From Egypt lately come. T. Kelly. [Seeking a Better Country.] First published in his Collection of Psalms & Hymns extracted from Various Authors, with an Appendix, 1802, No. 250, in 7 stanzas of 6 lines. It was repeated in the numerous editions of his Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture, &c, from the first, 1804, to the latest, 1853. It is rarely given in its original and full form. The version, "From Egypt's bondage come," appeared in Cotterill’s Selection, 8th edition, 1819, and was repeated in Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825. It came into general use, and is a popular form of the hymn. Other altered texts are in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833; Hall's Mitre, 1836; the Society for Promoting Christian Knolwedge Church Hymns, 1871, &c. These begin with the same first line as in Cotterill, but differ somewhat in the body of the text. The same differences are repeated in the American collections, but most of these are in error as to date. In a few hymn-books the hymn opens with stanza ii., "To Canaan's sacred bound," as in the Marylebone Psalms & Hymns, 1851.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)