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/TO ORIGIN AND ITS
ROMANCE

BY

ALLAN SUTHERLAND

WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY

THE REV. HENRY C. McCOOK

D.D., LL.D., So.D.

SUustrateb

^

NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1905
By The Butterick Publishing Co., Ltd.

Copyright, 1906
By Frederick A. Stokes Company

THE LIBRAR
BRIGHAfv; YOUNG UMVERSIT
PROVO, UTAH

INTRODUCTORY

BY THE

REV. HENRY C. McCOOK, D.D.,LL.D., Sc.D.*

ROM the earliest eras of
history, religion has been
wedded to song. In every
stage of civilisation and in
well-nigh every form of
worship this has been true. From the
rude ululations of savage medicine-men,
with the monotonous beat of tum-tums,
to the splendid Levitical choir of the
Hebrew temple that rendered the psalms
to the accompaniment of stringed and

* President of the Presbyterian Historical Society ; Chaplain of the
Forty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, 1861-62 ; Chaplain of the Sec-
ond Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the Spanish- American
War ; Founder of the National Relief Commission, in Spanish- American
War; Author of "The Latimers : A Scotch-Irish Historic Romance of
the Western Insurrection," "Women Friends of Jesus," "The Last
Days of Jesus," " The Gospel of Nature," " Tenants of an Old Farm,"
"American Spiders and their Spinning- work," "Old Farm Fairies,"
"The Agricultural Ant of Texas," "The Honey and Occident Ants,"
and "Martial Graves of our Fallen Heroes in Santiago de Cuba: A
Record of the Spanish- American War."

INTRODUCTORY

brazen instruments, the record does not
vary.

How rhythm and melody react upon
the religious sentiment, and why religious
experience naturally flows in rhythmic
utterance, one need not here inquire.
Such inquiries belong to the natural his-
tory of sacred psalmody. But there are
our sacred books to attest the facts. A
large part of them are poems. The
poets of ancient Israel were true prophets.
The core of the Hebrew religion and
worship lay within its religious songs ;
and these are the portions of its ritual
that have lived ; and one may safely
predict that they shall run the whole
cycle of being with our race.

As far back as the days of Moses, we
read of Miriam under a prophetic im-
pulse breaking forth into song to com-
memorate the deliverance of Israel from
the Egyptians on the peninsular shore of

INTRODUCTORY

the Red Sea. A refrain of that hymn
has come down to us :

" Sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously ;
The horse and his rider He hath whelmed within the
sea."

That such religious songs were not
rare and that their musical utterance
was even then organized as a part of
worship, appears from the fact that
Miriam's countrywomen accompanied
her with their guitars, and joined in the
chorus.

The Songs of Deborah illumined the
period of the Judges. They have been
given a place by competent critics
among the noblest lyrics of antiquity.
One of these, Heinrich Ewald, speaks
of them as so artistic, with all their an-
tique simplicity, that they show to what
"refined art poetry early aspired, and
what a delicate perception of beauty
breathed already beneath its stiff and
cumbrous soul."

INTRODUCTORY

The Gospel era dawned in the midst
of holy songs, hymned by angels, by
holy men and women, and by the Mother
of our Lord. From that day on the
Church of Jesus has been vocal with
psalmody. The primitive Church had
her spiritual songs. The saintliness of
the early Christian ages survives in the
Greek and Latin hymns, and the pleas-
ant task of translating and assembling
the choicest of these has occupied many
gifted minds.

The Protestant Reformation of the
sixteenth century was borne forward on
waves of sacred song. The sweet voice
of the student lad that appealed from
the snowy street to the heart of Dame
Ursula Cotta, and opened her doors to
Martin Luther, was a type of the new
time. The new songs of the Reforma-
tion and the old psalms renewed in the
vernacular and in popular musical forms,

INTRODUCTORY

prepared the way of multitudes for the
revived truths of the Gospel.

Luther's musical taste and talent im-
pressed itself upon Germany, and thence
upon Europe. His free spirit found
utterance outside of the Biblical forms
of praise in metrical renderings of his
own and other religious experiences.
Calvin saw the value and authority of
popular praises, and encouraged and pro-
cured their use in the new organisation
of reformed worship of which he was
the chief agent. But his more conserv-
ative spirit in such matters held to the
ancient psalms ; and this influenced
all Europe outside of Germany. The
Church of England used the version of
Sternhold and Hopkins, and these will
be found appended to the early prayer-
books. Rous's version was substantially
that best liked and approved by the
Church of Scotland.

