Edward Mote

Life

Mote was born in London in 1797. By his own account, his parents had no interest in religion, and he grew up knowing almost nothing about God. As a youth he worked as an apprentice cabinetmaker. He is said to have experienced conversion at about the age of sixteen after hearing a sermon by the preacher John Hyatt at a chapel in London. For many years afterward he earned his living as a cabinetmaker. Around 1852 he became pastor of Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex, and served the congregation for about twenty years until his retirement. According to one account, when the members of the church offered to give him the chapel building, he declined, saying that he needed only the pulpit. He died in Horsham in 1874.

Ministry and Work

Mote's best-known work is the text of the hymn "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" (commonly called "The Solid Rock"). He recalled writing the words around 1834. The refrain reportedly came to him on his way to work, and he completed the first several stanzas that same day. The text is believed to have been published in a hymn collection he issued in 1836.

The refrain, "On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand," draws its imagery from the parable of the house built on the rock in Matthew 7:22–27. The stanzas confess that hope rests not on human feelings or merit but on Jesus' blood and righteousness alone. The tune most widely used today was composed by the American composer William Bradbury. Mote wrote a number of other hymns as well, but most of them did not come into wide use.

Influence on the Korean Church

The hymn was translated into Korean and has long been sung in Korean churches. In the current New Hymnal (Saechansongga), it appears as No. 488, "I Mom-ui Sowang Mu-en-ga" ("What Is My Hope?"). Because it appears not in a single denomination's hymnal but in a hymnal shared by Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and other denominations, it is sung across denominational lines in worship services and gatherings as a confession of faith. Among Korean readers, Mote is known chiefly as the author of this one hymn.

Assessment

Mote did not make a name for himself as a theologian or writer, and sources on his life are limited. He is nonetheless frequently mentioned because a single hymn, written by a man who spent many years as a layman and laborer before entering the ministry late in life, came to be sung in many countries and denominations.

The central theme of the text is the confession that one is justified by relying solely on the righteousness of Christ. This accords with the Protestant understanding of justification, and churches in both the Reformed and Wesleyan traditions use the hymn. However, some hymnals have reduced the number of stanzas or altered the wording of the original text, so the words sung today differ from the original. Beyond this, no notable criticism of his life or of the hymn text is known.