'O Cross that liftest up my head'

(new article tomorrow)

A classic hymn from 1882, O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, was written by George Matheson in only 5 minutes! 

Scottish-born Matheson (1842-1906) was the eldest and brightest of eight children. He graduated from Glasgow University (where he studied Classics, Logic and Philosophy) with first-class honors at the age of 19!

The tragedy for him was that even as he was completing his studies he was rapidly going blind from an incurable condition. To make his trial tougher, his marriage engagement to a fellow student he'd fallen in love with was nullified by her after she learned of his impending blindness. 

"Her blunt answer came to him with the force of a dagger to his heart, 'I do not want to be the wife of a blind man,' she said – and with that they parted," says an online profile from a Baptist church in Derbyshire, U.K.

"Years later the memory of that rebuff came flooding back on the evening of his sister’s wedding (who was his caretaker but would not be going forward due to her marriage) and he recalls the pain of that night as he tells how it was on that occasion that he penned his most famous hymn:

“ 'My hymn was composed in the manse of Innellan on the evening 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 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 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.'

"It was through the deep trials of illness and desertion that George Matheson had come to place all his trust and hope in the love of God in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. From then on, despite his blindness, he had resolved to study Theology and Christian History and to enter the Christian ministry.

Matheson went on to preach and "wrote a number of books on spiritual matters which proved popular with contemporary Christians. His ministry and writings came to the attention of Queen Victoria and when in Scotland she invited him to preach at Balmoral. She also had one of his sermons, on the Book of Job, published.

"In 1886 he moved to Edinburgh, where he became minister of St. Bernard’s Parish Church for 13 years. It was here that his chief work as a preacher was done.

"George never did marry but he continued to prove the truth of his hymn, that there was a love that would never let him go – the love of Christ for the sinner."

The hymn lyrics:

1.  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.

    2.  O light that foll'west all my way,

I yield my flick'ring torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine's blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

    3.  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.

    4.  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.