Scripture Verse

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 221: The Spir­it’s in­flu­enc­es com­pared to liv­ing wa­ter.

Music: Ves­tal in Har­mo­nia Sac­ra, by Jo­seph Funk, fifth edi­tion, 1851 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Funk (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Blest Je­sus, source of grace di­vine,
What soul-re­fresh­ing streams are Thine!
O bring these heal­ing wa­ters nigh,
Or we must droop, and fall, and die.

No tra­vel­er through de­sert lands,
’Midst scorch­ing suns, and burn­ing sands,
More eager longs for cool­ing rain,
Or pants the cur­rent to ob­tain.

Our long­ing souls aloud would sing,
Spring up, ce­les­ti­al fount­ain, spring;
To an abun­dant ri­ver flow,
And cheer this thirs­ty land be­low.

May this blest tor­rent near my side
Through all the de­sert gent­ly glide;
Then in Em­ma­nu­el’s land above,
Spread to a sea of joy and love.