“O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”: George Matheson’s hymn written in five minutes
He said it took about five minutes. On the evening of his sister’s wedding in 1882, the Scottish minister George Matheson sat alone and wrote a hymn. He later described it as the fastest thing he ever wrote and said it came out of deep mental suffering he never fully explained. “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” has been sung at funerals and in moments of grief ever since.
Matheson's suffering
Matheson was born in Glasgow in 1842. As a young man he lost most of his sight, yet he completed his studies at the University of Glasgow and became a minister in the Church of Scotland. He was a respected preacher and writer. Matheson wrote that on the night he composed the hymn, something had happened to him that caused him severe distress, known only to himself. Many people have speculated about it, often linking it to stories about a broken engagement, but he never said what it was.
The words
Each verse addresses God by a different name and uses a striking image. Love “wilt not let me go”; Light “that followest all my way”; Joy “that seekest me through pain”; and the Cross “that liftest up my head”. The final verse speaks of laying “in dust life’s glory dead” and finding that “from the ground there blossoms red life that shall endless be”.
The second verse, addressed to the Light, takes on special meaning given Matheson’s blindness: “My heart restores its borrowed ray, that in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day may brighter, fairer be.”
Pain and love
The hymn is usually sung to the tune St Margaret, composed by Albert Lister Peace in 1884 for the hymn. Its gentle, rising melody suits the words well. The third verse is the heart of the hymn: “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.” It does not deny pain; it finds joy and love within it.
Why it lasts
The hymn is often chosen for funerals and memorial services. Its message that God’s love holds on even in loss comforts mourners. Many Ghanaian and Nigerian churches with Scottish missionary roots, including Presbyterian churches, sing the hymn in English and in local languages. It appears in hymnals used across West Africa. The hymn speaks to people who feel they are losing their grip on God. Its answer is that God has not lost his grip on them.
Matheson never revealed what happened that night. He left behind a hymn that has helped millions name what they could not explain either.
