Conversion: God’s Work in and through the Sinner

Because of the importance of this aspect of God’s work in sovereignly saving sinners (conversion), we finish quoting from Herman Hoeksema’s ninth chapter in The Wonder of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1944. This work has now been republished by the Reformed Free Publishing Association.)

You will understand that conversion is a matter that concerns your whole life as long as you are in this world. Its beginning may be either very sudden and striking, so that you can point to the place and the hour when this wonder of grace was first performed upon your soul. Or it may be gradual and unnoticeable, bound up with the early years of your childhood, so that you cannot at all remember that you ever were converted. The former is usually the case with those who live in ways of gross sin until they have reached the age of maturity. God suddenly stops them in their pursuit of sin, and turns them radically about. Paul was so converted on the way to Damascus. The latter naturally occurs when we are instructed in the truth of the gospel from infancy, learn to stammer our prayers on mother’s lap, and never depart from the fear of the Lord, but walk in His ways from childhood. And let me say that the latter is far preferable to the former, and that he who can mention the date and the place of his conversion has nothing to boast because of it. By all means, let him not make of the experience of his sudden conversion a ground of confidence that he is really converted. Often, it seems, this is done. You may frequently hear people boast that they know that they are converted because some ten or twenty years ago they came to Christ. The question is not at all how and when you were converted, nor whether you had an experience of conversion several years in the past, but whether you are converted today. For whether you were converted suddenly or gradually, as far as the beginning of your conversion is concerned, it surely is only a beginning. It must continue throughout your whole life. It is never finished until you close your eyes forever upon things mundane, your body is laid in the grave, and your soul is with Christ in glory. Nor must we even imagine that conversion gradually becomes less necessary as we grow in grace. The contrary is usually true. Always there is with the Christian the old man, seeking to regain his former dominion; and never does he get rid of the body of this death. And always the new man in Christ must watch and pray and fight the good fight. We must be converted and convert ourselves as long as we live.

This leads us to the final question: is conversion the work of man, or of God in Christ?

The correct answer to this question is this: conversion is that work of God in man whereby the sinner repents and walks in all good works. God converts the sinner, and then the sinner turns. Conversion is, first of all, a gift of grace. He gave repentance to Israel (Acts 5: 31); but also to the Gentiles He granted repentance. (Acts 11: 18) In Jeremiah 31: 18, 19 we read: “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh.” That expresses the true relation between God’s work of conversion and our turning from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from the devil to God in Christ. No man is able or willing to convert himself, unless God converts him first. Nor does God’s work of conversion leave the sinner inactive, like a “stock and block.” In conversion God changes the mind, and the sinner sees all things in a new spiritual light; God turns the will, and the sinner begins to hate sin and long for righteousness; God works in the heart of the sinner true repentance, and the sinner repents; God draws and the sinner comes; God calls the sinner to turn from his wicked way, by His Word of irresistible grace and power, and the sinner obeys, turns, and finds that God is abundantly merciful. Always God is first in the whole work of salvation, and man’s activity is only the fruit of the grace God works in the heart. For we are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God. And the converted sinner will never boast of his work in conversion but give the glory to Him of Whom and through Whom and unto Whom are all things!

He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!

Taken from chapter 9, “Converted by Grace,” in The Wonder of Grace, pp.79-81.

If the Lord Wills: A New Year’s Meditation

The January 1, 2021 issue of the Standard Bearer opens with a timely and edifying meditation on James 4:13-15 by Rev. Steven Key, pastor of Loveland (Colorado) PRC.

The publisher of the magazine, the Reformed Free Publishing Association, highlighted this meditation on its blog this past Monday (Dec.28). We quote from a portion of it and encourage you to read all of it either in the magazine (if you are a subscriber) or online (where you will find information on how to become a subscriber). May the truth penned and published in this article give us a godly perspective at the outset of this new year – a perspective that we carry with us in all of 2021.

When you sit back and contemplate this fundamental truth of the will of God, what a marvelous truth it is!

