I have loved you with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 31:3)
This hymn is generally considered one of the best-loved hymns written during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The writing of this thoughtful and artistically constructed text is even more remarkable when it is remembered that it was authored by one who was totally blind and who describes the writing as the “fruit of much mental suffering.”
Born in Glasgow, Scotland in 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 handicap, he was a brilliant scholar and finished the University and Seminary of the Church of Scotland with high honors. He went on to become known as one of Scotland’s outstanding preachers and pastors.
Many conjectures have been made regarding the cause of the mental distress that prompted the author to write this text. There are many significant hints in this hymn reflected a saddened heart, such as the “flickering torch” and the “borrowed ray” in the second stanza, the tracing of the “rainbow through the rain” in the third stanza, as well as the “cross” in the final stanza. Fortunately, Dr. Matheson did leave an account of his writing of this hymn:
“My hymn was composed in the manse of Innellan 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 was composed by a prominent Scotch organist of his day, Albert L. Peace, who was commissioned to write a tune especially for Matheson’s text. Peace’s own account of the writing of this fine tune is as follows: “After reading over the text carefully, I wrote the music straight off, and may say that the ink of the first note was hardly dry when I had finished the tune.”
The four key words or symbols of this hymn are Love, Light, Joy, and Cross. These words have been described as the total fulfillment for any believer whose life is totally committed to the will of God. One could probe for considerable time the depth and personal significance of these four expressions.
O Love, that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the love I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths
Its flow may richer, fuller be.
O Light, that follows 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.
O Joy, that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my eyes 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 blooms, instead,
Life that shall endless be.