundred years ago. Henry Martyn read the book, and received an impulse which sent him to live and die for Christ in Persia. John Wesley, in answering the question, "What can be done to revive the work of God where it is decayed?" said, "Let every preacher read carefully over the life of David Brainerd." McCheyne records, in his journal, that after reading it, he was "more set on missionary enterprise than ever." (W. Y. Fullerton, "Sword and Trowel.") Parallel Verses KJV: And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.WEB: He shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into pieces. |
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