Rock of Ages
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. John 10:29
On November 4, 1740, a baby in Farnham, England, was given the formidable name of Augustus Montague Toplady. His father died in a war, his mother spoiled him, his friends thought him "sick and neurotic," and his relatives disliked him.
But Augustus was interested in the Lord. "I am now arrived at the age of eleven years," he wrote on his birthday. "I praise God I can remember no dreadful crime; to the Lord be the glory." By age 12 he was preaching sermons to whoever would listen. At 14 he began writing hymns. At age 16 he was soundly converted to Christ while attending a service in a barn. And at 22 he was ordained an Anglican priest.
As a staunch Calvinist, he despised John Wesley's Arminian theology and bitterly attacked the great Methodist leader. "I believe him to be the most rancorous hater of the gospel-system that ever appeared on this island," Augustus wrote.
"Wesley is guilty of satanic shamelessness," he said on another occasion, "of acting the ignoble part of a lurking, shy assassin."
In 1776 Augustus wrote an article about God's forgiveness, intending it as a slap at Wesley. He ended his article with an original poem:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.
Augustus Toplady died at age 38, but his poem outlived him and has been called "the best known, best loved, and most widely useful" hymn in the English language. Oddly, it is remarkably similar to something Wesley had written 30 years before in the preface of a book of hymns for the Lord's Supper: "O Rock of Salvation, Rock struck and cleft for me, let those two Streams of Blood and Water which gushed from thy side, bring down Pardon and Holiness into my soul."
Perhaps the two men were not as incompatible as they thought.
Excerpt from "Then Sings My Soul" by Robert J. Morgan
Thomas Nelson Publishers
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The music you are hearing is available for purchase!
"Rock of Ages" can be found on Dino's album Quiet Inspiration CD, along with many other wonderful hymns.
Click here to purchase this album! Also sample other tracks on the album online!
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Current Note:
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Rock of A-ges, cleft for me, Let me hide my-self in Thee. Let
the wa-ter and the blood, From Thy wound-ed side which flowed,
Be of sin the dou-ble cure, Save from wrath and made me pure.
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© 2006 DCK Music Group
All Rights Reserved
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