What a friend we have in Jesus- येशू कस्तो प्यारो मित्र

येशू कस्तो प्यारो मित्र पापको भार उठाउनुभो

दुःख-सुखर् इश्वरकहाँ ल्याउनु हामीलाई वरदान कत्रो -

कति शान्ति सुख गुमाउँछौं कति दुःख छ ब्यर्थैमा

कारणर् इश्वरकहाँ हामी सब ल्याउँदैनौं प्रार्थनामा ।

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.

(Listen the song/music: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/789 )

When I listen the hymn “what a friend we have in Jesus,” it thrills my heart and takes me towards the crucification scene where Christ had completed the task. Joseph M. Scriven who composed it as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada. You might have read and heard how Joseph scribbled this poem.

Joseph was 25 years old, in love and to be married with his fiance. However some tragic happened exact on the day before the wedding. His fiance died in a terrible drowning accident. Joseph was down and shattered, sailed from his homeland to start a new life in Canada. After that he joined the teaching profession and fell in love again and became engaged to Eliza Roche. Once again, Joseph's hopes and dreams were crushed when Eliza became ill and died before the wedding could take place.You can imagine who Joseph might have gone through as a young man. However his faith in God sustained him. Soon after Eliza's death Joseph joined as a preacher in a Baptist church.

He never married, but spent the remainder of his life giving all his time, money and even the clothes off his own back to help the less fortunate and to spread the love and compassion of Jesus wherever he went. At the same time of that Eliza died, Joseph received word from Ireland that his mother was ill. He could not go to be with her, so he wrote a letter of comfort and enclosed one of his poems entitled What a Friend We have in Jesus. ( Connie Ruth Christainsen)

Many years later, a friend of Joseph visited while he was ill.  He ran across his poem including “What a friend we have in Jesus.” As a result of his visit, after 3o years, the poem was published in a book Hymns and Other verses.”After that Charles C. Converse put the music on it.

The hymn has been translated in many languages having different music, being an inspiration and blessing to many.