John Brainerd's general fidelity and success in his first labors are vouched by President Edwards. Writing in 1749, he speaks of John's succeeding his brother "in a like spirit, and under whose prudent and faithful care the congregation had flourished and been happy, and probably could not have been so well provided for otherwise." This is good testimony, and from a competent source.

July 26, 1746, twelve clergymen of Scotland in a memorial proposed a United Concert of Prayer to the Churches of America. They addressed their letter to President Edwards, who eagerly caught

a church there two years. He was a chaplain in the army during the French War. He then came back to New Jersey, and labored some time in the congregations of Shrewsbury, Middletown Point, Shark River, and Amboy. In 1764 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia sent him, with the Rev. Alexander McWhorter, on a mission to North Carolina. Soon after his return he settled at St. George's, Delaware, as successor to the Rev. Dr. Rodgers, transferred to New York. He remained five years, and then accepted a call to Trenton. In the Revolutionary struggle he took an active part. Congress sent him to conciliate the wavering in North Carolina; and he performed his extraordinary mission. The Tories hated him, and once burnt a part of his library. The University of Pennsylvania conferred on him the title of D.D. in 1782. He seems to have deserved it. He peaceably ended life at Trenton, December 27, 1784, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His epitaph in the grounds of the First Presbyterian Church says: "He possessed fine genius, great vivacity, and eminent, active piety." If not greatly studious and scholarly, he was, doubtless, a man of great energy and executive power. Among his grandchildren were reckoned the wife of the late Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, N. J., and the late John and Thomas Sergeant, of Philadelphia. Our readers will see that the young men who sat by the log-cabin fire in Cranberry, in the winter of 1747-48, "have left deep footprints on the sands of time." We shall often meet Elihu Spencer in this memoir, and our readers will now know him.

the idea, and published an Appeal with this long title, viz.:

"An Humble Attempt to promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union among God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time."

The work was as elaborate as the title; and it doubtless laid the foundation for that Monthly Concert of Prayer which is now observed over the earth. Edwards proposed a Quarterly Concert, and he urged it with great success not only among the New England churches, but the Indian missions. The Brainerds entered heartily into its spirit.

David expressed "his wonder that there was no more forwardness in promoting united extraordinary prayer according to the Scotch proposal,' and sent his dying advice to his own congregation that "they should practise that proposal."*

How well they took this advice, and how heartily John Brainerd entered into the matter, we learn from President Edwards' letter to Rev. Mr. McCulloch, of Scotland under date of May 23, 1779. He says:

"I sent another copy into New Jersey, to Mr. John Brainerd, missionary to the Indians there, with a desire that he would communicate it to others, as he thought would be most serviceable.

* Brainerd's Life, p. 400.

"He writes in answer, March 4, 1748, as follows:'I received yours of January 12 on Sabbath morning, February 5; and desire to acknowledge your kindness with much thankfulness and gratitude. It was a great resuscitant as well as encouragement to me, and, I trust, has been so to many others in these parts, who are concerned for the prosperity of Zion. The next Thursday after (as perhaps, sir, you may remember) was the quarterly day appointed for extraordinary prayer; upon which I called my people together, and gave information of the most notable things contained in your letter. And since I have endeavored to communicate the same to several of my neighboring ministers and sundry private Christians, as I had opportunity. I have also thought it my duty to send an extract, or rather a copy of it, to Governor Belcher. I have likewise (for want of time to transcribe) sent the original to Philadelphia by a careful hand, that the Rev. Mr. Gilbert Tennent might have the perusal of it; where a copy was taken, and the original safely returned to me again. I cannot but hope that this letter, as it contains many things wherein the power and goodness of God do appear in a most conspicuous manner, will be greatly serviceable in stirring up the people of God in these parts, and encouraging their hearts to seek his face and favor, and to cry mightily to him for the further outpouring of a gracious Spirit upon his Church in the world. For my part, I think the remarkable things which your letter contains might be sufficient to put new life into. any one who is not past feeling, and as a means to excite a spirit of prayer and praise in all those who are not buried in ignorance or under the power of a lethargic stupor. And it is looked upon by those whom I have had an opportunity to converse with, whether ministers

or private Christians, that what God has done is matter of great thankfulness and praise, and might well encourage his people to lift up the hand of prayer, and be instant therein.'

The little Indian church of Cranberry gathered to pray, "Thy kingdom come," presents a novel spectacle.

Writing under the same date to Mr. Robe, of Scotland, President Edwards says:

"We have had accounts from time to time of religion being in a flourishing state in the Indian congregation of New Jersey, under the care of Mr. John Brainerd; of the congregation's increasing by the access of Indians from distant parts; of a work of awakening carried on among the unconverted, and additions made to the number of the hopefully converted; and the Christian behavior of professors there. Mr. Brainerd was at my house a little while ago, and represented this to be the present state of things in that congregation."

CHAPTER XII.

JOHN BRAINERD'S INDIANS DISTURBED AT BETHEL CHARACTER OF CHIEF-JUSTICE R. H. MORRIS-HIS TRAGIC DEATH-THE INDIANS LOSE THEIR LANDS.

JOHN BRAINERD has now been nearly two

JOHN

years at his work, and with eminent success. David, his brother, was a hard man to equal; but it seems that John approximated his predecessor in fidelity and usefulness.

But dark clouds began to lower over the pathway of the young missionary. We have seen with what sacrifices and with what hopes the poor Indians had been removed from Crossweeksung to Cranberry. David had paid their debts. They supposed the land was their own. They had made their clearings, built their cabins, erected their church and school-house, and their pastor had, with his own hands, aided in finishing the rude parsonage. They had called the place Bethel. It had been sanctified by Christian labor, prayers, and tears. In the desert of Indian paganism and barbarity it was the first oasis. Can we believe that any could be found vile enough to break up this Christian community, to wring the heart of this young pastor, and to crush the hopes of Christians abroad by exiling these Indians from their homes?