Perhaps there are no better-known hymns of gospel penitence and saving trust in Christ than “Just As I Am” and “Rock of Ages.” The author of the latter was Augustus Montague Toplady, born in 1740 in Farnham, Surrey, England. His father, a commissioned officer in the Royal Marines, died of yellow fever during a military campaign the year after Augustus was born, leaving him to be raised alone by his widowed mother, Catherine. They moved to Westminster when he was ten, and then moved to Ireland in 1755 where he was enrolled in Trinity College, Dublin.
Shortly thereafter, in August 1755, the 15-year-old Toplady was converted at a service held in a barn. The text was Ephesians 2:13: But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The preacher was an illiterate but warm-hearted layman named Morris, a follower of John Wesley. Concerning this experience Toplady wrote: “Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God’s people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name. Surely this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous.” Toplady initially followed Wesley’s example in adopting Arminianism. In 1758, however, the 18-year-old Toplady read Thomas Manton’s seventeenth-century sermon on John 17. Toplady was soon convinced that that Calvinism, not Arminianism, was the more consistent interpretation of the Bible. Following his graduation from Trinity College in 1760, Toplady and his mother returned to Westminster, where he met and was influenced by several prominent Calvinist ministers.
In 1762, Toplady was ordained as an Anglican deacon, and assigned as curate of Blagdon, where he wrote his famous hymn Rock of Ages in 1763. A local tradition – discounted by most historians – holds that he wrote the hymn after seeking shelter under a large rock at Burrington Combe, an impressive ravine close to Blagdon, during a thunderstorm. Upon being ordained as a priest in 1764, Toplady returned to London briefly, and then served as curate of several parishes before settling as vicar of Broadhempbury, where he served until his death from tuberculosis in 1778 at the young age of only thirty-seven.
Toplady never married, though he was blessed by a special friendship with Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, who provided financial support for the establishment of several chapels in which the doctrines of grace were preached by men like Toplady (including George Whitefield) during the Great Awakening. Unknown to many today, Toplady was a prolific essayist and letter correspondent and wrote on a wide range of topics. He was particularly interested in the natural world and in animals.
Toplady’s first salvo into the world of religious controversy came in 1769 when he wrote a book in response to a situation at Oxford University. Six students had been expelled because of their Calvinist views, which Thomas Nowell criticized as inconsistent with the views of the Church of England. Toplady then criticized Nowell’s position in his book The Church of England Vindicated from the Charge of Arminianism, which argued that Calvinism, not Arminianism, was the position historically held by the Church of England.
1769 also saw Toplady publish his translation of Jerome Zanchius’s Confession of the Christian Religion (1562), one of the works which had convinced Toplady to become a Calvinist in 1758. Toplady entitled his translation, The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted. This work drew a vehement response from John Wesley, thus initiating a protracted pamphlet debate between Toplady and Wesley about whether the Church of England was historically Calvinist or Arminian. This debate peaked in 1774, when Toplady published his 700-page The Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England, a massive study which traced the doctrine of predestination from the period of the Early Church through to Archbishop William Laud. The section about the Synod of Dordt contained a footnote identifying five basic propositions of the Calvinist faith, arguably the first appearance in print of the summary of Calvinism known since then as the five points of Calvinism.
The relationship between Toplady and Wesley that had initially been cordial, involving exchanges of letters in Toplady’s Arminian days, became increasingly bitter and reached its nadir with the “Zanchy affair.” Wesley took exception to the publication of Toplady’s translation of Zanchius’s work on predestination in 1769 and published, in turn, an abridgment of that work titled The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted. Toplady published a response in the form of A Letter to the Rev Mr John Wesley. Subsequently, Wesley avoided direct correspondence with Toplady, famously stating in a letter dated June 24, 1770 that “I do not fight with chimney-sweepers. He is too dirty a writer for me to meddle with. I should only foul my fingers.”
