In yesterday’s sermon I told the story of how Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn It is Well With My Soul. My decision to tell that story was kind of spur-of-the-moment and my memory was a little faulty. I stated that Spafford’s wife and children were killed, but, in fact, his wife survived. Regardless, the story is so good I decided to post the factual version here.

Sometime in 1871, a fire in Chicago heavily devastated the city, and months before that , Horatio Spafford, a Presbyterian lawyer, had invested hugely in real estate by the shore of Lake Michigan. The disaster greatly wiped out his holdings. Before the fire, Spafford also experienced the loss of his son.

Two years after the fire, Horatio Spafford planned a trip to Europe for him and his family. He wanted a rest for his wife and four daughters, and also to assist Moody and Sankey in one of their evangelistic campaigns in Great Britain. He was not meant to travel with his family. The day in November they were due to depart, Spafford had a last minute business transaction and had to stay behind in Chicago. Nevertheless, he still sent his wife and four daughters to travel as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Havre, expecting to follow in a few days. On November 22, the ship laden with his wife and daughters was struck by the Lockhearn, an English vessel, and sank in few minutes.

After the survivors were finally landed somewhere at Cardiff, Wales, Spafford’s wife cabled her husband with two simple words, “Saved alone.” Shortly after, Spafford left by ship on his way where his beloved four daughters had drowned, and pen at hand, wrote this most poignant text so significantly descriptive of his own personal grief – “When sorrows like sea billows roll…” The hymn “It is Well with My Soul” was born.