Daniel's Window

According to www.sharefaith.com:
Nearer My God to Thee was written by British actress, dramatic poet and Unitarian hymn writer Sarah Flower Adams (1805-1848). Her sister Eliza wrote the original music. Several versions of melody have emerged over the years.

After Adams' performance in London's 1837 MacBeth, she received rave reviews. Her desire was to continue with the theatre indefinitely, but frail health interrupted her plans. And so she took to writing poems and hymns.

A pastor from the Unitarian church was visiting with Adams' family one afternoon. He mentioned that he was having difficulty finding a hymn that represented his next week's sermon, taken from on Genesis 28:11-19 (The story of Jacob's dream). Sarah volunteered to write a hymn for the occasion. Within the week, Nearer My God to Thee was born.

The beautiful hymn has touched many lives, and has even found its way into the (modern) theatre that Adams so dearly loved. The song has been sung and/or played in several TV and Hollywood films, including the Academy Award-winning films San Francisco (1936), and Titanic (1953, 1958, 1997). One true life Canadian survivor of the 1912 RMS Titanic tragedy reported that the band did indeed play Nearer My God to Thee as the ship was sinking.