All that God determines to do is for the sake of His people in Christ. No wonder Scripture records so many speeches and songs extolling the greatness of God’s will! No wonder that the heavens resound with the songs of the angels and saints singing praises to God for all His wondrous works! No wonder that Scripture repeatedly reminds us that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose; that if God be for us, nothing can be against us; and that all things are ours, even as we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. What a blessed truth this is!

James 4:13–15 applies that truth to our everyday lives.

The text speaks of tomorrow. A new year, 2021, lies before us. This text speaks of that. About 2021 it says, “You do not know a thing about tomorrow.”

What does that mean? After all, we do know certain things in general about the future. The Lord has taught us certain things. For instance, we know that the earth here is no abiding place. We know, too, that a man will reap what he sows. That also has to do with the future. However, about the future of our own lives, about the future of my life on this earth, I know nothing. What does God’s will hold for us in the year 2021? We make plans for tomorrow. Perhaps we even make New Year’s resolutions. But history is not in our hands. God is writing history. He has certainly impressed us with that truth in this past year, crippling the world with a little virus.

All things concerning your life are in His hands. How many of us shall see this new year come to its conclusion? How many of us will go to heaven this year? We do not know. When I go to the pulpit, I do not know if I will make it to the Amen. How profoundly that truth was impressed upon the minds of several hundred people when their minister dropped dead in the pulpit Christmas Eve several years ago. Many begin to die right in church. In the short time I did ambulance work, I helped carry out at least half a dozen. Even young men and young women die, and children. I have seen it many times—seemingly in the strength of health—gone.

Every breath you take, every step you walk, it is all in God’s hands. Every particular event in your life is known by God and determined by Him with absolute precision and executed by His living will. You must want it that way, too. If you want to worship God as God, then you must be willing to humble yourself as the insignificant creature that you are. That is our place. Our place is to say in all humility, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

Year End Prayer: Divine Promises

Periodically, I have referenced the beautiful and powerful prayers/devotions collected in The Valley of Vision (The Banner of Truth, 1975). There are many that are also fitting for the end of the year, including this one, titled “Year’s End.”

But tonight I would like to post another one that, after reading, breathes the spirit of the Christian pilgrim standing at the end of another year and at the beginning of a new one. It is titled “Divine Promises,” and I am confident that after you read it you too will find it fitting to meditate on and pray as we stand at the end of 2020 and at the outset of 2021.

GLORIOUS JEHOVAH, MY COVENANT GOD,

All thy promises in Christ Jesus are
      yea and amen, and all shall be fulfilled.
Thou hast spoken them, and they shall be done,
  commanded, and they shall come to pass.
Yet I have often doubted thee,
  have lived at times as if there were no God.
Lord, forgive me that death in life,
  when I have found something apart from thee,
  when I have been content with ephemeral things.
But through thy grace I have repented;
Thou hast given me to read my pardon
    in the wounds of Jesus,
  and my soul doth trust in him, my God incarnate,
  the ground of my life, the spring of my hope.
Teach me to be resigned to thy will,
  to delight in thy law,
  to have no will but thine,
  to believe that everything thou doest is
    for my good.
Help me to leave my concerns in thy hands,
  for thou hast power over evil,
  and bringest from it an infinite progression
    of good,
  until thy purposes are fulfilled.
Bless me with Abraham’s faith
  that staggers not at promises through unbelief.
May I not instruct thee in my troubles,
  but glorify thee in my trials;
Grant me a distinct advance in the divine life;
  May I reach a higher platform,
  leave the mists of doubt and fear in the valley,
  and climb to hill-tops of eternal security in Christ
    by simply believing he cannot lie,
    or turn from his purpose.
Give me the confidence I ought to have in him
  who is worthy to be praised,
  and who is blessed for evermore.

Thou Hast Dealt Well – H. Hoeksema on Psalm 119:65,66

On this final Lord’s Day of 2020, it is good to meditate on these words of exposition from the pen of Herman Hoeksema, long-time pastor of First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI and long-time editor of the Standard Bearer.

This excerpt from his meditation on Psalm 119:65,66 is titled “Thou Hast Dealt Well,” and appeared in the October 1, 1944 issue. Even though it was not written at the very end of the year, it is certainly applicable to where we stand on this Sunday. The year 2020 – a difficult and trying year in so many ways – is about to close, and concerning it we too must be ready to say before our God, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord.”

