1 How mighty thou art, O Lord, to convert;
Thou only couldst conquer so stubborn a heart,
For thy love to lost man alone could constrain
So stiff-necked a rebel to love thee again.
2 Through thee I embrace the ransoming grace,
Of him who has suffered and died in my place,
Though I strove to withstand the force of thy hand,
Thy Spirit would conquer, and I was constrained.
3 In vain I withstood, and fled from my God,
For mercy would save me through Jesus’s blood.
I felt it applied, and I joyfully cried,
Me, me thou hast loved, and for me thou hast died.
4 For sinners like me thy mercy is free,
Who hunger and thirst for redemption by thee.
Lord, gather in more; make this the glad hour;
Compel them to yield in the day of thy power.
Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #197
Toplady, Augustus Montague, the author of "Rock of Ages," was born at Farnham, Surrey, November 4, 1740. His father was an officer in the British army. His mother was a woman of remarkable piety. He prepared for the university at Westminster School, and subsequently was graduated at Trinity College, Dublin. While on a visit in Ireland in his sixteenth year he was awakened and converted at a service held in a barn in Codymain. The text was Ephesians ii. 13: "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." The preacher was an illiterate but warm-hearted layman named Morris. Concerning this experience Toplady wrote: "Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should b… Go to person page >
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