The Solid Rock

Edward Mote was born into poverty on Jan 21, 1797, London. His parents were innkeepers who wouldn’t allow a Bible in the home. Young Edward spend most of his Sundays playing in the City Streets. Of his theological upbringing, he said “So ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God.”

Eventually Mote became exposed to the Word of God, and was baptized at the age of 18. This event, however, did not send Mote immediately into the ministry. He was apprenticed to become a cabinetmaker, a career which he successfully conducted for another 37 years. Eventually, at the age of 55, he became pastor of a Baptist church in Horsham, Sussex, where he did not miss a Sunday in the pulpit for the next 21 years. He resigned from this pastorate in 1873 due to ill health, and died the following year at the age of 77.

Lyrics: Edward Mote
Music: William B. Bradbury

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.

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.

There are two additional verses which are not commonly found in hymnals today:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
‘Midst all the hell I feel within,
On His completed work I lean.

I trust His righteous character
His council, promise, and His power;
His honor and His name’s at stake,
To save me from the burning lake.

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