Meditate on these wonderful words, then:

Such is the Word of God.

It is a light in darkness.

It is a strong assurance of salvation in the midst of the sufferings of this present time.

A mighty consolation in the time of trouble!

The faithfulness of this Word the poet had experienced. And of it he sings: Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word!

Let us not misunderstand this confession, and give it an erroneous application. The psalmist does not have in mind any temporal or material good the Lord had bestowed on him. When he acknowledges here that the Lord had dealt well with him, he does precisely not mean that his pathway through this present life had been bright and rosy hitherto, and that he had been spared, suffering and affliction. The very contrary is true. His way had not been characterized by material prosperity. Emphatically he speaks of his affliction. But in and through that affliction the Lord had dealt well with him. Nor does this well-dealing of the Lord refer to the fact that the affliction which the psalmist experienced belongs to the past, and the Lord had delivered him out of all his troubles, so that for the present, at least, his way was one of joy and prosperity. On the contrary, he regards his affliction, the sufferings he had endured, as the Lord’s dealing with him. Even though it were true, that the enemies of the Lord had inflicted this suffering upon him, he now realizes that through the enemies it was the Lord that was dealing with him and so, the affliction itself was a good to him. In the tribulation the Lord dealt well with him.

Abundantly evident this becomes in the rest of the section.

Does he not clearly express that he regards the affliction itself as a good? Before he was afflicted he went astray, but now he had kept the Word of God. It was good for him to be afflicted, that he might learn the statutes of the Lord.

The well-dealing of the Lord, of which the psalmist speaks, does not have reference to all, therefore to any natural, earthly, material, temporal good, but to the spiritual heavenly, eternal blessings of the kingdom and covenant of God, as they will ultimately be realized in all their fullness in the final glory of God’s heavenly house, the heavenly perfection of His eternal covenant of friendship.

And thus is the promise of the Word of God throughout.

Not that His people will be excused from, will be spared the sufferings of this present time, is the promise of God to them. On the contrary, not only do they lie in the midst of death with all the world, and must they, therefore, endure with the world the sufferings of this present time in general; but they must also expect that special tribulation which is the fulfillment of the sufferings of Christ. “In the world ye shall have tribulation!”

And ahead still looms the great tribulation that shall leave no room in the world for the faithful. . . .

But be of good cheer!

The Lord deals well with His servants!

Such is His Word!

And that Word is the revelation of His eternal counsel concerning our salvation.

In that counsel He has so willed and arranged all things, even all the sufferings of this present time, even all the powers of darkness that rave and rage furiously against the ‘Church, that they must all work together for the final salvation of them that love Him, who are the called according to His purpose.

That counsel He reveals and realizes in time, so that all things are made subservient to the purpose of our final glory.

And always it is true: The Lord deals well with His servants.

According to His Word!

To continue reading this meditation, visit this link.

Our Savior, God Incarnate

In this post we feature two more wonderful poems of Thelma Westra, a dear fellow saint in Faith PRC in Jenison, MI. She has penned many Christian inspirational poems over the years, some of which have been published in a book titled Poems of Praise.

These two special Christmas poems were just published in our monthly church newsletter, “Faith and Fellowship,” (December and January 2021). I believe you will be edified by them on this Christmas Eve.

Our Savior

As the people of Bethlehem lay sound asleep,
And nearby, in fields, shepherds watched o’er their sheep,
An event unsurpassed had begun to take place.
A wonder ne’er seen in the whole human race:
A baby was born to a virgin that night;
This Babe was the fullness of infinite light.
There was no earthly father: the child was God’s Son!
‘Twas a wonder of grace: God and man joined in One.

The child that was promised to God’s saints of old,
Through multiple ages by prophets foretold,
At the place and the time that the Father decreed,
He was born: Jesus Christ! Let all nations take heed.
This child grew to manhood; in the Bible we’re taught
Of His teaching and preaching and miracles wrought.
Many people were led to believe in God’s Son,
But others abhorred the thrice-holy One.

