Monday, November 5, 2012

What A Friend We Have in Jesus


HYMN WRITER: Joseph Scriven

HYMN HISTORY: Irish born Joseph M. Scriven (1819-1896) was 25 years old, in love and to be married. The day before his wedding his fiance died in a tragic drowning accident. Heartbroken, Joseph sailed from his homeland to start a new life in Canada. While in Canada working as a teacher, he fell in love again and became engaged to Eliza Roche, a relative of one of his students. Once again, Joseph's hopes and dreams were shattered when Eliza became ill and died before the wedding could take place.

Although one can only imagine the turmoil within this young man, history tells us that his faith in God sustained him. Soon after Eliza's death Joseph joined the Plymouth Brethren and began preaching for a Baptist church. He never married, but spent the remainder of his life giving all his time, money and even the clothes off his own back to help the less fortunate and to spread the love and compassion of Jesus wherever he went.

Around the same time that Eliza died, Joseph received word from Ireland that his mother was ill. He could not go to be with her, so he wrote a letter of comfort and enclosed one of his poems entitled What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

Many years later a friend was sitting with Joseph, as he was very ill. During this visit, the friend was very impressed when he ran across his poems, including What a Friend We Have in Jesus. As a result of this visit, almost 30 years after his letter of comfort to his mother, Joseph's poems were published in a book called Hymns and Other Verses. Soon thereafter, noted musician Charles C. Converse (1834-1918) put music to one of those poems: What a Friend We Have in Jesus.


SPECIAL NOTE: NEVER WRITTEN AS A HYMN BUT AS A LETTER OF COMFORT. 

BIBLE VERSE:  Philippians 4:6 – “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

HYMN LYRICS:

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He'll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.

11 comments:

  1. Kind of strange that artist such as Scriven and Spafford could in spite of such adversity and sorrow could write such inspiring hymns.

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  2. What a golden lesson I profit for reading this,I begun to love the hymn.
    Thank you Michael.God bless you

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  3. I always pray that the Lord can give me such a faith to be able to stand firm in troublesome moments

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  4. Thankyou for this information. I love this hymn and will share about it tomorrow in a sermon.

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  5. it is so sad that both of the people he loved both died i would never imagine what was going through his head i fell sad fore him his life was so hard poor man

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  6. God loved him so much, thats why he could compose such a inspiring hymn amid misfortune..

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  7. I have never heard the 4th verse sung by anyone except by myself. I found online that there is a 3 verse version and a 4 verse version. While the 4th verse may not quite fit the intention of the poem written by Joseph Scriven, to me it is the most important verse in the song since we will be praising GOD rather than praying to him. I would like to know how the 4th verse came to be added to some versions of the song.

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  8. Praise God for this inspiration 🙌.

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  9. So wonderful! Such an inspiring story! Though Joseph was so sad, he could stand for the Lord, instead of turning back. And the most impressive thing is that he could encourage his mother with this beautiful hymn, which continues to encourage all the generations later! Thank you for sharing this!

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