Page 10 - Audacity - Edition 1

David Brainerd

HINTERLANDS

David Brainerd was born on April 20, 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut, the

son of Hezekiah, a Connecticut legislator, and Dorothy. He had nine sib-

lings. He was orphaned at the age of nine, as his father died in 1972 at the

age of forty-six and his mother died five years later.

On 12 July 1739, he recorded having an experience of ‘unspeakable glory’

that prompted in him a hearty desire to exalt God, to set Him on the

throne and to seek first His Kingdom.

Two months later, he enrolled at Yale. In his second year, he was sent

home because he was suffering from a serious illness that caused him to

spit blood. It is now believed that he was suffering from tuberculosis, the

disease which would lead to his death seven years later.