Peace in the Midst of the Storm

"I Have Found Salvation" is one of the most beautiful and influential hymns ever written in the history of Christianity. It was composed by the hymn writer Horatio Spafford after he had endured a series of terrible sufferings.

The first was the death of his only son in 1871, followed shortly afterward by the Great Chicago Fire, which ruined him financially (he had been a very successful lawyer). Later, in 1873, he sent his family ahead of him aboard the Ville du Havre, planning to join them in Europe once he had dealt with some business matters in Chicago.

While his wife and daughters were crossing the Atlantic, their ship sank rapidly after colliding with the Loch Earn, and Spafford’s four daughters perished. His wife, Anna, survived and sent him a famous telegram with the terse words, “The only one saved.” A short time later, as he crossed the Atlantic to meet his wife, near the place where his four daughters had perished, he was inspired to write the glorious words of his famous hymn, which has given courage and inspiration to millions of believers around the world:

Whether my path be flooded with peace,

Or covered by a sea of affliction,

Whatever my lot, I will say:

I have found, I have found salvation.

Whether trials come or Satan tempts me,

My faith and my love do not wane;

For Christ understands my struggles, my striving,

And shed his blood on my behalf.

After all this suffering, the Spaffords had three more children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1881, they immigrated to Jerusalem and helped found a group known as the American Colony. The mission of this organization was to serve the poor. This colony of Christian immigrants became the central subject of the famous novel Jerusalem by the Nobel Prize–winning Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

Without a doubt, Horatio Spafford had learned what it means to have peace in the midst of the storm.