"Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me" Story of the Song

“Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” Story of the Song

“Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” has been a staple of hymn singing since around 1830. The words were written by Augustus Toplady with the tune by Thomas Hastings. Coinciding with the American Declaration of Independence, Toplady penned the words in 1776.

Toplady, born in Farmingham, England 1740, was a sickly child disliked by his relatives. However, says Robert J. Morgan in Then Sings My Soul, “Augustus was interested in the Lord. . . By the age of 12, he was preaching sermons to whoever would listen. At 14, he began to write hymns.” A staunch Calvinist, he wrote an article about God’s forgiveness, “intending it as a slap at [John] Wesley [for his Arminian theology.]” Morgan reports that Toplady ended the article with an original poem, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.” “Oddly,” says Morgan, “it is remarkably similar to something Wesley had written . . . “O Rock of Salvation, Rock struck and cleft for me.”

How did Toplady come to write that poem? John Telford (1851-1936), author of the Methodist Hymnal states: 

Sir Will­iam Hen­ry Wills, in a let­ter to Dean Le­froy, pub­lished in the [Lon­don] Times in June, 1898, says ‘Top­la­dy was one day over­tak­en by a thun­der­storm in Bur­ring­ton Coombe, on the edge of my prop­er­ty, Blag­don, a rocky glen run­ning up in­to the heart of the Men­dip range, and there, tak­ing shel­ter be­tween two mass­ive piers of our na­tive lime­stone rock, he penned the hymn,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

There is a pre­ci­pi­tous crag of lime­stone a hun­dred feet high, and right down its cen­tre is the deep re­cess in which Top­la­dy shel­tered.’

While the text of Toplady’s poem refers mostly to New Testament themes, it has roots in the Old Testament.  “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” is clearly a reference to Jesus propitiatory death on the cross found in John 19:34; this propitiation is a more veiled allusion found in the lyric of verse two, “. . . tears  . . . zeal . . . These for sin could not atone; Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring, only to Thy cross I cling.” This line is most likely the answer to Wesley’s Arminianism, commented upon by Morgan, supra. 

However, the motif, “Rock of Ages,” reminds us of the passage in Exodus 33 wherein Moses, after having to intercede for the rebellious Hebrews, seeks a fresh vision from God. Verses 18-21 state:

Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”  Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.

The composer, Thomas Hastings (1784-1872) was an American self-taught musician, songwriter, chorister and author of many “how-to” books used in “singing schools.” He is most famous for this tune, Toplady, which set to music Augustus’ poem and was first published in 1831. He penned al­most 1,000 hymn tunes and 600 hymn texts. His son, The Rev. Dr. Thomas Samuel Hastings, who be­came pres­i­dent of Union The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary, said of him:

He was a devout and ear­nest Christ­ian, a hard stu­dent, and res­o­lute work­er, not lay­ing aside his pen un­til three days be­fore his death.