INTRODUCTORY

The historic "Huguenot Psalter" was
the joint work of Clement Marot and
Theodore Beza, the former having ren-
dered into French metre the first fifty
psalms, and the latter the remaining one
hundred. These, set to popular music,
caught the ear and heart of the people
of all ranks. They ran rapidly through-
out French-speaking nations, and be-
came as well known as the "Gospel
Hymns " in the palmy days of Moody
and Sankey.

The Hebrew Psalter embodies the re-
ligious experiences of the chosen people,
whose faith, more spiritual than that of
any other nation of antiquity, was in-
breathed and nurtured by the Holy
Spirit. It is not to be supposed that
the one hundred and fifty psalms in-
cluded within the canonical psalter were
the only ones that the poets of Israel
hymned. But these, in the process of

INTRODUCTORY

an inspired selection and a devotional
development, were the ones that filled
and satisfied the religious consciousness
of that most spiritual people, and be-
came the vehicle of not only a national
but of an international praise.

For the Book of Psalms is a book for
all nations. The very divinity of its
origin insures its catholic humanity.
It has proved its high ethnic qualities
by ages of world-wide usage. A cloud
of witnessing praises, rising from the
Church of every age and name through-
out centuries of testing, testifies to its
fitness. If the taste of this era — much
to the regret of some of us — has largely
rejected metrical versions in the vernac-
ular, yet their use, after the manner of
the ancients, in chants, still holds and
even widens in the Church's service of
praise.

It is significant that the hymns which

INTRODUCTORY

have fastened themselves upon the
hearts of the devout in any one branch
of the Church are those which are loved
and used by all who honor and love the
name of Christ. In all ages the truly
devout are one in spiritual sympathy,
and therefore the forms of praise which
utter the devotions of one heart bear
alike to God the aspirations of another.
The Calvinistic Toplady, Watts, and
Bonar; the Methodist Wesley s; the
Anglican Heber, Ken, and Keble; the
Romanist Faber and Newman, and all
the goodly company of the sons and
daughters of Asaph, when uttering the
devotions of their souls, speak in one
tongue.

There is something divine in the flame
of sacred poesy that burns out there-
from the dross of sect. The hymns of
the most rigid denominations are rarely
sectarian. There is not a presbyter or

INTRODUCTORY

priest in this whole land, who, with
due tact and good faith, could not con-
duct a mission or service of song as
chaplain of a congregation of soldiers
or sailors made up of Protestants and
Roman Catholics, of all phases of eccles-
iastical opinions, without one discordant
note and with perfect approval and en-
joyment of all. This the writer, as a
Government chaplain in two wars and
for a quarter of a century in the Na-
tional Guard, has repeatedly done and
seen done.

Such great catholic missions as those
of Moody and Sankey, Whittle and
Bliss, Torrey and Alexander, which
have appealed to all classes, conditions,
and creeds, and have made their services
so largely a service of song, have been
and remain impressive witnesses of the
substantial unity of the devout when
they engage in the worship of praise.

&ocfe of &ges, cleft for me,
%tt me fttbe mpself in tKfjee ;
TLtt tfje toater anb tfje bloob,
Jfrom ®f)p riben gtbe tobicf) flotoeb,
JSe of fl(in tfie bouble cure,
Cleanse me from its? guilt anb potoer,

JSot tfje labours? of mp fjanbs
Can fulfil ®bp lato's bemanbsf;
Coulb mp jeal no respite fenoto,
Coulb mp tears; for eber f loto,
gill for zin coulb not atone ;
®fjou must sabe, anb Gflbou alone.

JSotfjing in mp fjanb 3f bring,
feimplp to GWjp cross; 3 cling ;
JSafeeb, come to Cbee for bress,
helpless, look to TOjee for grace ;
Jfoul, 3 to tfje fountain tip ;
3I23astf) me, g>abiour, or 3 bie.

®aB[flfle 3 brato tins; fleeting breatf),
W&fytn mp epelibs close in beatb,
OTfjen 3 soar to toorlbs unfenoton,
g>ee Cfjee on Wop jubgmeut tfjrone,
&ocfe of ages, cleft for me,
Het me fjibe mpself in W$tt.

