A popular hymn declaring the solid, unshakable foundation for the Christian's hope, "The Solid Rock" was penned by Edward Mote in 1834 and put to music in 1863 by composer William Bradbury.
Edward Mote
Edward Mote was born in London in 1797. His parents managed a London pub and left Edward much to his own devices. "My Sundays were spent in the streets," said Edward of his younger years. "So ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God."
Young Edward took up an apprenticeship with a cabinetmaker, and at sixteen his master took him to hear the preaching of Tottenham Court Chapel's John Hyatt. This experience would change Mote's life, for it was here that he dedicated himself to Jesus Christ.
A cabinetmaker by profession for thirty-seven years, when he was fifty-five, Mote became pastor of a Baptist church, which he helped to establish, in Horsham, Sussex. When offered the title to the church building by the grateful parishioners, Pastor Mote said, "I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit, and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that."
Edward Mote stepped down from his position at the Horsham Baptist church in 1873 when his health declined. He died the next year at seventy-seven years of age, having written over one hundred hymns during his lifetime.
Writing the Hymn
Mote originally published the hymn now known as "The Solid Rock" anonymously, titling it "The Immutable Basis of a Sinner's Hope." He then included it, under his own name, in an 1836 collection entitled Hymns of Praise.
Due to the initial anonymity which raised questions regarding the hymn's true authorship, Mote sent a letter to the editor of the Gospel Herald assuring its readers that he was the hymn's author, and explaining how and when he wrote it.
As he wrote in his letter, Mote penned the words to "The Solid Rock" while he was still working as a cabinetmaker. The words of the refrain came into his mind as he was on his way to work one morning in 1834, and four verses followed that very same day.
The following Sunday, Mote went to visit Mrs. King, a very sick friend. Her husband informed Mote that he and his wife usually read a portion of scripture, prayed, and sang a hymn together, but he could not find his hymn book anywhere. Mote pulled from his pocket the verses he had recently written and offered to sing them with the Kings.
Mrs. King enjoyed the hymn so much and found it so applicable to her present situation that Mote left the words with her, then went home and composed two more verses. He visited her every day until she passed away not quite a week later.
William Bradbury
William Batchelder Bradbury was born in 1816 in York, Maine, to a mother and father both musically gifted. Having already learned the mechanics of a wide selection of instruments, he moved to Boston and began studying the organ. In 1840 he took up teaching music in New York. He studied music more in depth in Germany from 1847 to 1854, then returned to New York.
Bradbury published a large number of musical collections for schools and choirs and composed the music to quite a few well-known Christian hymns. One of these hymns was "The Solid Rock, set to Bradbury's music in 1863. The music and lyrics first appeared together in Bradbury's own The Devotional Hymn and Tune Book, published in 1864.
Bradbury died in 1868.
"The Solid Rock"
"The Solid Rock" asserts that the only sure foundation for the singer's hope is Jesus. This theme, echoed throughout the hymn, is evident in the first stanza:
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.
The refrain goes on to further declare the steadfastness of Christ and the frailty of everything else by insisting that "On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;/ All other ground is sinking sand."
Christ the Rock
Edward Mote expressed in the words of this hymn his reliance on Christ alone: Christ his rock; his hope; his steadfast anchor; his righteousness. In the chaos of the world, when everything is shaken and nothing lasts, when even the strongest and sweetest foundations fail, Mote's verses testify to the unchanging power and grace of Christ, "The Solid Rock" who is, as Mote's epitaph reads, "All the sinner can need, and all the saint desire."
Courtesy www.suite101.com
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