May It Be Well with Your Soul -- By: Perry G. Brackin
Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 01:4 (Fall 1992)
Article: May It Be Well with Your Soul
Author: Perry G. Brackin
RAR 1:4 (Fall 1992) p. 101
May It Be Well with Your Soul
In this world it may not take one long to realize that problems and tragedies can appear on the scene rather unexpectedly. Suddenly and often surprisingly, serious questions about God’s loving care can plague the mind. A Christian character is not revealed necessarily by the lack of nor quantity of problems or unfortunate circumstances which come one’s way (historical example and present experience illustrate that Christians are not immune).
One’s faith is definitely challenged when terrible things happen to innocent people. When one’s world is shattered by sickness, death, broken relationships, or persecutions, the absence of answers can shake the foundations of the soul, and the magnificent motifs of divine protection which once adorned the corridors of the mind can suddenly appear defaced. Where is God? Where is His glory? Where is the good in all of this?
During this writer’s personal struggle for answers and the return of the joyful heart, the silence became more endurable by listening to the saints behind and around him; by looking to the Son above him; and by learning from the Scroll before him. Some of the most wonderful inspiration came from hearing echoes of distant voices over their own unfortunate tragedies and rehearsing their reverberations in the mind. The following was written for all those who similarly have unanswered questions and unspeakable pain, as a result of life’s inexplicable tragedies.
Horatio Gates Spafford was the writer of the Christian hymn “When Peace Like a River Attendeth My Way,” better known as “It Is Well with My Soul.” His experience illustrates very well the sublime character of Christian faith among the most tragic of circumstances. Horatio Gates Spafford was born in 1828. After spending his early life in New York, he later moved to Chicago where he became a successful lawyer. Spafford was also a very religious man. He was a Presbyterian layman, a Sunday school teacher, and an
RAR 1:4 (Fall 1992) p. 102
active worker in the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association).
Beginning in the 1870s, Spafford experienced a series of events which came with devastating force. In 1871, some months prior to the Great Chicago Fire, real estate along the shores of Lake Michigan (in which Spafford had heavily invested) was destroyed by fire. In 1873, a physician counseled the Spaffords to travel to Europe in order to improve Mrs. Spafford’s health. Subsequently, Spafford’s wife, Anna Lawson Spafford, and four daughters boarded an American ship named the S. S. Ville du Havre sailing for Europe. Business required that Mr. Spafford remain behind but he was to follow his ...
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