April 25 2000 sees the 200th anniversary of the death of William Cowper. Today he is known and loved for his intense, experimental God-centred hymns - and rightly so.
Yet in his own day he was Britain's foremost contemporary poet, and, through his Christian poetry led many people to Christ. This is all the more remarkable when we realise his poetry was written against the background of great spiritual depression, and almost continuous lack of assurance concerning his own salvation.
It is the intensity of Cowper's depression that is both striking and disturbing. Contrary to what has been asserted, he never lost his unshakeable conviction of the truth of Christianity. However, for almost three-quarters of his Christian pilgrimage he had only fleeting moments when he was sure he was a Christian. The rest of the time he knew the anguish of uncertainty, and the last five years of his life seem marked by unremitting spiritual darkness.
