No. 171 ’Tis a Wonder, Soc 44
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
O ’tis a glorious mystery,
’Tis a wonder, a wonder, a wonder;
That I should ever saved be
’Tis a wonder, a wonder, a wonder.
No heart can think or fully tell,
’Tis a wonder, a wonder;
My God has sav’d my soul from hell,
’Tis a wonder, a wonder, a wonder.
Two further stanzas of the text taken from Good Old Songs, No. 511, are:
Great mystery that God should place,
’Tis a wonder etc.
His love on any of Adam’s race,
’Tis a wonder etc.
That I should also share a part,
’Tis a wonder etc.
And find a mansion in his heart,
’Tis a wonder etc.
Great mystery, I can’t tell why
That Christ for sinful worms should die;
Should leave the boundless realms of bliss,
And die for sinners on the cross.
The song is accredited in the Social Harp to Henry F. Chandler and dated 1854. A North Carolina variant, recorded in 1916, is in Sharp, ii., 294. A variant in the present collection is ‘Look Out’, which see for references to related secular tunes. The earliest American recording of this melody known to me is that in Jeremiah Ingalls’ Christian Harmony of 1805, p. 15. It begins:
When converts first begin to sing, wonder, wonder, wonder,
Their happy souls are on the wing, wonder, wonder, wonder.
Their theme is all redeeming love, glory hallelujah,
Fain would they be with Christ above, sing glory hallelujah.