The Pool of Bethesda

The pool of Bethesda (John 5:2-4), “The Gospel Pool”

A beloved song in the The Sacred Harp is The Gospel Pool (No. 444t in The Sacred Harp, 2012 Cooper Edition). Edmund Dumas (1810–1882), a Primitive Baptist preacher, wrote the tune. It was first published in the fourth edition of The Sacred Harp, 1870. The words are by John Newton, appearing in Olney Hymns (Volume 1, Hymn 112) in 1779. The meter is S.M., Short Meter.

1. Beside the gospel pool,
Appointed for the poor,
From time to time my helpless soul [orig. “From year to year...”]
Has waited for a cure.

2. How often have I seen
The healing waters move;
And others, round me, stepping in
Their efficacy prove.

3. But my complaints remain,
I feel the very same;
As full of guilt, and fear, and pain.
As when at first I came.

4. O would the Lord appear,
My malady to heal;
He knows how long I’ve languish’d here,
And what distress I feel.

5. How often have I thought
Why should I longer lie?
Surely the mercy I have sought
Is not for such as I.

6. But whither can I go?
There is no other pool
Where streams of sov’reign virtue flow
To make a sinner whole.

7. Here then from day to day,
I’ll wait and hope and try;
Can Jesus hear a sinner pray,
Yet suffer him to die?

8. No, he is full of grace,
He never will permit,
A soul, that fain would see His face,
To perish at His feet.