- The account I want to share
with you this Christmas season is just such a story.
It's about a family,
who in the darkest moments of life found the hope and peace
we associate with this season,
the true spirit of Christmas.
How it transformed them and also has blessed this world.
♪ O little town of Bethlehem, ♪
♪ How still we see thee lie. ♪
♪ Above thy deep and dreamless sleep ♪
♪ The silent stars go by; ♪
♪ Yet in thy dark streets shineth ♪
♪ The everlasting Light. ♪
♪ The hopes and fears of all the years ♪
♪ Are met in thee tonight. ♪
Bonneville:
an ocean liner the Ville du Havre set sail
from New York bound
for France with 313 passengers on board.
One can imagine their festive Atlantic crossing
with ribbons of red, swags of evergreen
and Christmas carols wafting
through a dining room sparkling with candlelight.
In a few days they would make landfall in Europe,
just in time for Christmas in Paris.
Anna Spafford and her four little girls
were among the delighted passengers.
They had come from Chicago.
Annie, aged 11;
Margaret Lee, 9;
Bessie, 5;
and little Tanetta, aged 2.
Their father, Horatio had intended to sail with them
but was detained on business.
Not to worry, he assured his wife and children,
he would book his passage in a few days
and soon they would be reunited
in Paris, the City of Light,
celebrating the season of goodwill.
And goodwill is what they needed.
Two years earlier the great Chicago fire had all
but destroyed Horatio's business interests.
So, this journey was intended to restore hope
and bring healing into their lives.
Once on board the ship on the evening of November 22,
Anna and her girls knelt down,
said their prayers and fell asleep,
dreaming of the Yuletide festivities to come.
But,
they were suddenly jolted awake in their berths,
despite a clear starry sky,
the Ville du Havre had inexplicably collided
with the Loch Earn,
an iron-hulled Scottish clipper.
Lifeboats quickly filled with people,
many passengers lept into the icy waters.
Anna tried desperately to keep her children together
but the two eldest became separated in the confusion,
just 12 minutes after the impact,
a wave washed over the deck
and Anna was drawn under
She held onto five year old Bessie,
until her strength gave out.
Her last memory was of two year old Tanetta
in her lace nightgown, torn from her grasp,
getting smaller and smaller,
until she too finally disappeared.
Later the crew of the Loch Earn found Anna unconscious
floating on a wooden plank.
When the ship docked in Wales,
Anna sent a telegram to her husband.
It read,
Saved alone.
What shall I do?
Horatio immediately sailed from New York.
He wrote to a friend,
"There is just one thing in these days
"that has become magnificently clear.
I must not lose faith."
Four days into his voyage, on a Thursday evening,
the captain
By the crew's calculations
they were nearing
where Anna's ship had gone dow,
taking with it their four daughters.
Now resting some three miles below.
But Horatio refused to look down.
"I did not think of our dear ones there,"
he later recounted.
Instead
and up into moonlit sky.
There and then he began to formulate a simple expression
of his faith,
a verse that would become a hymn.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot,
thou has taught me to say,
it is well,
it is well with my soul.
Only a few weeks earlier in the same place
on the open sea,
Anna had experienced a similar awakening
after her rescue when she had regained consciousness,
she was overcome with despair
and simply wanted to throw herself back into the ocean.
What was life worth now?
What could it ever be without her children?
But then,
it was as if she heard a voice in her mind,
and her heart.
You are spared for a purpose Anna.
You have a work to do.
♪ When peace like a river, ♪
♪ attendeth my way, ♪
♪ When sorrows like sea billows roll ♪
♪ Whatever my lot, ♪
♪ thou hast
♪ It is well, ♪
♪ it is well, ♪
♪ with my soul. ♪
Once they had returned to Chicago,
Horatio sought the support and prayers
of his congregation.
To help him face the dire financial straits
in which he found himself.
Anna gave birth to a boy and then a girl.
But sorrow upon sorrow,
that son Horatio Junior succumbed to scarlet fever
at the age of three.
Then a year later, another daughter was born.
Only two of their seven children lived to maturity.
But the Spaffords never yielded hope.
♪ Though Satan should buffet, ♪
♪ though trials should come, ♪
♪ Let this blest assurance control, ♪
♪ That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, ♪
♪ And hath shed His own blood for my soul. ♪
Through that
the Spafford's became even more certain
that God loves all his children,
whoever they are.
And whatever tribulations they may suffer.
In 1881 the family moved to Jerusalem
and established there an American colony
not far from the little town of Bethlehem
we celebrate at Christmas.
Although deeply religious,
their purpose was not to proselytize
but to serve people of all backgrounds,
relieving the effects of poverty, disease and strife,
wherever it was found.
Seven years later, Horatio himself died.
Grieving once again,
Anna Spafford had every reason to give up,
but she did not.
Every life has contradictions and imperfections
and hers was no exception,
but when it mattered most,
in her most profound spiritual crisis
when all seemed lost,
Anna found the strength to move forward
and to turn outward to continue the work
she and her husband had begun.
And the seed of service which they had planted
bore sweet fruit indeed.
In time
Bertha expanded the Spafford's humanitarian work,
with the simple intent of rescuing those
who had experienced the shipwrecks of life
as they had.
During World War I,
she led the way in organizing soup kitchens for refugees,
she also oversaw hospitals for wounded soldiers
on all sides of the conflict.
One Christmas Eve on her way to Bethlehem,
Bertha met a Bedouin man, his ailing wife
and their newborn son,
traveling to Jerusalem by donkey.
Later Bertha wrote,
"Here stood before me a rustic Madonna and babe,
and similar to Mary's plight,
there was no place for them to stay.
By the next morning the mother had died.
And Bertha was asked to take care of the child.
She agreed.
She named the little boy, Noel.
And within the week
she had taken in two more orphaned babies,
and so began
the Spafford family's most enduring charitable work,
a hospital for children.
She explained,
" We make no distinction in nationality, or creed.
"The only requirement being
that people absolutely need our help."
And some of the Spafford's charitable work continues
to this day in the Children's Center
that bears the family name.
♪ But Lord, 'tis for Thee, ♪
♪ for Thy coming we wait, ♪
♪ The sky, not the grave, ♪
♪ is our goal; ♪
♪ Oh, trump of the angel! ♪
♪ Oh, voice of the Lord! ♪
♪ Blessed hope, ♪
♪ blessed rest of my soul. ♪
For nearly 150 years,
millions have sung and have been lifted by Horatio's hymn,
but most have not been aware of the circumstances
in which it was written.
But they have been strengthened
by its universal message.
Horatio's words echo with the story of Christmas,
a child was born in Bethlehem,
bringing peace on earth and goodwill toward men,
because of Him and through His example,
the human spirit can rise above tragedy,
whenever,
however
we suffer our own night of sorrow.
God's love does shine in the darkness,
hope can heal the wounded soul,
and the Christmas work of giving,
of loving,
serving
and of rescuing is ours
if we choose to make it so and as we do,
we join with saints and angels to rejoice and sing.
It is well,
it is well with my soul.
♪ And 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. ♪
♪ It is well, ♪
♪ it is well, ♪
♪ With my soul, ♪
♪ with my soul ♪
♪ It is well, it is well, ♪
♪ with my soul. ♪
♪ It is well, ♪
♪ it is well, ♪
♪ With my soul, ♪
♪ with my soul ♪
♪ It is well, it is well, ♪
♪ with my soul. ♪
♪ with my soul, ♪
♪ with my soul. ♪