Rowland Prichard’s tune “Hyfrydol” has been used as a setting for some great hymn texts, but one of my very favorites will always remain John Wilbur Chapman’s,
Jesus! what a Friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me, He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Chorus
Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end.
Jesus! what a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in Him;
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, He, my strength, my vic’try wins.
Chorus
Jesus! what a help in sorrow! While the billows o’er me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking, He, my comfort, helps my soul.
Chorus
Jesus! what a guide and keeper! While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night o’ertakes me, He, my pilot, hears my cry.
Chorus
Jesus! I do now receive Him, More than all in Him I find,
He hath granted me forgiveness, I am His and He is mine!
Chorus
BTW, the song is only loosely a hymn, technically speaking. It’s actually much closer to a Gospel song, though not in the contemporary pejorated sense but in the classical sense.