THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 223
from afar of a young officer dying in India, and sending home his Bible with the hymn pasted on the flyleaf, as the precious memorial of that which had brought him to the Lord. The Rev. E. P. Hammond received a letter from a woman who had attended one of his meetings in a Presbyterian Church in America. No one spoke to her. She had committed theft and been a bad mother to her children, but when the congrega tion sang, Let some drops now fall on me, and Blessing others, O bless me, it seemed to reach the woman s soul. I thought, Jesus can accept me " Even me," and it brought me to His feet, and I feel the burden of sin removed.
Pass me not ! Thy lost one bringing ;
Bind my heart, O Lord, to Thee ; While the streams of life are springing,
Blessing others, O bless me Even me,
is the closing verse.
The hymn was printed in Mrs. Codner s Among the Brambles, and other Lessons from Life,
Leave, in ver. 2, is a happy substitute for curse.
Hymn 332. There is a fountain filled with blood.
WILLIAM COWPER (60).
Based on Zech. xiii. i ; probably written in 1771. Given in Dr. Conyers (Rector of St. Paul s, Deptford) Collection of Psalms and Hymns, 1772. In Olney Hymns, 1779 it is headed Praise for the Fountain opened.
Cowper wrote
And there have I, as vile as he, Wash d all my sins away.
James Montgomery rewrote the first verse, at the Rev. E. Bickersteth s suggestion, for Cotterill s Selection, 1819
From Calvary s cross a Fountain flows
Of water and of blood, More healing than Bethesda s pool,
Or famed Siloam s flood.
He thought that Cowper s verse was objectionable, as representing a fountain being filled, instead of springing up; I think my version is unexceptionable. Nevertheless it has not taken the place of Cowper s. This was the favourite hymn of Dr. John Mason Good, the London physician and man of
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