Saved Alone

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There are not many hymns that I like, and I dont sing much, but now and then, quite by accident, I do take note of the words of a hymn that I happen to hear. Some of the old hymns seen to convey a deeper message....

'Saved Alone' are the words sent by telegram to Horatio Spafford from his wife, after the ship she were sailing on from America to Britian, SS Ville du Havre, sank in 1873. On board had also been their four daughters.

Horatio Spafford had not been meant to set sail with his wife and daughters that fateful day. He had been called away at the very last moment.

Prior to the trip Horatio Spafford had lost his business through a fire that had devasted the city of Chicago. And prior to that fire, Horatio and his wife had lost their only son too. The trip to England was meant to be a new start. A short reprieve from their terrible misfortune.

After the survivors were finally landed somewhere at Cardiff, Wales, Spafford's wife had cabled her husband with those two simple words, "Saved alone." Shortly after, Spafford left by ship on his way where his beloved four daughters had drowned, and pen at hand, wrote this most poignant text so significantly descriptive of his own personal grief – "When sorrows like sea billows roll..." The hymn "It is Well with My Soul" was born.

The poignancy of the telegram maybe indicates that we overcome our own personal griefs alone, but only with the help of someone who can save us, which no other man can do for us during such terrible times.

Often I will hear the words All is Well.

If we could bear grief with the same faith, to really know that it is well, we would indeed be free.

His story makes you think about being saved, and faith through terrible trajedies. There are not many people who could overcome such terrible loss. The inspiration to write this hymn at that particular time must have came from somewhere deep inside, where he knew he would have to go to rely upon to survive.


http://christianmusic.suite101.com/article.cfm/hymn_it_is_well_with_my_soul