Virtual accompanist
Play “The Pool of Bethesda”
Free same-meter accompaniment for The Pool of Bethesda (John Newton): organ, piano or guitar playing the tune ST. THOMAS (Aaron Williams) in four-part harmony, 8 verses, with the words on screen. Choose the key and speed, add an introduction, project the words on a TV, or practice your own choir part. Made for churches and home groups without a musician.
Sung here to ST. THOMAS (Aaron Williams), a Short Meter (6.6.8.6) tune — not necessarily the tune usually paired with this text. Any tune in the same meter fits the words.
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- 1Beside the gospel pool
- Appointed for the poor,
- From year to year, my helpless soul
- Has waited for a cure.
- 2How often have I seen
- The healing waters move;
- And others round me stepping in,
- Their efficacy prove!
- 3But my complaints remain;
- I feel the very same;
- As full of guilt. and fear, and pain,
- As when at first I came.
- 4O, would the Lord appear
- My malady to heal;
- He knows how long I've languish'd here,
- And what distress I feel.
- 5How often have I thought,
- Why should I longer lie?
- Surely the mercy I have sought
- Is not for such as I?
- 6But whither can I go?
- There is not other pool
- Where streams of sov'reign virtue flow
- To make a sinner whole.
- 7Here, then from day to day,
- I'll wait, and hope, and try;
- Can Jesus hear a sinner pray,
- Yet suffer him to die?
- 8No--he is full of grace;
- He never will permit
- A soul, that fain would see his face,
- To perish at his feet.
About this music
ST. THOMAS — Aaron Williams. Setting: "The Church Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged" (Episcopal), 1905.. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project, copied from Episcopal Hymnal, 1905 Hymn 485.; music and setting are in the public domain. The words above are from the hymnal cited on the The Pool of Bethesda page.
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