clinching
the argument.

In our day, when we find "Rock of Ages" on one page of our hymnals and
Charles Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of my soul," on the next, it is hard to
understand the uncharitable spirit that existed between these servants of
Christ. Perhaps, had they really understood each other, they were more in
accord than they suspected.

Nevertheless, God is able to use the most imperfect of human instruments
for His praise, and surely "Rock of Ages" has been the means of bringing
multitudes to God through Christ. Its strength lies undoubtedly in the
clear and simple manner in which it sets forth the glorious truth that we
are saved by grace alone, through the merits of Christ. Even a child can
understand the meaning of the words,

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

Or these,

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfil Thy Law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

In this comforting and triumphant faith Toplady himself passed into glory
in his thirty-eighth year. A few hours before his death he exclaimed: "My
heart beats every day stronger and stronger for glory. Sickness is no
affliction, pain no curse, death itself no dissolution." His last words
were: "My prayers are all converted into praises."

During his illness some friends had expressed the hope that he might soon
be restored. Toplady shook his head.

"No mortal man can live," he said, "after the glories which God has
manifested to my soul."

At another time he told how he "enjoyed a heaven already in his soul,"
and that his spiritual experiences were so exalted that he could ask for
nothing except a continuation of them.

Before his death Toplady had requested that he be buried beneath the
gallery over against the pulpit of Totenham Court Chapel. Strangely
enough, this building was intimately associated with the early history of
Methodism. It was built by Whitefield, and here also Wesley preached
Whitefield's funeral sermon. Perhaps it was Toplady's way of expressing
the hope that all the bitterness and rancor attending his controversy
with Wesley might be buried with him.

"Rock of Ages" has been translated into almost every known language, and
to all peoples it seems to bring the same wondrous appeal. An old Chinese
woman was trying to do something of "merit" in the eyes of her heathen
gods by d