There is a Fountain Filled With Blood
William Cowper’s classic song was written during his time in an asylum after a mental breakdown. He learned the truth of Romans 3:25 and saw an Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in them. This great hymn about Christ’s death is the result.
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. This is my first episode of 2026, and we're travelling back into the 1700s to look at another great hymn today. If you love hymns, you'll love this channel. I have really enjoyed learning hymns myself through this series - the backgrounds and the history behind these hymns. So please subscribe and share this around. I'd love for these videos to reach more people.
What do you know about the song There is a Fountain Filled with Blood? This is a hymn that I never knew and I had to learn it this week. I just love this song now. Absolutely love it. It's so profound. If you have any memories associated with this hymn and its stories, or if the words touch you today in some way, please put it in the comments below. I'd love to read your thoughts. Check out the 100 plus episodes of Friday Classic Hymns that I've done so far. I've done all the favourite hymns, including, by the way, another one by this very author. His other very famous one, God Moves in a Mysterious Way, is the title of that one. Check those out.
But today, let me tell you the story of There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.
The Story Behind "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood"
This hymn was written by William Cowper, who was born in the 1730s in Hertfordshire, England. His mother died when he was only six years old, and this had a profound impact on him. His poetry later often expressed his great grief at losing his mother. He was sent to a boarding school as a young man and suffered a lot of pain and abuse from the older boys. He was truly bullied and hurt a lot as a child, and was always a very sensitive and frail person, having grown up in these circumstances.
His father directed him to go and study law at an early age, and he passed all his examinations at the age of 18 and then had a very unsuccessful law practice for a number of years. He had such low self-esteem, this poor man, and it just impacted everything. He couldn't do his work properly. He struggled and struggled. His father tried to help him, but got frustrated because this man just struggled along the way that he did.
Eventually, it was arranged for him to take on a clerkship at the House of Lords, but William felt absolutely overwhelmed by this. When the time came for him to take his final exam, he had an absolute meltdown. He had a complete mental breakdown and, in fact, made several suicide attempts. Eventually, he ended up in an asylum for 18 months. During this time in the asylum, he began to read the Bible and eventually became a Christian. He actually found healing at the foot of Christ as he read the Word and as he learned to pray.
The story is that a visiting relative actually came to tell him the story of Jesus. Cowper, hearing this, burst into tears and said, "Finally, I have a ray of hope, a ray of light." He opened his Bible at random and it fell to Romans 3:25, which says, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood", talking about Jesus. This touched his heart deeply. Cowper later said this: "This shone upon me the full beams of the sufficiency of the atonement that Christ has made, my pardon in His blood, the fullness and completeness of my justification. And in a moment I believed and received the gospel."
During this time in the asylum, he wrote this beautiful hymn. After this, he became good friends with John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. Actually, the two of them wrote together and put together a hymnal called Olney Hymns in the late 1700s. But this is one of the special ones that has endured all this time.
It was originally titled "Praise for the Fountain Opened", and it's based on Zechariah 13:1, which says this: "In that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness." Cowper obviously saw this fulfilled in Christ and Christ's blood flowing as that fountain, and so this became one of his best-known works.
The tune that is associated with the song that I'll sing is an old American folk tune. It's used in a number of different settings, and it's become quite well-known for being used with this hymn.
William Cowper never really recovered. He was up and down and up and down the rest of his life. He had strange and complicated relationships that ended up hurting him even more, I think, and struggled the rest of his days to accept that he could be loved by God. The story, though, is that on his deathbed he looked up and said the words, "I am not shut out of heaven after all," and died shortly after saying that. Perhaps he did accept the love of Christ before he died.
This is also a very influential hymn. A lot of people have loved this. Charles Spurgeon spoke about this being a great hymn, and, in fact, words from this hymn are inscribed on Spurgeon's tombstone. A very special song indeed. It's one of the great songs about the death of Christ, and as I've learned it, I've really come to know that this is one of the best.
What Do the Lyrics of "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood" Mean?
Verse 1
This lovely first verse says:
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
The fountain filled with blood is, as I said, based on that verse in Zechariah, where it was promised for the people of God that sin and uncleanness would be cleansed by this fountain. The New Testament claims that the blood of Jesus is that fountain. Emmanuel is Jesus - God with us.
