NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE

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.

Refrain

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. Refrain

There let the way appear, steps unto Heav’n;
All that Thou sendest me, in mercy given;
Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee. Refrain

Or, if on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I’ll fly,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee. Refrain

There in my Father’s home, safe and at rest,
There in my Savior’s love, perfectly blest;
Age after age to be, nearer my God to Thee. Refrain

About the writer: Sarah Flower Adams was born in Harlow, England in 1805 and died in London in 1848. She was the youngest daughter of Benjamin Flower, editor and proprietor of the Cambridge Intelligencer. In 1834 she married John Brydges Adams, a civil engineer and inventor. She had a gift for lyric poetry and wrote thirteen hymns for her pastor, the Reverend William Johnson Fox, an Independent minister. These were all published in Hymns and Anthems, London, 1841.

Key Verses: At sundown, he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it. –Genesis 28:11, 12