Scripture Verse

A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me some water to drink. John 4:7

Introduction

portrait
Edward Denny (1796–1889)

Words: Ed­ward Den­ny, Hymns and Po­ems (Lon­don: James Nis­bet, 1849), pag­es 67–69, alt.

Music: Be­ati­tu­do John B. Dykes, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

A well of wa­ter in Scrip­ture is the sym­bol of grace; and our bless­ed Lord, by the very same well which was giv­en by Ja­cob of old to Jo­seph his son, may be viewed as the true Jo­seph, with His branch­es in­deed run­ning ov­er the wall, name­ly, His love go­ing forth, be­yond the bounds of that peo­ple to whom alone he was sent…to bless, not on­ly this poor Sa­ma­ri­tan wo­man, but all in like man­ner, whose souls are, like hers, athirst for the wa­ter of life.

Edward Denny

Lyrics

Sweet was the hour, O Lord, to Thee,
At Sy­char’s lone­ly well,
When that poor out­cast heard Thee there
Thy great sal­va­tion tell.

Thither she came; but O, her heart
All filled with earth­ly care,
Dreamed not of Thee, nor thought to find
The Hope of Is­ra­el there.

Lord! ’twas Thy pow­er un­seen that drew
The stray one to that place,
In so­li­tude to learn from Thee
The sec­rets of Thy grace.

There Ja­cob’s er­ring daugh­ter found
Those streams unk­nown before,
The wa­ter brooks of life that make
The wea­ry thirst no more.

And Lord, to us, as vile as she,
Thy gra­cious lips have told
That mys­te­ry of love re­vealed
At Ja­cob’s well of old.

In spi­rit, Lord, we’ve sat with Thee
Beside the spring­ing well
Of life and peace—and heard Thee there
Its heal­ing vir­tues tell.

Dead to the world, we dream no more
Of earth­ly plea­sures now;
Our deep, di­vine un­fail­ing spring
Of grace and glo­ry Thou!

No hope of rest in aught beside,
No beau­ty, Lord, we see;
And, like Sa­ma­ria’s daugh­ter, seek,
And find our all in Thee.

illustration
Woman at the Well
Carl H. Bloch (1834–1890)