“Keep on the Firing Line” is an old gospel song that casts the Christian life in the language of soldiering. Its refrain urges the believer to hold the “firing line” — to keep fighting the spiritual battle faithfully — with the warning that time is short. Like much gospel-convention material of its era it has no firmly established single author.
The song reached records in the late 1920s and is closely associated with the Carter Family, the foundational Virginia trio who recorded it among their large body of sacred song. The Carters drew deeply on the shape-note and mountain gospel tradition, and this song’s brisk, martial imagery fit easily into their repertoire.
The song has remained in country and bluegrass gospel singing ever since.
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