Great Source of being and of love. P. Doddridge. [River of Living Water.] First published in his (posthumous) Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 147, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "The waters of the Sanctuary healing the Dead Sea." To this is added, in order to explain the 5th stanza, “To the Dead Sea the waters flow," the note:—
"The Sea or Lake, where Sodom, Gomorrah, &c, had stood, which was putrid and poysonous; and ancient writers say that no Fish could Live in it."
The same text, but with the omission of the note, was repeated in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the Hymns, &c, 1839, No. 165. In some modern hymn-books stanza v. is omitted, as in Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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