There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood

William Cowper, who struggled with severe depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life, wrote this hymn based on Zechariah 13:1 ('On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity') and Revelation 1:5 ('To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood'). Its unflinching focus on the atoning blood of Christ made it controversial in more refined circles but beloved among evangelical revivalists. John Wesley found it too graphic, but Harriet Beecher Stowe called it the greatest hymn ever written.