“It is Well With My Soul”

Last updated on: November 11, 2024 at 10:20 am by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

“It is Well With My Soul” 2024-11-11T10:20:27-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Horatio Spafford (1828-1888)

We closed our sacrament meeting today with a song that will eventually appear in the new revised hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s generally known under the title of “It is Well with My Soul,” but it also goes by the beginning of its first line: “When Peace, Like a River”:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
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 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!

Since the hymn’s history was memorably depicted in a Tabernacle Choir Christmas program a few years ago, I expect that most everybody out there already knows it. Still, I think it’s worth revisiting, because it emerges from one of the most tragic backstories imaginable, which makes the lyrics (to me, at least) all the more powerful:

Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer (and an elder in the Presbyterian Church) who had invested very significantly in area real estate. Unfortunately, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was financially disastrous for him. And then, as if that weren’t enough, the economic downturn of 1873 proved catastrophic to most of his remaining business interests. So he determined to travel with his family to England in order to assist with a revivalist crusade that would be led by the famous American Protestant evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who was based in Chicago and who was a friend of the Spaffords.

Spafford booked passage on the SS Ville du Havre. That French iron steamship had been launched at the end of 1865, originally under the name of Napoléon III. In 1871, the Emperor having been deposed and the ship having been converted from a paddlewheel steamer to propulsion by a single prop, it was rechristened the Ville du Havre.

At the last minute, though, stubbornly persisting economic matters forced him to change his plans. So he sent his Norwegian-born wife, Anna, on ahead of him, along with his four daughters, Annie (12), Maggie (7), Bessie (4), and Tanetta (eighteen months).

Tragically, however, early on 22 November 1873 out on the cold North Atlantic, the Ville du Havre collided with a three-masted British clipper, the Loch Earn. The severely damaged Ville du Havre sank in just twelve minutes. Sixty-one passengers were saved, along with twenty-six crew members. They were rescued by the Loch Earn and by a passing American vessel, the Tremountain. But 226 passengers and crew died, including Horatio Spafford’s four daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta. His wife, Anna, survived. Horatio received a telegram from her: “Saved alone . . .”. Shortly thereafter, he himself sailed to England to join and comfort his grief-stricken wife. As his own ship passed the approximate point where his four daughters had died in the frigid water, he felt inspired to write the words to “It is Well With My Soul.” Originally, they read somewhat differently:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
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 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!

After the loss of their four girls, Anna would give birth to three more children — a son and two daughters. The son died of scarlet fever in February 1880, at just four years of age. (Are you beginning to think of the biblical book of Job? I certainly am.)

In August of the following year, 1881, the Spaffords left America for a radically different life: They settled permanently in Jerusalem, which was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire at the time. (It was long before the establishment of the modern state of Israel.)

They founded a religious community there that was known as the American Colony, which remains an important element of East Jerusalem still today. (During my first six-month residency in the city decades ago, I walked by it just about daily, without knowing very much of its history.) There, they and those who joined them in their community engaged in philanthropic efforts among local Jews, Muslims, and Christians, establishing warm and trusting relationships with all three communities. (It was a simpler time, before the huge Jewish influx inspired by the rise of Zionism.) Horatio Spafford died of malaria on 25 September 1888, at the age of 59. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem. Anna, his widow, lived on in Jerusalem until 1923

A curious footnote: The Spaffords adopted a teenager there in Jerusalem who had been born to a family of Turkish Jews. His name was Jacob Elias. One day, when he was still a schoolboy, Jacob Elias discovered the important Siloam inscription (aka the “Silwan inscription” or “Shiloh inscription”).

So, as you can see, there are several very interesting stories that are connected in some way or other with “It is Well With My Soul.”

Here’s another one: Horatio Spafford’s lyrics for “It is Well With My Soul” were set to music by an American composer and hymn writer named Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876), who was another friend of Dwight Moody in Chicago. The 1985 edition of the Latter-day Saint hymnal contains three hymns by Bliss: Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy (#335) (also known as Let the Lower Lights Be Burning); More Holiness Give Me (#131); and Should You Feel Inclined to Censure (#235), which features lyrics by an anonymous writer set to the same tune as “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy”).

On 29 December 1876, three years after the sinking of the Ville du Havre, Bliss and his wife, Lucy, were traveling on a Pacific Express train that was approaching Ashtabula, Ohio. When the train was nearly across the bridge into Ashtabula, the bridge collapsed and the carriages fell into the ravine below. Neither Philip Paul Bliss nor his wife was ever seen again. He was thirty-eight years old. Philip and Lucy Bliss left two sons behind them, George (four) and Philip Paul (0ne). Ninety-two of the 159 passengers died in what is known as the “Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster.”

Remembering these stories will, I think, make the message of “It is Well With My Soul” all the more impactful.

A wood engraving depicting the Ashtabula Bridge disaster, published on 20 January, 1877 in “Harper’s Weekly.”

Sunday is as good a day as any, I suppose, on which to contemplate the horrors inflicted upon the world by theists and theism. So here are four items that I’ve selected from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™ in hopes of stirring up your righteous indignation:

“President Freeman Visits Humanitarian Sites in Europe: Four Northern European Cities Prepare for New Temples”

“JustServe aids relief after storms hit Houston, Texas: JustServe fills a role to gather volunteers after derecho storm and Hurricane Beryl; youth continue to serve”

“Updates to Perpetual Education Fund will expand opportunities, make education more affordable: PEF now offers loan discounts and expands the coverage of education-related expenses”

“How over 20,000 Latter-day Saints brought relief to southeastern U.S. after hurricanes Helene and Milton: ‘My hope in humanity is lifted,’ says Elder Quinn S. Millington, an Area Seventy and head of the Church’s Area Disaster Response Committee”

Uncategorized

American Colony

Horatio Spafford

It is Well With My Soul

Jerusalem

Philip P. Bliss

Philip Paul Bliss

Previous Post

November 9, 2024

Approaching the Final Days of "Six Days in August"?