George Matheson
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842, he came to faith at an early age and committed his life to Christ’s service. Attending university at age 20, he began gradually losing his eyesight until he was completely blind. The care of his sisters, who read his lessons to him and even learned Greek and Hebrew to help him study, were a tremendous help to him.
He was engaged but his fiancée, overwhelmed with the thought of caring for a blind husband, broke off the engagement. He never married.
George became a minister in the Church of Scotland and was called to pastor churches in Innelan and Edinburgh. His tremendous ability to memorize large portions of Scripture and his sermons made many of his hearers not realize he was blind at all.
George composed many hymns, and even authored a hymnal. A natural scholar, he wrote books and papers on many topics, some spiritual, some secular, including works on the intersection of science and Scripture – related to the new evolutionary theories of Darwin.
He authored the hymn O Love That Will Not Let Me Go - #292 in our Baptist Hymnal. On the evening of June 6th, 1882, on the occasion of his sister’s wedding, he suffered great mental stress. Alone in the place he was staying, he wrote:
“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.”
George died of a sudden stroke in 1906. He is buried next to his parents in Glasgow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Matheson
https://www.blueletterbible.org/hymns/bios/bio_m_a_matheson_g.cfm