Without Jesus Christ as Lord of his life, young Scotsman, George Matheson (1842-1906), would surely have taken his own life or died a bitter man, because what happened to him is one of the most bitter tragedies to strike a human heart.
At University George met a beautiful young woman and they fell in love. They talked of marriage but George felt it only fair to inform his future wife of an impending condition which would change his life in years to come. George had a disease which would render him totally blind within a few short years. When he told his fiancée of this certainty, she utterly astonished him by telling him bluntly, “I do not want to be the wife of a blind man.” Years later on the eve of George’s sister’s wedding, the memory of the broken engagement opened a fresh wound in his heart and through the pain he began to contemplate a love that would never be broken or alter—the Love of Christ. His mind dwelt on the love of His Saviour, and the Word of God which filled this godly Church of Scotland preacher, caused his heart to well up with the assurance that Christ would never let him go. In the pangs of loss he found richest gain. Rev. Dr. Matheson never married but was a revered preacher who impressed Queen Victoria so much that she presented the blind preacher with a small sculpture of herself in memory of the great sermon on Job that he preached before her.
At University George met a beautiful young woman and they fell in love. They talked of marriage but George felt it only fair to inform his future wife of an impending condition which would change his life in years to come. George had a disease which would render him totally blind within a few short years. When he told his fiancée of this certainty, she utterly astonished him by telling him bluntly, “I do not want to be the wife of a blind man.” Years later on the eve of George’s sister’s wedding, the memory of the broken engagement opened a fresh wound in his heart and through the pain he began to contemplate a love that would never be broken or alter—the Love of Christ. His mind dwelt on the love of His Saviour, and the Word of God which filled this godly Church of Scotland preacher, caused his heart to well up with the assurance that Christ would never let him go. In the pangs of loss he found richest gain. Rev. Dr. Matheson never married but was a revered preacher who impressed Queen Victoria so much that she presented the blind preacher with a small sculpture of herself in memory of the great sermon on Job that he preached before her.
O Love that wilt 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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