WHEN IT NEVER LETS GO...

It's that time of year when the advertising world explodes with roses, diamond-ring-ads, romantic dinners, mushy cards and more....for Valentine's Day. No doubt, somewhere in all that, you'll hear recordings of Whitney Houston's 1992 hit, “I Will Always Love You.”

That's good and fine for the economy, but painful for those who are alone and live with rejection or are grieving life-loss. Yet those who are “alone”....aren't alone before God. In my reading about hymn history, I am always moved by the biography of Scotsman George Matheson (1842-1906). A minister and author, at one time, he was engaged to a young woman. But his increasing blindness (which began when he was 17) caused her to break the engagement.

He never married, though managed to preach and write with the help of his sister, becoming both a beloved and eloquent preacher. The year he turned forty, his sister married. That occasion brought back memories of his own heartbreak. Out of that despair, he reached out in faith for God's unchanging love, penning four stanzas of his greatest hymn: “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.” The first verse goes like this:

O love that will 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.

Matheson's pulpit skills strengthened in that little parish. But like many pastors experience, sometimes the crowds thinned. One winter evening service was especially poorly attended—except for a visitor Matheson knew nothing about. That visitor had come from the large St. Bernard's Church in Edinburgh, which was seeking a new pastor.

The visitor liked what he heard, and Matheson was called to the pulpit of that 2,000-member church. There, his popularity and influence grew. He reportedly said of that surprise visitor: “Make every occasion a great occasion. You can never tell when somebody may be taking your measure for a larger place.”

Sadly, as common for many old historic churches, its fellowship and even purpose changed in the next century. One recent hymn researcher who visited Matheson's old parish found the church locked up and a notice on the front door that it was now used for concerts and dances.

It's too bad there wasn't a compelling historical sign, recounting the building's extraordinary history as a place where eternal Biblical truths and hope were powerfully taught. As I read again the lyrics of Matheson's hymn, I was drawn to verse three:

O Joy that seeketh 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.

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Many groups have recorded this tender, hopeful hymn. Here is a rendition by Bill Gaither singers: Bing Videos

 

LOVE THAT WON'T LET GO

The hymn's lyrics speak of tracing a
rainbow through the rain: just imagine it...

The history of hymn writers includes three who were blind: John Milton, blind at age 44; Fanny Crosby, blind since infancy, and George Matheson, whose vision rapidly failed as a teenager. Yet all possessed keen spiritual insight: Milton, author of the epic poem Paradise Lost; Crosby, author of thousands of hymn lyrics; and Matheson, esteemed Scottish preacher and author of the hymn lyrics for “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.”

Born in 1842, Matheson's vision started to go in his teens, and he was totally blind by 18. Yet at 19 he graduated from the University of Glasgow. To enable him to finish his theology studies, his sister learned Hebrew, Latin and Greek. He finished seminary with high honors and was later assigned a parish at Innellan, a seaside resort in western Scotland. His faithful sister continued behind the scenes, helping him with sermon-study and other pastoral duties.

But his blindness also brought heartache. There are stories—not authenticated—that a young woman he hoped to marry broke their engagement when she realized he was going blind. Probably that hurt resurfaced years later, when he was forty, and his sister and faithful helper was married. On the day of her wedding, he wrote the hymn “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.” This is what he wrote later about its inspiration:

My hymn was composed in the manse of Innellan on the evening of the 6^th 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.

Some phrases that suggest his earlier heartache, of blindness ending marriage hopes, includes “flickering torch,” “borrowed ray,” and the tracing of the “rainbow through the rain.” But he cast a vision of higher purpose to his pain, looking forward to eternity. With the risen Son of Righteousness, there will be no more darkness: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). The more important words in Matheson's lyrics are love, light, joy, and cross.

The hymn was published a half year later in the Church of Scotland's monthly magazine. The tune was composed a year later by a prominent organist. He, too, sensed divine inspiration in composing the music. He wrote: “After reading it over carefully I wrote the music straight off and I may say that the ink of the first note was hardly dry when I had finished the tune.” It was first published in the 1885 Scottish hymnal.

Matheson—a big man whom some likened to America's General U.S. Grant-- would become the pastor of the 2,000-member St. Bernard Parish Church in Edinburgh and known as one of Scotland's most eloquent preachers. He even was invited to Balmoral to preach before Queen Victoria. Later in life he wrote some of the finest devotional literature in the English language as well as some other hymns. He died in 1906, in his 64^th year.

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Hear the late Danny Gaither--brother to widely-known Gospel musician Bill Gaither--sing this hymn about forty years ago:

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go Danny Gaither - Bing video