Everlasting! changing never. T. H. Gill. [Holiness desired.] Written in 1845, and first published in G. Dawson's Psalms & Hymns, 1846, No. 117, in 8 stanzas of 6 lines. In 1853 it was transferred to Hedge and Huntington's American Hymns for the Church of Christ, No. 837. In later American collections as the Hymns of the Spirit, Boston, 1864, No. 431, and others. Stanzas ii., iii., vi., vii., are given with slight alterations from this text, as "We the weak ones, we the sinners." In the author's Chain, &c, 1869, p. 81, the hymn is given in a revised form. Concerning this revision the author says:—
"It was the most popular of my early hymns, and exactly expressed that spirit of general aspiration so prominent with ardent youth in the fifth decade of the century. The alterations introduced in the Golden Chain improved and strengthened the diction, as well as Christianised the hymn. Still the original has a newness, liveliness and charm which the altered version hardly retains."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
