What a friend we have in Jesus

One of the top 10 hymns of all time. Written by an early brethren Christian, Joseph Scriven suffered great tragedy in his life, but his faith in Christ led him to write a masterpiece of comfort and consolation.Scriven was born in Dublin in 1819, the son of a prosperous family. But when he was 25, tragedy struck on the day before his wedding when his fiancée was thrown from her horse while crossing a bridge and drowned as he waited for her on the other shore.
He emigrated to Canada to live in a religious community. And 10 years after his fiancée's death, he again became engaged, but again tragedy struck. Amazingly, his new bride-to-be also fell into an icy lake and became seriously ill, dying three years later. Ironically, Scriven himself drowned in August 1886. Seriously depressed and in ill health, no one knows for sure if his death was accidental or a suicide.