I need Thee, precious Jesus. F. Whitfield. [Longing for Jesus.] This hymn first appeared as a hymn-sheet in 1855, in 6 stanzas of 4 double lines. It was then included in the author's Sacred Poems and Prose. On the publication of this volume in 1861, the author found that his first stanza, which began,
"I need Thee, precious Jesus, for I am full of sin,"
was omitted without his sanction, and the hymn began with stanza ii.:—
"I need Thee, precious Jesu, for I am very poor."
Although the author at once reprinted the full text in self-defence, the mutilated hymn
came into common use, and was generally received as the original. Both it and the original (usually in 4 stanzas) are in extensive use in all English-speaking countries. In a more or less complete form it has also been translated into numerous languages, including French, Dutch, German, Arabic, &c. The author specially desires that his original text may be followed, as in Bishop Kyle's Hymns for the Church, 1860.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)