It_Is_Well

The tune is named after the ship on which Spafford’s children perished, the S.S. Ville de Havre. Ironically, Bliss himself died in a tragic train wreck shortly after writing this music.

The French liner, “S.S. Ville du Havre,” was the most luxurious ship afloat when it sailed from New York in November, 1873. Among her passengers was Mrs. H.G. Spafford of Chicago, making the trip with her four children, Maggie, Tanetta, Annie and Bessie. Mr. Spafford was unable to make the voyage with his family because of business commitments in Chicago, so recently ravaged by the Great Fire. But, even though he was happy his family was traveling on a ship with Christian companions, some last-minute premonition made him change the cabin they occupied to one toward the bow of the vessel. He told them “Goodbye,” promising to meet them in France in a few weeks.

At two o’clock on the morning of November 22, 1873, when the luxury liner was several days out, she was rammed by the English iron sailing vessel, the “Lochern.” In two hours the “Ville Du Havre,” one of the largest ships afloat, settled to the bottom of the ocean, with a loss of some two-hundred twenty-six lives, including the four Spafford children. Nine days later when the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales, Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband these two words, “Saved alone.” When he received her message, he said to a dear friend, “I am glad to trust the Lord when it will cost me something.” For him it was a second time of testing, coming almost too soon upon the heels of the first. In the Chicago fire he had lost everything he owned; in the tragedy at sea he had lost his four precious children. As soon as he could, he booked passage on a ship to Europe to join his wife. On the way over, in December of that same year, 1873, the Captain called him into his cabin and said, “I believe we are now passing over the place where the ‘Ville du Havre’ went down.”

That night he found it hard to sleep. But faith soon conquered doubt and, there in the mid-Atlantic, out of his heart-break and pain, Mr. Spafford penned these words. They speak to the eternal hope that all believers have, no matter what pain and grief befall them on earth.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

(Refrain)
It is well, with my soul,
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 has 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 the 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)

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of 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)