There’s a Fountain Free – Mary Bridges Canedy Slade

A Massachusetts native, a minister’s wife, and a 50-year old are just some of the characteristics that could be linked to Mary Bridges Canedy Slade in 1876. She was also a teacher and an editor, and therefore someone who might be called a persuader, or a guide for others. That might be most clearly what one might think of Mary when the words of her hymn “There’s a Fountain Free” are scrutinized.  She asks a leading question of those who choose to sing her poem, mingled with a radiant portrayal of what she thinks is much more than the two basic elements commonly called H₂O. She says it’s free…what would you and I do if signs like the one shown here instead became the norm? Perhaps the picture she draws is this way because of the source of the water, and because she says it quenches more than physical thirst.     

Mary Slade was most likely a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, including the city known as Fall River, from where she composed “There’s a Fountain Free”. Did Mary gather her thoughts about water and a fountain from her surroundings? This is a plausible proposition that one would consider for other writers, in fact. Let’s hypothesize for a moment, admittedly in the absence of any other compelling evidence telling us the reason for the song’s composition. Fall River, as its name suggests, has some geographic features that have contributed to its development. In short, it has lots of water -- about 17% of the city is liquid, including rivers, ponds, lakes, and a waterfall that once played an important role – in fact, that was part of the place’s economic engine. So, as Mary lived and took note of her community, did she note these features and intentionally draw an analogy to God’s kingdom? All of Fall River’s abundant water, available to everyone in the area to enjoy, was certainly an advantage to its inhabitants, maybe one that most took for granted. Mary, on the other hand, knew and treasured water, particularly the variety of this quenching commodity from the Divine hand. It has the ‘love’ (v.1) ingredient, as well as a living quality (v.2). While others of her time may have found their own water unpotable on occasion, Mary compared God’s water to ‘crystal’ (v. 2) and said it was ‘pure’ (v.3). While Mary did not openly share the source event for ‘There’s a Fountain Free’, we can know that she was trying to sway those whom she knew. Her poem words coax hearers with the question ‘Will you come to the fountain free?’ What better analog can a writer use than what’s within her own field of vision? Can you and I hear her telling a neighbor ‘See the river or that pond over there? Now, what do you think those are like in God’s home?’

And so, Mary’s conversation with a neighbor would have begun. Natural water has no flavor, of course, perhaps because it needs none. Instead, it takes on another concoction’s taste when merged. A generous Creator certainly is able to satisfy my thirst with other choice drinks, even using water to craft His gift, as His son did on one occasion (John 2:1-10). Yet, natural water is just how He intended it – pure, as Mary reminds us with her words. Water’s one of the simplest molecules, the basic necessity that scientists hunt when searching for life. So, how can it be free, since it’s so valuable? Mary suggests the answer in her words. Because it’s from Him.     
   
See this site for very brief information on the author: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/l/a/slade_mbc.htm
See this site for all the song’s verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/a/f/tafountf.htm

See this site for description of place in Massachusetts where author lived: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_River,_Massachusetts