Edward Mote was born in London in 1797. He is not as well-known and recognized in the world of hymns and hymn composition as names like Fannie Crosby, Isaac Watts, or Charles Wesley. Yet, he wrote the words for the beloved hymn, “The Solid Rock”. It is a testimony of his life that should inspire all Christians.
Mote was not brought up in a godly home and did not have the advantage of exposure to the Scripture as he grew up. In fact, his parents managed a pub in London and often neglected young Edward. As a child he spent most of his Sundays playing in the city streets. He was quoted as saying this about his theological upbringing, ”So ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God.”
Fortunately, Mote was introduced to the Word of God at the age of eighteen, and he was baptized. This event, however, did not immediately lead to his entry into the ministry.
He first became an apprentice to learn the trade of a cabinetmaker, a trade he worked at successfully for the next thirty-seven years. It was at the age of fifty-five that Mote eventually entered the ministry and became pastor of Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex in England. He did not miss a Sunday in that pulpit for the next twenty-one years. It was only because of ill health that he had to resign from this pastorate in 1873. He died the following year at the age of seventy-seven.
It is with this background that Mote wrote the beloved hymn we sing today, “The Solid Rock”. It was actually during his career as a cabinetmaker that the hymn had its roots. One morning in 1834 as he walked to work, the hymn came to his mind. By the time he arrived at work, he had the words to the chorus completed! He wrote four additional verses during that day and later on finished two more verses.
The hymn was first published anonymously in several hymn collections. The writing of the hymn was later attributed to Mote when a collection of one hundred of his hymns were published in 1837. (Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, Combining All the Excellencies of our Spiritual Poets, with Many Originals.)
The original title for the hymn in this collection was The Immutable Basis of a Sinner’s Hope. The tune for Mote’s text “Solid Rock” was composed by William B. Bradbury in 1863.
These are the original four verses:
THE SOLID ROCK
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
—Edward Mote (1797-1874)
The hymn’s doctrinal message includes several thoughts and phrases that qualifies it as a “Hymn of Grace”. The message of grace is emphasized as well in the chorus. The metaphor of Christ as a rock is one with a firm basis in Scripture…and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:4 NKJV.
From a declaration of God’s grace in the first stanza, to the application of that grace in times of trouble in the second and third stanzas, the writer brings the hymn full circle in the final stanza, with the ultimate realization of God’s saving grace. The basic message strongly sets forth Christ’s righteousness as the only requirement for salvation, making it indeed a “Hymn of Grace.”
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No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 1 Samuel 2:2 NLT
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! Deuteronomy 32:4 NLT
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:16 NLT
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