There is a fountain

“There is a fountain fill’d with blood” is a long-standing staple in Baptist churches. It is usually acceptable and accepted in most churches that do not object to the imagery of “blood.” However, a recent evangelical commenter on my Facebook page took the song to task, writing, “Scripture does not envisage sinners being ‘plunged into a flood’ of blood. It’s not a faithful representation for how the blood of Christ applies.” I respectfully disagree, seeing this as an overly scrupulous and rigid application of literalness to something meant to use imagery figuratively. Such scrupulosity would likely mine every sermon for some meticulous break with finely-shined exactness. And it would find plenty!

One might pause and ask, “does the rest of my church see a problem with these words?” “Does the wider Christian community, across time and geography, find the song objectionable?” If not, could it just be me? Perhaps one might not like the particular poetic picture drawn by William Cowper in this hymn, but the point that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin comes through clearly. Not only my church, but many churches over several hundred years have approved of the text. That doesn’t make it right, but should give pause, if only you (and the few you have influenced) think something is wrong with it.

Based on Zechariah 13:1, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” This hymn is a meditation on and praise of the saving power of the blood of Christ. In a time when Bibles and hymnals are removing the blood, we need more hymns on the subject, not less.

Hebrews 9:22 ...without shedding of blood is no remission.

1 John 1:7 ...the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

This is Hymn CLXIX on pages 187-186 of A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, from Various Authors: for the Use of Serious and Devout Christians of All Denominations (Compiled by Richard Conyers, London: Clement Watts, 1772).

1. There is a fountain fill’d with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plung’d beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

2. The dying thief rejoic’d to see
That fountain in his day’
And there have I, as vile as he,
Wash’d all my sins away.

3. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood,
Shall never lose its pow’r,
’Till all the ransom’d church of God
Be sav’d to sin no more.

4, E’er since by faith I saw the stream, (* originally, ’Ere, possibly a typo)
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be ’till I die.

5. Then in a nobler sweeter song,
I’ll sing thy pow’r to save,
When this poor lisping stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.

6. Lord I believe thou hast prepar’d
(Unworthy tho’ I be)
For me a blood bought free reward,
A golden harp for me.

7. ’Tis strung and tun’d for endless years,
And form’d by pow’r divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears.
No other name but thine.

The original hymn has seven stanzas in Common Meter. Most hymnals included only the first five (or less). The most common tune I know is called Cleansing Fountain in The Sacred Harp (No. 505). Redeeming Love by Aldine S. Kieffer is another good tune with which it has been paired.

The hymn was then later published as Hymn LXXIX in Book I of Olney Hymns (by Cowper and John Newton), included in the hymns on the book of Zechariah. The heading is “Praise for the Fountain opened. Chap. xiii. 1.”

The hymn as above is as originally published by Cowper. Some alterations have been made – some rejected and some which remain. A major change that did not take was made by James Montgomery in 1819. It altered the entire first stanza, as well as places in other stanzas. The first is:

From Calvary’s cross, a fountain flows
Of water and of blood,
More healing than Bethesda’ pool,
Or famed Siloam’s flood.

While there is nothing unscriptural in the lines of Montgomery, it loses something in the “translation.” He thought the stanza of Cowper was “objectionable as representing a fountain being filled, instead of springing up.” However, the wider community has favored Cowper’s version over Montgomery’s. Hymnologist E. E. Ryder says this change “forgets…the poetry of intense and impassioned feeling, which naturally embodies itself in the boldest metaphors.” John Julian adds that in the alteration “the sustained confidence and rapture of Cowper are entirely lost.”

The end of stanza two has been changed and kept to the present,  to what is commonly used in hymnals today:

And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

This may have been thought to bring the singer into the text more personally. As written by Cowper, it is his personal testimony.

If you have a conscientious objection to the hymn, then do not sing it. (However, please consider whether the objection is really valid. See questions above.) “As for me and my house,” we will try to serve and glorify God, and honor the blood of Jesus Christ, while singing “There is a fountain filled with blood.”