Grace Is Everywhere

Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church
Photo credit: J.Stephen Conn

I want a sober mind,
An all sustaining eye,
To see my God above,
And to the heavens fly.

I’d soar away above the sky,
I’d fly to see my God above.

I want a Godly fear,
A quick discerning eye,
That looks to Thee my God,
And see the tempter fly.

Tune: A. Marcus Cagle, 1935
Words: Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1814

A perfect marriage of text and tune: the stern austerity of the lines about sobriety and Godly fear breaks into an ecstatic fugue as the singer soars upward to see God.  A hymn about vision and transport.