Moses the man of God prayed "teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps 90:12).
The hymn writer of "What a Friend we have in Jesus", Joseph Scriven, was born
in 1819 of prosperous parents in Dublin, Ireland. He was a graduate of Trinity College,
Dublin. The evening before his wedding, his wife drowned accidentally. At the age of
twenty-five he decided to leave his native country and migrate to Canada.
From that time Scriven developed a totally different pattern of life. He took the Sermon
on the Mount literally. It is said that he gave freely of his limited possessions, even
sharing the clothing from his own body, if necessary, and never once refused to help
anyone who needed it. Ira Sankey tells in his writings of the man who, seeing Scriven in
the streets of Port Hope, Ontario, with his sawbuck and saw, asked, "Who is that man?
I want him to work for me." The answer was, "You cannot get that man; he saws
wood only for poor widows and sick people who cannot pay." Because of this manner of
life Scriven was respected but was considered to be eccentric by those who knew him.
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" was never intended by Scriven for publication.
Upon learning of his mother's serious illness and unable to be with her in far-off Dublin,
he wrote a letter of comfort enclosing the words of this text.
Ira D. Sankey discovered the hymn in 1875, just in time to include it in his well-known
collection, Sankey's Gospel Hymns Number One. Later Sankey wrote, "The last hymn
which went into the book became one of the first in favour." (for more info see
)
He understood the secret that we are sojourners and pilgrims in this world.
2) "... abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul ..."
Our attachment and longing must be for heaven. Otherwise we prove that we are not
Christians.
If you do not conquer sin it will swallow you up and destroy you. You must conquer sin.
Satan does not rest but seeks to lure you into sin like a roaring lion. He is also in
opposition to you and tries to make life as difficult and miserable as possible.
The lusts of the flesh make war against your soul. Your inner being, your soul, is what
matters. Jesus said, "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and
loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt 16:26)
There is nothing as dangerous to a person's soul as fleshly lusts. It attacks to kill
the soul. Yes, there are the consequences of sin to your body; but that is small in
comparison to the destruction of the soul.
3) What are these lusts of the flesh? Firstly, all of us are born with inherent sin. We
have a natural bias towards sin.
Fleshly lusts are not only sexual in nature but include the deeds of the flesh, anger,
jealousy, hatred etc.
But let's look at sexual promiscuity. A person which lives in sexual promiscuity
defiles his own body. Such a person has handed himself over into sexual looseness. When a
sexually depraved person opens his mouth, the foul stench comes out, as the smoke arising
from a sewer. The smell of the lusts of the flesh which has been given the reins in a
person's life surpasses the foul stench of a putrefying corpse. The soul that has allowed
the lusts of the flesh to take over has fallen to the lowest bestiality imaginable. It
destroys the soul to such an extent that that person becomes more bestial than the beasts
of the earth.
Animals protect their young. But the sexually promiscuous discard their own child that
has been born by sexual immorality; even casting them in toilets or abandoning them at
their traditional home while they continue with their promiscuous lifestyle.
Drinking of alcohol many times go along with the use of drugs. And it destroys the soul
as well as the body. All his livelihood goes down his throat and he is reduced to poverty
and cannot support his family.
Oh, when the lusts of the flesh has taken its toll in a person's soul that person is
reduced to such an extent that he doesn't even seem human any more.
4) "... having your conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak
against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in
the day of visitation."
We must not only abstain from fleshly lusts, but we must do what is right in God's
sight. Our conduct must bring glory to God.
Jesus is coming again to judge the quick and the dead. Will you be ready when He visits
you and call you to account?
