The Musical and Visual Arts in Worship
O HAPPY HOME
Karl Johann Philipp Spitta, a German theologian and poet, was born in Hanover in 1801. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker as a young man. While learning this trade he began the study of languages and, in 1821, entered the University of Gottingen to study theology.
IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
Horatio G. Spafford was a wealthy Chicago businessman who lost his fortune during the Chicago fire. Despite this, he and his wife, Anna, devoted countless hours to helping the survivors. Later he sent Anna and his four daughters to England for a rest. While crossing the Atlantic their ship sank in a collision. Anna survived and sent him the heartbreaking telegram, “Saved Alone.” Several weeks later, as Spafford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, he wrote the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul.”
MY COUNTRY ‘TIS OF THEE
Samuel Francis Smith, a Baptist minister, was born in Boston in 1808. He attended the Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College in 1825. After leaving Harvard in 1829 he entered Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1832. His first pastorate was at Waterville, Maine where he remained eight years.
RISE, MY SOUL, AND STRETCH THY WINGS
Robert Seagrave was an English clergyman who was born in 1693 and graduated from Cambridge in 1718. He defended the Calvinistic Methodists and wrote and published pamphlets and sermons designed to reform the clergy and Church of England.
WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS
Joseph Scriven was born in Dublin in 1820 and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He moved to Canada in 1845 where he led a humble life until his death in 1886. Ira D. Sankey, in his Story of the Gospel Hymns, wrote that “the young lady to whom Scriven was to be married was accidentally drowned on the eve of their wedding day. This sad event led him to consecrate his life and property to the service of Christ.
MY SOUL BEFORE THEE PROSTRATE LIES
Christian Frederic Richter was born in Silesia in 1676. He graduated from the University of Halle and worked at the orphanage there. He was a student of medicine as well as of theology. He wrote about 30 hymns before his death in 1711.