This is probably the best-known “hymn story,” and has been retold countless times to introduce it before the congregation sings it. Knowing the heart-rending story of how it came to be written engages the mind through the emotions and connects the heart to these glorious gospel truths. Once you know the story, you’ll never sing it the same way again!
Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a successful lawyer and property investor along Chicago’s waterfront. But the great Chicago fire of 1871 ruined him financially. More than 300 people lost their lives in that conflagration and 100,000 were left homeless. Things got even worse after the 1873 economic downturn. He had planned a trip to his wife’s family in England that year. Business concerns led him to send his wife and four daughters ahead of him, with him planning to join them as soon as possible. Traveling with Anna were 11-year-old Anna, 9-year-old Margaret Lee, 5-year-old Elizabeth, and 2-year-old Tanetta.
For the trans-Atlantic crossing Anna and their daughters were on board the steamer Ville du Havre. In the middle of the night of November 22, 1873, the ship was rammed amidships by an iron-hulled vessel and split the hull. The collision was so violent and devastating, that the ship sank within 12 minutes. The Spafford’s four daughters all perished, along with 226 others. His wife was rescued, having been found unconscious floating on a wooden plank. From Wales she sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone.” Shortly afterward, he traveled to meet his grieving wife. As the ship passed over the watery grave of their daughters, 3000 feet below, the captain of the ship called him to the bridge. He returned to his cabin and that night composed the words to this hymn, When sorrows, like sea billows roll … Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.
The words were set to music by the prolific 19th century hymn-writer, Philip P. Bliss, and named VILLE DU HAVRE, after the ship on which the Spafford girls perished. The Spaffords had a son who died before the fire. In addition to their four daughters, they had another son, born in 1880, who later died of scarlet fever. After the birth of their daughter Grace in 1881, he and his wife moved to Jerusalem where they established a Christian utopian society engaged in philanthropic activities among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. He died there of malaria, and his wife continued their project until her death in 1923.
The Rest of the Story
There is more to the story, and it is not a happy epilogue. Spafford and his wife wound up as heretics, departing from biblical Christianity and established what amounted to a cult. You may want to stop reading at this point and skip to the end of this article (look for the heading “The Text of the Hymn”) to read the wonderful words that we sing, and which so movingly convey the gospel to hurting hearts.
Though Spafford was a member of a Presbyterian church in Chicago, and a friend of several evangelists, including Dwight Moody, he strongly opposed many of the convictions of the pastor of the church. He moved further and further into Arminianism (eventually even embracing Universalism). As treasurer of the church, he led an unsuccessful effort to have the pastor ousted. By the time he and his wife left for Jerusalem, he had been sinking in debt from years even before the fire, and creditors were hounding him, accusing him of mismanaging funds, leading them eventually to flee to Jerusalem to escape.
Once in Jerusalem, the Spaffords preached Universalism and embraced a fervent Millenarianism. They proclaimed the imminent return of Christ. When that failed to occur, they continued on, claiming that they alone and their small band of followers, called “The Overcomers,” were the true church. They became an increasingly authoritarian cult. After Horatio died in 1888, Anna carried on as “Mother,” handing down draconian revelations, forbidding marriage at one point and engaging in promiscuity, and confiscating all the money her followers earned. Click here for additional details about this part of the story.
Janie Cheaney wrote this in World magazine:
As far as we know, the Spaffords died as heretics, denying hell and preaching Universalism while demanding the utmost in works-righteousness. “A bad tree brings forth bad fruit,” Jesus said. Does that make the hymn that has comforted thousands “bad fruit”? Put another way, were you ever blessed by the work of someone who turned out to be a false prophet? God sometimes ordains praise from unconverted lips, like Balaam’s and Nebuchadnezzar’s. And all of us, even the truly converted, are of unclean lips, crooked pencils writing straight by grace alone. We can’t know for certain the final state of Horatio Spafford’s soul, but we can know the effect of his words. Like any work of art, they became a tool in God’s hand, to confirm truth or deny it. His sheep hear His voice, however it reaches them. For that, “Praise the Lord, O my soul.”
The Text of the Hymn
The original manuscript has only four verses, but Spafford’s daughter, Bertha Spafford Vester, who was born after the tragedy, said an additional verse was later added and the last line of the original song was modified. Despite the later descent into heresy of the author, the words are faithful to scripture, and a wonderful instrument to guide grieving believers into the comfort promised to us by “the God of all comfort.” (2 Corinthians 2) I usually offer commentary on the hymn text, but this one speaks so clearly for itself, my words word be superfluous.
- 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.
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 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 His 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 pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to 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.
Here is a beautiful anthem by Rene Clausen, based on Spafford’s hymn: