Hymn History "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood."

Good afternoon

On this Lord's day as we read the word, worship and praise our Great God, I wanted to share the story of a powerful hymn about the blood of Christ ans its power to wash our sins away.

The history and words are included and I inserted a link to a very good choral & instrumental performance in hopes that you might be able to sing along.

William Cowper was born in Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England, on November 15, 1731.  His father was an English clergyman and his mother came from a prominent English family of royalty.  

While he achieved much in his early years, Cowper was physically frail and emotionally sensitive throughout his childhood.  His mother died when he was six years old and that experience had a deep impact upon him.  He was never able to deal with his grief appropriately.

He passed his law exam and was actually licensed as a lawyer, but the thought of appearing before the bar for his final oral examination frightened him to the extent that he had a mental breakdown from which he never recovered.

Despite the fact that William was very intelligent, and very driven, it was the death of his mother when he was six years old that made him into an emotionally fragile, and unstable man. It was just before William went to take his final bar examination that his hidden anxieties surfaced. Added to his fear of his bar exam he suffered a failed love affair, and as a result of both; had a mental break down from which he never recovered. 

This led to an unsuccessful suicide attempt which then led to the next eighteen months he spent in an insane asylum.

First, I would like to briefly paint a picture on what an insane asylum looked like in the 18th century. These were places where it was believed that they were locking away the “animals” of society. 

Asylums were dark, and dirty dungeons where torture treatments were used such as branding their skulls to “bring them to their senses”, or swinging them around by a harness to “calm their nerves”. William was subjected to these terrible conditions.

Despite his depression William found a way to restore his mind.  It was during this time that he began to bury himself in scripture. Though, as a child he had a spiritual upbringing, it wasn’t until this point that William truly began to wrestle with what it meant to have a true relationship with Christ and with his eternal salvation. 

It was during his time in the asylum when he began to read the Scriptures.  Battling severe depression, he remembered his spiritual upbringing as a child.  He struggled concerning his own salvation.  

One day, while reading the Book of Romans, he was confronted with the words of the Apostle Paul who said:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. -Romans 3:23-25

Aware of his sin and the Holy Spirit drawing him, Cowper received the gospel and began a relationship with Jesus.  He was gloriously converted at the age of thirty-three years old in 1764.

After partial recovery of his melancholia and mental depression, William Cowper moved into the home of a retired evangelical minister named Morley Unwin. There he received the necessary spiritual encouragement and very patient care at the hands of Rev. Unwin and his wife Mary. 

After five years Rev. Unwin died and his widow decided it best at the request of Rev. John Newton, to move with her family to Olney, England. William Cowper was invited to move with the Unwin family to Olney and to attend the parish Anglican Church pastored by Rev. Newton who was the author of the hymn, Amazing Grace.

While living in the Olney Parish, William Cowper lived in a small house whose backyard joined the parsonage yard where Rev. Newton and his family resided. Here at the Olney Parish, Newton and Cowper became very close friends and worked together in the writing of religious poetry for the services of the church. 

Rev. Newton became a spiritual father to Cowper and a real source of needed inspiration in helping him overcome his spells of religious doubts, mental depressions and emotional morbidity.

Even after Cowper’s conversion, he endured several periods of time when he seriously doubted the love of God for him and his security as a believer.

Both Newton and Cowper were very talented poets and writers of religious verse and with their combined efforts produced the famous Olney Hymns. This book of 349 hymns became one of the most important contributions to musical worship in evangelical Christianity. 

Among the 67 hymns written by William Cowper while living at Olney under the patient care of Mrs. Unwin and spiritual inspiration of his pastor John Newton, the hymn that testifies of his final peace with his Savior stands out as one of the anthems of the church and a monument to the sovereign grace of God. 

While sitting alone one day at his desk in his little house, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and with the words of the prophet Zechariah 13:1 fresh in his mind, he began to pen these comforting words:

 “Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die” William Cowper penned these words not long before his death on April 25, 1800. 

It was at the writing of these words that he became aware of Christ’s complete atonement for his sins. What I love about this story is how his story is evident through this hymn, but the fifth stanza is simply breathtaking .  

A man who struggled with his speech and his confidence would pen the words: “When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song I’ll sing thy power to save.”