I’ve Found A Friend, O Such A Friend
I’ve Found a Friend, O Such a Friend
I’ve found a Friend, O such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever;
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.
I’ve found a Friend; O such a Friend!
He bled, He died to save me;
And not alone the gift of life,
But His own self He gave me.
Naught that I have my own I call,
I hold it for the Giver;
My heart, my strength, my life, my all,
Are His, and His forever.
I’ve found a Friend; O such a Friend!
So kind and true and tender;
So wise a Counselor and Guide,
So mighty a Defender!
From Him who loves me now so well,
What pow’r my soul shall sever?
Shall life or death, shall earth or hell?
No; I am His forever.
SOMETIMES the buddy-buddy approach to Christianity causes our concept of God’s holiness to be diminished. But when Christ’s friendship is depicted as James Small depicts it here, Christ is exalted.
Small was a minister in the Scottish Free Church who loved to write hymns. His first book was Hymns for Youthful Voices, published in 1859. This hymn, originally called “Jesus the Friend,” was published four years later in The Revival Hymnbook.
The hymn is full of great theological truths. From our standpoint, we sing, “I’ve found a Friend,” but the truth is “He loved me ere I knew him,” and “He drew me with the cords of love.” Obviously it is Jesus who initiates this friendship. The final stanza concludes with lines that recall Romans 8:35: “Can anything separate us from Christ’s love?” Small concludes: “I am His forever.” Such a Friend is truly worth singing about!
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
John 15:13-15
From the book