This was all in God’s plan, for His Son must be slain.
The wicked rejoiced in His suffering and pain.
Yet, when Christ conquered death and arose from the grave,
God’s purpose accomplished: His chosen to save.
The devices of Satan had all come to naught;
The blood of God’s Son our salvation had bought.
We rejoice in His birth, in His life, in His death.
Let us glorify God while He gives us the breath.

God Incarnate

Incarnation: what a concept!
Only God in heaven above
Could determine so to save us
In His everlasting love.

We, His creatures, steeped in sin,
Could not please a holy God;
What we needed was redemption!
Finite minds are overawed!

God determined that His own Son
Should in human form appear.
God with man is now united
In our Savior to cohere.

Mankind for his sin could never
Perfect satisfaction make;
But our righteous God provided
Substitution for His sake.

Jesus, our transgressions bearing,
Suffered all the pains of hell:
He atoned for us completely;
Now for us all things are well.

From our hearts thanksgiving rises:
Undeserving sinners, we
Now we are bound for heaven’s glories,
From our sins forever free.

The Story of Handel’s “Messiah” (plus J. Newton’s Meditations on the Biblical Texts of the Oratorio)

I love listening to George F. Handels’s Messiah this time of year. And I love the amazing story of its composition. I never tire of hearing both.

Tim Challies recently linked to this “Breakpoint” episode that covered the story of how the Messiah came to be written, as well as its first performance in Dublin, Ireland. Here is part of the transcript; if you’d rather listen to it as well read or hear the rest of it, follow this link.

George Frideric Handel was mainly a composer of operas. In fact, he composed dozens of them. Though his productions were popular in 18th century London, Handel had his enemies — he was a foreigner, born in Germany, by many accounts not a very likeable fellow, and his rivals detested his style of opera. He was also kind of a large, awkward man, rough and hot-tempered enough to earn the nickname “The Great Bear.” 

When his operas and his health began to fail, Handel sank into bankruptcy and despair, believing his career was over. In 1741, he was invited to Ireland to direct one of his works at a charity performance. Handel decided to write a new oratorio. 

A deeply religious man, he turned away from the human foibles common to his operas and chose his text and themes from Scripture. It was then that something remarkable happened. He began composing with a super-human zeal and energy. People thought he was mad, or even under a spell. One servant reported that Handel seldom ate or slept and worked with such frenzy that his fingers could no longer grip his pen. He was, in fact, in the grip of divine inspiration. The result is one of the world’s great masterworks, Messiah. 

Handel finished Part I in only six days. He finished Part II in nine days, and Part III in six days. The orchestration took him only a few days more. In other words, in all, two-and-a-half hours of the world’s most magnificent music was composed in less than twenty-five days. When he finished, he sobbed: “I think that I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself!” 

If you want to listen to a wonderful performance of the Messiah, here’s a new one I found this year from the Academy of Ancient Music:

*Notable addition (Dec.27): Monergism.com has just added a new title to its free ebooks and it relates to Handel’s Messiah. John Newton (Anglican pastor and hymn-writer – “Amazing Grace”) penned a series of fifty meditations on the texts Handel used for his oratorio (see image here). You may find that title here – Messiah: Fifty Expository Discourses on the Oratorio of Handel.

Here’s part of a brief introduction to the work that Newton wrote explaining his reason and purpose with this work:

Conversation in almost every company for two or three weeks past, has much turned upon what is called the Commemoration of Handel, and the grand musical performances at the Abbey on that occasion, and particularly the Messiah. I can easily conceive that when the Messiah was performed with such unusual advantages, if any person present of a sound spiritual judgement, could have hoped that the greatest part or a very considerable part of the performers and audience were capable of entering into the spirit of the subject, he might enjoy one of the highest and noblest gratifications this life is capable of. But they who love the Redeemer and to join in his praise, if they did not find it convenient, or think it expedient to hear the Messiah at Westminster, may comfort themselves that in a little time they shall be still more abundantly gratified. Ere long death shall rend the veil, which hides eternal things from our view and introduce them to that unceasing song and universal chorus, which are even now performing before the throne of God. In the meantime I have thought, that true Christians may without the assistance of vocal or instrumental music, find a higher joy in a humble contemplate [contemplation] of the words of the Messiah than they can derive from the utmost efforts of musical genius. This therefore is the plan I spoke of. I mean to lead your meditations to the language of the Messiah, to consider in their order, if the Lord is pleased to afford life, ability and opportunity, the several sublime and interesting passages of Scripture which are the basis of that admired composition.

