THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 257
The sin-atoning blood apply, And let the water sanctify, Pardon and holiness impart, Sprinkle and purify our heart, Wash out the last remains of sin, And make our inmost nature clean.
The double stream in pardon rolls, And brings Thy love into our souls ; Who dare the truth divine receive, And credence to Thy witness give, We here Thy utmost power shall prove, Thy utmost power of perfect love.
Sir William Henry Wills, in a letter to Dean Lefroy, published in the 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.
Earl Selborne speaks of the hymn as known to every body, and by some esteemed the finest in the English language. Toplady was a man of ardent temperament, enthusiastic zeal, strong convictions, and great energy of character. " He had," says one of his biographers, " the courage of a lion, but his frame was brittle as glass." The same fervour and zeal which made him an intemperate theologian gave warmth, richness, and spirituality to his poems.
This hymn only found its way into a limited number of hymn-books between 1776 and 1810. After that date it began to establish itself in popular favour. Dr. Julian says, No other English hymn can be named which has laid so broad and firm a grasp upon the English-speaking world. The Prince Consort often repeated portions of it as he lay on his death-bed in December, 1861, and found great comfort from it. For if in this hour I had only my worldly honours and dignities to depend upon, I should be indeed poor.
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