Brothers in Church History

Behind several well-known names in church history stand faithful brothers whose stories are often untold. Today, Stephen Nichols shares how these men, though less recognized, played meaningful roles in the life of the church.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are looking at brothers in church history. I suspect that many of you out there have brothers, so maybe you can relate to this. Our first is a younger brother. This is John Brainerd. He is the younger brother of the much, much more famous missionary, David Brainerd. David Brainerd, this is back in the 1700s, the colonial era of America. He's a missionary to Native Americans. He ends up keeping a journal. That journal gets turned into a biography by Jonathan Edwards, and we have The Life of David Brainerd, but there was also John. And after David's death, John stepped in and picked up the work of his brother and was a missionary for many, many more years than David was. And so we have the younger brother, John Brainerd.

We also have an older brother, this is Robert Liddell. He is the older brother to the much, much more famous Liddell, the Olympic champion, Eric. They were both born in China. Robert was born in the year 1900, and when they were young, their family brought them from China to the UK, and they were in boarding school in London. They together played rugby, cricket and ran. There were a few occasions in those junior high and high school years where Robert may have been a little faster than Eric. Well, he was two years older, two or three years older than Eric, and he went to Edinburgh. And then after two years, Eric followed. Eric was the best man in Robert's wedding, and Robert followed in the footsteps of his father. He got his medical degree and was a medical missionary in China. After Eric won his gold medal at Paris in 1924, the next year he went to China and was a missionary there with his parents and also with his older brother Robert. Robert served in China and then retired to Edinburgh and had a private practice, but then his son established a medical mission in Australia, and so Robert and his wife stepped out of retirement and went and served alongside their son as medical missionaries in Australia. And there is where Robert died.

Let's talk about the Puritans. Of course, a lot of them had large families, so stands to reason that there's going to be multiple brothers. Let's go to Puritan royalty, Increase Mather. He is the son-in-law of John Cotton. He is the father of Cotton Mather, and his parents thought their childbearing years were over and then all of a sudden along comes Increase. And so he was named Increase because this was of the increase of the Lord. He was the youngest of six brothers, and three of his older brothers all were ministers. Eleazar, in 1658 left Boston and headed west. He was installed as the very first minister of the church at North Hampton. He was only 21 years old. Sadly, he would only be minister for 11 years. He died there at the age of 32. And of course, this is the church where Jonathan Edwards would end up. His other brothers, Samuel and Nathaniel, they went east and went back to the UK. Samuel went to London then to Oxford during the Commonwealth under Cromwell. He was also a fellow at Trinity College, Dublin, and then as a non-conformist pastor of a Puritan church. Nathaniel also went back to England with his brother. Under Charles II, he went to Holland and then he came back to the UK. He actually pastored the church in Dublin after his older brother died, and then he ended up in London. So those are the Mathers.

Let's talk about another Puritan. This time, the Puritan in Old England, the great John Owen. Owen had three brothers. Philemon died young, fighting in Ireland for Cromwell. Henry also fought for Cromwell, but he survived the war. And then there was William. William was four years older than John. He went ahead of John to Oxford, educated at Queen's College, receiving his bachelor's degree there, his master's degree. And then after his Oxford days, he was the minister at the church at Remenham.

So there we have it, brothers of these great church history figures. I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.