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OF

DAVID BRAINERD.

PREPARED FOR THE AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION

BY A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER.

REVISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.

AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.

PHILADELPHIA:

NO. 146 CHESNUT STREET.

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Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the thirtieth day of December, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1826, Hugh De Haven, Treasurer, in trust for the American Sunday School Union, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the Title of a book, the right whereof he claims, as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: Memoirs of David Brainerd. By a Sunday School Teacher. Prepared for the American Sunday School Union. Knowledge of the Lord. American Sunday School Union.

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned-And also to the Act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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MEMOIRS

OF THE

REV. DAVID BRAINERD.

In the doctrines of the Bible, we see what the religion of Jesus Christ is; we there see, that it is calculated to make the Christian happy himself, and useful to his fellow-creatures. But it is in the life of the humble, devoted Christian, that we see the beauty of religion drawn out in living characters; it is like seeing in a picture, a beautiful landscape, of which we had before only read a description.

The Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the only perfect character which this sinful world has seen since the sin of Adam; but in every age God has shown the excellency of religion in the lives of those whom he has renewed by

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his Holy Spirit, and has thus given the fullest assurance of the truth of his word, and displayed the power of his grace, to make the proud and sinful heart of man to become the seat of every holy affection.

That the youth of our land may become acquainted with the character of one of the most elevated servants of God; and in hopes that many may be thus excited to drink in of his spirit, and walk in his steps, the writer has been induced to prepare a narrative of the life of the Rev. DAVID BRAINERD, that faithful, laborious missionary, whose life exhibited the most powerful and convincing proof of the reality and value of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He was born at Haddam, in Connecticut, April 20, 1718, and was the child of pious parents. From his earliest childhood he was very scrious and thoughtful. His natural constitution was of a melancholy character, and even after he became a Christian, this infirmity often preyed upon his spirits, and cast a deep gloom over his mind, against which, at times, he had to struggle through the whole of his

life. He pursued the business of a farmer until his twentieth year, when he relinquished this business, in order to study, a course to which he had long turned his thoughts.

He was at this time destitute of true religion, although he had for a long time been very attentive to religious duties. He was serious and thoughtful, and prayed often, and very devoutly, yet he had not been born again by the Spirit of God; he had not given his heart to Christ, and was without God in the world. The first that he remembered feeling any convictions of sin was when he was seven or eight years old. He was terrified at the thoughts of death, and for a time attended to secret prayer, but it lasted only a short time. When he was about fourteen years old, he was roused to seriousness by the prevailing of a mortal sickness at Haddam. He says, "I was frequent, constant, and much in earnest, in religious duties, and took much delight in reading, especially in Mr Janeway's Token for Children. I was sometimes much melted in these duties, and took great delight in the performance of them. J

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