H

ROCK OF AGES

EVONSHIRE, the beau-
tiful, has inspired at
least three hymns that
will always be treas-
ured by spiritually
minded people: 'Just As I Am," by
Charlotte Elliott; "Abide with Me,"
by Henry Francis Lyte; and "Rock
of Ages," by Augustus Montague Top-
lady. The last of these Dr. Charles
S. Robinson declares to be " the su-
preme hymn of the language"; and
Colonel Nicholas Smith says, " No
other hymn has swept the chords of
the human heart with a more hallowed
touch."

In August, 1756, in a barn in a rural
district of Ireland, an English youth of
sixteen, who had been carefully reared
by a widowed and cultured mother, lis-
tened with rapt attention to an impas-
sioned sermon from the text, " But now:

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ." — Ephesians 2 : 13. The
speaker was James Morris, an illiterate
layman, a disciple of the Wesleys; the
boy was the future author of " Rock of
Ages."

Toplady writes as follows of this in-
cident in his career: " Strange that I,
who had so long sat under the means
of grace in England, should be brought
nigh unto God in an obscure part of
Ireland, amidst a handful of God's peo-
ple, met together in a barn, and under
the ministry of one who could hardly
spell his name. Surely, it is the Lord's
doing, and it is marvellous. The excel-
lency of such power must be of God,
and cannot be of man."

In thus blessing the work of Mr.
Morris by the conversion of the gifted
boy we have an admirable illustration of
how the Master can use the humblest of
men in the salvation of others.

ROCK OF AGES

Shortly after, Toplady became a
student in Trinity College, Dublin,
from which institution he was in due
course graduated. At the age of
twenty-two he was made a priest, and
became curate of Farleigh, and in 1768
he was appointed to Broad Hembury,
in Devonshire. Here the first signs of
the dread disease, consumption, mani-
fested themselves. In 1775 he went to
London, hoping that a drier atmosphere
would prove beneficial, and while there
he preached for a time in a French Cal-
vinistic church; but his health con-
tinued to fail, and he died on the 11th
of August, 1778, at the age of thirty-
eight. He had lived long enough, how-
ever, to give to the world one of its most
highly treasured heart-songs.

When " Rock of Ages ' was writ-
ten is not known, but we may be sure
that it was nothing less than the voice
of the Almighty that inspired the au-
thor to write words of such soul-stirring

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

power. The hymn first appeared, in an
unfinished form, in the Gospel Maga-
zine of October, 1775, and more fully
the succeeding year in the March num-
ber of the same periodical.

The Rev. William Reeside Kirk-
wood, D.D., LL.D., writes:

" This hymn has been very dear to
me from my childhood. It was a great
help to me in the days when I sought
rest and found none, while seeking par-
don for sin. It, like Wesley's ' Jesus,
Lover of My Soul,' is a very direct and
personal appeal to God, but it has a
statelier flow. It recognises the chasm
and the cause of it — not so much in
words as by implication. It is personal,
but it notes the Rock of Eternity, and
the Cleft in the Rock. It suggests
Moses at Sinai. It does not lose sight
of the Law, the Lightning, the Judg-
ment; yet, when its spirit is appre-
hended and entered into, how secure one
feels! For it is not merely the loving

ROCK OF AGES

man Jesus who appears alone, but
c Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fulness
of the Godhead bodily,' so that seeing
Him we see the Father, and realise the
whole glory of the present Godhead as
our security. At least, this is the way it
appeals to me.

" In this connection let me tell you of
a version I had in my boyhood of the
circumstances under which these two
hymns were written. I have never seen
it in print. It was told me by a man
many years my senior, and a close and
careful student: Wesley and Toplady
met under circumstances which led to
heated theological and doctrinal contro-
versy; and, of course, the debate was
on one or more of the ' Five Points.'
They argued until after midnight, but
neither could convince the other. They
separated, each filled with spiritual ex-
altation. Full of joy and comfort from
his view, Wesley wrote ' Jesus, Lover
of My Soul,' before he slept. In like

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WOULD

manner, Toplady, exultant in his view,
wrote ' Rock of Ages ' before he sought
rest. Thus out of hours of spirited
controversy on the ■ Five Points ' grew
two of the noblest hymns of our
language."

