A Youthful Minister

The decade of the 1720s marked a period of intense preparation for Jonathan Edwards, both academically and practically. Before his 19th birthday, he was licensed to the Gospel ministry and was supplying a pulpit in New York City. From 1724-1726, he served on the teaching staff at Yale College. Following a severe illness in the spring and summer of 1726, he received the call from the church in Northampton, Massachusetts to become the assistant to his aged grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. During this period of preparation, Edwards solidified his theological convictions and resolved to rest everything on the rock of Scripture.