What a Friend We Have in Jesus was written by Port Hope Man

"What a Friend We Have in Jesus," one of the world's best known religious hymns, was written in a small frame house in Port Hope, and the man who wrote it is buried a few miles north in a cemetery beside highway 28 near Bewdley.

He is Joseph Scriven, native of Seapatrick, County Down, Ireland.

And his song is known worldwide:

What a friend we have in
Jesus,
All sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit.
Oh, what needless pain we
bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.

The hymn was discovered by a friend who visited him while he was sick in his little house in Port Hope. When the friend asked if he had written the poem that was on the table, Scriven replied that "The Lord and I did it between us."

It had been a long route that had brought Scriven to this area, and it was only after death, that his name was famous.

Educated at Trinity College in Dublin he was the son of a Royal Marines captain, and as a boy, had dreams himself of the military life and attended Addiscombe Military seminary in London. But his health failed and he dropped plans for the military.

When his bride-to-be drowned the evening before their wedding, Scriven decided to make a new life, and came to Canada to forget. The year was 1844 and he was 25 years old.

Arriving in the wilds of the Rice Lake area, he taught school and became a tutor to the Pengelleys who were at Rice Lake. Some years later, a romance developed with Eliza Roche, but she died in 1855 after a brief illness and before they could be married. Twice, the ill-fated Scriven had lost his lady love.

It was Eliza's death that prompted the writing of What a Friend We Have in Jesus. He sent a copy of it to his mother who was still living in Ireland.

As the years rolled by, he became more distressed. His health was poor, he was short of money and he had a fear of becoming physically helpless. On October 10, 1886, the people of Bewdley were shocked to find Scriven's body in the flume of a dam near Rice Lake. It was never known whether his death was an accident or suicide.

But by his death, his hymn had caught on, and those who knew him sensed that greatness had been amongst them. Scriven was buried in the Pengelley family cemetery and a large monument was erected at his grave, bearing the stanzas of the hymn. You can see it today on the east side of highway 28 just south of Bewdley village.

The hymn continues to inspire people throughout the world. It has been sung in Russia. It has been sung at the Vatican. It was sung at Terry Fox's funeral.

And here, where it was written, it has a special significance as a reminder of a man who kept his faith while his world closed in around him.