What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Joseph Scriven was born in Ireland in 1819. He was educated and received a degree from Trinity College in Dublin and became a teacher. With plans to settle down and soon to marry, life was good for Joseph. Unfortunately, the day before his wedding, his future wife drowned. The grief was more than he could bear, so Joseph moved to Canada to start over. There, he met and fell in love again, with Eliza Rice, and planned to be married, again. It is unthinkable that you could lose so much in one young lifetime but weeks before they were to be wed, Eliza became sick and died from her illness. Joseph was only 25. From this heartache, and through faith in his God, a mission was born. Joseph took a vow of poverty and began to help the poor and the handicapped in any way he could. For ten years he made himself available to come alongside those that were in need and he found comfort and purpose in serving. Then, unbelievably, heartache would strike again! His mother, still, in Ireland and Scriven in Canada, became very ill and he did not have the funds to help her or to go and be with her. He penned the words to this poem for her and it has since comforted, encouraged, and uplifted generations, the title of the poem is “What a friend we have in Jesus” which later became a hymn.