“It Is Well With My Soul”

To the Editor:

Over the years, people have sung songs both in times of joy and sorrow. Our early church fathers are best remembered for implementing congregational hymns into their services. America, established as a Christian nation, found these treasured songs spreading throughout the land. Hymns now sung Sunday after Sunday often are attached to stories in real-life experience. And sometimes, knowing the story behind a particular hymn can make the words even more comforting.

For example, take the events that inspired the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul.” Horatio Spafford, a successful Chicago lawyer and financial investor, was grieving the tragic death of his young son when much of his real estate holdings burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Two years later, a ship carrying his wife, Anna, and their four daughters to England went down, and Spafford received a telegram from Anna with the words “saved alone.”Atragedy beyond description.

Spafford rushed to board a ship to be with Anna in England. As the ship approached the spot at sea where his four daughters had perished, the story goes, Spafford cried out to God with these lines: “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way/ When sorrow like sea billows roll/ Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say/ It is well/ It is well with my soul” Several years later, Spafford’s good friend and contemporary, Philip Paul Bliss, one of the most famous and successful hymn writers of the day, put the words to melody giving us what we sing today, “It Is Well With My Soul.”

This hymn gives us a glimpse into one man’s sorrow and reverence for God’s grace. In the midst of heart-wrenching pain, Spafford was able to turn to God and utter words not filled with anger, but with hope and reliance upon his Creator to see him through life’s tragedies.

Life doesn’t promise us a rose garden. Our first parents took care of that in what the Bible calls the Garden of Eden. Our life takes many turns with some described as unbearable. Our connection must be tied to a handheld walk with our Divine Savior, who showed us the way to handle these turns in the road. He promised He would be with us and not forsake us. Of course, it requires knowledge and faith in a personal relationship with Him, at least it must start there. Jn 3:3 “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” That settles it – It is well with my soul.