¶ Welcome to Starting Right
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac . I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day . So grab your cup of coffee , sit back , relax and let me help you start your day right . Good morning everyone , welcome to Monday . I'm back with you again today and my voice is also back again today .
Those of you who were listening on Friday you know I was kind of growly , but my voice is feeling much better .
¶ Monday's Christian Music Focus
So we're going to do what we always do on Mondays we're going to talk about some Christian music . Often it's some of the more current songs that we are hearing on the radio and singing in church , but every once in a while we go back and listen to some of the great songs and hymns from our church history .
There are many of them that are very powerful and still speak to us today , even when they are several hundred years old . And today we're going to look at one of those older
¶ Sarah Adams: Actress to Hymn Writer
songs . It is Near my God to Thee by Sarah Adams , who wrote the song in 1841 . Sarah Adams , who wrote the song in 1841 . Now , sarah was a very talented young woman . Born in 1805 , she grew up with a great interest in performing . She loved theater and in 1834 , she appeared on the London stage as Lady Macbeth . The people loved her .
Her reviews were fabulous , but her health was not so good and so she had to withdraw from her stage performances . But she still was very talented , so she spent a lot of her time writing hymns , and most of those hymns were songs of praise . She began attending London's South Place Unitarian Church and in 1841
¶ Stories Behind "Nearer My God to Thee"
the pastor , a Reverend William Fox , visited her because he wanted to include some of her hymns in a new hymnal that he was putting together . He also mentioned he was having a difficult time finding a hymn to accompany his message . The following Sunday he wanted to tell the story of Jacob at Bethel found in Genesis 28 , verses 20-22 .
Sarah offered to write a hymn for him based on those verses . For the rest of the week she studied that passage very , very carefully , visualizing Jacob with his head on the stone , sleeping at night and dreaming about the ladder that reached up to heaven . By the time Sunday came along , she had written the wonderful hymn Nearer my God to Thee .
Sarah died of consumption August 14 , 1848 , at the age of 43 . With this hymn being around as long as it has . History has attached some great stories to it . Some of it has been proven and some of it is still uncertain .
One of the greatest uncertain facts about this hymn was that Near my God to Thee was the last hymn played by the orchestra when the Titanic sank in 1912 .
It's been difficult to confirm whether this is actually true or not , but it is known that the ship's bandleader , a man by the name of Wallace Hartley , very much liked this hymn and he wanted it to be played at his funeral .
Some accompanying evidence was given by a Canadian survivor of the sinking of Tolda being comforted as she was on the lifeboat as they watched the ship tip up and then slip beneath the waters . There is another interesting story that we know is true . This comes from Ted Turner , who founded CNN in 1980 . At that time , he made this promise .
He said we won't be signing off until the world ends , we'll be covering it live and then , when the end of the world comes , we'll play Nearer my God to Thee before we sign off . Turner had commissioned a video recording of this hymn for that purpose , played by a military marching band .
It is reported that he showed this video to several reporters over the years and then in 2015 , the video tagged in CNN's database as Hold for Release Till the End of the World is Confirmed was leaked to the internet .
While this song has had some unique history associated with it , it is the power of its music and its message combined together that have made this hymn such a favorite for so long .
The five simple stanzas declare God's love for us and our relationship with Him that during our time on earth , as we commit our lives to Him , we are drawn closer and closer to Him in this life and then , ultimately , when we leave this world through death , we go to be with Him , to be near my God
¶ Andre Rieu's Beautiful Rendition
to Thee .
I was unable to find many modern recordings of this hymn , although I really wanted to do it today , but I found a very beautiful instrumental version of it from Andre Rieu , and I'll give you just a short clip of that now , and then there will be in your show notes the link where you can go and watch and listen to the entire performance by Andre Rieu and
his orchestra . It's beautiful and it is very , very moving . I hope you enjoy it . Have a great day , my friends . Here's Andre Rieu and Nearer my God to Thee © transcript Emily Beynon .