In 1871 Horatio G. Spafford lost almost all his wealth in the Great Chicago Fire. About that same time Spafford lost his four year-old son to Scarlet Fever. In 1873 while trying to solve a business issue in Chicago he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship back across the Atlantic.
Spafford received a chilling telegraph that read simply: "Saved alone."
Just two years after losing his son he lost all four daughters in the sinking of a ship. Spafford crossed the chilly ocean to join his grieving wife. While on the voyage the captain of the ship informed Horatio when they reached the spot where his daughters had drowned to death. In his grief and because of his intense faith and hope he penned the poem that became "It Is Well With My Soul".
"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."
You can well imagine tears rolling down his cheeks and splashing onto his paper as he jotted down these lines. Sorrows like sea billows were certainly rolling and he was fighting to be able to say like Job, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21).
On that ship Horatio Spafford was expressing the beauty of God's sovereignty in the midst of tragedy like I can't imagine. Where did he find the ability to write such lyrics at the location of his four daughters' death? I believe the answer can be seen in the next verses.
"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed His own blood for my soul."
Spafford finds a reason to hope in the goodness and good sovereignty of God in the midst of this massive tragedy by thinking about his own salvation. Why does he do this? Why when grasping for hope and meaning at this fatal locale did he think of his own salvation? I believe he must have thought of Romans 8:32:
"He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"
Paul's argument was that if the Father would sacrifice His own Son then we can trust that there is nothing He won't do to give us all things. And if that is true then Horatio could trust that his Heavenly Father somehow, someway, was doing him good even in this tragic moment. What trust could be rooted in this sort of Gospel logic.
"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!"
In the painfulness of life... a painfulness I hope to never hit... Spafford was able to experience the joy of his salvation. Sin was defeated on the cross. Not part of his sin, but the whole! But how does this help poor Horatio Spafford in this exact moment floating over the sea graves of his four daughters? For this we look at the next verse which is rarely, if ever, sung but was in the poem written by Spafford.
"For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan shall above me shall roll.
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul."
Horatio understood the Gospel and understood Philippians 1:21 which reads: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For Spafford to continue living without the five of his children was Christ and for them to die was gain.
"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!"
1 Thessalonians 4:13 tells the Christian that he or she will grieve but not as those who have no hope. In the Bible we read and in the creeds we confess that we believe and hope in the resurrection of the dead. The sky, not the grave, is our goal. Spafford would not permanently lose his children. Yes, there was certainly grief. Yes, there was certainly hope.
"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."
We who have this hope say, "Come back quickly, Jesus!" In the second coming Jesus will make all things new and death will be no more. In the most painful moments of life we who believe cry out for Jesus to hurry up and return. Spafford clearly means this as the last verse of his poem echos the end of the entire Bible in the King James Version he would have been reading.
"Surely, I come quickly'. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20
How did Horatio Spafford respond to a nearly unthinkable tragedy? With the Gospel applied. And that is why this hymn that was put to music by Phillip Bliss still brings tears to eyes and strength to souls.
I got to hear an incredible arrangement and performance of this song today by the Wartburg Choir. The recording below is older but take a few minutes to listen and understand what Spafford wrote and what brought tears of joy to my eyes today.
