Words: , The Re­viv­al Hymn Book, se­cond ser­ies, 1863.

Music: Constance (Sullivan), , 1875. Al­ter­nate tune:

• Friend, , 1878

On one oc­ca­sion when Mr. Moore­house and I were hold­ing meet­ings at Scar­bo­ro, in the north of Eng­land, the ser­vic­es were at­tend­ed by a num­ber of Quak­er la­dies, among them a cou­sin of John Bright, the great Eng­lish states­man. Wish­ing to have this hymn sung at one of the meet­ings, this la­dy wrote out the fol­low­ing hymn re­quest: “Will Mr. Sank­ey please re­peat the hymn ‘I’ve Found a Friend,’ in his usu­al way?” In thus word­ing her note she avoid­ed ask­ing me to sing, which is against the cus­tom of the So­ci­e­ty of Friends.

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“We were hold­ing a cot­tage pray­er-meet­ing in a lodg­ing house,” says a min­is­ter of Not­tin­gham­shire, Eng­land, “when a young man lodg­ing there came in to the meet­ing in fun-seek­ing man­ner. We sang, prayed and read a chap­ter out of God’s Word, and then the young man asked if we would sing a hymn for him. He chose ‘I’ve found a Friend, oh, such a Friend.’ When we had sung one verse he be­gan to shed tears, and I am glad to say that he gave his heart to God through the sing­ing of that beau­ti­ful hymn. The next morn­ing, he left the place, but be­fore leav­ing he wrote me a let­ter, of which I give these extracts: ‘I asked you sing that hymn be­cause it was a fa­vo­rite of my dar­ling sis­ter, who is wait­ing for me at the gates in hea­ven. I have now prom­ised to meet her there. By God’s help, if we do not meet again on earth, I pro­mise to meet you in hea­ven. You will al­ways think of me when you sing, “I’ve Found a Friend.” Show this let­ter to my two other friends.’”