Bio 7f David Brainerd

3. An idealistic young man - In and out of Yale (Sep 1739-Jul 1742)In September, 1739, he entered Yale College, New Haven. There were then about 45 students, mostly younger than Brainerd. As he had expected, time for private devotions was now at a premium. Students then as now were often drunk and engaged in riotous behaviour. It was also a terribly cold winter and a bout of measles laid him aside that first year. He tried to catch up after being away only get ill again. By August, 1740, he was weak and spitting up blood. Tuberculosis was the plague of colonial New England and already Brainerd showed signs of being a sufferer.
In November, 1740, however, he returned to Yale and found there had been a marked spiritual change in the school. Whitefield [see pic] had visited on October 27, and revival fires had touched the school. Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) of New Jersey, author of a famous sermon on The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, also preached in New Haven in March, 1741. All this fuelled opposition to moderates in religion. Brainerd and other students became very zealous and visited each other 'for conversation and prayer'. It was through Brainerd that Samuel Hopkins (1721-1803) came under conviction of sin at this time. In April, New York pastor Ebenezer Pemberton (1704-1777), another revivalist preacher, visited Yale and gave a stirring address on missionary work to the Indians. The next day Brainerd was 23. He vowed to be wholly the Lord's and forever devoted to his service.
The college authorities, as we have said, were opposed to the revival. They forbade students to attend services in connection with it. Davenport's excesses confirmed their worst prejudices. Students favourable to the revival would meet together for fellowship, however, and it was in one of these gatherings that Brainerd made his notorious remark. As we have said, when the rector found out he demanded a public confession before the whole college, even though the remark was made in private. Brainerd's refusal to comply, probably exacerbated by continued attendance at meetings in New Haven, led inevitably to expulsion. He was also accused of saying that he was surprised Clap had not dropped dead for fining students who went to hear Tennent in Milford but this he denied.
The expulsion was clearly a bitter blow to Brainerd but readmission proved impossible, despite his repeated regrets and pleas from a council of Congregational ministers. He waged a constant fight against the bitterness of disappointment over his expulsion. The day of graduation when he would have passed out as top student was a testing one but he was able to cope by God's mercy. At other times he was thrown into deep despair. As time passed, he came to see how mistaken he had been to speak as he did. This only added to his sense of shame and sadness. Undoubtedly Brainerd was constitutionally inclined to depression and no doubt his physical illness added to this. His shameful expulsion and his conviction that he had been misguided in his zeal served only to increase his tendency to depression in this period.
Like other troubles he faced, though it cut him deep, by God's grace he seems to have been sanctified it. The immediate effect was to draw him closer to God. It should also be noted that it was in this period that he came to Edwards' attention, receiving support from him and other like-minded ministers. Another he came to know at this time was Jonathan Dickinson (1688-1747) [see pic] who went on to be first president of the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton College, from which came Princeton Seminary, that bastion for orthodoxy in the following century. Both Dickinson and later Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) saw Brainerd's expulsion as an important catalyst in bringing about the foundation of Old Princeton.
Following Brainerd's expulsion laws were passed forbidding lay preachers, itinerant preachers and other unqualified men. However, attempts were made to provide ways for men like Brainerd to serve the Lord nevertheless. A new association was formed in Connecticut for licensing preachers unable to meet the demands of existing associations. A prime mover in forming this new group was Jedediah Mills (1697-1776). In Spring, 1742, he invited Brainerd to live with him at his home in Riperton, 10 miles west of New Haven, while he contemplated his future. On his 24th birthday Brainerd wrote, "... I hardly ever so longed to live to God and to be altogether devoted to him; I wanted to wear out my life in his service and for his glory ..." But what was he to do? That June he spent several days in fasting and prayer yet still remained in a quandary about the future.