Augustus Montague Toplady, was born at Farnham, Surrey, November 4, 1740. His father was an officer in the British army and his mother was a woman of remarkable piety. While on a visit in Ireland in his sixteenth year he was awakened and converted at a service held in a barn in Codymain. In 1758, through the influence of sermons preached by Dr. Manton on the seventeenth chapter of John, he became an extreme Calvinist in his theology, which brought him later into conflict with Mr. Wesley and the Methodists. He was ordained to the ministry in the Church of England in 1762, and in 1768 he became vicar of Broadhembury, a small living in Devonshire, which he held until his death. When his health worsened and he was on the brink of death, he told his physician “why, that is a good sign that my death is fast approaching; and, blessed be God, I can add that my heart beats stronger and stronger every day for glory.”  He died of consumption August 11, 1778. His volume of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship was published in 1776. which included four hundred and nineteen hymns, such as the well known “Rock of Ages”¹.

How vast the benefits divine,
Which we in Christ possess!
We are redeemed from guilt and shame,
And called to holiness.
But not for works which we have done,
Or shall hereafter do;
Hath God decreed on sinful me
Salvation to bestow.

The glory, Lord, from first to last,
Is due to Thee alone;
Aught to ourselves we dare not take,
Or rob Thee of Thy crown.
Our glorious Surety undertook
To satisfy for man,
And grace was given us in Him
Before the world began.

This is Thy will, that in Thy love
We ever should abide;
That earth and hell should not prevail
To turn Thy Word aside.
Not one of all the chosen race
But shall to Heav’n attain,
Partake on earth the purposed grace
And then with Jesus reign.

¹hymnary.org/person/Toplady_Augustus

This hymn is another addition given to us by William Cowper who struggled with poor mental health. When Rev. John Newton was curate of the market town of Olney, he invited Cowper and the family he was staying with, who recently suffered a tragedy, to move under his care. Newton’s pastoral influence was vital in encouraging Cowper to apply his talents toward writing hymns. He wrote most of his best hymns in this period before relapsing into a deep depression in 1773. “There is a fountain filled with blood” was included in the infamous collection “Olney Hymns” (1779), a collection of hymns written by Newton and Cowper¹.

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’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.

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.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more:
Be saved, to sin no more,
Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.

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.

When this poor lisping, stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.

¹hymnologyarchive.com/there-is-a-fountain