Well with My Soul

A 2007 summer reading list mini review. It is well with my soul seems like it is going to be like many other books out there dedicated tothe stories behind great hymns. In reality, however, Rachael Phillips book is conerned more about the great lives behind the great works. She paints portraits of Spafford, Bliss, Cowper and Havergal that expose their strengths but also give even coverage of the difficulties they each faced.

I never really knew much about the great hymn writers of old, so I bought this book. The stories in this book are both informative and very interesting too. I could hardly put it down.

Barbour Publishing's "Heroes of the Faith" series found an able storyteller in Rachael Phillips, a Christian writer and humorist whose talents as a researcher and biographer are clearly on display in the book, Well with My Soul. This work, suitable for preteens on up, gives vivid life-portraits of four of Christendom's most colorful and prolific hymn writers. Phillips, as she did so well with her "Heroes" treatments of Billy Sunday, Frederick Douglass and Saint Augustine, once again weaves historical and personal details together to give us very human characters. Horatio Spafford, whose intrepid efforts for Christ and His church during the era of D.L. Moody and the Great Chicago Fire, suffered the dark tragedy of losing four young daughters during their Atlantic crossing with his wife in the Ville du Havre disaster of 1873. Phillips delves into the wells of Spafford's emotions as he wrestled with this and other spiritual challenges that resulted in such important hymn poems as "It Is Well with My Soul." I think it laudable that this biographer doesn't shrink from mentioning such unfortunate and unflattering details as the petty and uncharitable treatment Spafford and others received from fellow churchmen, as well as Spafford's own idiosyncrasies which surfaced later in his life. But the inclusion of such blemishes is always seasoned by Phillips' compassion and charm with which she sums up her subjects' true greatness, namely their faith in a God of unfailing grace and providence. Other stories in this very readable volume tell about Phillip P. Bliss ("Hallelujah! What a Savior"), William Cowper ("God Moves in a Mysterious Way") and Frances Ridley Havergal ("Take My Life and Let It Be"). This book would be wonderful as supplemental reading during family times, and both educational and joyful material for hymn lovers everywhere. Sincerely, Mark N. Aikins