What a
Friend We Have in Jesus
Sung by: Patti Page
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.
Do thy friends
despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee;
thou will find a solace
there.
Text: Joseph M. Scriven,
1820-1886
Music: Charles C. Converse, 1832-1918
Joseph
Scriven was born in 1819 of prosperous parents in Dublin, Ireland.
He was a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin. At the age of twenty-five,
he decided to leave his native country and migrate to Canada.
His reasons for leaving were apparently due to the religious influence
of the Plymouth Brethren, which resulted in his estrangement
from his family, and the accidental drowning of his fiancée the night before
their
planned wedding.
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" was never intended for publication.
Upon learning of his mother's serious illness and unable to return
to visit her in far-off Dublin, he wrote a letter of comfort and enclosed
the words of this hymn. Some time later when he himself was ill, a friend
who came to visit him saw the poem scribbled on a scratch pad near
his bed. The friend asked him if he had written the poem. In typical modesty,
he replied, "The Lord and I did it between us." Later the poem
was published in a small collection of his poems. The collection was simply
entitled Hymns and Other Verses.
The composer of the music, Charles C. Converse, was a well-educated
Christian whose talents ranged from law to professional music. Though he was
an excellent musician and composer with many of his works performed
by the leading American orchestras of the day, he is best remembered
for this simple hymn. The hymn was discovered by Ira D. Sankey and included
in his well-known collection, Sankey's Gospel Hymn's Number One.
Later Sankey wrote, "The last hymn which went into the book became
one of the first in favor."
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