PROPIOR DEO, written in 1872, is one of Arthur Sullivan's lesser-known tunes. BETHANY is perhaps the least likely of the three to have actually been played, because the European band members and passengers would have been less familiar with that tune than with PROPIOR DEO or HORBURY, with which this text was known in Britain. Nevertheless, all three tunes associated with this text have been featured in films about the Titanic. There is a widespread story that this hymn was the last song played by the ship's band as the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, though survivors' accounts disagree on this point. These two variations were both in use for many years, but lately the original version has fallen into disuse, and the 4/4 meter is now normal. The original version of this tune was in a 6/8 meter, but by 1874 a common time version of the rhythm was also in use. He later commented that he had been requested to write a melody for that hymn, and that this tune came to him during a sleepless night. Lowell Mason wrote the tune BETHANY expressly for this text and published it in 1859 in Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book. The first and fifth stanzas bracket this story with New Testament imagery of the cross (st. The middle three stanzas are based on the story of Jacob's ladder found in Genesis 28. President William McKinley and his successor, Theodore Roosevelt.
It is reported to have been a favorite of Queen Victoria and her son King Edward VII of England, and of U. This hymn has been associated with several famous people and events. One of these is “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” It was first published in London by Fox in his Hymns and Anthems in 1841. Sarah Flower Adams was a Unitarian laywoman who wrote thirteen hymns for a hymnal her pastor, William J.