A hymn and its story
It Is Well With My Soul
It Is Well With My Soul was written by Horatio G. Spafford, a Chicago lawyer, after his four daughters drowned when the SS Ville du Havre sank in the Atlantic in November 1873. Philip P. Bliss set his words to music, naming the tune VILLE DU HAVRE, and it was first published in Gospel Hymns No. 2 in 1876. The hymn says that peace with God can hold even when every circumstance has gone wrong, because it rests on Christ.
Words by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873 · music by Philip P. Bliss
A father who had lost everything wrote 'It is well with my soul' while sailing over the very sea that took his four daughters, and the Church has grieved and hoped in his words ever since.
It Is Well With My Soul at a glance
- Words
- Horatio G. Spafford, 1873
- Occasion
- the loss of his four daughters in the sinking of the Ville du Havre, November 1873
- Tune
- VILLE DU HAVRE, by Philip P. Bliss, 1876
- First published
- Gospel Hymns No. 2, 1876
- Meter
- 11.8.11.9 with refrain
Who wrote It Is Well With My Soul, and why?
In 1873 Horatio Spafford, a Chicago lawyer who had already lost much of his fortune in the Great Fire and buried a young son, sent his wife Anna and their four daughters ahead to Europe by ship while business kept him behind. On the way across the Atlantic the SS Ville du Havre was struck by another vessel and sank in minutes. All four daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta, drowned. Anna survived, and when she reached land she sent her husband a telegram of two words: 'Saved alone.'
Spafford boarded the next ship to join her. It is said that as they crossed the same waters where his daughters had died, the captain pointed out the place. Near there, in that grief, he wrote the words that begin, 'When peace, like a river, attendeth my way.' Not that all was well with his circumstances, everything had been taken, but that it was well with his soul, because his soul rested in God.
The history of It Is Well With My Soul
The facts are stark. On 22 November 1873 the French steamer Ville du Havre, crossing from New York to France, was struck by the British ship Loch Earn and sank within minutes. Anna Spafford survived; Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta did not. When she reached land she cabled her husband two words that have become part of the hymn's story: ‘Saved alone.’
Horatio sailed to join her, and on that crossing wrote the words. The tune came from his friend Philip P. Bliss, the gospel songwriter, who named it after the lost ship and published it with Ira D. Sankey in Gospel Hymns No. 2 in 1876. Bliss himself died only weeks later, in a railway disaster at Ashtabula, Ohio, in December 1876. The Spaffords went on to have more children, and in 1881 they moved to Jerusalem, where the community they gathered, later known as the American Colony, gave itself to caring for the poor and the sick of every faith. Their grief did not end their love; it sent it outward.
The words of It Is Well With My Soul
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
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.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!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.
Public domain words, as commonly sung.
The Scripture behind It Is Well With My Soul
What does It Is Well With My Soul mean?
The hymn turns on one distinction: it does not say it is well with my circumstances. It says it is well with my soul. The first verse names sorrows that roll like sea billows and still says, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say it. That word taught matters. This peace was learned, not felt on demand.
The middle verses give the reason. The singer's sin, ‘not in part but the whole,’ is nailed to the cross, and Christ has shed His own blood for the soul. The last verse looks ahead to the day faith becomes sight and the Lord descends. So the hymn is not denial. It is grief held inside a larger story, the story of the cross and the resurrection, where loss is real and does not have the last word.
Why it still moves us
The hymn does not pretend the sea is calm. It names the sorrows that roll like billows and still says, it is well. That is why it has been sung at more funerals and in more sleepless nights than almost any other hymn: it gives words to a peace that does not depend on things going well. The ground of that peace is named plainly in the second verse, that Christ 'hath shed His own blood for my soul.' A grief this deep can rest only on a love that went that far.
Sing it, and mean it
A hymn is a prayer you can carry in your chest. The people who wrote these did not write from a stage; they wrote from shipwreck and sickbeds, from ordinary faithful mornings, and handed us words for the days we cannot find our own. You do not have to sing well. You only have to lift it, and mean it, to the One it is about.
Meet the One these hymns are aboutWorship in The Living BreadWhen you are carrying griefRead Psalm 23Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- Who wrote It Is Well With My Soul?
- Horatio G. Spafford, a Chicago lawyer, wrote the words in 1873 after his four daughters drowned when the SS Ville du Havre sank. Philip P. Bliss composed the tune, naming it 'Ville du Havre' after the lost ship.
- What is the story behind It Is Well With My Soul?
- Spafford's four daughters died at sea while crossing to Europe; his wife survived and telegraphed 'Saved alone.' Sailing to join her, near the place they drowned, he wrote 'It is well with my soul,' a confession of peace in God in the depth of loss.
- What does 'it is well with my soul' mean?
- It means that even when everything in life goes wrong, a soul anchored in God can be at peace, because that peace rests not on circumstances but on Christ, who 'hath shed His own blood for my soul.'
- Is the story behind It Is Well With My Soul true?
- Yes. The Ville du Havre sank on 22 November 1873 after colliding with the Loch Earn, and the four Spafford daughters were among those lost. Anna Spafford survived and cabled 'Saved alone.' The detail that Horatio wrote the words near the place of the wreck comes from family tradition, and is told here as such.
- Who wrote the music for It Is Well With My Soul?
- Philip P. Bliss, who named the tune VILLE DU HAVRE after the ship. It was first published in Gospel Hymns No. 2 (1876).
Sources
Dates and attributions are checked against these sources. The reflections are our own words.
