NARROW SPACE by S.R. Pennick

This tune was included in the Appendix to the 2005 ed. of Ingalls' Christian Harmony by Tom Malone. It is taken from the 1859 ed. of The Sacred Harp.

The text is one that Ingalls also set in an E minor tune called Born to Die.

Pennick's A major setting is majestic and monolithic suggesting the relative insignificance of man in conversation with the infinite. Other variants of this samer air are called CONVERSE which is found in the Missouri Harmony and elsewhere.

It is heard here as led by Dan Hertzler.

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Thou God of glorious majesty,
To Thee, against myself, to Thee,
A worm of earth, I cry;
A half-awakened child of man;
An heir of endless bliss or pain;
A sinner born to die!

Lo! on a narrow neck of land,
’Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,
Secure, insensible;
A point of time, a moment’s space,
Removes me to that heavenly place,
Or shuts me up in hell.

Then, Savior, then my soul receive,
Transported from this vale to live
And reign with Thee above;
Where faith is sweetly lost in sight,
And hope in full supreme delight,
And everlasting love.

--Charles Wesley, 1749

Links:

NARROW SPACE pg. 328, The Sacred Harp,1859 ed.

BORN TO DIE, by J. Ingalls, sung by Tom Malone