“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.”

 

I first heard these words when I was a member of Tunbridge Wells Assembly of God about 45 years ago. During our Sunday evening services we always had a featured hymn and this became one of my favourites.  It was only recently that I fully appreciated the backstory of this beautiful song.  

It was born out of truly tragic circumstances…

 

Horatio Spafford, a prosperous lawyer and Presbyterian church elder in Chicago USA was married to Anna and they had four beautiful daughters. In 1871 there had been a terrible fire in the city of Chicago and Mr Spafford who had invested a lot of money in property, lost most of it.

 

Two years later he decided it was time to take a vacation and arranged for the family to travel to Europe where they would stay over Christmas, but he was delayed by business so he sent his wife and children ahead of him. During the voyage to France the steamer they were sailing in collided with another ship, the Lochearn, on November 21, 1873, and sunk within twelves minutes.  

 

The four young girls were drowned but Anna was picked up unconscious by the crew of the Lochearn, which itself was in danger of sinking. Fortunately, the Trimountain, a cargo sailing vessel, arrived to save the survivors. Nine days after the shipwreck Anna landed in Cardiff, Wales, and sent her husband a telegram with the awful news.

 

Horatio immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home. On the Atlantic crossing, the captain of his ship called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they were passing over the spot where his four daughters had perished. These words came to him as he passed over their watery grave:

 

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.

 

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.

 

These words capture the HOPE that all who trust in Christ have -

What peace, what hope, what assurance we have as Christians!

                           

Whatever happens it is well with our souls –

and it’s all because of the First Christmas.

 

Because JESUS came it is well with my soul

It is well with my soul – THIS Christmas!

 

PRAISE HIS MATCHLESS NAME.

FOREVER AND FOREVERMORE!!!!!!!!

 

 

Footnotes

 

There is a superb presentation of this story by Hugh Bonneville (star of Downton Abbey) recorded last Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir in the USA.  

It’s very moving and Hugh is nearly in tears himself as he tells the story.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReApJymYSiw

 

Following the sinking of the Ville du Havre, Anna and Horatio had three children, Horatio (1877), Bertha (March 24, 1878) and Grace (January 18, 1881). On February 11, 1880, little Horatio died of scarlet fever at age three. This final tragedy, after a decade of financial loss and personal grief caused the couple to move away from material success towards a lifelong spiritual pilgrimage.

 

Anna and Horatio Spafford had not been supported very well in their church so they left there and started to host prayer meetings in their own home. In August 1881, they 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 gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities alike.

 

Spafford died of malaria on October 16, 1888 and was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem.