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Like A Dayspring From On High

The Savior said this of the last days “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt 24:12). We are surely living in that day and time when we as a people seem to care less and less about each other. But while the love of men is fickle and fragile, there is a love that will never change—the pure love of God is called charity and it endureth all things and never faileth.

George Matheson was born 27 March 1842 in Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest son of a merchant. Reportedly, by the age of 15, George began going blind, but this did not stop him from enrolling at Glasgow University where he received three degrees.

At the age of 19, George was engaged to be married. It was then that he is said to have told his fiancée of his impending blindness. She broke off their engagement and returned his ring. She could not see herself being bound in marriage to a blind man. George Matheson never married. Instead, he threw himself into the ministry, preaching first in Inellan and later at St. Bernard’s in Edinburgh. One writer said of him,

“In light of his ailment of poor sight, he had a reputation of being joyful, with a great spirit about him that was not easily discouraged. He didn’t speak of his bad eyesight, and most people who observed him preach or go about his life did not even know he was blind. There was only a short period where he seemed to struggle with great discouragement over his lack of eyesight, but it did not seem to stall him for long.”

It is further said of him “that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland in his day.”

Throughout his time in academia and then the ministry, George lived with and relied heavily on his sisters. Then in June 1882 something remarkable happened. George wrote a poem, in a moment, that would later become a hymn. Of that moment, he said,

“My hymn was composed in the manse of Innelan [Argyleshire, Scotland] 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.”

Some believe that his sister’s marriage kindled some of that “severe mental suffering” and that memories of his own broken heart years before tormented him. And perhaps it may also have been the prospects of losing the cherished association with his sister. Whatever it was, out of the memories of lost love came these words,

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

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.

The Lord’s love for us, is constant and unchanging. Whether or not we receive it or perceive it is up to us. For those of you who know of yourselves that Heavenly Father loves you, it is indeed a rest to your weary soul.

Sources:

https://hymnary.org/text/o_love_that_wilt_not_let_me_go

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/o-love-that-will-not-let-me-go/

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/oltwnlmg.htm

https://joshweidmann.com/blind-preacher-saw-quite-well-short-bio-george-matheson/

1 Corinthians 13:7-8

Matthew 24:12