Image via Wikipedia David Brainerd lived only 29 years but the account of those years inspired many to follow Christ . Some, like William Carey and Henry Martyn , followed his footsteps onto the mission field. At the age of seven David began to seek the Lord. His journal shows that he struggled greatly in coming to Christ. To replace self-righteous works by faith seemed to him very difficult to do. He found it hard to prefer God 's glory over his own salvation. Exceedingly scrupulous, depressive, and tubercular his physical health might well have aggravated his spiritual struggles. David Brainerd found peace at last. It began with an utter sense of lostness. "One morning while I was walking in a solitary place (as usual) and came near a thick bunch of hazels, I felt at once unusually lost and at the greatest stand and felt that all my contrivances and projections respecting my deliverance and salvation were brought to a final issue." From Friday morning throug