Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
We have all heard and sung the beloved old hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. We sing it often here when we are gathered together for worship. It is a beautiful hymn that touches the heart. But it is even more moving when you know the story behind the hymn.
Sometimes great hymns are born in joy and revival, and sometimes they are born in trials, or even tragedy. Horatio Spafford wrote this hymn under tragic circumstances. He had suffered great loss in the great fire of Chicago in 1871. He had been a successful attorney, and had invested heavily in real estate in the area that was destroyed by the fire. Then, a couple of years later, his business interests were hit even further by the Panic of 1873.
At that time, Spafford planned a trip to the United Kingdom with his family and some friends, to help with D. L. Moody’s upcoming evangelistic campaigns over there.
When the time for their departure arrived, some pressing business concerns came up, so he sent his wife Anna and daughters on ahead with their friends, and planned to join them shortly.
About halfway into their journey across the ocean, at about 2 o’clock on the morning of November 22, 1873, their ship, the Ville du Havre, collided with the a three masted iron clipper, the Loch Earn, and she began to sink. Awakened by the crash, Anna bundled up her four daughters and guided them up onto the deck. There was Annie (age 12), Maggie (age 7), Bessie (age 4), and baby Tanetta (18 months). The frightened girls held on tightly to their mother. A devout woman of Faith, Anna offered words of comfort and courage to those around her. As the ship began to tip towards its slide into the icy depths of the sea, she calmly said, “Don’t be afraid,” and quoted Psalm 95:5, which says, “The sea is His, and He made it.”
As the ship went down, a maelstrom of water and debris knocked baby Tanetta out of her mother’s arms and she was lost. The older girls all did their best to persevere, but they quickly succumbed to the cold and were lost as well. Anna alone was found by rescuers, barely conscious, floating on a piece of broken planking.
The ship went down in just twelve minutes. Of the 313 people on board, only 61 passengers and 26 crew members survived.
When Anna arrived in Cardiff, Wales, she sent a cablegram to her husband, to let him know of the tragedy. The cablegram read, “Saved alone, what shall I do?”
Grief stricken, Spafford immediately caught a ship across the ocean to meet up with his wife. As the ship approached the place where his daughters had been lost, the captain of that ship, knowing Spafford’s tragic story, pointed out to him the place where the Ville du Havre went down. As his ship passed over that place, he penned the words of this beloved 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 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.
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!
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.
The original poem had two additional verses, not listed here for lack of space.
Through their trials, Horatio and Anna Spafford had an unwavering faith in God, and that faith carried them through their tragedy. They later had three more children: Horatio in 1875, Bertha in 1878 and Grace in 1881.
Capac Bible Church is an old fashioned preaching, Bible believing, hymn singing, KJV church located in beautiful Saint Clair County in Southeast Michigan.
Visit our internet site at capacbible.org
Thank you so much for watching! Your heartfelt comments are an encouragement to us. Please remember to subscribe and like our videos, and forward to others. We appreciate your prayers and financial support! May God bless you is our prayer.
Check out our platforms:
youtube.com/@CapacBibleChurch
bitchute.com/channel/CapacBibleChurch
brighteon.com/channels/cbc154/home
facebook.com/capacbible.church.5
rumble.com/user/CapacBibleChurch
instagram.com/cbc206714
gab.com/CapacBibleChurch
capacbible.blogspot.com
https://x.com/BibleCapac
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
We have all heard and sung the beloved old hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. We sing it often here when we are gathered together for worship. It is a beautiful hymn that touches the heart. But it is even more moving when you know the story behind the hymn.
Sometimes great hymns are born in joy and revival, and sometimes they are born in trials, or even tragedy. Horatio Spafford wrote this hymn under tragic circumstances. He had suffered great loss in the great fire of Chicago in 1871. He had been a successful attorney, and had invested heavily in real estate in the area that was destroyed by the fire. Then, a couple of years later, his business interests were hit even further by the Panic of 1873.
At that time, Spafford planned a trip to the United Kingdom with his family and some friends, to help with D. L. Moody’s upcoming evangelistic campaigns over there.
When the time for their departure arrived, some pressing business concerns came up, so he sent his wife Anna and daughters on ahead with their friends, and planned to join them shortly.
About halfway into their journey across the ocean, at about 2 o’clock on the morning of November 22, 1873, their ship, the Ville du Havre, collided with the a three masted iron clipper, the Loch Earn, and she began to sink. Awakened by the crash, Anna bundled up her four daughters and guided them up onto the deck. There was Annie (age 12), Maggie (age 7), Bessie (age 4), and baby Tanetta (18 months). The frightened girls held on tightly to their mother. A devout woman of Faith, Anna offered words of comfort and courage to those around her. As the ship began to tip towards its slide into the icy depths of the sea, she calmly said, “Don’t be afraid,” and quoted Psalm 95:5, which says, “The sea is His, and He made it.”
As the ship went down, a maelstrom of water and debris knocked baby Tanetta out of her mother’s arms and she was lost. The older girls all did their best to persevere, but they quickly succumbed to the cold and were lost as well. Anna alone was found by rescuers, barely conscious, floating on a piece of broken planking.
The ship went down in just twelve minutes. Of the 313 people on board, only 61 passengers and 26 crew members survived.
When Anna arrived in Cardiff, Wales, she sent a cablegram to her husband, to let him know of the tragedy. The cablegram read, “Saved alone, what shall I do?”
Grief stricken, Spafford immediately caught a ship across the ocean to meet up with his wife. As the ship approached the place where his daughters had been lost, the captain of that ship, knowing Spafford’s tragic story, pointed out to him the place where the Ville du Havre went down. As his ship passed over that place, he penned the words of this beloved 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 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.
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!
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.
The original poem had two additional verses, not listed here for lack of space.
Through their trials, Horatio and Anna Spafford had an unwavering faith in God, and that faith carried them through their tragedy. They later had three more children: Horatio in 1875, Bertha in 1878 and Grace in 1881.
Capac Bible Church is an old fashioned preaching, Bible believing, hymn singing, KJV church located in beautiful Saint Clair County in Southeast Michigan.
Visit our internet site at capacbible.org
Thank you so much for watching! Your heartfelt comments are an encouragement to us. Please remember to subscribe and like our videos, and forward to others. We appreciate your prayers and financial support! May God bless you is our prayer.
Check out our platforms:
youtube.com/@CapacBibleChurch
bitchute.com/channel/CapacBibleChurch
brighteon.com/channels/cbc154/home
facebook.com/capacbible.church.5
rumble.com/user/CapacBibleChurch
instagram.com/cbc206714
gab.com/CapacBibleChurch
capacbible.blogspot.com
https://x.com/BibleCapac
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
