Horatio Spafford
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Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828, Troy, New York - October 16, 1888, Jerusalem)[1] is best known as the author of the hymn It Is Well with My Soul.
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[edit] Early life
[edit] First tragedy: The Great Chicago Fire
On October 8, 1871, as Horatio and his wife Anna were grieving over the death of their son, the Great Chicago Fire swept through the city. Horatio was a prominent lawyer in Chicago[2], and had invested heavily in the city's real estate, and the fire destroyed almost everything he owned.
[edit] Second tragedy: The wreck of the Ville Du Havre
Two years later, in 1873, Spafford decided his family should take a holiday somewhere in Europe, and chose England knowing that his friend D. L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall. Delayed because of business, he sent ahead of him his family: his wife Anna, and his four remaining children, daughters Tanetta, Maggie, Annie and Bessie.
On November 21, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the S.S. Ville Du Havre, their ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel[3] and two hundred and twenty six people lost their lives, including all four of Spafford's daughters. Somehow his wife, Anna, survived. On arriving in England, she sent a telegram to Spafford beginning "Saved alone."[4]
Spafford then himself took a ship to England, going past the place where his daughters had died. According to Bertha Spafford, a daughter born after the tragedy, the hymn was written in mid-Atlantic.
[edit] The lyrics of It Is Well with My Soul
The original manuscript[5] has only four verses, but Spafford's daughter states how later another verse (the fourth in order below) was added and the last line of the original was slightly modified.[6] The music, written by Philip Bliss, was named after the ship on which Spafford's daughters died, Ville Du Havre.
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.
(Refrain:) It is well (it is well),
with my soul (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 hath 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 His 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)
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)
[edit] The American Colony in Jerusalem
After the tragedy, the Spaffords had two more children: a son, Horatio, born in 1876, and a daughter, Bertha, born two years later. Sadly, young Horatio contracted scarlet fever and died at the age of four. Then in August 1881, the Spaffords set out for Jerusalem as a party of 13 adults and 3 children and set up the American Colony.
Moved by a series of profound tragic losses, Chicago natives Anna and Horatio Spafford led a small American contingent in 1881 to Jerusalem to form a Christian utopian society known as the "American Colony." Colony members, later joined by Swedish Christians, engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious affiliation and without proselytizing motives--thereby gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. During and immediately after World War I, the American Colony played a critical role in supporting these communities through the great suffering and deprivations of the eastern front by running soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable ventures.
Spafford died on October 16, 1888, of malaria, and was buried there in Jerusalem.
[edit] References
- ^ Source of middle name and birth/death information
- ^ http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/americancolony/images/ac0004bs.jpg
- ^ http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/americancolony/images/ac0005s.jpg
- ^ http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/americancolony/images/ac0006s.jpg
- ^ Photo of manuscript
- ^ Bertha's history. Bertha Spafford Vester. (1988). Our Jerusalem: An American Family in the Holy City, 1881-1949. Jerusalem: American Colony, 364 pp., ISBN 0-405-10296-8.
- ^ Library of Congress Exhibition Overview. See also Yaakov Ariel & Ruth Kark. (1996, December). "Messianism, Holiness, Charisma, and Community: The American-Swedish Colony in Jerusalem, 1881-1933," Church History, 65(4), 641-657.
[edit] External links
[edit] Horatio Spafford
- SpaffordHymn.com : The original Hymn manuscript penned by Horatio Spafford
- CyberHymnal.org Photos of Horatio Spafford and a MIDI file of the hymn
- Elisabeth Elliot recalls tea with Horatio Spafford's daughter
- Gospelcom.net
- Christianity.ca Many details on life of Spafford
- The Library of Congress Exhibition covering the start of The American Colony in Jerusalem, the Spafford Family tragedy, their move to Jerusalem, their time in the Holy Land, and the American Colony at work
