tary School, to Robert Street, Grosvenor Square. J. L. Collins, of Cheshunt College, to be assistant to Rev. J. Raven, Ipswich. G. Robinson, to Hadnall, Shropshire. ORDINATIONS. April.-S. N. Jackson, at Montreal, as missionary in connexion with the Canadian Western District Missionary Committee. Introductory discourse, Rev. Dr. Wilkes ; Prayer, Rev. C. P. Watson; Charge, Rev. Dr. Lillie. July 4.-H. Gookey, at Albion Chapel, Southampton, as missionary to Vizagapatam, India. Field of labour described by Rev. J. Wardlaw, M.A.; Prayer, Rev. H. March; Charge, Rev. J. Charlton, M.A. July 8.-C. Williams, at Trevor Chapel, Brompton, as missionary to South Africa. Mission field described by Rev. J. Wardlaw, M.A.; Prayer, Rev. R. Robinson; Charge, Rev. W. M. Statham. July 12.-T. Bryson, as missionary to Hankow, China, by the Edinburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church. Charge, Rev. J. Wardlaw, M.A.; Field described by Rev. J. Mullens, D.D. July 17.-W. Aston, Burton-on-Trent. Introductory Address, Rev. W. Crosbie, M.A., LL.B. Prayer, Rev. J. Cooke. Charge, Rev. Professor Bubier. Sermon to people, Rey. R. W. Dale, M.A. July 24.-T. E. Slater, at Holly Walk, Leamington, as missionary to Calcutta. Missionary sphere described by Rev. J. Mullens, D.D. Prayer, Rev. W. Slater. Charge, Rev. R. W. Dale, M.A. July 25.-J. Thomas, Chepstow. Introductory discourse, Rev. P. W. Darnton, B.A. Prayer, Rev. S. Hebditch. Charge, Rev. Professor Hartland. Sermon to people, Rev. H. Oliver, B.A. Gill. Addresses by Revs. E. Heath, R. Cameron, D. Williams, J. Unwin, &c. REMOVALS. Rev. W. Daniel, Great Ouseburn, to Gawthorpe. Rev, G. C. Bellewes, Greenwich, to the Church of England. Rev. J. Gibson, Campbell Town, New South Wales, to the Presbyterian Church. Rev. B. Quaife, Sydney, New South Wales, to the Presbyterian Church. Rev. W. R. Fletcher, M.A., Sandhurst, to Richmond Church, Melbourne, Victoria. Rev. J. D. Davies, Kew, Victoria, to Wareham, Dorset. Rev. J. Christien, Moreton-in-Marsh, to Great Ancoats Street, Manchester. Rev. C. Chandler, Lenham, to Chorley. Rev. E. Bolton, Bromley, to Brixton. Rev. W. Roberts, Halifax, to Junction Road, Upper Holloway. Rev. H. Simon, Castleford, to Tolmer's Square, London. Rev. A. H. Lowe, Ormskirk. DEATHS OF MINISTERS. July 24.-Rev. I. Vaughan, Rotherham. Age 53. Length of ministry, 29 years. July 27.-Rev. J. G. Short, Belfast. Length of ministry, 16 years. July 30.-Rev. D. James, Hadnall. Age 61 years. Length of ministry, 34 years. Rev. J. Macfarlane, Holmfirth. Length of ministry, 23 years. DEATHS OF MINISTERS' WIVES. July 17.-Mrs. Kirkus, wife of Rev. R. Kirkus, Hull. Age 69. April 13.-Mrs. Savage, wife of Rev. S. Savage, Rockhampton, Queensland. TESTIMONIALS. To the Rev. G. Snashall, B.A. Purse containing £110, on leaving Rochdale. To Rev. J. Alexander, Norwich. Annuity of £200 on retiring from the ministry. To Rev. R. W. Selbie, B.A. Purse and plate, on leaving Chesterfield. To Rev. W. Daniell. Purse and books, on leaving Great Ouseburn...? Na THE MERCHANTS' LECTURE Will be delivered (D.V.) on Tuesday, the 4th of September, at the Poultry Chapel, by the Rev. James Spence, D.D., at noon precisely. THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS, AND CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE, OCTOBER, 1866. LIFE AND LABOURS OF JOHN BRAINERD. ALL the world has heard of David Brainerd; and his name, though he died in his thirtieth year, is associated with all that is pure in Christian character, and apostolic in Christian labour. But the name of John Brainerd, the brother of David, and his successor as missionary to the Indians of New Jersey, is almost entirely unknown. This difference between brothers who were very like each other both in character and in labour is owing mainly to the circumstance that David's biography was written by one of the greatest men of his own or any other age, Jonathan Edwards, and that John, who lived to the age of sixty-one, found no biographer to perpetuate his name and the memory of his work. It is only now, more than eighty years after he has gone to his heavenly reward, that one of his descendants has with pious toil and affection essayed to rescue from forgetfulness all that time has spared of his history. Happily the heavenly record is complete, though the earthly is of necessity fragmentary and scanty.* About the year 1649, a little boy eight years of age, named Daniel Brainerd, went from Exeter in England to Hartford in Connecticut. In what vessel he embarked, why he left home, we know not. This only is known, that this * The title of the volume before us is "The Life of John Brainerd, the brother of David Brainerd, and his successor as missionary to the Indians of New Jersey. Par nobile fratrum. By Rev. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D., Pastor of Old Pine Street Church, Philadelphia." It is published in Philadelphia by the "Presbyterian Publication Committee." This volume is the only source of our knowledge of John Brainerd, and in giving a brief outline of its contents we shall use its words as freely as its facts. VOL. II.