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Thursday, March 18, 2010

In Peace or In Sorrow

"It Is Well with My Soul" is a very influential hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.

This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford's life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the S.S. Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, "Saved alone." Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.

Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.

The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Israel. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

2 comments:

Unknown 3/18/2010 10:22:00 AM  

It is beautiful. It transmits peace and tranquility. Thank you for sharing!!

This is Nancy from Israeli Uncensored News

Greg Mc 3/22/2010 12:00:00 AM  

Great post Kevin. I came here looking for your thoughts on the passage of Health Care Reform, and was was surprised to happen upon my favorite hymn of all time.

Spafford's story helps put things in perspective. (Probably still too wound up to get any real sleep tonight, but listening to the song certainly helps!)

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