ROCK OF AGES | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 3, 1905

“ROCK OF AGES.”

THERE is no greater hymn, perhaps, in the language; there is none more universally familiar. It has been the comfort of thousands in their last hour. When, many years ago, a ship sunk in the Bay of Biscay, a man who was saved was asked what the passengers were doing. He said that the last he heard was “Rock of Ages” sung by all who could sing. In multitudes of cases, in joy and in sorrow, in times of danger and amid scenes of peace, it has been the language of the heart. And yet, familiar as it is, and precious as it is, possibly there may be those to whom it is not quite clear what Toplady meant by the figure in the first two lines of the hymn. In Isa. 26:4, the expression is “everlasting strength,” but the marginal reading is “rock of ages.” It is probable that the poet got his imagery here. But to the writer the real meaning has been brought out with beautiful clearness since reading of the circumstances under which the lines were written. There is, not far from where Toplady used to serve as curate in charge, a great rock rising up by the side of the road. In the midst, as it were between two massive towers, is a deep cleft. One day in passing he was driven into the shelter of this cleft to escape the fury of a thunder storm, and it was while waiting there, that he composed his great hymn.

—Indian Witness.