Let every land his name adore;
The British Isles shall sound the noise
Across the ocean to the shore.
Wesley, considering this an unpromising initial stanza, omitted it, and changed the second stanza, lines 1 and 2, from
Nations attend before his throne
With solemn fear, with sacred joy
to
Before Jehovah’s awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred joy.
Wesley severely condemned the practice of changing another’s hymns, but in this case his own “transgression” resulted in a greatly improved hymn.