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April 25, 1742 - It was the Lord’s Day. David Brainerd wrote in his diary that he spent two hours early in the morning engaged in private worship. The spiritual blessings he experienced on that special Sabbath day he described in prose and in verse, and his words in turn have inspired many.
Lord’s-Day, April 25. This morning spent about two hours Hours in secret duties, and was enabled more than ordinarily to agonize for immortal souls; though it was early in the morning, and the sun scarcely shined at all, yet my body was quite wet with sweat. Felt much pressed now, as frequently of late, to plead for the meekness and calmness of the Lamb of God in my soul: through divine goodness felt much of it this morning. O ‘tis a sweet disposition, heartily to forgive all injuries done us; to wish our greatest enemies as well as we do our own souls! Blessed Jesus, may I daily be more and more conformed to Thee. At night was exceedingly melted with divine love, and had some feeling sense of the blessedness of the upper world. Those words hung upon me, with much divine sweetness, Ps. lxxxiv.7. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. O the near access, that God sometimes gives us in our addresses to him! This may well be termed appearing before God: ‘Tis so indeed, in the true spiritual sense, and in the sweetest sense. — I think I have not had such power of intercession, these many months, as I have had this evening. I wished and longed for the coming of my dear Lord: I longed to join the angelic hoses in praises, wholly free from imperfection. O the blessed moment hastens! All I want is to be more holy, more like my dear Lord. O for sanctification! My very soul pants for the complete restoration of the blessed image of my sweet Saviour; that I may be fit for the blessed enjoyments and employments of the heavenly world.
Brainerd then found his muse.
Farewell, vain World; my Soul can bid Adieu:
My Saviour’s taught me to abandon you.
Your Charms may gratify a sensual Mind;
Not please a Soul wholly for God design’d.
Forbear t’entice, cease then my Soul to call:
’Tis fix’d, through Grace; my God shall be my All.
While he thus lets me heavenly Glories view,
Your Beauties fade, my Heart’s no Room for you.
Returning to prose, Brainerd goes on:
The Lord refreshed my soul with many sweet passages of his Word. O the New Jerusalem! My soul longed for it. O the Song of Moses and the Lamb! And that blessed song, that no man can learn, but they that are redeemed from the earth! And the glorious white robes, that were given to the souls under the altar!
And then in one final poetic effusion, Brainerd expresses his burning desire for sweet communion with his Lord.
Lord, I’m a Stranger here alone;
Earth no true Comforts can afford:
Yet, absent from my dearest One,
My Soul delights to cry, My Lord!
Jesus, my Lord, my only Love,
Possess my Soul, nor thence depart:
Grant me kind Visits, heavenly Dove;
My God shall then have all my Heart.
May these Sabbath meditations from almost 300 years ago by a Presbyterian missionary richly bless your Sabbath day today.
HT: Tom Sullivan
