“It is Well with My Soul”
Horatio Spafford
1828-1888
Horatio Gates Spafford was born in 1828 in Troy, New York. He moved to Chicago in 1856 where he met and married Anna Larson in 1861. Within the next 10 years he became a wealthy man; he was a senior partner in a large law firm and heavily invested in real estate. He and his wife were Christians and he served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church they attended. He was a good friend of Dwight L. Moody (the man for whom Moody Bible Institute is named). He was a man who seemed to have it all: a good job, good church, fruitful ministry, good friends, loving wife, and four lovely daughters. At this point in his life it probably would have been easy for him to say that it was well with his soul.
However, things very quickly began to change for him and his family. In October of 1871, the Great Chicago fire tore through the city. In two days more than 300 people died, another 100,000 were left homeless, and $2,000,000,000 in property was destroyed. Spafford suffered huge losses of both his business and many of his real estate holdings.
This was only the beginning of the hardships for the Spaffords. Two years later the family was only beginning to recover when they set out to travel to England for a series of revival services led by Dwight L. Moody. Horatio was detained by business and sent his wife and children on ahead.
A week into the voyage their boat was involved in a collision with another boat and sank very quickly. His wife was one of the few who were rescued from the ocean, his four daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta, all perished. When his wife reached England, she sent him a telegram which began “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
Horatio left as quickly as he could to be with his wife. As he crossed the Atlantic the captain told him when they reached the spot where his family’s ship sank. He wrote to his sister-in-law “on Thursday last we passed over the spot where she went down in mid ocean the waters 3 miles deep, but I do not think of our dear ones there, they are safe, folded, the dear Lambs…”
Although the idea for the hymn may have come to him at that time, it was after they returned to Chicago that he wrote the words to this hymn. He did not write the music; it was written by a man named Philip Bliss.
This was not the end of the tragedies that Horatio and Anna faced. They had three more children after the tragedy and in 1880 their only son died of scarlet fever.
We can look at what this man suffered and then read the words of his hymn “whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul”. This man knew what he was writing, for he had suffered much.
It might be nice for us if that is where Horatio’s story ended, but that is not the end. The end of his story is instead a grave warning to us all. The man who wrote this great hymn that has brought such comfort to so many drifted away from what he had once believed. He began to deny hell and claim a form of Universalism; he became obsessed with knowing the date of Christ’s second coming; he added a form of purgatory to salvation; and he began to hate the truth of God’s sovereignty. He separated himself and his family from the church after failing to have a godly and faithful pastor removed from his position. He eventually moved with his wife, two daughters, and a small group of followers to Jerusalem to restore the church that he considered to be corrupt. At the end of his life in October of 1888, in the delirium caused by the malaria that killed him, he claimed to be the returned Messiah.
His hymn is a testament to the grace of our loving Father. No matter what we face in life, it can be done well with our souls. His life, however, shows what happens when we take our eyes off Christ, remove ourselves from the body, and cease to be obedient to the life we have been called to live. No doubt, by the end of his life, he could no longer sing the words of his song and truthfully agree with them.
May we not follow his example; instead, let us live the truth found in the words of this 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.”
~ by Dawn F.
