There's A Fountain

William Cowper was born in Great Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire in November 1731.
His mother died when he was only six years old and this tragedy left a life-long scar of grief. When he was ten he was sent to boarding school and there his suffering was added to by the cruelty of the older boys.

However, he survived and at eighteen began to study law. Although he passed all the bar examinations he never achieved much success in his profession. In nine years of law practice, so-called, Cowper never once felt worthy to serve people nor could he manage to attract business for himself.

Next, a clerkship in the House of Lords was arranged for him, but still he felt unfit for the task and was in such misery that he made several attempts to take his own life. The failure of these suicide efforts, compounded by two unhappy love affairs, increased his feelings of self contempt; so that as he walked the streets he felt that all eyes were fixed upon him in scorn.

Because of his suicidal tendencies Cowper was confined, for a brief period, in St. Albans Asylum and, remarkably, it was during this time that his famous hymn was written.

A visiting relative sought to ease the sick man's depression by telling him of Jesus' power to save. Cowper burst into tears saying, 'It is the first time that I have seen a ray of hope.' When the friend had gone the poet opened his Bible at random and, in the providence of God, his eyes fell on those words in Romans Ch. 3 v 25: 'Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.'

This scriptural account of Christ's redeeming work touched Cowper's heart, causing him to later testify thus:

'There shone upon me the full beams of the sufficiency of the atonement that Christ has made; my pardon in His blood; the fulness and completeness of my justification and, in a moment, I believed and received the gospel.'

So thrilled was he by his new-found hope that he described it in verse, basing it on the words of Zechariah Ch. 13 v 1: In that day there shall be a fountain opened up for sin and uncleanness.'

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Loose all their guilty stain.

It was William Cowper's great hope that other troubled souls would be helped by his hymns.

Read more...