JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: It Is Well With My Soul

Few spiritual songs affect me like this old church song does. Long before I knew the true story behind it, just singing it and hearing it sung captured my soul in song. The words and the way they are put together are captivating. Do you know why it was written by Horatio Spafford in 1873?

The opening lines capture us.

“When peace like a river, attends my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, You have taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

Mr. Spafford wrote religious songs. He was a Chicago lawyer who had seen his business destroyed in the great fire there in the early 1870s. Several years later he and his wife planned a trip to Europe with their four girls. At the last moment, he decided to follow them later so he could attend to some business. His wife and the four girls boarded a ship and headed for Europe ahead of him.

Fate would intervene. While at sea the ship carrying his wife and four daughters struck another ship, and both ships were lost. Few were saved. His wife was one of the saved. None of his four daughters were saved. All four were lost. His wife gave him the bad news by telegram saying “saved alone.”

Spafford soon departed to Europe to meet his wife there. He asked the captain of the ship to alert him when the ship reached the point where his daughters had gone down. The captain did so, beckoning him. Spafford would say later that as they passed the point at sea, the words were revealed to him, which he wrote down as the basis for the song.

Those of us who know the song, know its refrain well:

“It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (with my soul)
It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

The song ends with verse we have come to cherish, even more so once we know the story of faith behind it, as it heralds the return of Jesus.

“But Lord, ’tis for You, for Your 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!”

Be at peace, whatever your loss. The Lord awaits us.

Copyright 2025, Jim “Pappy” Moore. All rights reserved.