<P> "Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th - century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, which retells the story of Jacob's dream . Genesis 28: 11--12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set . And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep . Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it ..." </P> <P> The hymn is well known, among other uses, as the alleged last song the band on RMS Titanic played before the ship sank . </P>

Who wrote the hymn nearer my god to thee