Eternal Power, Whose high abode. I. Watts. [Praise to God.] This hymn supplies what the author called "The Conclusion," to his Horae Lyricae, 1705. It is in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and is entitled "God exalted above all Praise." In 1743, J. Wesley included it, with the omission of stanzas ii., and the alteration of stanza i., line 3, of "length" to "lengths", and of stanza iii., line 1, from “Thy dazzling beauties whilst he sings," to "Thee, while the first archangel sings " (a change necessitated by the omission) in Psalms & Hymns, 1743, p. 66. In 1780 this version of the text was given in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, No. 307, and from the Wesleyan Hymn Book has passed into numerous collections in all English-speaking countries. According to Methodist usage Dr. J. Beaumont read the lines,
"Thee, while the first archangel sings,
He hides his face behind his wings,"
to the congregation in Waltham Street Chapel, Hull, on Sunday, Jan. 23, 1855; and during the singing of the second line he fell dead in the pulpit. The incident is given in detail in Stevenson's Methodist Hymn Book and its Associations, 1883, p. 225.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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