Thee we adore, eternal Name. I. Watts. [Life frail, Eternity unending, or New Year.] First published in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707 (2nd edition 1709, Bk. ii., No. 55), in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. It is found in a large number of hymnbooks in all English-speaking countries. The form of the text which is in the most extensive use is that given in the Psalms & Hymns of J. and C. Wesley in 1738, and continued in the revised edition of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1875, in which there are four slight changes from the original. The original came into use in the Church of England through M. Madan's Psalms & Hymns, 1760. In Dale's English Hymn Book, 1874, it begins with stanzas ii., “Our wasting lives grow shorter still.”
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)