Who does not know the longing for freshness? Fresh air, fresh water, fresh flowers, the freshness of children, and of some people’s conversation and writings, all illustrate or lead up to that spiritual freshness which is both pleasure and power. For it was when Job’s glory was fresh in him, that his bow was renewed in his hand. Freshness and glory! and yet the brilliant music of such words is brought down to a minor strain by one little touch it “was,” not “it is”; a melancholy Past instead of a bright Present. Now, instead of saddening ourselves unnecessarily by sighing, “Ah, yes! that is always the way,” let us see how we may personally prove that it is not always the way, and that Job’s confessedly exceptional experience need not, and ought not, to be ours.
First of all, if our glory is to be fresh in us, it all depends upon what the glory in us is. If it is any sort of our own anything connected with that which decayeth and waxeth old in us or passeth away around us of course it cannot be always fresh, any more that the freshness of dawn or of springtime can last. Neither material nor mental states can retain their exquisite and subtle charm, and spiritual states are no better off; “frames and feelings” have an inherent tendency to subside into flatness, dullness, staleness, or whatever else expresses the want of freshness. There is only one unfailing source of unfailing freshness Christ Himself. “Thou hast the dew of Thy youth” the only dew that never dries up through any heat or dust. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” His word is, “For her.” Your word should be, “Thou, O Lord, art my glory.” I know it seems a great thing to claim, but the indwelling of Christ is not something reserved for only a few very exalted saints. The words are very plain: “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Take it just as you see it there. Jesus Christ is in you, if you have opened the door of your heart to let Him come in. He is “in you the hope of glory,” if you have admitted Him; and He is your glory. If so, you may sing, “My glory is fresh in me,” and never fear a change to Job’s minor! He had but a prophetic glimpse, through shadowing centuries, of a Redeemer yet to come; you have the full view of the fact of His finished work, and His promised, and therefore present, presence all the days; so this mournful experience only proves how different yours is meant to be.
Jesus Christ is always fresh.
Don’t we know it? Do we not always find Him so, when we are in direct personal communication with Him, with “nothing between”? Are we not conscious that when we lament over want of freshness, it really means want of Jesus? We go and bemoan about it to a friend perhaps, and ask what to do; and all the while, down at the bottom, we are secretly aware that they can do nothing more or better than advise us to “go and tell Jesus” to get into direct personal contact with Him, alone with Him, again! The very same time we spent, in this sort of second-hand cistern-seeking, would be far more resultful if spent in re-opening communion with Him, and drawing from the Fountain itself. That is always open. “All my fresh springs are in Thee,” not in our kind Christian friends.
All that we receive from Jesus is always fresh. How fresh His most familiar words come, when He gives them to us by His Spirit! What is ever fresher than the old, old story, when any part of it is heard with the ear of faith and our response is, “Jesus died for me”? What is ever fresher, whether in outward sacramental act, or in the thousand times repeated heart communion which waits not for time and place, than the remembrance of the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour, with its appropriating echo, “Jesus loves me!” The water that we draw out of these wells of salvation is always fresh indeed. And so is the manna on which He would have us feed continually.
And so is the oil with which He anoints us. There is the great first anointing to be His kings and priests, wherewith He “hath anointed us” (2 Cor. 1:2121Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; (2 Corinthians 1:21)). Then comes the present, “Thou anointest my head with oil,” as His received and honored guests, sinners though we be, when the table is prepared, and the cup runneth over, and we realize our new position as partakers of His grace. But then comes, “I shall be anointed with fresh oil!” A beautiful Future for all the days of our life; the always fresh anointings, the continual “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Fresh oil of joy in the midst of the mourning through which we may pass, fresh oil of gladness in fellowship with our holy King (Ps. 45:7), fresh oil of consecration as day by day is given up to Him who has redeemed our lives, fresh oil upon the sacrifice as we offer our “praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips.” Fresh springs, fresh oil, fresh glory!
With such resources, ought we to feel dusty? Is not the fault in ourselves? And if so, what is to hinder us from coming at once to the Triune source of all blessed renewal and freshness? It is Jesus our Saviour who is the ever fresh glory within us. It is the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, who shall pour His fresh oil upon us. With such resources, ought we not to refresh those around us? Ought they not to take knowledge of us that we have such a well of water within us, springing up into everlasting life? Ought there not to be a dewy fragrance in our lives, in our words and ways, that may silently witness to the reality of the source of our freshness? It is one of our special privileges to do this.