Edward Mote was a pastor and

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

writer. Born in London on 21 January 1797, his parents managed a pub and often left Edward to his own devices playing in the street. Speaking of these childhood years he once said, "So ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God." He was finally exposed to the Christian

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

and was

baptised Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

the age of 18. He was trained as a cabinet maker and worked in London for 37 years. Only in his 50s did he enter the ministry and was pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, West Sussex for 26 years. He was well liked by the congregation in Horsham and they offered him the church building as a gift. Mote replied "I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that." He died on 13 November 1874 and is buried in the church yard at Rehoboth Church.

Hymns

Perhaps his best known hymn is " My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less", which refers to the

Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders The Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders (also known as the House on the Rock), is a parable of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew () as well as in the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke (). The parable il ...

, with its refrain 'On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand'. A collection of approximately 100 of his hymns was published under the title ''Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, Combining All the Excellencies of our Spiritual Poets, with Many Originals''.

References

External links

Rehoboth Baptist Church, Horsham

at the Cyber Hymnal {{DEFAULTSORT:Mote, Edward 1797 births 1874 deaths British Christian hymnwriters English hymnwriters 19th-century English Baptist ministers 19th-century English musicians