As we know it, the fourth and concluding verse of “It is Well With My Soul” begins with, “And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight.” But, originally, that wasn’t verse #4—it was verse #6. Horatio Spafford originally wrote six verses to the song.
Verses 1-3 in Spafford’s original are the same verses 1-3 we sing today. Let’s spotlight verse 3:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Verse 3 looks back, first to the Cross, and then to that glorious moment when the power of salvation was applied to our lives. But Spafford didn’t originally jump from there to the resurrection. Instead, the original verse 4 looked at life in the present moment:
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
Before we get to the familiar verse 6/4, there was also a verse 5:
But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!