BESIDE THE GOSPEL POOL

“Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called…Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.” John 5:3

John Newton (1725-1807)

Words: John New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­iv­er, 1779).

Music: St. An­drew (Barn­by), Jo­seph Barn­by, 1866 (MI­DI, score).


Joseph Barnby (1838-1896)


Christ Healing by the Well of Bethesda, by Carl H. Bloch (1834-1890)

Beside the Gospel pool
Appointed for the poor;
From year to year, my helpless soul
Has waited for a cure.

How often have I seen
The healing waters move;
And others, round me, stepping in
Their efficacy prove.

But my complaints remain,
I feel the very same;
As full of guilt, and fear, and pain.
As when at first I came.

O would the Lord appear
My malady to heal;
He knows how long I’ve languished here;
And what distress I feel.

How often have I thought
Why should I longer lie?
Surely the mercy I have sought
Is not for such as I.

But whither can I go?
There is no other pool
Where streams of sovereign virtue flow
To make a sinner whole.

Here then, from day to day,
I’ll wait, and hope, and try;
Can Jesus hear a sinner pray,
Yet suffer him to die?

No: He is full of grace;
He never will permit
A soul, that fain would see His face,
To perish at His feet.