"It Is Well With My Soul" is a hymn penned by hymnist Horatio
Spafford and composed
by Philip Bliss. First published in Gospel Songs No. 2 by Ira
Sankey and Bliss
(1876), it is possibly the most influential and enduring in the Bliss
repertoire and is often taken as a choral model, appearing in hymnals of a wide
variety of Christian fellowships.
This hymn was written after traumatic events in Spafford's
life. The first two were the death of his four-year-old son and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which ruined him financially (he had been a
successful lawyer and had invested significantly in property in the area of
Chicago that was extensively damaged by the great fire). His business
interests were further hit by the economic downturn of 1873, at which time he
had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du
Havre. In a late change of plan, he sent the family ahead while he
was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago
Fire. While crossing the Atlantic
Ocean, the ship sank
rapidly after a collision with a sea vessel, the Loch Earn, and all four of
Spafford's daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous
telegram, "Saved alone …". Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled
to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship
passed near where his daughters had died. Bliss called
his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to knowa
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (with my soul)
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath 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!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of 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
Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828, Troy, New York – October 16, 1888, Jerusalem) was a
prominent American lawyer and Presbyterian church elder. He is best known for
penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul following a
family tragedy in which his four daughters died aboard the S.S. Ville
du Havre on a
transatlantic voyage.
Spafford
was the son of Gazetteer author Horatio Gates Spafford and
Elizabeth Clark Hewitt Spafford.
On
September 5, 1861 he married Anna Larsen of Stavanger, Norway in Chicago. Spafford was a lawyer and a senior
partner in a large law firm. The Spaffords were supporters
and friends of evangelist Dwight L. Moody.
Spafford
invested in real estate north of Chicago in the spring of 1871. In October
1871, the Great Fire of Chicago reduced
the city to ashes, destroying most of Spafford's investment.
The wreck of the Ville du Havre
Two years
after the devastation of the Great Chicago Fire the family planned a trip to
Europe. Late business demands (zoning issues arising from the Fire) kept
Spafford from joining his wife and four daughters on a family vacation in England where his friend D. L. Moody would be preaching.
On
November 22, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Ville du Havre, the ship was struck by
an iron sailing vessel killing 226 people, including
all of Spafford's daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon
arriving in England, she sent a telegram to Spafford that read "Saved
alone." As Spafford sailed to England
to join his wife, he wrote "It Is Well with My
Soul.
Following the sinking of
the Ville du Havre, Anna gave birth to three children, Horatio
Goertner, (1877), Bertha Hedges (March 24, 1878) and Grace (January 18, 1881). On February 11, 1880, Horatio
died of scarlet fever at
age three. This final tragedy, after a
decade of financial loss and personal grief accompanied by a lack of support
from their church community, began Horatio's philosophical move away from
material success towards a lifelong spiritual pilgrimage. Anna and Horatio
Spafford soon left the Presbyterian congregation Horatio had helped build and
hosted prayer meetings in their home. Their Messianic sect was dubbed "the
Overcomers" by the American press.
In August 1881, the Spaffords went to Jerusalem as a party of 13
adults and three children to set up an American Colony.
Colony members, joined by Swedish Christians, engaged in
philanthropic work among the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious
affiliation and without proselytizing motives, gaining the trust
of the local Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities.
In Jerusalem, Horatio and Anna Spafford adopted a teenager,
Jacob Eliahu (1864–1932), who was born in Ramallah into a Turkish Jewish family. As
a schoolboy, Jacob Spafford discovered the Siloam inscription
RECOMMENDED: THE LIFE AND THE IMPACT OF JOHN NEWTON'S HYMN "AMAZING GRACE"
Credit: wikipedia
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