1. 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. 2. Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill Thy law's demands; These for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone: In my hand no price I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling. 3. While I draw this fleeting breath, When mine 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.
Lyrics: Augustus Montague Toplady
Music: Thomas Hastings
Tune: TOPLADY
Meter: 7.7.7.7.7.7.
Augustus M. Toplady, 1740–1778
At the age of sixteen, as he sat in a barn and listened to the preaching of an uneducated man, Augustus Toplady was dramatically converted. Later, he became a powerful and respected minister of the Anglican church. While he was the busy pastor of several churches in England, Toplady wrote many hymn texts, but few have survived. “Rock of Ages” is the one for which he is known today.
Augustus Toplady’s strong and passionate lines were actually written to refute some of the teachings of John and Charles Wesley during a bitter controversy with them concerning Arminianism (which stresses man’s free will) versus John Calvin’s doctrine of election. “Rock of Ages” was the climax to an article that Toplady wrote in The Gospel Magazine in 1776, in which he supported the doctrine of election by arguing that just as England could never pay her national debt, so man through his own efforts could never satisfy the eternal justice of a holy God. Despite the belligerent intent of this text, God has preserved this hymn for more than 200 years to bring blessing to both Arminian and Calvinistic believers around the world.