THE STORY BEHIND "WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS" The hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” was written out of deep personal sorrow and enduring faith. Its author, Joseph Medlicott Scriven, was born in 1819 in Banbridge, Ireland, into a comfortable, well-educated family. As a young man, life seemed bright before him. He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin and was engaged to a woman he deeply loved. But on the eve of their wedding, tragedy struck when his fiancée accidentally drowned. The sh