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A Hymn Story
“He hath put a new song in my mouth” (Psalm 40:3).
Many hymns have been written under very special and often trying circumstances. So it was with the hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go” written by George Matheson. The story behind its writing is told in his own words:
“My hymn was composed in the manse of Innellan [Argyllshire, 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.”
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