1 Corinthians 10:1,4
Words by Augustus M. Toplady, 1740-1778
Music by Thomas Hastings, 1784-1872
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This hymn has traditionally been ranked as one of the most
popular hymns ever written. It is certainly one of the
best-known in the English language. It has been described as a
"hymn that meets the spiritual needs of all sorts and conditions
of men from the derelict snatched from the gutter by the
Salvation Army to Prime Minister Gladstone, at whose funeral it
echoed through the dim spaces of Westminister Abbey."
Whereas most hymns have been written out of some deep personal
need or experience, this hymn evidently was born in a spirit of
passionate controversy. Augustus Toplady was converted to Christ
as a young boy of sixteen years of age while visiting in
Ireland. Of his conversion Toplady has written,
Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in
England, should be brought right with God in an obscure part of
Ireland, midst a handful of people met together in a barn, and
by the ministry of one who could hardly spell his own name.
Surely it was the Lord's doing and is marvellous.
For a time Toplady was attracted to the ministry of John and
Charles Wesley and the Methodists. As time went on, however, he
became a strong follower of the "election" doctrines of John
Calvin and was vehemently opposed to the Arminian views promoted
by the Wesleys and their supporters. By means of public debates,
pamphlets and sermons, Toplady and the Wesleys carried on
theological warfare. The following are several of their recorded
statements:
Toplady- I believe him (John Wesley) to be the most rancorous
hater of the gospel system that ever appeared in this Island...
Wesley is guilty of Satanic shamelessness... of uniting the
sophistry of a Jesuit with the authority of a pope.
Wesley- I dare not speak of the deep things of God in the spirit
of a prize fighter or a stage player, and I do not fight with
chimney sweeps.
In 1776 Toplady published this hymn text in The Gospel Magazine
as a climax to an article attempting to prove his argument that
even as England could never pay her national debt, so man
through his own efforts could never satisfy the eternal justice
of a holy God. He entitled the hymn "A Living and Dying Prayer
for the Holiest Believer in the World."
Some of the expressions in Toplady's hymn text are quite
obviously satrical swipes at such Wesleyan teachings as the need
for contrite and remorseful repentance and the Arminian concept
of sanctification-the belief that it is possible for any
believer to live without consciously sinning and thereby to find
the promised "rest," the state of moral perfection as described
in Hebrews 4:9. Note Toplady's rebuttal in the second stanza:
Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no langour know,
these for sin could not atone-Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Dr. Louis J. Benson, a noted hymnologist, in Studies of Familiar
Hymns, calls attention to the fact that Toplady actually
plagiarized his text from a hymn Charles Wesley had written
thirty years earlier in a collection, Hymns on the Lord's
Supper. A paragraph of the preface from this collection reads as
follows:
O Rock of Israel, Rock of Salvation, Rock struck for me, let
those two streams of Blood and Water which once gushed out of
Thy side, bring down Pardon and Holiness into my soul. And let
me thirst after them now, as if I stood upon the Mountain whence
sprang this Water; and near the Cleft of that Rock, the Wounds
of my Lord, whence gushed this Sacred Blood.
Augustus Montague Toplady was born at Farnham, England, on
November 4, 1740, the son of a Major Richard Toplady, who died
in the service while his son was in infancy. Later young Toplady
was graduated from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and was
ordained in 1762 to the ministry of the Anglican Church. His
various pastorates included the French Calvinist Chapel at
Leicester Fields, London, where he was known as a powerful and
zealous evangelical preacher. Because of his frail constitution
he died of overwork and tuberculosis at the early age of
thirty-eight. Though known as a controversial preacher in his
crusade against Arminian theology, Toplady was highly respected
as a deeply spiritual, evangelical leader. His final statements
just before his death are noteworthy:
My heart beats every day stronger and stronger for glory.
Sickness is no affliction, pain no cause, death itself no
dissolution... My prayers are now all converted into praise.
The tune for Toplady's text was composed in 1830 by a well-known
American church musician, Thomas Hastings. Hastings was the
first musician of sacred music to dedicate his life to the task
of elevating and improving the music of the churches in this
country. He once wrote, "The homage that we owe Almighty God
calls for the noblest and most reverential tribute that music
can render."
Thomas Hastings was born on October 15, 1784, at Washington,
Connecticut. Though his formal musical training was meager, and
as an albino he was afflicted with eye problems throughout his
life, yet he wrote no less than fifty volumes of church music,
including 1000 hymn tunes and more than 600 original hymn texts
as well as editing more than fifty music collections. In 1858
the University of the City of New York conferred the degree of
Doctor of Music upon him in recognition of his accomplishments.
Along with Lowell Mason, Thomas Hastings is generally credited
with being the person most instrumental in shaping the
development of church music in the United States.
Other hymns by Thomas Hastings include "From Every Stormy Wind
That Blows", "Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned", and "Come, Ye Disconsolate".
It is encouraging to realize that, despite the original
belligerent intent behind this text, God in His providence has
chosen to preserve this hymn for the past two hundred years so
that congregations of believers of both Calvinistic and Arminian
theological persuasion can sing this hymn with spiritual profit
and blessing.
Quoted from "101 Hymn Stories" by Kenneth Osbeck. Kregel Publishers, P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501, 1982.
Look up this book by clicking on the "Go to Amazon" button.
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