O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go


By George Matheson


Matheson said about this hymn:



My hymn was com'posed in the manse of In'ne'lan [Ar'gyle'shire, Scot'land] on the ev'en'ing of the 6th of June, 1882, when I was 40 years of age. I was alone in the manse at that time. It was the night of my sister's mar'ri'age, and the rest of the fam'i'ly were stay'ing over'night in Glas'gow. Some'thing hap'pened to me, which was known only to my'self, and which caused me the most se'vere men'tal suf'fer'ing. The hymn was the fruit of that suf'fer'ing. It was the quick'est bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the im'press'ion of hav'ing it dic'tat'ed to me by some in'ward voice ra'ther than of work'ing it out my'self. I am quite sure that the whole work was com'plet'ed in five min'utes, and equal'ly sure that it ne'ver re'ceived at my hands any re'touch'ing or cor'rect'ion. I have no na'tur'al gift of rhy'thm. All the other vers'es I have ever writ'ten are man'u'fact'ured ar'ti'cles; this came like a day'spring from on high.



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.




Blind Matheson Penned Immortal Hymn


By George Matheson

George Matheson was hurting. It was not physical pain that cut him, or regret for the blindness that had robbed him of sight by the time he was eighteen. Rather, it was anguish of spirit.

It was on this day, June 6, 1882, the day of his sister's marriage. His family was staying overnight in Glasgow, Scotland, leaving him alone in the Manse (a parsonage). Something happened to forty-year old George as he sat alone there in the darkness of his blindness, something known only to himself, something which caused him severe mental suffering. He never confided to anyone what the problem was, and yet his heart cried out to Christ.

As his heart moaned, words welled up in his mind, words of comfort. "I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself," he said later. He jotted the lines down.

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 climb 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.



In less than five minutes, the poem was complete. The only revision he made was in line three, where he changed "I climb" to "I trace." The ease with which the stanzas came surprised him, because he had never before written verses without great difficulty. These verses written in pain became one of the great hymns of the church.


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