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)