Mr. W. T. Stead makes the follow-
ing interesting reference to this theo-
logical controversy: " Toplady was a
sad polemist whose orthodox soul was
outraged by the Arminianism of the
Wesleys, and he put much of his time
and energy into the composition of con-
troversial pamphlets, on which the good
man prided himself not a little. The
dust lies thick upon these his works, nor
is it likely to be disturbed now or in the
future. But in a pause in the fray, just
by way of filling up an interval in the
firing of the polemical broadsides, Top-
lady thought he saw a way of launching
an airy dart at a joint in Wesley's ar-
mour ; so, without much ado, and with-
out any knowledge that it was by this

ROCK OF AGES

alone he was to render permanent ser-
vice to mankind, he sent off to the
Gospel Magazine the hymn ' Rock of
Ages/ When it appeared, he had, no
doubt, considerable complacency in re-
flecting how he had winged his oppon-
ent for his insolent doctrine of entire
sanctification, and it is probable that be-
fore he died — for he only survived its
publication by two years — he had still
no conception of the relative impor-
tance of his own work. But to-day the
world knows Toplady only as the writer
of these four verses. All else that he
laboured over it has forgotten ; and, in-
deed, does well to forget."

The Rev. Edward Milton Page,
D.D., says: " * Rock of Ages' was
taught me by my mother when a child
upon her knee. It is the first hymn or
song of any kind my heart ever knew
or my lips ever t ie< to lisp. My Chris-
tian life bega i w Ji 'Rock of Ages/
and may it end in being hid in Him."

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

An English friend has kindly fur-
nished the following interesting inci-
dent: " Many years ago, during a
heated discussion in the House of Com-
mons, an opponent of William E. Glad-
stone was attacking him with words of
unusual severity, and he was observed
to be writing diligently, apparently
framing a reply. A friend, seated
near him, was curious to learn how it was
that his leader so successfully preserved
his calm repose under such a torrent of
invective. Looking over Mr. Glad-
stone's shoulder, he found him busily
engaged in translating into Latin
' Rock of Ages,' his favourite hymn.
Fortunately, this translation has been
preserved.

" ' lesus, pro me perforatus,
Condar intra tuum latus,
Tu per lympham profluentem,
Tu per sanguinem tepentem,
In peccata mi redunda,
Tolle culpam, sordes munda.

ROCK OF AGES

" ' Coram te nee iustus forem,
Quamvis tota vi laborem,
Nee si fide nunquam cesso,
Fletu stillans indefesso;
Tibi soli tantum munus;
Salva me, Salvator unus!

" 6 Nil in manu mecum fero,
Sed me versus crucem gero;
Vestimenta nudus oro,
Opem debilis imploro;
Fontem Christi qucero immundus,
Nisi laves, moribundus.

" ' Bum hos artus vita regit;
Quando nox sepulchro tegit;
Mortuos cum stare tubes,
Sedens index inter nubes;
lesus, pro me perforatus,
Condar intra tuum latus.' "

Gladstone also translated this hymn
into Greek and Italian. At the end of
a noble life, which had been devoted to
the best interests of his fellowmen, he
had this hymn sung to him, and found
his most comforting hope in the lines :

" Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.5'

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

All who attempt to translate this
beautiful hymn into other languages are
not so happy in their effort as was Mr.
Gladstone. A missionary in India
writes that he employed a Hindoo
scholar to assist him in translating
" Rock of Ages " into the vernacular.
His surprise may be imagined when he
read, as the result of the effort of the
learned Oriental, the first two lines:

" Very old stone, split for my benefit,
Let me get under one of your f ragments."

This hymn was a favourite with
Prince Albert, the husband of Queen
Victoria, and when he lay dying in
Windsor Castle in 1861, almost his last
words were : " I have had wealth, power,
and fame, but if these were all that I
had had, what would I have now?'
And then he was heard repeating softly
and reverently,

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

ROCK OF AGES

When the steamship " London " went
to her doom in the Bay of Biscay in
1866, the last sounds borne over the
waters to those who succeeded in mak-
ing their escape were not wails of de-
spair, but the brave, hopeful prayer
voiced in the words of this immortal
hymn.

Dr. S. S. Pomeroy states that in an
Armenian church in Constantinople he
was deeply moved by hearing a Turk-
ish translation of this hymn sung, and
by seeing many of the worshippers
singing with eyes filled with tears.

An incident somewhat similar is re-
lated of the celebration of the golden
jubilee of Queen Victoria, when rep-
resentatives from every land came to
congratulate her on her long and pros-
perous reign. Among these was a native
of Madagascar. After conveying his
good wishes to the Queen, he suggested
that, if agreeable, he would like to sing
to her. Naturally, it was expected that

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

he would sing one of his native songs,
but, to the surprise of all, he sang
" Rock of Ages." The Rev. Duncan
Morrison, of Owen Sound, Canada,
who was present, writes:

" There was profound and awkward
silence which was difficult to break, for
many were affected to tears in seeing
the coming back of seed sown on the
waters in missionarv faith and zeal. All
were taken by surprise, little expecting
to hear from the lips of the Hova on
this grand occasion the sweetest of all
the songs of Zion. The venerable man
took delight in telling his hearers that
this one song had been very close to his
heart and had enabled him to while
away many a weary hour in his pilgrim-
age through life."

