The Story Behind "It Is Well with My Soul"

There's a reason "It Is Well with My Soul" ended up on the spine of the Hymnbook Treasures box. Of all the hymns in this collection, it might be the one that best captures what I hope this whole calendar is for — not a tidy, easy faith, but a faith that holds up when nothing else does.

Horatio Gates Spafford wrote it in 1873, and the story behind it is one you don't forget once you know it. Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer, a friend of the evangelist D.L. Moody, a man who by most measures had built a good life. Then, in the span of about two years, he lost almost everything. The Great Chicago Fire wiped out much of his real estate investments. Shortly after, he and his family planned a trip to Europe — Spafford was delayed by business, so his wife and four daughters sailed ahead of him.

Their ship, the Ville du Havre, collided with another vessel in the middle of the Atlantic and sank. His wife survived. His four daughters did not.

Spafford booked passage to join his grieving wife, and as the ship crossed the same waters where his daughters had died, he wrote the words that would become this hymn. Not words of denial. Not words that pretend the grief away. Words that look straight at the worst thing that can happen to a person and still say:

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.

I think that's what separates a hymn like this from a lot of what passes for comfort. It doesn't ask you to feel better. It gives you something to say when you don't.

Philip Bliss wrote the tune (named VILLE DU HAVRE after the fateful ship) not long after in 1876, and the pairing has stuck for 150 years — sung at funerals, sung in hospital rooms, sung by people who have absolutely no idea if it's well with their soul but need the words anyway, because somebody has to say something true.

That's the whole idea behind Hymnbook Treasures. Every page is one stanza — the kind of thing you could actually hold onto for a day, or longer. "It Is Well with My Soul" appears on the calendar and reminds me of the inspiration for this project from the beginning.

You can find the verses of "It Is Well with My Soul" in the calendar on March 28, June 18, August 27, and November 10 — it's one of the beloved "jewels" that we feature more than once.  You can scan the QR code on those pages and it'll take you straight to the hymn's information page on Hymnary.org. (Or click here if you can't wait!)