04/17/2023
William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) was an English poet and Christian Hymn writer, born in 1731 living until the year 1800. His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts as well.
His life was something of a rollercoaster of emotions from joyful and expectant praise of Jesus Christ his Savior and Lord to depths of despair and depression, or to use a common descriptive word of his day, melancholy. He endured paralyzing, depression and major battles with mental breakdown. Struggle with despair came to be the theme of his life. And despite his being a Christian and making progress in his life, spiritually, the attacks of mental illness would revisit him, causing him to make repeated attempts at su***de yet each time God providentially prevented him.
He seemed beset with fears and anxieties that placed him now and again into an apparent defeated dread of lost forgiveness, with the comforts of his Savior occasionally absent and seemingly departed. His writings speak with the emotions of heart and even troubles of soul to which he repeatedly found himself plagued. Those of us who are older, have come to see that the events of the soul are probably the most important events in life. And the battles in this man’s soul were of epic proportions.
He became acquainted with John Newton, the repentant slave trader who turned to Christ, converted from his former evil ways, also writing many great hymns such as the familiar Amazing Grace. Cowper, just as Newton, knew the gracious promises of God who redeemed them both from sin and death, and his hymns reflected this as he struggled with shortcomings in this life of flesh, and the aggravation of his soul and spirit while living in the body of this death, awaiting future glorification in eternity.
Newton became his pastor, counselor, and friend. He helped draw him away from his melancholy and reclusiveness and brought him into the ministry of visitation as much as he could, where his focus would be upon others, rather than himself. They would take long walks together between homes and talk of God and his purposes for the church. Later on, Newton got the idea of collaborating with Cowper on a book of hymns to be sung by their church. 68 of those hymns were written by Cowper of which a number are still sung today, such as God Moves in a Mysterious Way, and There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, and Oh, for a Closer Walk with God.
An important lesson here is that we should rehearse the mercies of Jesus often in our own lives, as well as with other discouraged persons who are nevertheless redeemed yet hurting. We should just point again and again to the blood of Jesus. These were two things that brought Cowper to Faith, as he discovered them through reading God’s Word, the Bible. We have a good reason to hope that if we make redeeming love our theme and outreach until we die, and if we promote the love and patience, as seen in John Newton, in our own souls, and in our churches, then the William Cowper’s among us will not be given over to the enemy in the end, and God will preserve and protect even the feeble, timid, nervous and trembling of His children.
Hark, My Soul! It is the Lord! is a beautiful old hymn and one of Cowper’s finest with the radiance and goodness of Christ overshadowing the depths and decay of sin with redemption, mercy and promise. While sung here by me, acapella, follow the lyrics with strict attention to the spirit of the words and the refreshing comfort with which they speak with hope to the soul of the believer in Jesus Christ.
William Cowper was an English poet and Christian Hymn writer, born in 1731 living until the year 1800. His literary talents produced some of the finest Engl...
