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134.......It Is Well With My Soul

It Is Well With My Soul, hymn #134, is the most famous of the three hymns for which P.P. Bliss composed only the music. It is the fourteenth of 15 hymns by Bliss in this collection. Dr. Alfred B. Smith in his 1981 book, Treasury of Hymn Histories, says about this hymn, "Perhaps no other gospel song has proven what the longevity of a scripturally-based song can be." It is my personal belief that this is the most well-known of all hymn stories.

The story begins as told to Dr. Smith by Dr. George Coles Stebbins in 1938, "Horatio Gates Spafford was a well-known Christian lawyer in Chicago who also had great holdings in real estate in the fast-growing frontier town. He had been led into a deeper dedication of his life and wealth to the Lord through his association with D.L. Moody and Henry Moorehouse, the English Bible teacher. The October 8, 1871 Chicago fire raged for 24 hours with property losses of $200,000,000.00, leaving 100,000 homeless and 300 dead. Spafford's real estate holdings were reduced to nothing but ashes. The first building erected by Moody after the fire was the North Side Tabernacle, and it was there that Spafford occupied himself in helping those who had actually lost everything. Spafford still had his law practice and some equity left.

In November of 1873, Spafford decided to take his family to England where his children could enroll in an English Academy as the Chicago schools had not yet been rebuilt. He also wanted to help Moody and Sankey in their first evangelistic trip to England. Last minute business developments prevented Spafford from leaving for England with his wife and four daughters, but he did go with them to see their departure. After they boarded the ship, Spafford did not like the center placement of their cabins and requested a change to the bow. As it turns out, the original location of the cabins on the Villa de Harve was the exact spot where the English sailing ship, the Lockurn, collided early in the morning of November 22 and would have certainly killed Mrs. Spafford upon impact. The four Spafford girls drowned, as did 222 others. Mrs. Anna Lawson Spafford, one of the 47 survivors, was found barely conscious, clinging to a piece of wreckage. Ten days later, the rescue ship delivered her to Cardiff, Wales where she was able to cable her husband in Chicago a short message, 'saved alone.' When Spafford received the message, the tragedy of the Chicago fire seemed but nothing in comparison. Money and buildings can be replaced but now his children Maggie, Tanetta, Annie and Bessie were gone. It was through these clouds of darkness and despair that there shone into the heart of Spafford the bright light of God's promise that he would be reunited with his daughters who had come to know the Lord through the efforts of Sankey in Chicago in 1872. As his ship to England passed over the spot where the ship went down, Spafford penned the words to this song that would herald its way through the Christian church and encourage multitudes."

In November of 1876, Spafford was at the Whittle home in Chicago where he asked Bliss to set music to these words. On Friday, November 24, 1876 Bliss sang this song for the first time at a meeting, conducted in Chicago's newly rebuilt Farwell Hall for over 1,000 ministers. It was Bliss's last public-singing engagement!

Original Verses by Horatio Gates Spafford

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.

[Refrain
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.
Refrain

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!
Refrain

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.
Refrain

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!
Refrain

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.
Refrain

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