David Brainerd > Quotes

“Could not but think, as I have often remarked to others, that much more of true religion consists in deep humility, brokenness of heart, and an abasing sense of barrenness and want of grace and holiness than most who are called Christians imagine”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“I love to live on the brink of eternity.”
― David Brainerd

“Oh that I could spend every moment of my life to God's glory.”
― David Brainerd

“Saw so much of the wickedness of my heart that I longed to get away from myself…I felt almost pressed to death with my own vileness. Oh what a body of death is there in me…Oh the closest walk with God is the sweetest heaven that can be enjoyed on earth!”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Oh for holiness!
Oh for more of God in my soul!
Oh this pleasing pain!
It makes my soul press after God”
― David Brainerd

“I have received my all from God. Oh that I could return my all to God”
― David Brainerd

“There is a God in heaven who overrules all things for the best; and this is the comfort of my soul. . .How blessed it is to grow more and more like God!”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“It is sweet to be nothing and less than nothing that Christ may be all in all.”
― David Brainerd

“The whole world appears to me like a huge vacuum, a vast empty space, whence nothing desirable, or at least satisfactory, can possibly be derived; and I long daily to die more and more to it; even though I obtain not that comfort from spiritual things which I earnestly desire.”
― David Brainerd

“I had been heaping up my devotions before God, fasting, praying, &c. pretending, and indeed really thinking sometimes, that I was aiming at the glory of God; whereas I never once truly intended it, but only my own happiness. I”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd with Notes and Reflections by Jonathan Edwards

“Oh, if ever I get to heaven, it will be because God will, and nothing else; for I never did any thing of myself, but get away from God!”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and worn out for God!”
― David Brainerd

“Friday, April 2. In the afternoon I felt, in secret prayer, much resigned, calm, and serene. What are all the storms of this lower world, if Jesus by his Spirit does but come walking on the seas!--Some time past, I had much pleasure in the prospect of the heathen being brought home to Christ, and desired that the Lord would employ me in that work:--but now, my soul more frequently desires to die, to be with Christ. O that my soul were wrapt up in divine love, and my longing desires after God increased!--In the evening, was refreshed in prayer, with the hopes of the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd with Notes and Reflections by Jonathan Edwards

“I longed to spend and be spent for God.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“It is good for me to be afflicted that I may die wholly to this world and all that is in it.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Nothing seemed to hard for God to perform; nothing to great for me to hope for from Him.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Saw I was evidently throwing myself into all hardships and distressed in my present undertaking. I thought it would be less difficult to lie down in the grave; but yet I chose to go rather than stay.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Oh that I could dedicate my all to God. This is all the return I can make Him.”
― David Brainerd

“No poor creature stands in need of divine grace more than I, and none abuse it more than I have done, and still do.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“This day, I saw clearly that I should never be happy, yea, that God Himself could not make me happy, unless I could be in a capacity to 'please and glorify Him forever.' Take away this and admit me into all the fine heavens that can be conceived of by men or angels, and I should still be miserable forever.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Oh, how amazing it is that people can talk so much about men’s power and goodness when, if God did not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate!”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“[I pray] that we might not outlive our usefulness.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“To an eye of reason, everything that respects the conversion of the heathen is as dark as midnight; and yet I cannot but hope in God for the accomplishment of something glorious among them.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“My soul was this day, at turns, sweetly set on God. I longed to be with Him that I might behold His glory. I felt sweetly disposed to commit all to Him, even my dearest friends, my dearest flock, my absent brother, and all my concerns for time and eternity. Oh, that His kingdom might come in the world; that they might all love and glorify Him, for what He is in Himself; and that the blessed Redeemer might 'see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied! Oh, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“…no amount of scholastic attainment, of able and profound exposition of brilliant and stirring eloquence can atone for the absence of a deep impassioned sympathetic love for human souls.”
― David Brainerd

“it hurt me, and pained my very heart, that any body should show me any respect. Alas! methought, how sadly they are deceived in me! how miserably would they be disappointed, if they knew my inside! Oh my heart! -”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“My whole soul was unspeakably bewildered and lost in myself and I knew of nothing that seemed likely to make me happy, in case I could with the greatest ease have obtained the best good that I had any conception of. And being that lost I became a suitable object for the compassion of Jesus Christ to be set upon, since he came to "seek and to save that which is lost.”
― David Brainerd

“But still, this great awakening, this surpassing concern, was never excited by any harangues of terror, but always appeared most remarkable when I insisted upon the compassions of a dying Saviour, the plentiful provisions of the gospel, and the free offers of divine grace to needy distressed sinners.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“Alas, that so much of my precious time is spent with so little of God.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“All my desire was the conversion of the heathen and all my hope was in God. God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd