In the Burl Ives song Book, there's this commentary:

The great religious revival in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas brought forth many folk hymns whose subject matter was a personal religious experience. The religious revival meetings were just this. The first verse of this song, of a more general nature, is more often sung than the religious second and third verses.
The first Camp Meeting was held in the year 1801. Presbyterians and Methodists together held a tremendous meeting in Kentucky which set the revival style. Here the custom of the Mourner's Bench where penitents publicly confessed their sins to the congregation and were prayed over was insitiuted.

I wish old Burl had told us a little more about this particular song. What he said was interesting, but kind of broad.
-Joe offer-