GIANTS of the hymn: William Cowper

William Cowper lived a life gripped by depression. He experienced serious doubt that he had a saving faith, and feared eternal separation from God. He was a genius, a poet who was one of the most popular of his time and a hymn writer who wrote some of the most wonderful hymns of profound truth. He collaborated with John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace and together they complied a hymnbook known as the Olney Hymns which was published in 1779. His faith continued to be uncertain and in a letter to John Newton on January 13, 1784 Cowper wrote,

Loaded as my life is with despair, I have no such comfort as would result from a supposed probability of better things to come, were it once ended … You will tell me that this cold gloom will be succeeded by a cheerful spring, and endeavour to encourage me to hope for a spiritual change resembling it—but it will be lost labour. Nature revives again; but a soul once slain lives no more … My friends, I now expect that I shall see yet again. They think it necessary to the existence of divine truth, that he who once had possession of it should never finally lose it. I admit the solidity of this reasoning in every case but my own. And why not in my own? … I forestall the answer:—God’s ways are mysterious, and He giveth no account of His matters:—an answer that would serve my purpose as well as theirs that use it. There is a mystery in my destruction, and in time it shall be explained.

 

Words that are undoubtedly connected with his great hymn God moves in a mysterious way. A song which celebrates the hidden hand of God in every situation, his sovereignty over all things. This knowledge was greatly held and eloquently communicated by Cowper. It has helped me tackle this question, both in asking it and answering it personally.

Where is your hope?

Well, when Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” he makes it pretty clear that the hope of new life comes through Christ alone.  Nowhere else…Mark Driscoll often emphasises this point strongly to his congregation at Mars Hill Church, Seattle. Jesus is THE way, THE truth and THE life. He is perfectly unique as our Saviour and no where else can you find the true hope of eternal life. Cowper was blinded to this hope by his depression, his apparent insanity and general lack of assurance.