Joseph M. Scriven

Joseph Scriven was born in 1819 of prosperous parents in Banbridge, County Down, Ireland. He graduated with a degree from Trinity College Dublin in 1842. His fiancée accidentally drowned in 1843, the night before they were to be married. In 1844, at the age of 25, Scriven left his native country and migrated to Canada, settling in Woodstock, Ontario. He left his country feeling a spiritual calling to serve the Lord in his Plymouth Brethren faith. He only remained in Canada briefly after becoming ill, but returned for good in 1847. For two or three years he conducted a private school at Brantford. In 1855, while staying with James Sackville in Bewdley, Ontario, north of Port Hope, he received news from Ireland of his mother being terribly ill. He wrote a poem to comfort his mother called "Pray Without Ceasing". It was later set to music and renamed by Charles Crozat Converse, becoming the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". Scriven did not have any intentions nor dream that his poem would be for publication in the newspaper and later becoming a favorite hymn among the millions of Christians around the world. About 1857 he moved near to Port Hope, Ontario where he again fell in love and was due to be married, but in August 1860 his fiancée fell ill with pneumonia and died. He then devoted the rest of his life to tutoring, preaching and helping others. In 1869 Scriven published a collection of 115 Hymns and other verses which did not include "What a friend". Scriven drowned in 1886 at age 66. At the time of his death he was very ill with fever, and had been brought to a friend's home to recover. It was a very hot night, and he may have possibly gone outside to cool down, or to get a drink of cold water from the spring. His friend reported, "We left him about midnight. I withdrew to an adjoining room to watch and pray. You may imagine my surprise and dismay when upon visiting his room I found it empty. All search failed to find a trace of the missing man, until a little after noon his body was discovered in the nearby river, lifeless and cold in death." He was buried next to his second fiancée in her family cemetery near Bewdley.

Lukas Media LLC, released the full-length documentary Friends in Jesus, The stories and Hymns of Cecil Frances Alexander and Joseph Scriven in 2011. The 45 minutes documentary movie details the life of Joseph M. Scriven and his influence on popular hymns.