Paul Harvey, the renowned radio broadcaster who died just last year, used to do a regular feature called “The Rest of the Story”—and I came across a story the other day that I think is worthy of that segment. I certainly won’t be able to tell it with the flair of Paul Harvey, but here goes.

Joseph Scriven was born in 1819 outside of Dublin, Ireland. He grew up in a prosperous home, graduated from Trinity College, and was engaged to marry his childhood sweetheart. It seemed as if everything was falling nicely into place for this twenty-five year old young man—when suddenly everything fell tragically apart.

His fiancée accidentally drowned the night before their wedding, leaving Scriven devastated and disillusioned. Rather than try and rebuild his life in Dublin, where he would be surrounded by painful memories, he left Ireland altogether and moved to Ontario, Canada. There, he met another young woman and fell in love. Soon they were engaged. However, she also died shortly before their wedding day.

Grief-stricken and feeling utterly lost, Joseph Scriven decided to adopt a new way of life by taking literally the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. From that point onward, it is said that he gave freely of all his possessions—even sharing the shirt off his back, if necessary—and never once refused help to someone in need. He stopped dwelling on the disappointments of the past, or worrying about the uncertainty of his future, and resolved instead to live one day at a time and lift everything to God in prayer.

Upon learning that his mother was seriously ill back in Dublin, he wrote her a short poem called “Pray Without Ceasing.” Some time later when Scriven himself had taken ill, a friend stopped by the house to visit him and noticed the poem scribbled on a sheet of scratch paper near the bed.

“Did you write this?” the friend asked.

With typical modesty, Joseph Scriven replied, “The Lord and I did it between us.”

“Could I borrow this?”

“If you like it that much,” said Scriven, “you can have it.”

Eventually, the poem found its way into the hands of Charles Converse, a part-time church musician, who put the words to music, and introduced it to his congregation as a hymn the following Sunday.

Joseph Scriven died without ever realizing that his poem had become a hymn. However, the words that he had originally intended to comfort his mother went on to comfort countless others around the world—including, perhaps, yourself—because what Joseph Scriven wrote is this:

“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer!”

And now, as Paul Harvey would intone, “you know … the rest of the story!”