What a Friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Every thing 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.
Have we trials, and temptations?
Is there trouble everywhere?
We should never be discouraged:
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Are we cold and unbelieving
Cumbered with a load of care?
Here the Lord is still our refuge:
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Joseph Scriven.
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING was the original title for the hymn, WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS. Enlarged and processed by this newspaper’s engraving machine, the words of the hymn, with the original title, are in Joseph Menlicott Scriven’s handwriting. The verses were composed near Bewdley about 1857. The hymn gave Joseph Scriven immortality, but it wasn’t until May 24, 1920, that the author was recognized in his home area where the hymn was created. This occasion of a monument being dedicated to him where he was interred at Pengelley Cemetery, South Monaghan, came some 34 years after his death by drowning near Kidd’s Corners, Bewdley. It has been said that the shock sustained from the early death of his fiancée, Miss Roche, remained with him though the years until his untimely demise.
Another plaque was added Sunday to the growing list of historical markers in the United Counties when the consecration of The Pengelley Cemetery took place in South Monaghan.
Not only is the hallowed spot the burying ground of Pengelley progeny, it is the resting place of the world renowned hymn composer, Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1819-1886).
Born and educated in Ireland, Scriven was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He emigrated to Canada in 1847 and during the 1850s became tutor to the family of Captain Robert L. Pengelley, R.N a retired British naval officer.
Deeply religious, Mr. Scriven, in the manner of John the Baptist, was baptized in Rice Lake.
"My father," Nelson Sage, former South Monaghan resident told the Sentinel-Star, "was present one winter when a lay preacher, James Sackville, broke ice in Rice Lake to get water and baptize Joseph Scriven".
Various accounts have been written in this newspaper about the activities of Mr. Scriven, in turn, as a lay preacher in Port Hope, Bewdley and district.
According to a sketch of Joseph Scriven's life, contained in the 4-page program, May 24, 1920, concerning the unveiling of the monument to Joseph Scriven in a ceremony at Pengelley Cemetery, Rice Lake, the hymn, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, was written about 1857.
On Sunday, August 9, 1964, under the authority of the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario, the consecration of Pengelley Cemetery was pronounced by The Lord Bishop of Toronto, The Right Rev. F. H. Wilkinson.
Rev. W. W. Harper, Rector of Cavan, Clare Winslow, Ida, and David Fowler, Millbrook, were church officials taking part in the ceremony. Welcome was extended to the 250 United Counties citizens present by South Monaghan Reeve, George H. Dead, and Warden Douglas Mc[…]
Consecration of the Pengelley Cemetery by the Lord Bishop of Toronto, the Right Rev. F. H. Wilkinson, took place on the site, Sunday, August 9, 1964. In the miniature cemetery the tallest monument is that of Joseph Medlicott Scriven, reaching through the trees to the sky, Mr. Scriven lived nearby when he composed the immortal hymn, What A Friend We Have In Jesus.
