IT IS WELL
WITH MY SOUL
In 1871, Horatio Spafford lived in Chicago with his wife and four daughters. Horatio was a successful attorney who also had invested in a considerable amount of real estate in the northern sector of Chicago. But in October of that same year, after a long, hot and dry summer, a fire ignited that burned down most of Chicago. It destroyed Horatio’s investments, and left him in financial ruin.
The next two years were hard for Horatio and his family and so, for a family treat he planned to take his wife and children to England for the Christmas holiday. At the last minute, Horatio decided he had to stay home because of zoning problems in the area where he was trying to rebuild. He sent Anna and their children abroad with the intention of joining them later, but as the ship, SS Ville Du Havre, crossed the Atlantic, it collided with another ship and sank, killing 226 people. All four of Horatio and Anna’s children drowned. When Anna Arrived in England, she sent Horatio a telegram that began with, “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
Horatio immediately boarded a ship bound for England to join his wife. As the ship approached the place where the SS Ville Du Havre sank, the Captian who was aware of Horatio’s tragedy, informed him that this was the place where his children had perished. Strangely, Horatio didn’t feel the need to look down into the depths of the sea, where the bodies of his beloved children lay. Instead, he felt the need to look up and as he did so, these words came to his mind:
When peace like a river, attends my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, you have taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
He wrote these words down and added to them:
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The Heav'ns be rolled back like a scroll.
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend;
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul;
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Horatio and Anna lost two more children before Horatio passed away. But through their losses their faith in God was strengthened. The desire for worldly acquisitions faded for both Horatio and Anna and they chose instead to move to Jerusalem with their remaining two children to care for the poor, no matter what their religious affiliation. The poem Horatio wrote was set to music by Philip Bliss and has remained a beloved hymn to this day.
These images have been inspired by the hymn It Is Well With My Soul which you may listen to here.