![[dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv8/S5hAR2x0JVI/AAAAAAAACVo/caHZJMX-j9o/s400/dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg)
OK, last Saturday I posted a picture of a person, and asked visitors if they could identify him. It was Haile Selassie, who was a noble emperor of Ethiopia. It was not a very well known picture of him, and he is not very well known by many people, so I really thought that no one would solve the mystery. Well, the first correct answer came in about 5 minutes after I posted the picture. So, today I am going to post another Mystery Man and see if you can identify him. I am almost certain that no one could identify him just from the photograph, so I feel like I need to give a few clews or no one would have a chance.His initials are H.S. (No this is not Haile Selassie)
Almost no one knows his name, but hundreds of millions of people have been inspired by words he wrote.
An organization he started took the photograph of Haile Selassie posted last week.
His life changed forever on November 21, 1873.
Who was this man, and more importantly, what is his story? Hope you all don't mind if I post a puzzle like this on Saturdays.
I won't ruin the guess right now, but another clue is the hat that the man is holding in his hands. Great picture.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I see the significance of what he has in his hand . . . maybe you can drop a note after later about what you are thinking.
PJM
This is a photo of Horatio Spafford.
ReplyDeleteI have no clue but its a very great old picture,,,whats he famous for? Is he a song writer??
ReplyDeleteMom
He has a very tragic story-but out of it comes the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" - a tremendous statement about his own soul.
ReplyDeleteWe have a winner-
ReplyDeleteNate - How did you figure it out? Did I give too many clues?
PJM
I'm a history teacher, so I'm naturally drawn to older photos. Before I had read anything, the photo looked familiar to me. After the Haile Selassie photo I thought it would be someone really famous, so my initial guess was that it was an odd looking photo of Thomas Edison. I started thinking of Ethiopia and my mind drifted to a talk I had heard about Dr. Bob Hockman, who had been killed as a medical missionary during the Italian invasion. Because of this I was thinking about Wheaton College where I had heard the talk and of my own time at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, since I now had Ethiopia and Chicago on my mind, I remembered where I had seen the photo. Horatio Spafford had been a friend of D. L. Moody, so his name popped into my head. I then Googled Horatio Spafford and sure enough, there was the same photo.
ReplyDeleteYou people are all amazing!
ReplyDeleteI thought I knew Horatio Spafford's story, but this article describes much more than I realized: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Spafford.
ReplyDeleteBriefly, Horatio and his wife Anna were devout, compassionate, generous Christians who suffered several devastating tragedies. Their son died, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed all that they owned, and an accident at sea took the lives of four of their daughters. Horatio's immediate response was a song of trust in God which is still sung today as a great encouragement, It Is Well With My Soul. It's an honest, deeply felt hymn that sees clearly the pain and tears that we all experience, but just as clearly sees the supporting hand of God behind it all.
Horatio and Anna founded the American Colony, a Christian community in Jerusalem that sought to meet the needs of young and old, no matter what race or religion, during terrible times of famine and conflict in the Mideast. Begun in 1881, the community continued its work into the 1950's.
An interesting and inspiring story!
I figured out who it was by Googling "November 21, 1873!" Took one minute.
ReplyDeleteLeslie