Editor's note: Feel free to read yesterday’s devotion written for Devotionals Daily by Robert J. Morgan, author of The Origin of Hymns: It Is Well with My Soul. Then, enjoy today's devotion from this written and visual complement to the critically acclaimed movie, I Can Only Imagine 2.
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1873
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. — Psalm 34:19
When the great Chicago fire consumed the Windy City in 1871, Horatio G. Spafford, an attorney heavily invested in real estate, lost a fortune. About that time, his only son, age 4, succumbed to scarlet fever. Horatio drowned his grief in work, pouring himself into rebuilding the city and assisting the 100,000 who had been left homeless.
In November of 1873, he decided to take his wife and daughters to Europe. Horatio was close to D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey, and he wanted to visit their evangelistic meetings in England, then enjoy a vacation.
When an urgent matter detained Horatio in New York, he decided to send his wife, Anna, and their four daughters, Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie, on ahead. As he saw them settled into a cabin aboard the luxurious French liner Ville du Havre, an unease filled his mind, and he moved them to a room closer to the bow of the ship. Then he said good-bye, promising to join them soon.
During the small hours of November 22, 1873, as the Ville du Havre glided over smooth seas, the passengers were jolted from their bunks. The ship had collided with an iron sailing vessel, and water poured in like Niagara. The Ville du Havre tilted dangerously. Screams, prayers, and oaths merged into a nightmare of unmeasured terror. Passengers clung to posts, tumbled through darkness, and were swept away by powerful currents of icy ocean. Loved ones fell from each other’s grasp and disappeared into foaming blackness. Within two hours, the mighty ship vanished beneath the waters. The 226 fatalities included Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie.
Mrs. Spafford was found nearly unconscious, clinging to a piece of the wreckage. When the 47 survivors landed in Cardiff, Wales, she cabled her husband:
- ‘‘Saved Alone.’’
Horatio immediately booked passage to join his wife. En route, on a cold December night, the captain called him aside and said, ‘‘I believe we are now passing over the place where the Ville du Havre went down.’’ Spafford went to his cabin but found it hard to sleep. He said to himself,
‘‘It is well; the will of God be done.’’
He later wrote his famous hymn based on those words.
The melody for ‘‘It Is Well,’’ titled Ville du Havre, was written by Philip Bliss who was himself soon to perish, along with his wife, in a terrible train wreck in Ohio.*
*See the story of ‘‘I Will Sing of My Redeemer.’’
Watch the I Can Only Imagine 2 Movie Trailer
Excerpted with permission from The Origin of Hymns: It Is Well with My Soul by Robert J. Morgan, copyright Robert J. Morgan.
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Your Turn
With Christ, no matter what it is, it can be well with our souls. No matter what season you’re in, the Lord is with you and He loves you. Re-read Spafford’s lyrics and let’s worship God together today. ~ Devotionals Daily