On the one-hundreth anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic it seems fitting to post Nearer, My God, To Thee as this week’s Sunday Song.
Purported to be the last music played by the band as the ship went down, Lowell Mason’s melody Bethany is indelibly associated with the tragedy. Though Sarah F. Adams was a unitarian and the words contain no explicit Christian reference, they reflect the Biblical episode of Jacob’s long night wrestling with God so evocatively that genuine Christian experience cannot but resonate with them.
Perhaps not a genuine hymn, they are certainly a song which Christians can sing.
The lyrics.
1.
Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
2.
Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
yet in my dreams I’d be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
3.
There let the way appear, steps unto heaven;
all that thou sendest me, in mercy given;
angels to beckon me
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
4.
Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise,
out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise;
so by my woes to be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
5.
Or if, on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I fly,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
Here’s some a Mennonite Choir singing the song.
While the pace is slow, it does allow the fine harmonies to be heard to best effect.
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