Anthem: "When Peace Like a River" | Horatio Spafford; arr. Dale Grotenhuis

Sung by: Moorings Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir
Accompanied by The King's Brass, led by Tim Zimmerman
Christopher Dekker, Organist and Music Director
Recorded: January 19, 2025
Only with incredible confidence in God’s providence over his life could Horatio Spafford pen the words to "When Peace Like a River," today’s offertory anthem.
Spafford enjoyed a happy and successful life as a lawyer in Chicago during the mid 19th century. He had a wife, four daughters, and a son, until a series of tragic events took place. First, the Spaffords' only son died at age four. Then, the Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed all of the family’s real estate investments. With the hopes of a fresh start, the family planned a trip to England in November of 1873. Horatio was detained for business and sent his wife and four daughters ahead on the ship, Ville du Havre. Tragically, the boat was struck at sea by another vessel and sank in 12 minutes. All four daughters drowned, and his wife was one of the few survivors.
Once Horatio received word of the accident, he immediately booked passage across the Atlantic to join his sorrowing wife. As the ship passed the place where his beloved daughters drowned, Horatio said to himself, "It is well," words that he later used as the heart of the refrain to today's offertory.
What a testament of faith it was and is for God to enable him to write, “when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul.”
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 with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed his own blood for my soul.
It is well with my soul.
O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
Even so, it is well with my soul!