Close by a village school
A shaded fountain stood.
And boys and girls had cooling draughts
As often as they would.
The fountain ever flowed,
Its streams were free to all,
And many children loved to come
And see the waterfall.
Some drank it on the spot,
And many twice a day
Would bring their empty pitchers there
And bear them filled away.
But though the thirsty longed
These waters to obtain,
And with them fully quenched their thirst,
They thirsted soon again.
Not so when thirsty souls
The Living waters try,
For these, outflowing from the Rock,
The heart can satisfy.
They never thirst again,
The Lord of glory said,
Whose poor and needy souls to Christ
The Fount of life, are lead.
’Tis there a child gets life,
Though dead in sins before;
’Tis thence a little child may drink,
And go and thirst no more.