On the Incarnation – Athanasius

For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God comes to our realm, howbeit he was not far from us Acts 17:27 before. For no part of Creation is left void of Him: He has filled all things everywhere, remaining present with His own Father. But He comes in condescension to show loving-kindness upon us, and to visit us.

2. And seeing the race of rational creatures in the way to perish, and death reigning over them by corruption; seeing, too, that the threat against transgression gave a firm hold to the corruption which was upon us, and that it was monstrous that before the law was fulfilled it should fall through: seeing, once more, the unseemliness of what had come to pass: that the things whereof He Himself was Artificer were passing away: seeing, further, the exceeding wickedness of men, and how little by little they had increased it to an intolerable pitch against themselves: and seeing, lastly, how all men were under penalty of death: He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our infirmity, and condescended to our corruption, and, unable to bear that death should have the mastery — lest the creature should perish, and His Father’s handiwork in men be spent for nought — He takes unto Himself a body, and that of no different sort from ours.

3. For He did not simply will to become embodied, or will merely to appear. For if He willed merely to appear, He was able to effect His divine appearance by some other and higher means as well. But He takes a body of our kind, and not merely so, but from a spotless and stainless virgin, knowing not a man, a body clean and in very truth pure from intercourse of men. For being Himself mighty, and Artificer of everything, He prepares the body in the Virgin as a temple unto Himself, and makes it His very own as an instrument, in it manifested, and in it dwelling.

4. And thus taking from our bodies one of like nature, because all were under penalty of the corruption of death He gave it over to death in the stead of all, and offered it to the Father — doing this, moreover, of His loving-kindness, to the end that, firstly, all being held to have died in Him, the law involving the ruin of men might be undone (inasmuch as its power was fully spent in the Lord’s body, and had no longer holding-ground against men, his peers), and that, secondly, whereas men had turned toward corruption, He might turn them again toward incorruption, and quicken them from death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of the Resurrection, banishing death from them like straw from the fire.

This significant work by the early church father Athanasius (c. 296 – 373) may be found here. For some information on the historical context of this work, we quote from this introduction to it:

To understand the importance of The Incarnation, it is important to put Athanasius in his historical context. Twenty-first-century Christians might be tempted to think that the doctrine of the Trinity was universally accepted in the early church. But much of the general body of theology we now take for granted, especially regarding the Trinity, had to be developed and worked out. Athanasius played an important role in this theological process. He was born in A.D. 298 to a wealthy family near Alexandria, Egypt, and became the bishop of Alexandria before he was thirty years old. There was a popular belief around that time that Jesus, though divine, was less than God. This belief was promulgated by Arius, a presbyter, also from Alexandria. Arius taught that because Jesus was “begotten” by the Father, Jesus was a creature made by God; therefore, there must have been a point in time in which Jesus did not exist. The implications for this view were grave; if accepted, it would have meant that ultimately Christ’s sacrifice on the cross would not have been sufficient payment for the sin of humankind. Athanasius was the prominent voice advocating for the divinity of Jesus. Not only was Athanasius a strong voice regarding the divinity of Jesus; he was also an important advocate for the doctrine of the Trinity over the course of his entire life.

Word Wednesday: “anderhalvemetersamenleving”

This morning’s news summary from World Magazine (called “The Sift”) ended with a reference to a great new Dutch word that found its origins in the unique circumstances of this Covid-19 year. As soon as I read it, I knew it would make a good “Word Wednesday” feature. Maybe we don’t want to hear about such additions to people’s vocabulary in this difficult year, but who can resist these fine compound Dutch words?!

Here’s the way World Mag’s managing editor introduces us to that special Dutch word (Do you have it pronounced correctly yet?)

