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SONGS OF PRAISE – A hymn dedicated for the New Year-2024 – By Charles Schokman As the young minister travelled through the rugged country near England’s Cheddar Gorge, the clouds burst and torrential sheets of rain pummelted the earth. The weary traveller was able to find shelter standing under a rocky overhang. There, protected from the buffeting wind and rain, Augustus Toplady conceived one of the most popular hymns ever written, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.” In March 1776 Toplady published the hymn as part of an article in The Gospel Magazine<, which he edited. He wrote that just as England could never pay her national debt, so man could never by his own merits satisfy the justice of God. In the middle of the article, he burst into song, printing for the first time the hymn “Rock of Ages”, which so ably ...