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I. ITS EXCELLENCY.

1. In our devotions.

2. In our feelings. Whether it be exultation or depression, let it be true, not superficial or simulated.

3. In utterance Nature, pure and unsophisticated, is the best instrument for grace.

4. In labour. We ought to serve the Lord to-day with just as much novelty in it as there was ten years ago. I may even venture to say thirty years ago. Talk of Jesus as if you were telling news. Is it not always glad tidings, fresh from heaven?

II. THE FEAR OF ITS DEPARTURE.

1. Christian people can lose the freshness of their own selves by imitating one another. By adopting as our model some one form of the Christian life, other than that which is embodied in the person of our Lord, we shall soon manufacture a set of paste gems, but the diamond flash and glory will be unknown.

2. Another way of spoiling your freshness is by repression. The feebler sort of Christians dare not say, feel, or do, until they have asked their leader's leave.

3. If we want to keep up our freshness, however, the main thing is never to fall into neglect about our souls. Do you know what state the man is generally in when you are charmed by his freshness? Is he not in fine health?

III. HOPE OF ITS RENEWAL. Let us not think that we must grow stale and heavenly things grow old with us.

1. For, first, our God in whom we trust renews the face of the year. He is beginning His work again in the fair processes of nature. The dreary winter has passed away. The time of the singing of birds is coming on, and the sweet flowers are peeping out from their graves, enjoying a resurrection of glory and beauty. Now, this is the God whom we serve; and if we have been passing through our winter-time, let us look out for our spring, if any of you have been growing cold of late — if any of you have grown stale and mechanical, and have fallen into ruts, come, took up: look up, and pray the great Renewer to visit you.

2. Moreover, there is an excellent reason why you may expect to have all your freshness coming back again: it is because Christ dwells in you. Do you not know it? Christ is formed in you the hope of glory; and, if so, your glory will be fresh about you, for He never grows stale. It is God that said of Him, "Thou hast the dew of Thy youth."

3. Then there is the other grand doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. If your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, shall He not be always to you a fountain of new life — a spring of fresh delights? Why, it must be so.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

WEB: But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. I am anointed with fresh oil.