-NEW SERIES. L L little boy went with the "Wyllis" family, long one of the most respectable and ffluent in Hartford, and that he remained in it till 1662, when he was twenty-one years of age. Two hundred and seventeen years ago, the boy of eight years put his little feet on the banks of the Connecticut; around him a great continent covered by a howling wilderness, and perilous from roaming savage tribes and beasts of prey. It is said that at least thirty-three thousand persons in the United States look back to that lone boy as the head of their family! The land which was reclaimed by his industry from the forest, continued to be the property of his descendants for nearly two hundred years, to the present generation. Of this Daniel Brainerd, David and John were grandsons. Their father, Hezekiah, was a gentleman of education, means, and high official position in the young colony; and what is better, he was an eminent Christian: "of the strictest Puritanical views as to religious ordinances, of unbending integrity as a man and a public officer, and of extreme scrupulousness in his Christian life." Of the childhood and youth of John Brainerd, who was born February 28, 1720, little is known. In his seventh year he lost his father, and in his twelfth his mother. But an elder brother and an elder sister were already married, and under the roof of one of these, or of one of his numerous uncles and aunts, he found a home in his orphanage. And what sort of home Puritan home in those times was, Dr. Thomas Brainerd, whose grandfather was only twelve years John's junior, describes on the authority of family tradition: وار 1 t "A boy was early taught a profound respect for his parents, teachers, and guardians, and implicit, prompt obedience. If he undertook to rebel, his will was broken by persistent and adequate punishment. He was accustomed every morning and evening to bow at the family altar; and the Bible was his ordinary reading-book in school. He was never allowed to close his eyes in sleep without prayer on his pillow. At a sufficient age, no caprice, slight illness, nor any condition of roads or weather was allowed to detain him from church. In the sanctuary he was required to be grave, strictly attentive, and able on his return at least to give the text. From sundown Saturday evening until the Sabbath sunset his sports were all suspended, and all secular reading laid aside; while the Bible, New-England Primer, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's Saint's Rest, &c., were commended to his ready attention and cheerfully pored over. 1 "He was taught that his blessings were abundant and undeserved, his evils relatively few and merited, and that he was not only bound to contentment, but to gratitude. He was taught that time was a talent to be always improved; that industry was a cardinal virtue, and laziness the worst form of original sin. Hence he must rise early, and make himself useful before he went to school; must be diligent there in study, and be promptly home to do chores' at evening. His whole time out of school must be filled up by some service, —such as bringing in fuel for the day, cutting potatoes for the sheep, feeding the swine, watering the horses, picking the berries, gathering the vegetables, ! a sin spooling the yarn, and running all errands. He was expected never to be reluctant, and not often tired. He was taught that it was to find fault with his meals, his apparel, his tasks, or his lot in life. Labour he was not allowed to regard as a burden, nor abstinence from any improper indulgence as a hardship. His clothes, woollen and linen, for summer and winter, were mostly spun, woven, and made up by his mother and sisters at home; and, as he saw the whole laborious process of their fabrication, he was jubilant and grateful for two suits, with bright buttons, a year. Rents were carefully closed and holes patched in the every-day' dress, and the Sabbath dress always kept new and fresh. He was expected early to have the stops and marks,' the abbreviations,' the 'multiplication table,' the ten commandments, the Lord's Prayer,' and the Shorter Catechism," at his tongue's end. Courtesy was enjoined as a duty. 6 1 He must be silent among his superiors. If addressed by older persons, he must respond with a bow. He was to bow as he entered and left the school, and bow to every man or woman, old or young, rich or poor, black whom he met on the road. Special punishment was visited on him if he failed to show respect to the aged, the poor, the coloured, or to any persons whatever whom God had visited with infirmities. He was thus taught to stand in awe of the rights of mind to diez baitz A humanity. ! Honesty was urged as a religious duty, and unpaid debts were represented as infamy. He was allowed to be sharp at