General J. E. B. Stuart, the famous
Confederate cavalry leader, received a
mortal wound at Yellow Tavern, Vir-
ginia, and died in a hospital in Rich-
mond on the 12th of May, 1864, at

ROCK OF AGES

the age of thirty-one. When his old
minister, to whom he was devotedly
attached, came to see him, he requested
that " Rock of Ages " be sung. The
young General joined in the hymn,
but soon his voice faltered and failed.
" I feel," he whispered, " that I am
going fast. I am ready. God's will
be done." And with the words of the
precious hymn still ringing in his ears,
he passed on to join the heavenly com-
pany who have " washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb."

The following incident admirably
illustrates the spirit of the hymn: " The
noble old song has had a new meaning
to me since an experience a friend and I
had one summer evening going from
Grand Portage, Lake Superior, to Isle
Royal, twenty miles out in the lake.
We started with a fair breeze, and our
two boatmen assured us that we would
have a short and pleasant ruji to the

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

island. But when about half way over,
the wind failed ; and calm, like the peace
of God, was in the air and on the lake.
Evening was coming on, and the only
thing to do was to take the oars, if
we did not wish to spend the night on
the water. But it was slow work, even
for the four of us, to row that heavy
sailboat. The sun went down, leaving a
great glory of red and gold on lake and
sky that presently faded away, and
darkness came on. Far away to the
northeast a light gleamed in the dark-
ness like a star; it was the light at
Thunder Bay.

" The boatmen began to worry.
' We are right in the track of the big
boats to and from Port Arthur/ they
said, ' and we have no lights and may
be run down at any time.' Here was
cause to be anxious, indeed. Presently,
one of the men said, ' If we can only
get inside the Rock of Ages, we '11 be
all right.'

ROCK OF AGES

a <

Rock of Ages? ' my friend and I
both asked ; ' what is it and where is
it?'

" ' It is a big rock three miles west of
Washington Harbour, on the island.
The big boats all keep outside of it.'

" We were silent for a time, the only
sound being the noise of the oars in the
rowlocks and in the water. And then
my friend began to sing softly:

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

" Suddenly one of the men said :
' There it is; we 're all right now! ' By
looking closely, I could make out in the
darkness, on the right, a darker spot.
The boatmen said it was the rock, and
that we were now safe.

' c What is that verse,' said, my
friend, ' in Isaiah about the Rock of
Ages? Trust ye in Jehovah forever:
for in Jehovah, even Jehovah, is a Rock
of Ages. We have had a fine illustra-

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

tion of that text. Outside that rock
yonder we were in constant danger; in
here, we are in perfect safety, and get-
ting nearer the harbour every moment.
So we are safe or unsafe as we trust or
distrust our Rock of Ages.' "

The Rev. Edwin M. Rice, D.D.,
Editor of the American Sundav-school
Union, has this interesting statement
to make concerning the school attended
by Toplady: " Several of the hymn-
writers of the widest fame and popu-
larity in the past century or two have
been educated at one institution — the
Westminster School, England, chiefly
St. Peter's College, Westminster. That
sweet singer, George Herbert, entered
the school as a ' King's scholar ' in 1604.
The famous author of ' Jesus, Lover of
My Soul,' Charles Wesley, entered the
school in 1721, as a ' Town boy,' and
became captain of the school in 1725.
The author of ' Rock of Ages,' A. M.
Toplady, was a scholar there in 1756.

ROCK OF AGES

John Austin, who in his youth wrote
' Hark, My Soul,' was in the same
school in 1640. The great poet laure-
ate, John Dryden, carved his name on
a form there when a lad, the name and
form being still carefully preserved.
But the more durable impression was
made when he wrote, ' Creator, Spirit
By Whose Aid/ The author of ' God
moves in a mysterious way,' William
Cowper, was also a student here. Bap-
tist W. Noel, Joseph Anstice, G. E.
Cotton, Gerald Phillimore, William
Waterfield, and others, who have made
helpful contributions to hymnology,
have attended this school; indeed, so
many writers of hymns have attended
St. Peter's College that it has been
called a ' School of Hymn-writers,' and
it well deserves the name."

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

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