5 June 2011

Mysterious Ways

It's amazing how God works, isn't it? In trying to help someone else, I've been helped myself! It was because I was looking up the phrase 'God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform' that I started to read about the life of the author of these words.

William Cowper was born in Berkhamsted in 1737, the son of the Reverend John Cowper and of Ann, the daughter of Roger Donne of Ludham Hall, Norfolk. After leaving school, Cowper studied law at the Inner Temple in London, but had to abandon any plans for a legal career due to a tendency to debilitating bouts of depression and doubt. It was part of his initial recovery that led to William discovering his own faith.

In 1763 William was offered a job as a clerk at the House of Lords, but the stress of preparing for the required exam triggered a breakdown so bad that he even attempted suicide. Reverend Morley Unwin and his wife Mary took him in and helped him recover. William stayed with the Unwins in Huntingdon, and continued to live with Mrs Unwin and her daughter Susanna after the Reverend was killed in a riding accident in 1767.

After Unwin died, they all moved to Olney in Buckinghamshire, under the ministry of Reverend John Newton, who was the evangelical curate there. William's mental health still affected him quite badly at this time, with some serious issues in 1773. John Newton and William worked together, producing the book "Olney Hymns" (1779), a collection of 349 hymns, with 67 written by William.

William and Mary got engaged in 1772, but a serious recurrence of his depression ended the engagement. It is said that William's worsening mental condition made marriage 'impossible'. Nevertheless, they continued to live together (in separate bedrooms). Despite periods of severe depression, his eighteen years in Olney and eight more at Weston Underwood saw him produce a number of works as a poet, hymn-writer and translator.

In 1791, Mary fell ill, which affected William greatly. Her death in 1796 resulted in William's despair which is expressed in his last great poem, "The Castaway". He died in 1800.

William's classic words, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way", were written in 1773 before the onset of one of his depressive episodes, and was included in "Olney Hymns". Originally entitled "Conflict: Light Shining Out Of Darkness”, the hymn is said to reflect God’s leading of William throughout his own lifetime. There is even an unsubstantiated story about how the hymn was written:

The story goes that William set out to com­mit su­i­cide by drown­ing him­self. He called a cab and told the driv­er to take him to the River Thames. How­ever, a thick fog came down and pre­vent­ed the pair of them from find­ing the riv­er. After driv­ing around for a while, the cab­driver fin­al­ly stopped and let William out. To his sur­prise, he found him­self on his own front door­step. God had sent the fog to keep him from kill­ing him­self.

What do you think?

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