C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Nearer, My God, to Thee

From ‘Adoration, Aspiration, and Belief’

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,

Nearer to thee!

Though, like a 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,

Nearer to thee!

There let the way appear

Steps unto heaven;

All that thou sendest me

In mercy given;

Angels to beckon me

Nearer, my God, to thee,

Nearer to thee!

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,

Nearer to thee!

Or if on joyful wing,

Cleaving the sky,

Sun, moon, and stars forgot,

Upward I fly;

Still all my song shall be,—

Nearer, my God, to thee,

Nearer to thee!