Toplady’s last sickness in 1778 was of such a character that a short time before his death he was able to ask his physician’s opinion about his deteriorating condition. The reply was that his pulse showed that his heart was beating weaker every day. Toplady replied with a smile, “Why, that is a good sign that my death is fast approaching; and, blessed be God, I can add that my heart beats stronger and stronger every day for glory.” To another friend he said, “O my dear sir, I cannot tell you the comforts I feel in my soul; they are past expression …. My prayers are all converted into praise.”
His volume of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship was published in 1776. Of the four hundred and nineteen hymns which it contained, several were his own compositions. It was not uncommon in his day (before copyright laws) for one person to take another’s hymn and change the words to fit a different doctrinal persuasion. Wesley and Whitefield did this to each other’s works. Toplady is represented in hymnals today not only by “Rock of Ages,” but also by “Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus,” “What Tho’ I Cannot Break My Chain,” “A Debtor to Mercy Alone,” “How Vast the Benefits Divine,” and “Fountain of Never-Ceasing Grace.”
In stanza 1, we sing of the protection from judgment that we need because of our sin, in the imagery of a cleft in a rock that would shelter us from the storm of God’s wrath. It is a rock of “ages” because it has been made available to sinners throughout the ages, and will continue to be there for any who put their trust in His redeeming work on their behalf. That protection is available only by virtue of the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus, the full payment for sin by the blood and water which flowed from His side when pierced by the soldier’s sword. We need a double cure, one that would cleanse us from both sin’s guilt (that condemns us) and sin’s power (that enslaves us).
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
In stanza 2, we sing of the impossibility of our providing any way of deliverance from the death we deserve as the wages for sin. Whether it’s the earnest labors of our hands, the exhausting efforts to fulfill the demands of the law, the most impressive zeal to do what’s right, or the bottomless reservoir of tears in sorrow for our failures, none of that can atone. Satan continues to spread a false gospel of works, that we can make it to heaven if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. But the truth is that our only and all-sufficient hope is that God Himself would save us … save us from His own judgment, save us from Himself!
Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone, Thou must save and Thou alone.
In stanza 3, we reinforce the enormity of our predicament in singing that we bring absolutely nothing to satisfy the penalty of the law. Our hands are empty; we can only cling to the cross of Jesus. We are absolutely naked with nothing to cover the shame of our sin; we can only plead for the robes of Christ’s righteousness to clothe us. We are completely helpless, looking to Him for grace. We are horribly foul in the filthiness of our iniquities, flying to the fountain of grace to wash us. Apart from him we are condemned to an eternal death.
Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Savior, or I die.
In stanza 4, we look ahead to the inevitability of the end of this earthly life. When we draw our final breath, when our eyelids close at the moment of death, what awaits us? Praise God, if we have come to Jesus, we are assured of eternal life, and that we will soar to heaven’s glories that we cannot fully know until we are there. Yes, we will see God on Hs judgment throne, but we will be declared justified and free from judgment because we have been hidden in Him, in that Rock of Ages.
While I draw this fleeting breath, When mine eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown, See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for my, Let me hide myself in Thee.
The traditional music most often used today for Toplady’s hymn was written in 1830, more than 50 years after the author’s death. It was written by New Yorker Thomas Hastings for this very hymn text, and thus bears the tune name TOPLADY. Hastings was a largely self-taught musician who collaborated with Lowell Mason in compiling the hymnbook, Spiritual Songs, in 1831, which included TOPLADY. Hastings was a prolific composer, writing some 1000 hymn tunes over his lengthy career.
That traditional tune is actually a very poor match for the somber atmosphere of penitence and desperation expressed in the words. Its dotted rhythm bears more resemblance to a dance than to a prayer. In 1985, Chattanooga church musician James Ward published a new musical setting for the text, one that has the feel of a ballad and is a much better fit for the words. It has become the primary tune used in PCA congregations. Ward majored in music at Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, and in addition to his composition and performance work, spent his entire career as director of music and worship at Chattanooga’s New City Fellowship, a vibrant multi-ethnic PCA congregation.
Here is a video of James Ward singing “Rock of Ages” to the music he composed for it.