"THAT YE MAY BE SINCERE AND WITHOUT OFFENCE." But we must first "approve things that are excellent" in God's sight. Take nothing upon trust, but bring everything to the word of God, and try it there. Learn to distinguish between the ornamental and the useful; the fundamental and the circumstantial; the beneficial and the hurtful. Try things that differ and approve the things that are excellent. There are excellent institutions: assist them; excellent gifts: seek for them; excellent doctrines, embrace and hold them fast; excellent duties, perform them; excellent attainments, aspire to them; excellent ordinances, attend to them; excellent Scriptures, search them; excellent enjoyments, pray for them. Prove that your eyes are keen to discover, and that your heart is sanctified to approve. Endeavour to distinguish between the law and the gospel, between nature and grace, between conviction and conversion, between profession and possession, between graces and counterfeits, between scriptural doctrines and deceptions, and approve the things that are excellent. Hold that fast which you have. Publish to others what you know and be blessed. If you lack wisdom for this, ask of God who gives to all liberally.

For Meditation:
My gracious Lord, I own Thy right
To every service I can pay;
And call it my supreme delight,
To hear Thy dictates and obey.