There is a Fountain

Words by the Rev. William Cowper Music by Dr. Lowell Mason

“There is a fountain filled with blood.
Drawn from Immanuel's veins.”

Born of a personal experience when the author was forty years old, this hymn of faith for more than a century has been eminently useful in the practical work of evangelizing the world.

Along the streets of Glasgow, shortly after our first visit to Scotland, a little boy passed one evening, singing ”There is a fountain filled with blood. ”A Christian policeman joined in the song, and when he had finished his beat he asked the boy if he understood what he was singing. ”Oh, yes,” said the little fellow, ”I know it in my heart, and it is very precious. ”A few evenings afterward some one asked the policeman: ”Do you know that a woman standing where we are, was awakened and saved the other night by hearing, ' There is a fountain,' sung by a policeman and a boy?"

A lieutenant in the Union army, having received his death-wound in a gallant charge at the head of his regiment, was visited in the hospital by the chaplain, who inquired how he felt. He said he had always been cheerful, and was now ready to meet God in peace. ”Chaplain,” he added, ”I was passing through the streets of New York once on a Sunday night, and I heard singing. I went in and saw a company of poor people. They were singing ' There is a fountain filled with blood.' I was overpowered with the impression the hymn made upon me, and I gave my heart to God. Since then I have loved Jesus, and I love him now. ”That was his last speech.