This is the great news of salvation, that we have a fountain poured out for our forgiveness. The blood that He shed is what saves us. The New Testament often talks about the blood of Christ, which was poured out at the cross so that we could go free, and we don't have to be sacrificed by God in His wrath and His anger at sin. It is the substitutionary atonement which some people really can't stand the thought of. But it's the fact that He gave His life and shed His blood so that we don't have to give our lives and shed our blood as we should, for the punishment of our sins.
Sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
I love this - anyone, no matter how far they've strayed from God, no matter how guilty, no matter how stained, can lose their guilty stains by coming to the cross and putting their faith in Christ. In that moment, His blood, in a sense, washes over them and their stains are removed. This is the good news. Do you know this? Have you been blessed and forgiven by the blood of Christ? If you place your faith in Christ, you can have your sins washed away. The fountain is available. The way to access it is faith in His grace.
Verse 2
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.
Of course, there was that man, the thief, crucified beside Jesus. In Luke 23 we read of how initially he had been hurling insults at Jesus. But then it's as if his eyes were opened to the fact that Jesus was, in fact, the Saviour. He cried out to Jesus and said, "Remember me, Jesus, when You come into Your kingdom." Jesus assured him that he would be in the kingdom because of his faith, because he had placed his faith in Christ. Just as that dying thief received that fountain, that blood, and was cleansed of his own sin, so may we be cleansed of our sin.
I love the second half of this verse:
Oh, may I there, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
Just as I am, I'm as vile as the man on the cross next to Jesus. I'm also a sinful man. Scripture says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Yes, we're all as vile as he, but though we are as vile as he, we may also come to this fountain and have our sins washed away. Again, I ask you, have you been cleansed because you placed your faith in Christ, whose blood flowed like a fountain at Calvary?
Verse 3
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power.
Christ died as the Lamb of God, and this is a reference to the old Jewish Passover feast, where a lamb would have to be sacrificed. Jesus was the Passover Lamb, the final Passover Lamb. There's no need to sacrifice a lamb ever again to atone for sin, because Christ is the Lamb of God who gave His life. When His blood was shed, it was shed like a fountain. It flowed like a fountain, so that you and I may be forgiven, and it will never lose its power.
I love that - one sacrifice will have power for all of eternity to cover the sin of every sinner who comes looking for forgiveness.
Till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more.
It'll never lose its power. One day all the Church will have been saved, and we'll sin no more, as we are all glorified in heaven, and celebrate together and give God the glory for what He's done. The Church of God is the people who have been redeemed by the blood. The Church of God includes anybody who's put their faith in Christ. We look forward to celebrating with all those before and after us who will receive the forgiveness at the fountain. Don't we?
Verse 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.
When I saw Jesus on the cross and His blood flowing, when by faith I recognised Him as my Saviour, since then, redeeming love has been my theme, my story, my obsession. This is like Cowper's testimony of him saying when he finally had faith, redeeming love took over his life.
I wonder if you can sing this and say, "When by faith I recognised what Christ had done on the cross, I have been in His love, and it's been my everything ever since." That's a beautiful verse. Isn't that what being a Christian is? It's being someone who revels in the redeeming love of Christ which came at Calvary. Oh, thank You. Thank You, Jesus, for what You've done there.
Verse 5
But when this lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave,
then in a nobler, sweeter song I'll sing Thy power to save.
Now he's looking forward and says, one day when I die and my tongue is silent, I will actually still be singing a nobler and sweeter song in heaven because of what You've done for me. Again, it's this anticipation of one day when I die, I will join the saints in heaven and sing the song.
Conclusion
What a beautiful hymn. These words have touched me deeply. I don't know about you. Again, I ask you to please share in the comments what words touched you today. What in this beautiful poem spoke to you as we went through it? This was just so beautiful to me and I want to sing this at our church, I really do. It's actually quite singable - the old melody is quite singable.
Thank you to those of you who support the work I do here. As many of you know, I'm a pastor at a church here in South Africa. But I also do this once a week and I record daily devotions, I record songs, I record Friday Classic Hymns. Your contributions help me to do this and care for my family. So thank you. If you want to check out my Patreon, I've always got downloads of the classic hymns for you if you're on Patreon for any amount a month and you get those. You can also support via PayPal. I just really appreciate your kindness towards me and my family in supporting this work I do.
Let's sing of this fountain, and I hope it'll humble us as we remember again what He's done for us on the cross.
References
Anderson, T.K. 2009. 60 Hymn Stories. Nyakod: Cape Coast
McLelland, J. 1994. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
Osbeck, K.W. 1985. 101 Hymn Stories. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
