It Is Well With My Soul
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.” Psalms 46:1-3
The Christian hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, is a beautiful hymn that has been loved and sung by generations of God’s people; and the hymn is all the more moving when you know the story behind the writing of it.
Horatio Gates Spafford, wrote the hymn under tragic circumstances. He had suffered great loss in the great fire of Chicago in 1871. He had been a successful attorney and had invested heavily in real estate in the area that was destroyed by the fire. Then, a couple of years later, his business interests were hit even further by the Panic of 1873.
At that time, Spafford planned a trip to the United Kingdom with his family and some friends, to help with D. L. Moody’s upcoming evangelistic campaigns over there.
When the time for their departure arrived, some business concerns pressed him, so he sent his wife Anna and daughters on ahead with their friends, and planned to join them shortly.
About halfway into their journey across the ocean, at about 2 o’clock in on the morning of November 22, 1873, their ship, the Ville du Havre, collided with a three masted iron clipper, the Loch Earn, and she began to sink. Awakened by the crash, Anna bundled up her four daughters and guided them up onto the deck. The frightened girls held fast to their mother.
Anna offered words of comfort and courage to those around her. As the ship began to tip towards its slide into the icy depths of the sea, she calmly said, “Don’t be afraid,” and then quoted Psalm 95:5, “The sea is His, and He made it.”
As the ship went down, a maelstrom of water and debris knocked baby Tanetta (18 months) out of her mother’s arms and she was lost. The older girls, Annie (12 years), Maggie (7 years) and Bessie (4 years), all did their best to persevere, but they quickly succumbed to the cold and were lost as well. Anna alone was found by rescuers, barely conscious, floating on a piece of broken planking.
The ship went down in just twelve minutes. Of the 313 people on board, only 61 passengers and 26 crew members survived.
When Anna arrived in Cardiff, Wales, she sent a cablegram to her husband, to let him know of the tragedy. The cablegram read, “Saved alone, what shall I do?” Grief stricken, Spafford immediately caught a ship across the ocean to meet up with his wife.
As the ship approached the place where his daughters had been lost, the captain of the ship, knowing Spafford’s tragic story, pointed out to him the place where the Ville du Havre went down. As his ship passed over the place, he penned the words to this beloved hymn.
When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll — Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say—It is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control —
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His Own blood for my soul.
And Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll —The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
A song in the night, oh my soul.
(This last line was later changed to, Even so, it is well with my soul.)
Through the above trials, Horatio and Anna Spafford had an unwavering faith in God, and that faith carried them through this great tragedy. They later had three more children: Horatio in 1875, Bertha in 1878 and Grace in 1881.
In these dark and evil days, it is our hope that the reader has been inspired to stay focused on the Lord Jesus Christ — no matter what the test — and to have faith in God. In every trial, in every situation, the words of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to Nebuchadnezzar should be an inspiration to us all –“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
