Getting himself a name among the heathen...

David Brainerd, a missionary to the Indians, writes his thoughts after being troubled upon learning that the Indians he was working with were going to have an idolotrous ceremony. After a long inward struggle he confesses,

"All my cares, fears, and desires, which might be said to be of a worldly nature, disappeared; and were, in my esteem, of little more importance than a puff of wind. I exceedingly longed, that God would get to himself a name among the heathen; and I appealed to him with the greatest freedom, that he knew I ‘preferred him above my chief joy.’ Indeed, I had no notion of joy from this world; I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. I continued in this frame all the evening and night. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things; and when I waked, (as I frequently did,) the first thing I thought of was this great work of pleading for God against Satan."

"The Life and Diary of David Brainerd" in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2., ix.ii: Saturday, July 21.


I wish I had a fraction of this evangelistic fervor.