The Church has waited long. H. Bonar. [Advent.] Published in the Bible Hymn Book, 1845, No. 299, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, with the refrain "Come then, Lord Jesus, come." It was repeated in the 3rd edition of the author's Songs for the Wilderness, Kelso, 1850, p. 39, and again in his Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1857, p. 31. It is in extensive use in Great Britain and America, sometimes without the refrain.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)