Tuesday, June 3, 2008

trace the rainbow through the rain

UPDATE: IF YOU'VE EVER HEARD THIS HYMN SUNG YOU'LL NEED TO FORGET THE TUNE IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE THE WORDS. ANDREW JUST GAVE ME A RENDITION. EW.

O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

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.

George Matheson (1842-1906)


And this from a blind man!

4 comments:

  1. Oh oh oh, this is one of my all time FAVOURITE hymns (maybe for private use more so than public). I was going to rave about it when you mentioned GM, but you beat me there already. BUT, did you know some Americans have a new tune - and I LOVE it. I'll just go find the link, and I'll be back!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Go here http://www.auburn.edu/ruf/boundless/, for a pretty good site from a group who “redoes” old hymns, and then you can click audio on the left and listen (the WAV file is quick time). I have the CD and I have nearly killed that song! See this old blog post of mine http://mannainomers.blogspot.com/2006/08/one-mans-big-fizzer.html and there is a link to the piano music too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ali - you are a kindred spirit in these matters!

    Thanks. I followed the link.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a seriously bad joke! :)

    Hey, well I owed you one for the Sophie Hannah introduction :). Did you like that tune? I think the story behind this particular song is that he was engaged to be married, discovered that he was to go blind, so his fiance ended the engagement. Don't know if you have verified that at all, but gives the hymn a certain poignancy ...

    ReplyDelete