Rock Of Ages

Rock Of Ages

The hymn “Rock of Ages” was written by someone who knew he would soon die.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY was born in Farnham in Surrey, England, in 1740, the only child of a major in the English army, who was killed in battle before ever seeing his son. His mother sent him to Westminster School in London, where hymn writers Charles Wesley and William Cowper had attended.

After he and his mother moved to Ireland, sixteen-year-old Augustus went to hear a Methodist layman preach to a small group assembled in a barn. The text was Ephesians 2:13: “Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (KJV). That night Augustus himself was “brought nigh” to God by putting his faith in Christ and the blood he shed for him.

Toplady later reminisced about that night: “Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh to God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God’s people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name! Surely it was God’s doing and is marvelous! The excellency of such power must be of God and cannot be of man. The regenerating Spirit breathes not only on whom, but like and when, where, and as he listeth.”

Toplady graduated from Trinity College in Dublin in 1760 and two years later was ordained as a minister of the Church of England. He pastored several churches, including the French Calvinist Chapel in London.

Always frail in body, he contracted tuberculosis as a young man. As he fought the ravages of the disease, he wrote “Rock of Ages.” It is considered the most popular hymn in the English language.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From Thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly,

Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

When I draw this fleeting breath,

When my eyes shall close in death,

When I rise to worlds unknown,

And behold Thee on Thy throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

Two years later Augustus Toplady drew his last fleeting breath and closed his eyes in death on August 11, 1778. In his final hour he said to his friends, “No mortal can live having seen the glories which God has manifested to my soul!” He was just thirty-eight years old.

Reflection

The strength of the hymn “Rock of Ages” lies in its simplicity in setting forth the message that salvation is by grace alone on the merits of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and not by anything that we can do. Even a child can understand the familiar yet powerful words. Let your meditation today be the words of Augustus Toplady’s great hymn, “Rock of Ages.” Either sing it or read it as your heart’s prayer to God.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

Isaiah 26:3-4