There are men who preach from exalted wooden pulpits, and then there are men who preach with a cross upon their backs. Joseph Scriven belonged entirely to the latter. Born in 1819 in Dublin, Ireland, into a family of wealth and privilege, his early life was marked by sharp intellect and a degree from Trinity College. However, heaven had ordained a much heavier and more sorrowful path for him.
The defining wound of Scriven’s life struck in 1843. On the very night before his wedding, his beautiful fiancée tragically fell from her horse into the river Bann and drowned. Scriven stood on the banks and watched the waters swallow his future. Desperate to escape the haunting memories of his homeland, he migrated to Canada. There, he eventually found love again with a woman named Eliza Roche. Yet, in a cruel repetition of history, she contracted pneumonia and died just weeks before they were to be married.
These twin tragedies could have easily turned a man into a bitter atheist. Instead, they shattered Scriven’s attachment to this passing world and anchored him completely to Christ. He realized that earthly relationships are fragile, but the friendship of Jesus is entirely unbreakable. Scriven sold all his possessions, took a vow of absolute poverty, and dedicated the remainder of his life to the destitute in Port Hope, Ontario. He became known as the Good Samaritan of the city. He could be seen walking the freezing streets with a saw over his shoulder, offering to cut firewood for widows and physically disabled people who could not pay him. He literally gave the coat off his back to strangers. Joseph Scriven died in 1886 in obscurity and poverty, but he died as a man who knew the Savior not merely as a theological concept, but as a weeping, intimate friend.