The great joy of reading the Bible is we discover truths that are new to us. Sometimes we think that all truth has been discovered and that we have nothing to do but to repeat what others have taught. But don't feel as if Christianity has spoken its last word, and there is nothing more to say; God has intended that truth should be our own discovery.

 Paradoxical as it may seem, we ought to discover the truths which we have been taught by others; because the light which our own earnest free thought will throw on these, will make them so different from what they were when first passively received, that they will be virtually rediscovered by ourselves.

   It is the characteristic of Divine Truth that it is inexhaustible and infinitely fruitful. It does not stand alone in the mind, but combines with, explains, illuminates and broadens our other knowledge.

The very spirit of God's great moral truth is to touch the deep springs of thought within us, to awaken the soul to new activity, to start a throng of suggestions to be followed out by patient contemplation.

William Ellery Channing, abridged.