Van Dale dictionary (or woerdenboek, as it’s called in Dutch) held a vote for 2020 word of the year and awarded the prize to anderhalvemetersamenleving, which literally translates to “1½-meter society.” The compound noun describes life under Holland’s 1.5-meter social distancing rule. The pandemic produced some other fantastic compound nouns, including hoestschaamte, a word best translated as “coughshame,” or that feeling when you cough in a public place during a pandemic. A lockdownfeestje is a party where people ignore COVID-19 precautions. And fabel­tjes­fuik is what happens when people who are interested in conspiracies see increasing amounts of information about them in their social media feeds and start to believe them.

I say the English language needs more compound nouns like Dutch. What new word can you come up with to describe this year? I’ll share my favorites in future Sifts.

Lynde Langdon
WORLD Digital’s Managing Editor

Humility: “The Mother of Moderation” – J.Calvin on Phil.2:3-6

Philippians 2 contains one of the most precious passages on the humiliation and exaltation of our Savior Jesus Christ in all of Scripture, and so it is fitting for contemplation in this season of the year. But we ought also not forget the context in which Paul wrote this section of his letter to the church at Philippi – strife and contention among members and his desire that the saints work together for peace and unity.

John Calvin’s comments are, as usual, to the point and practical, as he shows this connection between the call to imitate Jesus in his humility and the issue of conflict in the church.

3 Nothing through strife or vain-glory. These are two most dangerous pests for disturbing the peace of the Church. Strife is awakened when every one is prepared to maintain pertinaciously his own opinion; and when it has once begun to rage it rushes headlong in the direction from which it has entered. Vain-glory tickles men’s minds, so that every one is delighted with his own inventions. Hence the only way of guarding against dissensions is — when we avoid strifes by deliberating and acting peacefully, especially if we are not actuated by ambition. For ambition is a means of fanning all strifes. Vain-glory means any glorying in the flesh; for what ground of glorying have men in themselves that is not vanity?

But by humility. For both diseases he brings forward one remedy — humility, and with good reason, for it is the mother of moderation, the effect of which is that, yielding up our own right, we give the preference to others, and are not easily thrown into agitation. He gives a definition of true humility — when every one esteems himself less than others. Now, if anything in our whole life is difficult, this above everything else is so. Hence it is not to be wondered if humility is so rare a virtue. For, as one says, “Every one has in himself the mind of a king, by claiming everything for himself.” See! here is pride. Afterwards from a foolish admiration of ourselves arises contempt of the brethren. And so far are we from what Paul here enjoins, that one can hardly endure that others should be on a level with him, for there is no one that is not eager to have superiority.

And to whom then shall we look for this humility? To none other than Christ. Here are a few of Calvin’s thoughts on that part of our calling (vss.5,6):

5. He now recommends, from the example of Christ, the exercise of humility, to which he had exhorted them in words. There are, however, two departments, in the first of which he invites us to imitate Christ, because this is the rule of life: in the second, he allures us to it, because this is the road by which we attain true glory. Hence he exhorts every one to have the same disposition that was in Christ….

6 Inasmuch as he was in the form of God. This is not a comparison between things similar, but in the way of greater and less. Christ’s humility consisted in his abasing himself from the highest pinnacle of glory to the lowest ignominy: our humility consists in refraining from exalting ourselves by a false estimation. He gave up his right: all that is required of us is, that we do not assume to ourselves more than we ought. Hence he sets out with this — that, inasmuch as he was in the form of God, he reckoned it not an unlawful thing for him to shew himself in that form; yet he emptied himself. Since, then, the Son of God descended from so great a height, how unreasonable that we, who are nothing, should be lifted up with pride!

May the Lord work that humility of our Savior in our hearts and lives in these days.

Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Sky

Though not strictly speaking a Christmas hymn, Charles Wesley’s “Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies” is certainly fitting to meditate on and sing in this season of the year.

Here are the lyrics:

1 Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
triumph o’er the shades of night;
Day-spring from on high, be near;
Day-star, in my heart appear.

2 Dark and cheerless is the morn
unaccompanied by Thee;
joyless is the day’s return
’til Thy mercy’s beams I see;
’til they inward light impart,
glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

3 Visit, then, this soul of mine;
pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
fill me, Radiancy Divine;
scatter all my unbelief;
more and more Thyself display,
shining to the perfect day.

And here is a fine performance of it: