{"id":21669,"date":"2026-02-13T17:55:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21669"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:55:35","slug":"o-love-that-will-not-let-me-go-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21669","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;O Love That Will Not Let Me Go&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Westminster\/ Central Standard - O Love That Will Not Let Me Go\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JHM3bG6_ZoQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A hymn tonight, a<\/strong>s is so often my lazy default on Fridays. I\u2019ve posted a different version of the one before, but it never gets old. I can\u2019t find a composition or publication date for \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hymnary.org\/text\/o_love_that_wilt_not_let_me_go\">O Love That Will Not Let Me Go<\/a>, \u201d but Wikipedia reports that its author, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Matheson\">Rev. George Matheson<\/a>, wrote it on the evening of his sister\u2019s wedding. \u00a0It must have been a poignant moment for him, as he&#8217;d gone blind as a young man, and his sister had been his caretaker since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wrote, \u201c<em>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.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He himself had been engaged to be married once, but his fianc\u00e9e broke it off when she learned he was losing his sight. In spite of his handicap, he became a very successful minister in the Scottish Presbyterian Church and a respected scholar, publishing several books and earning an LL.D. degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matheson is also the author of my favorite hymn, \u201cMake Me a Captive, Lord,\u201d which I hardly ever sing anymore, because my church doesn\u2019t seem to know about it, and everybody but me sings it wrong anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have a blessed weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A hymn tonight, as is so often my lazy default on Fridays. I\u2019ve posted a different version of the one before, but it never gets old. I can\u2019t find a composition or publication date for \u201cO Love That Will Not Let Me Go, \u201d but Wikipedia reports that its author, Rev. George Matheson, wrote it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21669\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;O Love That Will Not Let Me Go&#8221;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[3950,5456],"class_list":["post-21669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-religion","tag-george-matheson","tag-o-love-that-will-not-let-me-go"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21672,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21669\/revisions\/21672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}