The Excellency of Public Worship

Representative Text

1 Lord of Hosts, how lovely fair,
E’en on earth Thy temples are;
Here Thy waiting people see
Much of heav’n and much of Thee.

2 From Thy gracious presence flows
Bliss that softens all our woes;
While Thy Spirit’s holy fire
Warms our hearts with pure desire.

3 Here we supplicate Thy throne,
Here Thou mak’st Thy glories known;
Here we learn Thy righteous ways,
Taste Thy love and sing Thy praise.

4 Thus with sacred songs of joy,
We our happy lives employ;
Love, and long to love Thee more,
Till from earth to heav’n we soar.

Source: Songs of Sovereign Grace #173

Author: Daniel Turner

Turner, Daniel, M.A., was born at Blackwater Park, near St. Albans, March 1, 1710. Having received a good classical education, he for some years kept a boarding-school at Hemel Hempstead, but in 1741 he became pastor of the Baptist church, Reading. Thence he removed, in 1748, to Abingdon, and continued pastor of the Baptist church there until his death on Sept. 5, 1798. He was much respected throughout his denomination, and was the friend and correspondent of Robert Robinson, Dr. Rippon, and other eminent men of that day. He probably received the honorary degree of M.A. from the Baptist College, Providence, Rhode Island. Turner was the author of works on Open Communion and Social Religion; also of Short Meditations on Select Portions of Scr… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Lord of hosts, how lovely fair
Title: The Excellency of Public Worship
Author: Daniel Turner
Meter: 7.7.7.7
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Lord of hosts, how lovely fair [how bright, how fair] . D. Turner. [Public Worship.] First published in Rippon's Baptist Selection, 1st ed., 1787, No. 342, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines and entitled, "The Excellency of Public Worship." From Rippon's Selection it has passed into several Non¬conformist collections, sometimes in its original form, and also as, "Lord of hosts, how bright, how fair,” as in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858 and 1880.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

PLEYEL'S HYMN


RUEBUSH (Armstrong)


HENDON (Malan)

HENDON was composed by Henri A. Cesar Malan (b. Geneva, Switzerland, 1787; d. Vandoeuvres, Switzerland, 1864) and included in a series of his own hymn texts and tunes that he began to publish in France in 1823, and which ultimately became his great hymnal Chants de Sion (1841). HENDON is thought to…

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The Cyber Hymnal #9832
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The Cyber Hymnal #9832

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