It Is Well With My Soul

On October 8^th, 1871, Mrs O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire.  This devastating fire lasted three days, destroyed over 3 square miles of the city, including over 17,000 structures, killed about 300 people and left over 100,000 residents homeless.

Horatio Spafford, a Presbyterian church elder, a friend of D.L. Moody, and a godly man was affected by this tragedy.  A lawyer by trade, he lost much of his financial investments in the fire.  Despite the setbacks, he, his wife Anna, and their four daughters Annie (age 12), Maggie (age 7), Bessie (age 4) and Tanetta (age 18 months) poured their lives into ministering to the victims of this disaster.

After two years of work, the family decided to visit friends in England for a respite.  Anna went ahead with the girls while Horatio stayed behind to wrap up some business.  On November 22^nd, 1873, en route to England, the steamship Ville du Havre on which they were passengers was struck by another vessel, with great loss of life.  Anxiously, Horatio awaited news.  He eventually received a telegram from his wife with two words, “Saved, alone.”

Immediately, Spafford traveled to England to be with his grieving wife.  En route, he asked the ship’s captain to notify him when they reached the place where his daughters were lost.  When word came to him, Horatio went up on deck and penned the words to a 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, it is well with my soul.”

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,

Lest this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath 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 mare,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O 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,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

Following this tragedy, Anna gave birth to three more children, Horatio, Bertha, and Grace.  In 1881, they moved to Jerusalem and became part of an American Christian colony there, focused on ministry to people of all backgrounds.  There, they adopted a teenager named Jacob.

Horatio Spafford died of Malaria in 1888, age 59.  He is buried in Jerusalem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Spafford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire