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Beside The Gospel Pool/The Gospel Pool (Sacred Harp 444t)
Shape-Note Gospel; Words: John Newton, Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779); Tune: Eld. Edmund Dumas, 1869
ARTIST: Words: John Newton; Tune: Eld. Edmund Dumas, 1869
CATEGORY: Traditional Shape-Note Gospel;
DATE: 1779 John Newton
RECORDING INFO:
OTHER NAMES: "The Gospel Pool"
SOURCES: Sacred Harp
NOTES: The lyrics to "Beside the Gospel Pool" by John Newton, appear in Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779). Music was written to Newton's words in 1866 by Joseph Barnby (1838-1896). The Sacred Harp music was written by Eld. Edmund Dumas in 1869.
The entry in the Sacred Harp includes one stanza:
The Gospel Pool 444t
Tune: Eld. Edmund Dumas, 1869
Lyrics: John Newton, 1779
Meter: Short Meter (6,6,8,6)
Beside the gospel pool,
Appointed for the poor,
From time to time my helpless soul
Has waited for a cure.
The gospel pool refers to John 5.2-12: Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk
The man is waiting for the water to be stirred because that was thought to be a sign of the presence of the healing Spirit -- if you could get into the pool at that moment you would be cured. The writer, John Newton--of Amazing Grace, is using the literal pool of the miracle story as an analogy or image for the healing power of the gospel message, the good news of Jesus Christ.
“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
BESIDE THE GOSPEL POOL- John Newton (1725-1807) Words: John Newton, Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779). Music: St. Andrew (Barnby), Joseph Barnby, 1866
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.
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