Showing posts with label nearer my god to thee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nearer my god to thee. Show all posts

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Nearer My God to Thee



Titanic - Nearer My God To Thee

 The melody of this song was played by the band on the Titanic while it was sinking, after striking an ice-burg in the North Atlantic. This gave rise to the popular Sinhalese sentence 'NAEVA GILLATH BAND CHUNE" - meaning that 'even when the ship is sinking, the band is playing'.

Nearer, My God, to Thee


André Rieu - Nearer, My God, to Thee (live in Amsterdam)


Nearer, My God, to Thee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Nearer, My God, To Thee" – cartoon of 1912
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, based loosely on Genesis 28:11–19,[1] the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it..."
The hymn is well known, among other uses, as the alleged last song the band on RMS Titanic played before the ship sank.

Contents

  [hide
·         1 Lyrics
·         2 Text and music
·         5 Other uses
·         6 Notes
·         7 References
·         8 External links

Lyrics[edit]

The lyrics to the hymn are as follows:[2][3][4]
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,

Chorus: 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, etc.

There let the way appear steps unto heav'n;
All that Thou sendest me in mercy giv'n;
Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee, etc.

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, etc.

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

A sixth verse was later added to the hymn by Edward Henry Bickersteth Jr. as follows:[2]
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, etc.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Sinking of the 'Titanic' - 'Nava gillath ban chune'


The 'Titanic' was proclaimed as 'unsinkable' and was the pride of British ship-building when it was launched, in the beginning of the 20th Century. On its first trans-Atlantic voyage it struck an iceberg and sank. When it was going down with passengers falling overboard, the ships band is supposed to have assembled and were playing the popular Christian Hymn, often sung at funerals, bearing the following words :-
"Though like a wanderer, the sun goes down,
Darkness lies over me, My rest a stone,
Through all my life I'll be,
Nearer my God to thee, nearer to Thee".
This was headline news throughout the world. This was the origin of the Sinhala idiom - "Nava gillath, ban chune" - "Even if the ship is sinking the band plays the tune"