Now, from the altar of our hearts. J. Mason. [Evening.] Appeared in his Spiritual Songs, or Songs of Praise, 1683, pp. 25-6, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines, and a half stanza of 4 lines, and entitled "A Song of Praise for the Evening." (Original text, Lyra Briananica, p. 396.) The third stanza, which is usually omitted in the hymnals, and reads:—
"Man's life's a book of history;
The leaves thereof are days;
The letters, mercies closely join'd;
The title is Thy praise,"
is usually thought to have suggested Dr. Franklin's well-known epitaph upon himself, wherein he compares his body to "the cover of an old book, the contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding." The whole hymn is sometimes quoted, and not without reason, as Mason's finest production.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)