The Nearness of You

April 10th, 1912. The British passenger liner RMS Titanic leaves Southampton, England on its maiden voyage. On board are 2,224 passengers. One of those passengers is 33-year-old Wallace Hartley, a British violinist who has just been hired to be the bandmaster.

Hartley and his fellow passengers have an uneventful voyage for the first four days. But late on the night of April 14th, the Titanic hits an iceberg. The impact causes the ship to buckle, and as water pours into its compartments, the Titanic starts sinking, bow first. Hartley gathers his eight man orchestra on deck, and they begin to play, hoping the music will calm the passengers as they are put in lifeboats. But there aren’t enough lifeboats for all of the passengers, and chaos ensues as the ship starts to break in two, causing it to start sinking at a much faster pace.

Seeing that the ship is about to go down, Hartley leads his orchestra in one last song—“Nearer, My God, to Thee.” As they play, the remaining passengers cling to any part of the ship they can reach as its stern rises to an almost vertical position. Hartley and his orchestra hold on to the railing of the grand staircase as long as they can, until the steep angle of the ship pulls them and the rest of the passengers off of the ship into the freezing water. The rescue ship RMS Carpathia saves about 710 passengers, but Hartley and his orchestra members die, along with 1500 others.

Two weeks after the Titanic sinks, Hartley’s body is recovered. At his funeral, “Nearer, My God, to Thee” is played. Men who had played with him in bands before the Titanic said that Hartley had told them that if he were ever on a sinking ship, he would play that hymn.

Wallace Hartley is buried in the cemetery in his hometown of Colne, England. Etched near the bottom of his gravestone, above a carving of a violin, are the words, “Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee.”

This is my version of that hymn—a hymn that has etched itself on my heart and means more to me with every passing day.

Nearer Still
– “Nearer, My God, to Thee” by Sarah Adams,
 with additional lyrics by Renee Adele Phillips

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
I am hungry and thirsty for more of You, God.
E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
I have been saved by grace and wrapped in Your love,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.
yet I want more and more of the beauty that is You.

Then, with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,
I want my first and last prayers to be for more of You—
Out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise;
to cry out for Your nearness. In swells of joy and waves of pain,
So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee.
You are my lifeline, pulling me ever closer to You.  

Or, if on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
When you call me home,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I’ll fly,
My soul will soar in response,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.
leaving darkness behind for the radiance that is You.

There in my Father’s home, safe and at rest,
I will bow at Your feet, my tears and pain forgotten.
There in my Savior’s love, perfectly blest;
I will look up into the light of Your glory and finally, fully, experience You.
Age after age to be nearer, my God, to Thee.
For all eternity, I will live in the light of Your presence:
Unshakable. Unsinkable. And near—always nearer, still, to You.