A Friend there is; your voices join

"A Friend there is; your voices join" is a deeply personal late eighteenth-century hymn by the English Baptist minister and poet Joseph Swain. Centered on the comforting theme of Jesus as the ultimate friend, the lyric carries a poignant history, having emerged from a time of profound personal grief.

The hymn first appeared in Swain's Experimental Essays on Divine Subjects, published in London in 1791, on pages 85 to 87. It was printed as one of two companion pieces accompanied by a touching prefatory note: "The two following pieces were occasioned by the death of an only son." The second companion piece published alongside it was "When Jesus, both of God and Man."

In 1792, Swain included "A Friend there is; your voices join" in his more widely circulated collection, Walworth Hymns, expanding or preserving it in ten stanzas of four lines. From this volume, the hymn found its way into several denominational collections.

The hymn became especially popular among Baptist congregations and other Nonconformist bodies in Great Britain. It also gained a more limited placement in a small number of Church of England hymnals. Conversely, the piece remained almost entirely unknown in America. The original, full text was later compiled and preserved for researchers in the 1867 edition of Lyra Britannica on pages 537 and 538.