Rock of Ages -- Augustus Montague Toplady

If he were here today to interview, he could tell us which story is correctly attributed to the hymn he wrote in 1776. Augustus Montague Toplady composed “Rock of Ages” as he was in a storm, either an emotional-theological debate or an actual cloudburst that drenched his clothes to the skin before he found shelter. Which one is true? One was subject to public knowledge, while the other was more obscure, perhaps an event that metaphorically underscored for Toplady the discussion, often passionately, that he was having with other believers.

The 36-year old Englishman Toplady recorded perhaps the most well-known words of his life in “Rock of Ages” that were published in 1776, a mere two years before his untimely death.  Reportedly, Augustus Toplady wrote the words in 1763 as a 23-year old, in the early years of what would later become a rather public debate with the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. These founders of Methodism espoused a doctrine of man’s free will in a belief system known as Arminianism, while Toplady believed fervently in the Calvinistic election of man by God. Was Toplady carrying on this debate when he wrote his original verse two, a retort to his adversaries with the words ‘thou must save, and thou alone’? How acrimonious was the exchange then, as compared to 13 years later when published? 1763 was the year after Toplady’s education had concluded at Trinity College in Ireland, the birthplace of his faith as a teenager, and his ordination as a deacon in the Anglican Church. At the time, Toplady served at the Somerset church in southwest England. That’s where another story surfaced about the song’s genesis, one quite different from the theological dispute. In this one, Toplady was caught in a thunderstorm while walking in a deep gorge, Burrington Combe. He found a large rock (see its picture here)

with a crevice big enough to hide him from the storm. It was there he supposedly had a few moments of reflection, about life and perhaps about his beliefs in contrast to the Wesleys’ views. He discovered a stray playing card at his feet, and is said to have recorded at least some of “Rock of Ages” on the spot on this piece of litter. A thunderstorm-inspired message or a poem offered as a bit of satire for an opposition’s consumption…which would God choose to use?

Does it make a difference how it came about? The fact that “Rock of Ages” is still known to us some 250 years hence is a clue that He approves of its message. Both the Wesleys and Augustus Toplady would agree that God is the Rock for believers, that our faith’s foundation is nowhere else. His son’s blood on the cross is a fact. These thoughts are in Toplady’s poetry, be they couched in sincerity borne of an unnerving weather experience or other motives. God can use anything He wants to spur his message.

     

Information on the song’s composer and the hymn was obtained from the books “Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions”, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; “101 Hymn Stories”, by Kenneth Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982; and “Hymns of Faith”, by Ken Tate, edited by Ken and Janice Tate, published by House of White Birches, Berne, Indiana, 2000.