Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole
Refrain: Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.
2) Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my Strength, my victory wins.
Refrain
3) Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
While the billows over me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my Comfort, helps my soul.
Refrain
4) Jesus what a Guide and Keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night overtakes me,
He, my Pilot, hears my cry.
Refrain
5) Jesus! I do now adore Him,
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am His, and He is mine.
So, a couple of things: I figured out how to embed videos (go me!) and I decided to move the hymns from outside my church tradition to Saturday. This allows me a little more time to research. As executive producer of this blog, I'm going to go ahead and say that's okay.
"Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners" was written by John Wilbur Chapman. Chapman converted to Christianity at the age of 17 and joined the Presbyterian Church (w00t!). In 1893, Chapman actually preached the evangelistic circuit with DL Moody. Eventually, Chapman's ministry took him all over the world from Vancouver to Ipswich to Seoul to Tokyo. Chapman really developed "mass evangelism" techniques and Pittsburgh provided the testing grounds for his ministry ideas. Chapman was popular enough that one philanthropic Presbyterian funded all of Wilbur Chapman's crusades, even setting up a trust fund for his evangelism. Unfortunately, after being elected Moderator of the General Assembly in 1918, Chapman passed away due to to gall stones aggravated by the stress of the position.
This is a hymn I always turn to when I need encouragement. Names used for Jesus: Friend, Savior, Strength, Help, Comfort, Guide, Keeper, and Pilot. Jesus is our elder brother. Not the kind that beats you up after giving you the first three shots, but the kind that watches over you and protects you (My older brother is both kinds, though we haven't wrestled a while). Yes, Jesus is the King of Kings and we exalt His name when we sing and worship. We see how much He loves His family when He died on the cross for them. Yet, as royal as Jesus is, He is fully empathetic to our struggles. He's not a stranger to the woes we experience. He's our family! We can go to Him and say, "Life right now, it's the worst." And Jesus listens, because all good big brothers listen.