Tag Archives: George Matheson

Loneliness and Love

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George Matheson wrote this hymn. Matheson (1842-1906) was one of Scotland’s great preachers. Most people didn’t know that he was blind. When the sister on whom he had depended to be his eyes and his companion was married, he was left alone to fend for himself. He wrote “O love that wilt not let me go” the night he had “celebrated” the joy of her new life. The rendition in the video captures the emotion and the faith of the hymn-writer, whose faith and poetry still encourage later generations in times of personal loss and loneliness.

Yearning

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A prayer for our time by George Matheson, the blind preacher from Glasgow, Scotland (March 27, 1842-August 28, 1906):

I am wary of my island life, O Spirit; it is absence from Thee. I am weary of the pleasures spent upon myself, weary of that dividing sea which makes me alone.

I look out upon the monotonous waves that roll between me and my brother, and I begin to be in want; I long for the time when there shall be no more sea.

Lift me up to the mainland, Thou Spirit of humanity, unite my heart to the brotherhood of human souls. Set my feet “in a large room” – in a space where many congregate. Place me on the continent of human sympathy where I can find my brother by night and by day – where storms divide not, where waves intervene not, where depths of downward distance drown not love.

Then shall the food of the far country be swine husks; then shall the riot and the revel be eclipsed by a new joy – the music and dancing of the city of God. Amen.

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