O Love that wilt not let me go. G. Matheson. [Jesus All and in All.] Dr. Matheson says this hymn was "written in the Manse of my former parish (Innellan, Argyleshire) one summer evening in 1882. It was composed with extreme rapidity; it seemed to me that its construction occupied only a few minutes, and I felt myself rather in the position of one who was being dictated to than of an original artist I was suffering from extreme mental distress, and the hymn was the fruit of pain." [L. MSS.] This hymn first appeared in the Church of Scotland magazine, Life and Work, in 1883 [sic 1882]. From thence it passed into the Scottish Hymnal 1884; and there set to special music by Dr. A. L. Peace. It is a beautiful and tender hymn and worthy of extensive use.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
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