The Solid Rock

SONG WRITER: Edward Mote                    

MUSIC WRITER: William Bradbury                     

WHEN WRITTEN: 1863

HYMN HISTORY: Sometimes the grace of God penetrates into unlikely places.  Edward Mote's parents were hostile to religion, but while still a boy Edward became a Christian through the influence of a cabinetmaker to whom he was apprenticed.  As a man, he became a skilled cabinetmaker with a successful business of his own.

Regardless of the claims of his business on his time, Mote always found time to worship God.  He was especially interested in Christian music, and one day felt inspired on the way to work to write down a verse that came to his mind.  Before the day was finished, he had completed four verses.  His new hymn began with the words, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

Not long thereafter, Mote visited a friend whose wife was ill.  It was a Sunday, and the friend mentioned that he and his wife liked to observe Sunday by singing a hymn, reading a scripture, and having prayer together.  Mote had a copy of his hymn in his pocket, so they sang it.  The friend's wife was so taken with the hymn that she requested a copy for herself.  Encouraged by her interest, Mote had copies printed –– and soon found himself the author of a beloved hymn.

  
BIBLE VERSE:  Matthew 7:24 - “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

HYMN LYRICS:

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.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

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.

Refrain

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