My soul’s best friend, what joy and bless­ing
My spir­it ev­er finds in Thee!
From gloomy depths of doubt dis­tress­ing
Into Thine arms for rest I flee.
There will the night of sor­row van­ish
When from my heart Thy love doth ban­ish.
All ang­uish and all pain and fear.
Yea, here on earth be­gins my hea­ven;
Who would not joy­ful be when given
A lov­ing Sav­ior al­ways near!

For though the ev­il world re­vile me
And prove her­self my bit­ter foe
Or by her smile seek to be­guile me,
I trust her not; her wiles I know.
In Thee alone my soul re­joices,
Thy praise alone it glad­ly voic­es,
For Thou art true when friend­ships flee.
The world may hate but can­not fell me;
Would migh­ty waves of tri­al quell me
I an­chor in Thy loy­alty.

Thro’ de­serts of the cross Thou lead­est;
I fol­low, lean­ing on Thy hand.
From out the cloud Thy child Thou feed­est
And giv­est water from the sand.
I trust Thy ways, howe’er dis­tress­ing;
For I know my path will end in bless­ing;
Enough that Thou wilt be my stay.
For whom to hon­or Thou in­tend­est
Oft in­to sor­row’s vale Thou send­est;
The night must e’er pre­cede the day.

My soul’s best friend, how well con­tent­ed
Am I, re­pos­ing on Thy breast;
By sin no more am I tor­ment­ed
Since Thou dost grant me peace and rest.
Oh, may the grace that Thou has giv­en
For me a fore­taste be of Hea­ven,
Where I shall bask in joys di­vine!
Away, vain world, with fleet­ing plea­sures;
In Christ I have abid­ing trea­sures.
O, com­fort sweet, my friend is mine!