“And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” (Revelation 21:6)

Christian hymns were often written as deeply moving poems and later added to music. We dare not exegete hymns to discover spiritual truth, but we can use them as spiritual aids to help focus our scriptural study. One such old-time poem is the favorite “There Is a Fountain,” sung in churches today. Its five verses can inspire Christians. Verse one reads:

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

Before Jesus came, His unique birth was foretold by an angel and prophesied in Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,” meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He referred to Himself as “a well of water” (John 4:14) available to all.

The true understanding of the communion table, couched in the symbolic, precious words of Scripture (and our hymn), undergirds a lasting memorial to the work of Christ. “This cup is the new testament [i.e., covenant] in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance [i.e., a memorial] of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25).

The blood which was shed applies to believers, blessedly taking away our sin, for “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). A blessed truth indeed! JDM