Matthew Henry on sober-mindedness and the use of reason

[Reformed Covenanter]

You must be considerate and thoughtful, and not rash and heedless. To be sober-minded, is to make use of our reason, in reasoning with ourselves and in communing with our own hearts,—to employ those noble powers and capacities, by which we are distinguished from, and dignified above the beasts, for those great ends for which we were endued with them, that we may not receive the grace of God in them in vain, but being rational creatures, may act rationally, as behoves us, as becomes us.

You learned to talk when you were children, when will you learn to think,—to think seriously,—to think to the purpose? Floating thoughts your heads are full of, foreign and impertinent ones, when will you be brought to close and fixed thoughts, to think with concern and application of the great things that belong to your everlasting peace and welfare? ...

For more, see Matthew Henry on sober-mindedness and the use of reason.