June 6. George Matheson. Matheson became blind when he was twenty, but within five years, he had earned a bachelor of divinity degree.
His sisters learned Latin, Greek, and Hebrew so they would be able to help him study, and he went on to pastor and to write. On this date in 1881, Matheson wrote the lyrics of “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go,” a song still being sung today—more than 130 years later.
In God’s hands, even despair can be an effective tool.
Alone in his study, Matheson recalled the happy clamor of the day’s wedding and the smell of fresh flowers. He sat in silence and thought about his day. His closest sister had just been married and launched a new chapter with the love of her life.
He was truly happy for her. But this was the sister who had selflessly helped Matheson since he was a child—and as his vision declined to blindness. And as his influence as a pastor grew, she had helped him by overseeing the day-to-day needs of his ministry. Her sudden absence would hit him hard. It would impact every area of his daily life.
In his parsonage that night, Matheson prayed, and the first words of that painful prayer became the lyrics of the Christian hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.”
Rising from the well-worn sofa, Matheson felt his way toward his desk, where his hands quickly found his slate and stylus. This writing tool for the blind had captured his inspired sermons for years now. Scanning the surface of the desk again for a sheet of paper, he found one and sat to write.
He carved into the Braille paper the words that grew out of his prayer: “O love that will not let me go. I rest my weary soul in thee.”
He stilled his hands and leaned back into his chair and let this truth sink in. Of course. The truth was plain. Matheson knew he was not alone. God had always been with him, and God was with him now.
All at once, another poetic line effortlessly entered his mind, followed by another, then another. Matheson leaned forward, his hands raced and carved into the page, catching up with his thoughts.
Matheson described the event: “Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life.
“I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself. I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure that it never received at my hands any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high.”
And this writing became a hymn that would comfort God’s people for generations.
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 43:5 NIV).
Is life overwhelming you today? In God’s hands, even despair can be an effective tool.
Ryden, Ernest Edwin. The Story of Christian Hymnody. Rock Island: Augustana Press, 1959.
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
