Another Special Life in Christ:

Joseph Scriven:

His Life Before Jesus Came In:

He was born in about 1820 and died about 1896. At age 25, he watched in shock as the body of his fiancée was pulled from the lake, the wedding to be the next day. Reeling from the loss, he packed up his stuff and left Dublin Ireland for Canada. He left his mother behind.

His Life Since Jesus Came In:

Whether as a child, youth, or later, he is assumed to have found Jesus. About 10 years after moving to Canada, he got word that his mother was facing a crisis of some sort. So, he composed a poem (about 1855) and sent it to her. A copy from his mother apparently got into the hands of a publisher, was set to music, and became a popular, anonymous  hymn.

Tragedy struck again when his bride-to-be, Eliza Catherine Roche, contracted tuberculosis and rapidly died about 1860 before the marriage took place. To escape his sorrow, Joseph poured himself into ministry for the Plymouth Brethren and preaching for Baptists. He lived a simple life in Port Hope, Canada, cutting firewood for widows and giving away his clothes and money to those in need.

Until a short time before his death, the author of the hymn "What a Friend We have in Jesus" was anonymous. A neighbor attending him during his final illness happened upon a manuscript copy of that hymn. On questioning about the manuscript by his neighbor, Joseph Scriven admitted that he'd written the poem for his mother to comfort her during a time of special sorrow, not intending that anyone else should see it.

Another Port Hope neighbor subsequently asked him if he wrote it, "The Lord and I did it between us." On Oct. 10th, apparently in a delirium of critical illness, he arose from his bed and staggered outside and stumbled into a creek and drowned.

[adapted from Then Sings My Soul, 2003, Robert J. Morgan]

What is the Gospel...the "good news" of Jesus?