My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less

Edward Mote was born into poverty on January 21, 1797, in London. His parents, innkeepers, wouldn’t allow a Bible in their house, but somehow Edward heard the gospel as a teenager and came to Christ. He eventually became a skilled carpenter and the owner of his own cabinet shop.

“One morning,” he recalled, “it came into my mind as I went to labor to write a hymn on the ‘Gracious Experience of a Christian.’ As I went up to Holborn I had the chorus: On Christ the solid Rock I stand /All other ground is sinking sand. In the day I had four verses complete, and wrote them off.

On the Sabbath following, I met brother King . .who informed me that his wife was very ill, and asked me to call and see her. I had an early tea and called afterwards. He said that it was his usual custom to sing a hymn, read a portion, and engage in prayer before he went to meeting.

He looked for his hymnbook but could find it nowhere. I said, ‘I have some verses in my pocket; if he liked, we would sing them.’  We did, and his wife enjoyed them so much that after service he asked me, as a favor, to leave a copy of them for his wife.

I went home and by the fireside composed the last two verses, wrote the whole off, and took them to sister King . . . As these verses so met the dying women’s case, my attention to them was the more arrested, and I had a thousand printed for distribution.”

In 1852, Edward, 55, gave up his carpentry to pastor the Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex, where he ministered 21 years.