Thou that art the Father's Word. H. Alford. [Christmas, or the Epiphany.] This is No. 18 in Dean Alford's Psalms and Hymns, 1844; and No. 32 in his Year of Praise, 1867, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines and the refrain, "Hail, Lord Jesus." In the Irvingite Hymns for the use of the Churches, 1864, No. 21, begins "Songs of glory fill the sky," and is signed in the Index “J.E.L.” (i.e. Jane E. Leeson). In the 1871 edition of that collection it is repeated as No. 121, and in the Index is set forth as by "Dean Alford (altered)." It is really a cento in 3 stanzas of 8 lines and a refrain, of which lines 3 and 7 of stanza i., the whole of stanza ii. and the refrain, are from Dean Alford's hymn.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)