on jonathan edwards

Upon the reccomendation of so many reputable people (actually people I have read or have been reading recently), like James Montgomery Boice and John Piper, I sought out the biography of Jonathan Edwards from our Church Library. What I know of him was that he was a great man who had influenced so many people including other great men of the faith like David Brainerd, George Whitefield, etc. and thus I was setup with that sort of expectation as I start to read the book. But the first thing that God made me realize as I read the introduction was I should take him down a peg or two from the pedestal I have thus put him. In the introduction negative things were said about him and his writings and I sobered up. Jonathan Edwards, regardless of how great his writings turned out and how ever great he had become, was once a lost soul too ... maybe with knowledge but definitely without purpose nor greatness when he was apart from God. He was changed by God's regeneration, and he was only able to speak and write whatever great idea he had by the sheer grace of the Lord alone.
Never venerate the messenger but only He who sends the message.
With that sobering thought in mind, very different from the frame I was in before I started this book, I will continue reading - with the objective of knowing more, the great God behind this great man.