Joseph Scriven, the blessed song writer was born in 1819 in a Christian home in Ireland. He was graduated from the famous Trinity College. Just a day before his wedding, his fiancée died in an accident.

When he was 25 years of age, he moved to Canada. The following years he committed his life to serve the poor. The work of Joseph Scriven was a great comfort to many widows and the destitute. Subsequently his engagement to a girl named Eliza was fixed. However, a few days before their wedding she too left the world due to Pneumonia. Joseph still continued to serve the poor with faithfulness. 

In 1855 Joseph was down with sickness. When a friend of him paid him a visit, he saw him scribbling something on a paper as he lay on his sick bed. “What are these lines? Who wrote these?” Joseph’s friend asked him. “This was written together by Christ Jesus and me”. Joseph replied. Well, let me read this…His friend read the lines of the song. 

“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 Saviour, still our refuge—

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 wilt find a solace there “

       Let this song be a consolation for my sick mom who is in Ireland; said Joseph Scriven to his friend. Joseph went through many fiery trials in his life. In this midst of these, what sustained him was the revelation “Jesus is my Friend”. 

      There is only one who knows your actual state, you who reads these lines. That is none but your friend Jesus. He knows all. Sin, troubles, trials, anxieties, loneliness, fear… all of that…

Tell all of these to the Lord. He has carried all of our sins and illnesses…This is a prayer song.  

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Tell Jesus. He shall carry us in his arms. We have our solace there, and courage…

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

https://youtu.be/YTpUQO0aryw