Horatio Gates Spafford

SPAFFORD, Horatio Gates. b. North Troy, New York, 20 October 1828; d. Jerusalem, 16 October 1888. Spafford trained as a lawyer, moving to Chicago in 1856. He built up a successful legal practice, specialising in medical-legal work: he became professor of medical jurisprudence at Lind University (later Chicago Medical School). He also acquired a substantial real estate portfolio. He was also an active layman in the Presbyterian church, and came to know many of the evangelists of the Moody Bible Institute. He was a director and trustee of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest (later McCormick Theological Seminary). Like Job, Spafford then suffered a series of disasters. His...