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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 promised is not vain that morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that lifted 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.
Lyric: George Matheson
Music: Albert L. Peace
This hymn is generally considered to be one of the best0loved hymns written during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The writing of this beautiful text is even more remarkable when it is remembered that it was authored by on who was totally blind and who describes the writing as the “fruit of much mental suffering.”
Born is Glasgow, Scotland, on March 27, 1842, George Matheson had only partial vision as a boy. After he entered Glasgow University, his sight failed rapidly and he became totally blind at the age of eighteen. Despite this, he was a brilliant scholar and finished both the University and the Seminary of the Church of Scotland with high honors. In 1886 he became pastor of the 2,000 member St. Bernard’s Parish Church in Edinburgh. He never married, but was aided by a loyal sister, who herself learned Greek, Latin, and Hebrew to aid him in his work.
The story behind the hymn, although never substantiated, is that his fiancee left him after learning of his impending blindness. He never admitted to this, but did leave us this note, which seems to support this theory:
My hymn was composed in the manse of Innelan on the evening of the 6th of June 1882. I was at that time alone. It was the day of my sister’s marriage, and the rest of the family were staying overnight in Glasgow. 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 rather of having it dictated to me by some inward voice than of working it out myself. I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure 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. I have never been able to gain once more the same fervor in verse.
The tune for this hymn was composed on year later by Albert L. Peace, who was asked by the Scottish Hymnal Committee to write specifically for this lyric. He was also finished “before the ink of the first note was hardly dry.”
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