When Love Outlasts the Storm

In November 1873, Horatio Spafford stood at the railing of a ship crossing the North Atlantic, staring into the cold dark water below. Weeks earlier, he had sent his wife Anna and their four daughters ahead to Europe while he finished business in Chicago. On November 22nd, the French ocean liner Ville du Havre collided with an iron sailing vessel and sank in just twelve minutes. All four of Spafford's daughters — Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and little Tanetta — perished in those waters. Anna survived, clinging to wreckage, and sent a telegram to her husband with three words: "Saved alone. What shall I do?"

Spafford booked the next ship to meet her. As he neared the place where his daughters had drowned, he didn't write a lament. He wrote a hymn.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

when sorrows like sea billows roll —