phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Rock of Ages

Posted by Lewis on May 09, 2003

In Reply to: Rock of Ages posted by ESC on April 30, 2003

: : : What is the "Rock of Ages"?

: : Jesus.

 

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

"The author of "Rock of Ages," the wonderful old song we still sing today was AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, son of Major Richard Toplady and his wife Julia (maiden name Bate). The future songwriter was born November 4, 1740. Augustus was raised and educated well by his mother, for his father died in the young lad's infancy. At about the age of 16, he was saved at a place called Codymain, in Ireland, where a layman was preaching in a barn. There being nothing special nor peculiar about the place it simply shows the truth again of that scripture which teaches us that 'it pleaseth God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.' Toplady reflected and marveled later in some of his writings, at how God had brought him to Christ in a barn, in a remote part of Ireland, through a sermon preached by a man who could hardly spell his name!"

Referring back to the wilderness years when Moses (I think) cracked open a boulder to get drinking water for the Israelites - it was a life-sustaining miracle, hence the metaphor.

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.