The Story Behind 'It Is Well With My Soul'

"It Is Well With My Soul" was written by Horatio Spafford in 1873, in the aftermath of losing his four daughters at sea. The hymn's most striking detail is where it was born: Spafford penned the words while crossing the Atlantic, sailing over the very waters where his children had drowned. That is the story behind "It Is Well With My Soul," and it is one of the reasons the hymn still steadies grieving people today.

Who was Horatio Spafford?

Horatio Spafford was a successful lawyer and church elder in Chicago. He and his wife Anna were active in their congregation and known for their hospitality and faith.

By the early 1870s, life had already pressed hard on the family. Their young son died of illness, and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 wiped out much of the real estate Spafford had invested in. He was a man who knew loss before the loss that would define his hymn.

What tragedy inspired the hymn?

In 1873, Spafford planned a family trip to Europe, partly to rest and partly to join the evangelist D. L. Moody, a friend, on a preaching tour. Business detained Spafford at the last moment, so he sent Anna and their four daughters ahead on the steamship Ville du Havre, intending to follow.

Out on the Atlantic, the Ville du Havre collided with another vessel and sank within minutes. All four Spafford daughters drowned. Anna survived and was carried to safety in Wales, where she sent her husband a now-famous telegram of just two words:

Saved alone.

Spafford boarded the next ship to cross the ocean and bring his wife home. As his ship neared the place where the Ville du Havre had gone down, the captain reportedly pointed out the location. It was there, over his daughters' grave of water, that the words began to take shape.

What do the words actually say?

The opening verse holds the whole story in a single image:

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.

Notice what the hymn does not do. It does not pretend the sorrow is small, and it does not claim the loss was good. The "sea billows" are named plainly. The peace and the grief sit side by side.

That honesty is why the hymn has lasted. It gives words to people who are not "fine" but who still want to confess that God holds them. A few threads run through the verses:

• Grief named honestly — sorrows that "like sea billows roll."
• Peace as a gift, not a feeling — "Thou hast taught me to say."
• The cross as the anchor — later verses turn to Christ bearing sin in the singer's place.
• Hope beyond death — the final verse looks ahead to Christ's return.

Who wrote the tune?

The melody most congregations know was composed by Philip Bliss, a gifted hymn writer and singer of the same era. He named the tune Ville du Havre, after the ship, so the music itself carries the memory of the shipwreck.

Bliss himself would die soon after, in a train disaster in 1876. Two men closely tied to one of the most comforting hymns in the English language both knew sudden, public grief. The hymn was not written from a safe distance.

Why does this hymn still comfort people?

"It Is Well With My Soul" endures because it is a hymn for the hardest days, not the easy ones. It was written by a father who had buried five children, and it never flinches from that fact.

For families and worship leaders, that makes it a rare and useful song:

• It is honest about suffering, so it does not ring hollow at a funeral or in a hospital room.
• It is anchored in the gospel, pointing past circumstances to the cross.
• It is singable across ages, simple enough for children, deep enough for the oldest believer in the room.

If you are teaching it at home, the story is the lesson. Children remember "Saved alone" and the ship long after they would forget a list of dates. The history makes the theology land.

How can families study this hymn at home?

A hymn like this rewards slow attention. You do not need to be a scholar to lead it well. A simple path works:

1. Read the story first. Tell the shipwreck and the telegram before you sing a note.
2. Read the first verse aloud and ask where you see both sorrow and peace.
3. Sing it together slowly, even just the first verse.
4. Find the cross. Trace how the hymn moves from grief to Christ bearing sin.
5. Pray it back. Let the line "it is well with my soul" become your own prayer.

If you want a fuller framework for this kind of family worship, our guide on how to lead a hymn study at home walks through it step by step. And if this story moved you, the account behind another beloved hymn, "Amazing Grace," follows a similar arc of ruin turned to mercy.

Is the hymn free to use?

Yes. Both Spafford's text and Bliss's tune are in the public domain, which means you can sing, print, copy, and teach the hymn freely without permission or fees. That is part of why it appears in so many hymnals across denominations.

This is one of the quiet gifts of the old hymns: they belong to the whole church. You can write the verses on a kitchen chalkboard, copy them into a child's notebook, or frame them on a wall, and no license stands in the way.

If you would like the words ready to use for copywork, devotionals, or framing, our hymn study kits and printables gather hymns like this one into materials you can bring straight to the table. It is an easy way to keep a hymn in front of your family all week, not just on Sunday.

For a short list of hymns worth teaching first, see our roundup of five public-domain hymns every family should know. "It Is Well With My Soul" earns its place on almost any such list, not because it is cheerful, but because it tells the truth about sorrow and still says, it is well.