We closed our sacrament meeting today with a song that will eventually appear in the new revised hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s generally known under the title of “It is Well with My Soul,” but it also goes by the beginning of its first line: “When Peace, Like a River”:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.Refrain
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (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!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.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!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of 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,
A song in the night, oh my soul!
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.Refrain
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (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!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.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!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of 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,
A song in the night, oh my soul!
After the loss of their four girls, Anna would give birth to three more children — a son and two daughters. The son died of scarlet fever in February 1880, at just four years of age. (Are you beginning to think of the biblical book of Job? I certainly am.)
In August of the following year, 1881, the Spaffords left America for a radically different life: They settled permanently in Jerusalem, which was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire at the time. (It was long before the establishment of the modern state of Israel.)
They founded a religious community there that was known as the American Colony, which remains an important element of East Jerusalem still today. (During my first six-month residency in the city decades ago, I walked by it just about daily, without knowing very much of its history.) There, they and those who joined them in their community engaged in philanthropic efforts among local Jews, Muslims, and Christians, establishing warm and trusting relationships with all three communities. (It was a simpler time, before the huge Jewish influx inspired by the rise of Zionism.) Horatio Spafford died of malaria on 25 September 1888, at the age of 59. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem. Anna, his widow, lived on in Jerusalem until 1923
A curious footnote: The Spaffords adopted a teenager there in Jerusalem who had been born to a family of Turkish Jews. His name was Jacob Elias. One day, when he was still a schoolboy, Jacob Elias discovered the important Siloam inscription (aka the “Silwan inscription” or “Shiloh inscription”).
So, as you can see, there are several very interesting stories that are connected in some way or other with “It is Well With My Soul.”
Here’s another one: Horatio Spafford’s lyrics for “It is Well With My Soul” were set to music by an American composer and hymn writer named Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876), who was another friend of Dwight Moody in Chicago. The 1985 edition of the Latter-day Saint hymnal contains three hymns by Bliss: Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy (#335) (also known as Let the Lower Lights Be Burning); More Holiness Give Me (#131); and Should You Feel Inclined to Censure (#235), which features lyrics by an anonymous writer set to the same tune as “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy”).
On 29 December 1876, three years after the sinking of the Ville du Havre, Bliss and his wife, Lucy, were traveling on a Pacific Express train that was approaching Ashtabula, Ohio. When the train was nearly across the bridge into Ashtabula, the bridge collapsed and the carriages fell into the ravine below. Neither Philip Paul Bliss nor his wife was ever seen again. He was thirty-eight years old. Philip and Lucy Bliss left two sons behind them, George (four) and Philip Paul (0ne). Ninety-two of the 159 passengers died in what is known as the “Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster.”
Remembering these stories will, I think, make the message of “It is Well With My Soul” all the more impactful.
Sunday is as good a day as any, I suppose, on which to contemplate the horrors inflicted upon the world by theists and theism. So here are four items that I’ve selected from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™ in hopes of stirring up your righteous indignation: