GOSPEL >> Salvation & Redemption
SDAH 336
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Text
1
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
2
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
Wash all my sins away, wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
3
Thou dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God are saved, to sin no more.
Are saved, to sin no more, are saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God are saved, to sin no more.
4
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
5
Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood-bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
A golden harp for me! A golden harp for me!
For me a blood-bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
6
There in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue is ransomed from the the grave.
Is ransomed from the grave, is ransomed from the grace;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue is ransomed from the the grave.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Zech 13:1 (b) Luke 23:42 (e) Rev 14:2
Author
William Cowper (1731-1800)
Year Published
1770
Hymn Tune
CLEANSING FOUNTAIN
Metrical Number
C.M.D.
Tune Source
Early American Melody
Theme
SALVATION & REDEMPTION
Hymn Score
Audio Guides
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Cowper was privileged to be born into the home of people who were members of the highest ranks of England’s societies. His father was a chaplain to King George II while his mother was a member of a prominent family of English royalty.
He had obvious talents in poetry, translating and letter writing, while a student at Westminster Abbey. But his father pushed him into a law career, a career in which he utterly disdained.
Notes
Get to know the hymns a little deeper with the SDA Hymnal Companion. Use our song leader’s notes to engage your congregation in singing with understanding. Even better, involve kids in learning this hymn with our homeschooling materials.
William Cowper (1731-1800; see SDAH 107) wrote this hymn of seven stanzas in 1770, after an attack of temporary insanity. It appeared in Richard Conyers’ in Collection of Psalm and Hymns, 1772, and then later as No. LXXIX in Olney Hymns, 1779. The last half of the sec0nd stanza as originally written shows Cowper’s recovery from his illness and his supreme confidence in God’s saving power. His words are in the past tense and express his spiritual experience at the time:
And there have I, as vile as he,
Wash’d all my sins away.
A change in the last line from “I’ll sing. . . when this . . . tongue lies silent in the grave” was made to accord with the doctrine of the unconscious sleep of death before the resurrection. Stanza 6 is Cowper’s fifth, and stanza 5 is his sixth, which mentions the “golden harp” and thus leads naturally into the omitted stanza, which is:
‘Tis strung, and tun’d, for endless years,
And form’d by power divine;
To sound in God the Father’s ears
No other name but Thine.
The title of the hymn was “Praise for the Fountain Opened,” which is based on the words “There shall be a fountain opened . . . for sin and for uncleanness” (Zech. 13:1). Cowper also wrote SDAH107, “God Moves in Mysterious Way,” and SDAH 315, “O for a Closer Walk!)
CLEANSING FOUNTAIN, an early American pentatonic melody, uses only 5 notes of the ordinary eight-note scale. If transposed to the correct key, it can be played entirely on the black notes of the piano. Pentatonic tunes omit the fourth and seventh notes of the well-known octave and are typical of many Scottish airs, e.g., “Loch Lomond.” They are also common in African melodies and hence in tunes used by, and popular among, North American negroes, for example: “Nobody knows the trouble I see.” Examples of such tunes in SDAH are BRADBURY, No. 190; I LOVE THEE, No. 236; and the unnamed tune for No. 279
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