ONE there is, above all others...

John Newton (1725–1807)

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
A friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Proverbs xvii. 24

ONE there is, above all others,
Well deserves the name of friend;
His is love beyond a brother’s,
Costly, free, and knows no end:
They who once his kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love!

Which of all our friends to save us,
Could or would have shed their blood?
But our Jesus dy’d to have us
Reconcil’d, in him to God:
This was boundless love indeed!
Jesus is a friend in need.

Men, when rais’d to lofty stations,
Often know their friends no more;
Slight and scorn their poor relations
Tho’ they valu’d them before.
But our Savior always owns
Those whom he redeem’d with grones.

When he liv’d on earth abased,
Friend of sinners was his name;
Now, above all glory raised,
He rejoices in the same:
Still he calls them brethren, friends,
And to all their wants attends.

Could we bear from one another,
What he daily bears from us?
Yet this glorious Friend and Brother,
Loves us tho’ we treat him thus:
Tho’ for good we render ill,
He accounts us brethren still.

Oh! for grace our hearts to soften!
Teach us, Lord, at length to love;
We, alas! forget too often,
What a Friend we have above:
But when home our souls are brought,
We will love thee as we ought.

—from Olney Hymns. Book I: On select Passages of Scripture.