From George Matheson on his hymn "O Love that wilt not let me go":
My hymn was composed in the manse of Innelan [Argyleshire, 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.HT: Dane Ortlund.
BTW, I'm not sure how, given Matheson's blindness, he was able to transcribe his hymn.
ReplyDeleteA few possibilities come to mind though:
1. Perhaps he wasn't completely blind but, as we'd say today, closer to something like "legally" blind.
2. Perhaps since he had been blind for years at this point in his life, but was quite literate prior to his blindness, he could still manage to trace the form of words onto paper well enough for someone to read later.
3. Perhaps he had composed the hymn in his mind, memorized it, and when his family or others came back home, he dictated it to them.
4. Perhaps he used a system like Braille, which would've been around at the time, I think.