George Matheson, author of “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.”

The following quotation is taken from the book, Royal Insignia, written by Edwin and Lillian Harvey:
“Lord, Thou hast arrested me on my Damascus journey. Thou hast transformed self-consciousness into humility. I set out on the road with boundless belief in myself; I felt no obstacle; I experienced no difficulty. Suddenly, at the turning of the way, my soul grew paralyzed. The confidence faded. The world no longer stretched before me as a pleasure-ground. There came a mist over the scene, and I could not find my way. It all happened in the meeting with one Man—a Man from Nazareth. Before I met Him, my pride of self was unbounded; I said in my heart, ‘I shall carve my own destiny.’ But one glance at the Man of Nazareth laid me low. My fancied glory became ashes; my imagined strength became weakness; I beat upon my breast and cried, ‘Unclean!’
“Shall I repine because I met that Man? Shall I weep because a flash of light at a street corner threw all my greatness into shade? No, my Father, for the shade is the reflex of the sheen. It is because I have seen Thy beauty that humanity has grown dim. It is enlargement that has made me humble. I have gazed for a moment on a perfect ideal, and its brightness has eclipsed my candle. It is not night, but day, that blinds me to my own possessions. It is light that makes me loathe myself.”
—Thoughts from Life’s Journey.

Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online bookstore.