My Dearest Friend

My Dearest Friend.

1. I have a Friend, a precious Friend,
Who keeps my day by day,
On whom my hopes of heav’n depend,
Who is my guide and stay.

Refrain:
My dearest friend, my truest friend,
My friend in life, my friend in death,
Unto His name let praise ascend,
With glad, with glad exultant breath.

2. I need not feel one anxious thought,
Or know one pressing care,
But that I may—His word hath taught—
Take unto Him in prayer.

3. O sinner, take Him for your Friend,
His grace is free to all;
He will the trusting soul defend,
Nor suffer it to fall.

4. ’Tis sweet to feel His presence near,
And on His strength rely;
To know that He thro’ life will cheer,
Support when death is nigh.

5. ’Tis sweet to work for such a Friend;
Dear Lord, our efforts guide,
For if Thou wilt Thy blessing send,
The work shall e’er abide.

This song, as posted above, is No. 190 in The Best Gospel Songs and Their Composers (Dalton, GA: A. J. Showalter Company, 1904) with the tune by Anthony Johnson Showalter. It shows a copyright of 1901. The hymn itself was written by Mrs. J. M. Hunter. Though she wrote hundreds of hymns, it appears that none of us in the present know who she is! As others, I have come up empty in my attempts to identify her. I wonder if two letters written to a Mrs. J. M. Hunter in 1911 and 1912 by preachers Lyman Abbott and Charles W. Elliott might be to this Mrs. J. M. Hunter. These are housed in the Columbia University (New York, NY) Rare Book & Manuscript Library Archival Collections. Perhaps someday they could be researched to see whether they turn up any information.

This hymn, with a different tune and under the title I Have a Precious Friend, is found on page 545 in The Sacred Harp, 2012 Cooper Revision. In it the composer, Thomas Jefferson Allen, disposes of the refrain that Showalter uses (which has a different meter), and rather uses the first stanza as the repeating chorus (making the tune common meter with a common meter chorus). He uses stanzas 2, 3, and 4 as his stanzas 1, 2, and 3.

1. I need not feel one anxious thought,

Or know one pressing care,

But that I may is word has taught,

Take unto Him in pray’r.

Chorus:

I have a precious friend,

Who keeps me day by day;

On whom my hopes of heav’n depend,

Who is my guide and stay.

2. O sinner, take Him for your friend,

His grace is free to all,

He will the trusting soul defend,

Nor suffer it to fall.

3. ’Tis sweet to feel His presence near,

And on His strength rely,

To know that He through life will cheer,

Support when death is nigh.