ROCK OF AGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25304, 14 August 1943, Page 3

ROCK OF AGES

(Written for the Otago Daily Times) By the Rev. Gardner Miller Of all the hymns beloved by us all, I think “Rock of Ages” would be the best beloved. It never stales. I have watched great crowds sing this old hymn. They did not need hymn books: they knew every word by heart. I have looked into the faces of men and women whom the world counted as failures and I have seen their eyes brighten as the old familiar words were sung. This morning I»heard it played as. I led a company of mourners into the crematorium. It was written by a man who died at the early age ot 38. His name was Toplady. and he was born in 1740, just over 200 years ago. And all through that time his hymn has been the solace and the comfort of millions of men and women in their need. Ho wrote many other hymns, but this one has been taken by the world to its heart in a way that only a few other hymns have shared. To ‘me it is very interesting to learn that the composer of this glorious hymn was himself converted by the singing of a hymn. He was a lad of 16 at the time, and was travelling with his motlvir in Ireland. One Sunday morning they heard singing coming from a barn. They were attracted and went in and found a service going on, led by a layman. After the hymn—l wish we knew what hymn it was—the preacher gave his message from the text, “ Ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” The message deepened the effect of the hymn—the young lad gave his heart to Christ. He studied for the ministry and eventually became the vicar of a church in Devonshire. How he came to write “Rock of Ages ” has often been told. He was out walking when a violent thunderstorm came on and he took shelter between two massive rocks, in the glen which runs up into the heart of the Mendip Hills. He was only 26 years of age at the time, but already dread consumption, as it was then called, had marked him down. The vividness of the storm, his knowledge that only a few years were left to him, and the safety of the shelter between the rocks were used by God's Spirit to inspire him to give the world a hymn that once you knew it you can never forget it. Have you noticed how personal it is? For Me “Rock of ages, cleft for me.” I have often been ticked off by clever people for being what they called too much of an individualist. Whatever truth there may be in their summing-up —and I readily admit they are not far wrong—there is one aspect of individualism to which I shall cling all my dgys. That is the emphasis—the glorious emphasis—the New Testament lays on the value of the individual. I believe Jesus died for me. I go further and say that if I were the only sinner in all the world, Jesus would have died for me. I am wholeheartedly with those who yearn and strive for a Christian world, but I make no bones about how that world is to become Christian. It can only become Christian as individual men and women become Christian. “ Cleft for me ”! Until you and I can say that we have not known the saving grace of Christ. “Let the water and the blood ... the double cure,”— how scriptural these words are! The “ blood ” to cleanse from guilt of sin; the “ water,” typical of the Holy Spirit, to give me power daily to overcome sin. Here is amazing grace that makes my heart sing. It is something done for me that I never could do for myself, for how true it is that neither the labour of ray hands nor my tears of regret could make atonement. I sometimes think ■ present-day preaching has lost this note of saving grace. I know that I have long since ceased to explain the Atonement—in so far as I could explain it; —I now let the amazing thing that God has done through Christ speak for itself, I. seldom find that a simple presentation of the atoning cross fails to convince. I hear people say that the day of the old evangelical preaching is over and that the old-time revivals are completely out of date. For my part, I do not know a time like our own so needing evangelical preaching and oldtime revival. We have slipped badly because we have neglected the oldfashioned religion with the oldfashioned appeal. “For me”! let a listener feel that in a meeting and there will be no doubt of the presence of Holy Ghost power. Still for Me Every verse of this beloved hymn strikes a new note on the one theme— He died for me. “ Foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Saviour, or I die.” And when finally we take the last turning on the road of life which we call death, it will be this same Saviour whose Grace will take us gently through the white gate to the still waters and the green pastures. How true it is that “ when my eyelids close in death ... I shall see Thee on Thy judgment Throne ”! Death is a closing of the eyes and the opening of them,—shut here, opened Hereafter. The judgment Throne is the seat of Jesus. And He is not only our security here, but also in the Gloryland. No need to be afraid; He is our Friend. Put yourself in every line of this old hymn and you will feel that it was written specially for you.