George Matheson

George Matheson was a Scottish Church of Scotland minister, theologian, preacher, devotional writer, and hymn poet. Born in Glasgow in 1842, he lived with serious visual impairment from childhood and became blind while still young. He nevertheless excelled at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow, earning a B.A. in 1861 and an M.A. in 1862 before continuing theological study. He was licensed to preach in 1866, assisted at Sandyford Church in Glasgow, and became minister at Innellan in 1868.

Matheson's reputation grew through both preaching and theological writing. He delivered the Baird Lectures in 1881 and the St Giles Lectures in 1882, preached before Queen Victoria at Balmoral in 1885, and became minister of St Bernard's Parish Church in Edinburgh in 1886. Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary D.D. in 1879, Aberdeen later granted him an LL.D., and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1890. His blindness required practical assistance with reading and writing, and his eldest sister, Jane Gray Matheson, shared his home and contributed greatly to his working life.

His books ranged from Aids to the Study of German Theology and Can the Old Faith Live with the New? to The Spiritual Development of St. Paul and numerous devotional volumes. Sacred Songs gathered his poetry and hymns, including O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, Make Me a Captive, Lord, and other texts concerned with Christian freedom, surrender, and spiritual formation. Matheson retired from active parish ministry in 1899 and died at North Berwick in 1906.