Horatio Gates Spafford, the writer of this hymn, was a lawyer, a native of New York state, born Oct. 30, 1828. While connected with an institution in Chicago, as professor of medical jurisprudence, he lost a great part of his fortune by the great fire in that city. This disaster was followed by the loss of his children on the steamer, Ville de Havre, Nov. 22, 1873. He seems to have been a devout Christian, for he wrote his hymn of submissive faith towards the end of the same year-- 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, it is well with my soul." A friend of Spafford who knew his history read this hymn while repining under an inferior affliction of his own. "If he can feel like that after suffering what he has suffered," he said, "I will cease my complaints." It may not have been the weight of Mr. Spafford's sorrows wearing him down, but one would infer some mental disturbance in the man seven or eight years later. "In 1881" [writes Mr. Hubert P. Main] "he went to Jerusalem under the hallucination that he was a second Messiah--and died there on the seventh anniversary of his landing in Palestine, Sept. 5, 1888." The aberrations of an over-wrought mind are beckonings to God's compassion. When reason wanders He takes the soul of His helpless child into his own keeping--and "it is well." The tune to Spafford's hymn is by P.P. Bliss; a gentle, gliding melody that suits the mood of the words. "WAITING AND WATCHING FOR ME." Written by Mrs. Marianne Farningham Hearn, born in Kent, Eng., Dec. 17, 1834. The hymn was first published in the fall of 1864 in the _London Church World_. Its unrhythmical first line-- When mysterious whispers are floating about, --was replaced by the one now familiar-- When my final farewell to the world I have said, And gladly lain down to my rest, When softly the watchers shall say, "He is dead," And fold my pale hands on my breast, And when with my glorified vision at last The walls of that City I see, Will any one there at the Beautiful Gate Be waiting and watching for me? Mrs. Hearn--a member of the Baptist denomination--has long been the editor of the (English) _Sunday School Times_, but her literary work has been more largely in connection with the _Christian World_ newspaper of which she has been a staff-member since its foundation. _THE TUNE._ The long lines, not easily manageable for congregational singing, are wisely set by Mr. Bliss to duet music. There is a weighty thought in the hymn for every Christian, and experience has shown that a pair of good singers can make it very affecting, but the only use of the repeat, by way of a chorus, seems to be to give the miscellaneous voices a brief chance to sing. "HE WILL HIDE ME." (Isa. 49:2.)