There is a Fountain Filled with Blood

 “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” (1772) was one of the first hymns William Cowper wrote after his first attack of deep depression, when he attempted to commit suicide repeatedly. 

North American Review, January, 1834, wrote the following: As the time (for his bar exam) drew nigh, his agony became more and more intense; he hoped and believed that madness would come to relieve him; he attempted also to make up his mind to commit suicide, though his conscience bore stern testimony against it; he could not by any argument persuade himself that it was right, but this desperation prevailed, and he procured from an apothecary the means of self-destruction…” He repeatedly attempted suicide, but something was stopping him each time. However, “he felt as if he had offended God so deeply that his guilt could never be forgiven, and his whole heart was filled with tumultuous pangs of despair. Madness was not far off, or rather madness was already come.” There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood - Truth in History

He then wrote this verse:

     There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’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 have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
 Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
 And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

     Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
 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.

Cowper, because of his bouts with depression, kept the theme of ‘redeeming love’ at the center of his heart and life. “To 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.” He could not, would not take His eyes off the Savior who died for him. This was his only true hope.

For all who know depression as an experience, this is our only true hope. It must remain our theme. However, even those who are emotionally ‘tough’ must keep it their theme too, and not rely on the flesh. The grace of our Lord will also not only heal us emotionally, it will grant us gospel obedience.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." Romans 3:23-25