George Matheson, engaged to be married, learned he would soon be totally blind.
His fiancée said, “I cannot marry a blind man.” She left her with his dreams shattered.
He thought of taking his life, but instead took hold of himself as he wrote the moving hymn, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.”
The blind preacher and poet also penned these words—
“My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorns. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorns.
“I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.
“Teach me the glory of my cross: teach me the value of my thorn.
“Shew me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain.
:Shew me that my tears have made my rainbow.”
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O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
(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 Thine ocean depths its 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 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.
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