The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26

plebiscite of $500 of its readers as to which
WEI, were the best hymns in the language, the
tree, having no fewer than 3,2l5 votes.
Only three other hymns had more than
5000 votes. They were abide With Me, .
Jesus, Lover of My Soul' and Just as ]
Am"
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Theei
Let the water and the blood,
from Thy riven side which flowed,
BE Of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Not the labors Of my hands
Can fulfill Thy laws demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone:
Thou must save me, and Thou alone!
Nothing in my hand 1 bring;
Simply to the cross l cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, to the fountain fly:
wash me, Savior, or die!
While 1 draw this fleeing breath
When my eye-strings break in death
When / soar to worlds unknown
See Thee on Thy judgment throne
Rock of Ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee
Toplady. a Calyinistic vicar of a Devon
shire parish. little dreamed that he was
composing the most popular hymn in the
language when he wrote what he called
beeT vg n ana dy wngd prayer Fer t9 the noe
sad polemist whose orthodox soul was
outraged by the Armenianism. of the Wes-
leys He and they INDUCED in much dis
sipation of the brickbat and Billingsgate
order, as was the fashion in those days.
Toplady put much of his time and energy
into the composition of controversial
pamphlets, on which the good man prided
himself not little. The dust lies thick
upon these his works, nor is it likely to
a pause in the fray. just by way of filing
up an interval in the firing of polemical
thought he saw way of launching an airy
dart at a joint in Wesley's armor, on the
subject of sanctification. So, without much
ado, and without any knowledge that it
was by this alone he was to render perma-
nent service to- mankind he sent off to
the Gospel Magazine of 1776 the hymn
no Goubt, considerable complacency in re-
flecting how he had winged his opponent
Tor MS lnsolent doctrine OF entire sanctlil-
died-for he only survived it's publication by
two years. dying when but thirty-eight-
he had still no conception of the relative
Importance of his own work. But to-day
the world knows Toplady only as the writer
of these four. verses: All else that he la
does we'll to forget.
1t was this hymn which the prince con-
sort asked for as he came near to death
Mr.. Gladstone has translated it into Latin,
Greek and Italian. DR.. Pussy declared it
to be 'the most deservedly popular hymn,
perhaps the very favorite" The followers
of Wesley against whom the hymn was
originality faunched as a light missile in
the polemical combat, seized it for their
collection and mutilated it the while-why,
does not clearly appear The unfortunate
Armenians who were butchered the other
day in Constantinople sang a translation
of "Rock Of Ages" which. indeed, has made
the tour of the world, side by side with the
Bible and the 'Pilgrims Progress. 1t is
recorded that General Stuart, the dashng
cavalry leader of the Southern Confederacy,
sang the hymn with his dying breath, as
he had received in the battles before Rich
mond When the London went down in
thing which the last man who left the ship
hoard as the boat pushed off from the
doomed vessel was the voices of the pas
other English hymn can be named which
has laid so broad and firm a grasp on the
EngliSh-speaking WOrld.'