Story Behind The Hymn "when Peace Like A River"

Story: The last but one time that I went to Israel , when we went to the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem our Guide pointed across Jersualem to some buildings and told us that is where Horatio Spafford used to live.

Many on our trip didn’t know who Spafford was.

Horatio Spafford, a well-known Chicago lawyer, was the author of the very famous “Free Church” hymn called “It is well with my soul”.

And I’d like to read it to you

1. 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”

Chorus:

It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

And Spafford goes on to say:

4. 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

You will whisper Your peace to my soul

5. 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.

It is a beautiful hymn – but let me tell you the story behind the hymn.

You might be tempted to think that the man who wrote that would indeed have to be a rich, successful Chicago

lawyer, with all going for him.

But it wasn’t so when he wrote the hymn.

On the contrary, the words came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy.

Horatio Spafford and his wife, Anna, were well-known in Chicago in the late 19th Century.

And this was not just because of Spafford’s legal career and business endeavours.

The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close friends of D.L. Moody, the famous evangelist - the “Billy Graham” of the 19th Century

In 1870, however, things started to go wrong for Spafford.

The Spaffords' only son died of scarlet fever at the age of four.

A year later, all the real estate that Spafford had invested in on the shores of Lake Michigan was destroyed by the Great Fire of Chicago of 8th-10th October of 1871.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on his family and wanting to support Moody on one of his evangelistic tours in England, Spafford decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England.

So in November 1873, the Spaffords travelled to New York, where they planned to catch the French steamer 'Ville de Havre' to cross the Atlantic.

Yet just before the steamer set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio Spafford to have to stay behind and catch a later ship

Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go ahead without him and he’d catch them up later.

So Anna Spafford and her four daughters sailed East to England while Horatio Spafford returned West to Chicago.

Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales.

It simply read: "Saved alone."

What had happened?

On 2nd November 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with another ship 'The Lochearn' and had sunk in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people.

Anna Spafford had stood on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her.

Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters as the ship went down.

Sadly all the children drowned – and Anna herself was only saved by her unconscious body fortuitously coming to rest on a plank and which somehow propped her up.

When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair.

Then she heard a voice speak to her,

"You were spared for a purpose."

And she immediately recalled the words of a friend,

"It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife.

During the voyage to England, the captain of the ship on which Spafford travelling - who had heard Spafford’s loss , called him to the bridge.

He said: "A careful reckoning has been made and I believe we are now passing over the place where the Ville de Havre was wrecked. “

After passing over the wreck of the Ville de Havre, where his four daughters had died, Spafford returned to his cabin.

And it was then that he penned the lyrics of his great 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”

Chorus:

It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

When I first heard Spafford’s story, it helped me to put my own worries into perspective.

Because I am a natural worrier.