Thomas Hastings’ musical setting TOPLADY will be the one we sing for the life of the hymn. Julian, a hymnologist in 19th-century England, declared “Rock of Ages” as one of the most well known of English hymns. Watson suggests that perhaps the hymn owes the most to I Corinthians 10:4: “for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”īritish hymnologist J.R. He cites Exodus 33.22, for instance, “when my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.” And Psalms 18.2: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. Scriptural references are all paraphrases. Stanza four climaxes with an eschatological focus asking for mercy as we face death. Stanza two focuses on the idea that we can never repay him for that sacrifice. Christ’s blood from his death as the forgiveness for our sins is the theme in stanza one. In this prayer, Toplady uses “Rock of Ages” as an endearing term for God.
The complete hymn appeared a year later in the Gospel Magazine as “A Living and Dying Prayer for the Holiest Believer in the World.” According to hymnologist Albert Bailey, the climax of the article “intended to show that as England could never pay her national debt, so man could never liquidate his sin account.” Look to the blood of the covenant and say to the Lord from the depths of your heart. Pray afresh to God, who is able to raise you up, and set you on your feet again. In the Dictionary of Hymnology, John Julian cites the 1775 article “Life a Journey,” in which Toplady first published the first stanza of “Rock of Ages.” The following paragraph preceded the first stanza of the hymn: “Yes, if you fall, be humbled, but do not despair. He published Psalms and Hymns for a Public and Private Worship (1776) and served as editor of the Gospel Magazine from 1771-1776. Toplady was involved in several literary endeavors. In 1775, he moved to Leichester Fields and preached for a French Calvinist Church. Though he had converted to Methodism, his study persuaded him that the Calvinist perspective, rather than Arminian theology supported by Wesley, offered the best understanding of salvation. Toplady was a staunch Calvinist and notorious for his dislike of and feuds with John Wesley. Augustus Montague Toplady, the writer of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,” was born in England in 1740 and died there from tuberculosis in 1778.
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