Rock of Ages and reflections on the author

204 Toplady. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7.

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 Could my tears forever flow,
   Could my zeal no languor know,
   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 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.
                         Augustus Toplady
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1939 edition

<idle musing>
When I was in college, one of my roommates had a John Denver live album on which he makes a mockery of this hymn as part of his mockery of the American way of death. To this day, I can't help but hear the first two lines as "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, for a slightly higher fee." Now I've cursed you with that knowledge too. No need to thank me : (

On a more serious note: For years I thought the name of the author was pronounced Top'-lady. It wasn't until I saw it in an older hymnal where they have it as To'plady that I realized my mistake. Now, if you didn't know that, Does that make up for the bad first paragraph? : )

Also, this hymn seems to have an amazing number of alternate verses for one in English and under 300 year old!. I can't even begin to list the different verses, so just click through to hymnary.org for the different options.

Finally, hymnary.org quotes this from a biographical note about him:

He was a strong and partizan Calvinist, and not well-informed theologically outside of Calvinism. We willingly and with sense of relief leave unstirred the small thick dust of oblivion that has gathered on his controversial writings, especially his scurrilous language to John Wesley because of his Arminianism, as we do John Wesley's deplorable misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Calvinism.

Throughout Toplady lacked the breadth of the divine Master's watchword "Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us" (St. Luke ix. 50). He was impulsive, rash-spoken, reckless in misjudgment; but a flame of genuine devoutness burned in the fragile lamp of his overtasked and wasted body.

I would argue with their characterization of Wesley, but I've read some of Toplady's stuff against Wesley, and agree with them about his accusations against Wesley.

He was truly a saint with feet of clay, like so many.
</idle musing>