Readings · Hymns
Rock of Ages
Augustus Montague Toplady · 24 lines
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee!
Let the Water and the Blood,
From thy riven Side which flow’d,
Be of Sin the double Cure,
Cleanse me from it’s Guilt and Pow’r.
Not the labors of my hands
Can fullfill 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!
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!
Whilst I draw this fleeting breath—
When my eye-strings break in death—
When I soar through tracts unknown—
See Thee on thy Judgment-Throne—
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee!
About this reading
Augustus Montague Toplady, a Church of England clergyman, was editing the Gospel Magazine when he printed this hymn in its issue for March 1776, signed "A. T." Four of its lines had appeared in the magazine the October before, in an article of his on life as a journey.
The four verses as first printed in 1776, under the title "A living and dying Prayer for the Holiest Believer in the World." Many hymn books print a version that later editors changed, in which "When my eye-strings break in death" became "When mine eyelids close in death."
- First published
- 1776
- Text from
- The Gospel Magazine, March 1776
When you are ready to make the program
Answer one question at a time and add photographs. The program lays itself out, and you see all of it before paying anything.