Lomax in Folk Song USA says the song "falls into the category of a religious ballad, a song for solo performance at a religious meeting or for a group singing only a a shaped-note singin'." He preceeds this quote with a discussion of the movement Joe described, drawing from the study by G.P. Jackson White and Negro Spirituals. Lomax says songs like this were to express the soaring emotions of the religious radicals. These people drew tunes from ballads, jigs, marches, lovesongs and dressed them up with appropriate solemn texts which spoke directly to their problems and woes. So probably this song has a tune buried somewhere the music of Celtic countries or England. Maybe someone can recognize it as one of those tunes. Sorry to be no more help.