Some songs are written in comfort. This one was written in the middle of the ocean, over the very waters where a father had just lost his children. Over 150 years later, "It Is Well With My Soul" is still sung at funerals, in churches and in hospital rooms around the world. Here is the true story behind it.

A family already tested

Horatio Spafford was a successful lawyer in Chicago. He had invested heavily in property in the city, and when the Great Chicago Fire swept through in 1871, he suffered heavy financial losses. The economic downturn of 1873 hurt his business even more.

The voyage

In 1873, Horatio's wife, Anna, and their four daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta, sailed for Europe aboard the French steamship Ville du Havre. Horatio planned to follow soon after.

On November 22, 1873, in the middle of the Atlantic, the Ville du Havre collided with another ship, the Loch Earn, and sank quickly. 226 people died, including all four of the Spaffords' daughters. Anna survived.

When she reached land, she sent her husband a telegram that began with two heartbreaking words: "Saved alone."

Writing over the waters

Horatio immediately set sail to be with his grieving wife. As his ship passed near the place where his daughters had died, he wrote the words that would become one of the most famous hymns ever written:

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.

It is hard to imagine anyone writing those words at that moment. Horatio didn't deny his pain. "Sorrows like sea billows" is honest about the grief. But he anchored his soul to something deeper than his circumstances.

A song for the world

Gospel musician Philip Bliss set the words to music and named the tune "Ville du Havre" after the ship that sank. The hymn was published in 1876 in Gospel Hymns No. 2 by Ira Sankey and Philip Bliss, and it has been sung ever since.

Why this story still matters

• Faith is not the absence of grief. Horatio and Anna mourned deeply. Faith held them, it didn't erase the loss.
• Peace can be a choice we make in the storm. "It is well" was a declaration, not a feeling.
• Your pain can become someone else's comfort. A father's darkest hour has comforted millions of grieving people for more than 150 years.

If you are walking through loss right now, you don't have to pretend it's okay. But you can lean on the One who is with you in the deepest waters, and one day, maybe not today, you may find yourself singing, "It is well with my soul."

Has this hymn ever carried you through a hard season? Share your story in the comments.

Source: Wikipedia, "It Is Well with My Soul."