When I was minister of Stevenston: Ardeer I often visited members in Crosshouse Hospital. It was a time when I would regularly bump into colleagues from all over North Ayshire. One of those was Alex McIlroy who was minister of Darvel Parish Church. Alex had been brought up in Stevenston and was always interested to hear how things were in the town and with Ardeer in particular.
I began to notice that I hadn’t seen Alex for a while and was quite shocked to learn that he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer and was facing major surgery. I was able to visit him when he was recovering and celebrated with him and his wife Tina when the surgery was deemed to be successful. However, the experience had taken so much out of him that he decided to retire early on health grounds. That brought him back to Stevenston and he and Tina became members of Ardeer.
I remember many of Alex’s stories but one in particular has stuck. He told me that after his surgery he awoke in the recovery room and everything was dark. He had a moment of panic. Where was he? What had happened? Had he died and this was it? He said: ‘It was then the words of a hymn came into my head - and it’s not even a hymn I like: “When darkness seems to veil his face,/I rest on his unchanging grace . . .’
The hymn is ‘My hope is built on nothing less’ written by Edward Mote in the early nineteenth century. It was left out of the latest revision of the Church of Scotland hymnary and it could be argued that the language is very much of its time. But reading it again it’s not totally beyond comprehension and I for one am grateful for the opportunity to state in the words of the refrain:
‘On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand.’
And there are surely times for us all when we can connect with the final words of verse 3:
‘When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.’
There aren’t too many hymns that acknowledge that sometimes the darkness of human experience seems to veil the face of God and that sometimes we experience the collapse of our inner life. But these are realities for us which require us to gather everything we know about our God. And what we know about our God has been revealed supremely in the life and ministry of Jesus. There are times when we cannot be led by feelings however powerful they may be. We need to stand on what is true. Jesus has made it possible for sins to be forgiven. Jesus has promised His Spirit to those who trust Him. Jesus has prepared a place for all His people in His Eternal Kingdom.
‘On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand.’
