Come, and hear the grand old story. H. Bonar. [Life of Christ.] This is the first of 9 lines which introduce a hymn of 17 stanzas of 4 lines. beginning, "Christ the Father's Son Eternal," first published in his Hymns of Faith and Hope, 2nd series, 1861. The hymn, in an abbreviated form, is given in N. Hall's Christ Church Hymnal, 1876, and others.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)