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Nearer, My God, to Thee - Laudate Mennonite Ensemble

9,515 views โ€ข Nov 13, 2016

Description

Performed at Bridgewater Church of the Brethren on August 11th, 2016.
The Historic Faith · Hymn Companion

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Words by Sarah Flower AdamsMusic by Lowell MasonWritten Tune BETHANY

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Story Behind the Song

Sarah Flower Adams wrote the text for William Johnson Fox's Hymns and Anthems, published in 1841, drawing on Jacob's dream at Bethel in Genesis 28. The hymn has been sung to several tunes, but Lowell Mason's 1856 tune BETHANY became the standard setting in North America. It is one of the most widely known nineteenth-century English hymns and is often associated in popular memory with accounts of the sinking of the Titanic.

Scripture

Found In

Hymns and Anthems, Hymns Ancient and Modern, The Methodist Hymnal, Baptist Hymnal, Trinity Hymnal