It is Well with My Soul

Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn “It is Well with My Soul” after a series of disasters struck the family. Spafford, was a successful businessman and a close friend of the evangelist D.L. Moody, had lost his only son at about the same time the Chicago fire in 1871 that ravaged his business.

Two years later, Spafford’s wife and four children were sailing to Europe for a vacation when another vessel struck the ship and sank it. Thirty minutes later, less than fifty of the hundreds on board survived the wreckage. Three of Spafford’s children were swept away by the waves while their mother fiercely held on to the youngest. A little while later the youngest child, also, was swept from her arms. Mrs. Spafford became unconscious and was rescued by sailors.

Back in the United States, Horatio Spafford waited anxiously ten days for the news of his family well-being. His grief-stricken wife sent him a telegram, with only two words: "Saved alone." As he mourned his family’s loss, he wrote this defiant hymn:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well; it is well, with my soul.

It is well, 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 my 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.