a bargain, to shudder at dependence, but still to prefer poverty to deception or fraud. His industry was not urged by poverty but by duty. Those who imposed upon him early responsibility and restraint led the way by their example, and commended this example by the prosperity of their fortunes, and the respectability of their position as the result of these virtues. He felt that they governed and restrained him for his good, and not their own. "He learned to identify himself with the interests he was set to promote. He claimed every acre of his father's ample farm, and every horse and ox and cow and sheep became constructively his, and he had a name for each. The waving harvests, the garnered sheaves, the gathered fruits, were all his own. And besides these, he had his individual treasures. He knew every trout-hole in the streams; he was great in building dams, snaring rabbits, trapping squirrels, and gathering chestnuts and walnuts for winter store. Days of election, training, thanksgiving, and school-intermissions, were bright spots in his life. His long winter evenings, made cheerful by sparkling fires within, and cold, clear skies, and ice-crusted plains and frozen streams for his sled and skates, were full of enjoyment. And then he was loved by those whom he could respect, and cheered by that future for which he was being prepared. Religion he was taught to regard as a necessity and luxury, as well as a duty. He was daily brought into contemplation of the When the writer of Mr. B.'s biography complained of any thing at table, his father would say ; "You don't like your mother's provision. You may leave the table." Infinite, and made to regard himself as ever on the brink of an endless being. With a deep sense of obligation, a keen, sensitive conscience, and a tender heart, the great truths of religion appeared in his eye as sublime, awful, practical realities, compared with which earth was nothing. Thus he was made brave before men for the right, while he lay in the dust before God. Such (says Dr. T. Brainerd) was Haddam training one hundred years ago. Some may lift their hands in horror at this picture; but it was a process which made moral heroes. It exhibited a society in which wealth existed without idleness or profligacy; social elevation without arrogance; labour without degradation; and a piety which by its energy and martyr-endurance, could shake the world. "We are not to suppose that the boyhood of John Brainerd under these influences was gloomy or joyless: far from it. Its activity was bliss; its growth was a spring of life; its achievements were victories. Each day garnered some benefit; and rising life, marked by successive accumulations, left a smile on the conscience and bright and reasonable hopes for the future. "We might have desired that this Puritan training had left childhood a little larger indulgence; had looked with interest at present enjoyment as well as at future good; had smiled a little more lovingly on the innocent gambols, the ringing laughter, the irrepressible mirth of boyhood, and had frowned less severely on imperfections clinging to human nature itself. We might think that, by insisting too much on obligation and too little on privilege,-too much on the law and too little on the gospel,-too much on the severity and too little on the goodness of the Deity, the conscience may have been stimulated at the expense of the affections, and men fitted for another world at an unnecessary sacrifice of their amiability and happiness in the present life. "But in leaving this Puritan training, the world has gone farther and fared worse.' To repress the iniquity of the age and land, to save our young men for themselves, their country and their God, I believe we shall gain most, not by humouring childhood's caprices and sneering at strict households, strict governments, and strict Sabbaths, but by going back to many of the modes which gave to the world such men as John Hampden, William Bradford, Jonathan Edwards, Timothy Dwight, and David and John Brainerd." An elder brother of David Brainerd, Nehemiah, graduated at Yale College in 1732 and settled in the ministry in 1740. The three younger brothers, David, John, and Israel, entered the same college in succession. David's college course, as the readers of his life will remember, was cut short by a cruel act on the part of the authorities. The story, briefly told by John's biographer, is this: Brainerd was sincerely attached to the revival party of the times, and wrought up to high excitement in favour of a religion of the heart rather than a religion of orthodoxy and cold forms. Not to the neglect of his studies or the corruption of his morals, but against the arbitrary laws of his teachers, he had attended upon the preaching of men like the sainted Gilbert Tennent. This had probably excited prejudice against him. On a certain occasion, when Tutor Whittlesey had led in prayer, and had retired from the chapel |