“O LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO”
George Matheson 1842 – 1906
“O LOVE
THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO”
George Matheson
1842 – 1906
Faith has varying degrees.
Some people need a sign
like Gideon … you
know … a wet fleece.
There is another type of
faith where a person
believes if they have a favourable emotions.
Still again, there is a
faith when there are no
feelings involved.
However, how many people
have faith when everything
… all circumstances, emotions, appearances, people and human reasoning
are to
the contrary … you know … like Paul being shipwrecked …
when all
hope of being saved had been taken away … and he says to be of good
cheer for he
believes God that they would be (Acts 27:20-25).
Similarly George
Matheson would write the
following hymn.
George Mattheson lost
his eyesight in his
youth but studied for the church at the University of Edinburgh with
much
distinction. He was Minister at St Bernard’s Edinburgh.
The following hymn he wrote
in three minutes
and he said was the quickest composition he had ever achieved.
He said
“It seemed to me at the time as if someone was dictating the thought to
me, and
giving me the expression. There was so little sense of effort
that I had
a sensation of passiveness.
I was sitting alone in my
study in a state of great
mental depression that had been caused by a real calamity. My
hymn was
the voice of my depression. It was not made for any utilitarian
purpose …
it was wrung out spontaneously from my heart. It is worthwhile,
observing this, because it was to me a unique experience. I have no
natural
gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have written are manufactured
articles …
this came like a dayspring from on high.”
It is said that this hymn
was not likely to
be popular for the general congregation as it is too introspective
…
being a song for one singer and for a singer in very special
circumstances and
mood of mind.
Dear Reader, this is how to
praise and worship God
… which is contrary to a lot of wordy drivel heard in churches today …
you know
… not what we want God to do in the future, but what he has
already
done.
The following is the type
of faith that exalts God
… the faith that exhibits submission, dependence and gratefulness
for
what has ALREADY BEEN DONE BY GOD … his love, light, joy and
cross.…
NOT WHAT HE WILL DO!
1. 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 Thy
deepest oceans flow
May richer,
fuller be.
2. 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.
3. O Joy, that
seekest me through pain,
I cannot
close my heart to Thee;
I trace the
rainbow through the rain,
And know
the promise is not vain
That morn
shall tearless be.
4. O Cross, that
lifteth up my head,
I dare not seek
to flee from Thee;
I lay in
dust life’s glories dead,
And from
the ground there blossoms red
Life that
shall endless be.
Dear Reader, study the
words, learn them off by
heart and sing them daily.
In essence, like George
Mattheson can you say “I
have been ‘smashed’ but my faith, belief, hope and trust is in God and
what he
has ALREADY DONE!”
Harley
Hitchcock
October
2024
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QUESTION: “CAN
YOU SHOW THE LOVE
OF CHRIST TO OTHERS?”
