Hymn Bark is a series designed to purify our good hymns from errors, and purge some bad ones. Here is chapter 2:
Not really much wrong with this hymn, though I wish musicians would teach the congregation how to sing it. Routinely the note at the end of line 3 is changed, which hurts the musical diversity and melodic intensity of the hymn.
The only problem is “all the saints adore Thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.” This is based on a misinterpretation of Revelation 4-5. The Elders in that passage are not saints, for Jesus has not ascended and there are no saints in heaven. They are angels, specifically the 24 Archangels that correspond in heaven to the 24 courses of Temple priests and the 24 courses of Temple musicians. We could change to “angels all adore Thee,” but I recommend just sticking with Biblical language and changing to “elders all adore Thee.”
So, get out those pencils.
Biblical Horizons 
Thanks for this bark, Jim. Harder to fix would be the last line of “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”:
“Finish, then, thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be:
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.”
I can live with that stanza in that we are like the angels, and though in heaven we normally sit on thrones, perhaps there are times to kneel and remove our crowns when we worship. Still, surely if Jesus tells us to sit on thrones crowned as His associates, it would not normally be right to refuse those crowns!
Still, I’d be happier if the penultimate line read “Till we sit enthroned around Thee.”
Thanks, Jim. I was toying with “Till we TAKE our crowns” or “WEAR our crowns,” but I like yours too.