Cecil F. Alexander, née Humphreys. [Easter Eve.] Published in her Verses for Holy Seasons, &c, 1846, p. 59, in 6 st. of 6 1., and headed " Easter Even. ‘And laid it in his own new tomb.' St. Matt, xxvii. 60." In common use it is commonly abbreviated, one form being that in the American Protestant Episcopal Church Hymnal, 1871, where st. i., ii. and iv., are altered, and the two closing lines of each stanza are omitted. These alterations and omissions have gone far towards utterly spoiling the hymn.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)