Reading in George Marsden's biography of Edwards this morning, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, I was reminded that even these great heroes of the faith struggled just as much with their own growth and sanctification as the rest of us. As he recorded in his spiritual diary in his early and mid-20's, Edwards disposition toward the Lord swings back and forth (often from day to day) between "high thoughts" of the excellency and beauty of Christ and the decay of melancholy - careless about his religious disciplines and affections.

Years later as a more mature convert, looking back on this pendulum of spiritual highs and dreadful lows, he makes the following insight concerning the difference between his later Christian life and his early life.

In his later years he had "a more full and constant sense of the absolute sovereignty of God, and a delight in that sovereignty; and have had more of the sense of the glory of Christ, as a mediator." (Marsden, 54)